During the nineteenth century, Bremen enhanced its economic viability through a series of engineering feats, but struggled with the social problems brought on by urban growth. The most notable technical challenge was maintaining access to the North Sea and Atlantic via the silt-prone Weser River. Through the purchase of land for an outport (Bremerhaven) and a series of dredging operations headed by Ludwig Franzius, Bremen was able to preserve its position as a viable northern European port. But as the city's population grew, it proved less capable in dealing with the social and political challenges associated with urban growth. Its quasi-feudal political structure, which insulated elites from democratic pressures, made it difficult for the city to address housing and other social issues. Demands from the Social Democratic Party and other reformers ultimately undermined the city's elite and contributed to the city's loss of autonomy during the twentieth century.
Speech of February 14 reprinted with report of the ritualized annual meal (Schaffermahl) held by the Bremen elite in Regine C. Hrosch, `Welttheile und Winde' Arthur Fitgers Gemälde im Haus Seefahrt zu Bremen (Bremen, 1996), 150-55, quotation 152.
2.
One of the few comparative studies of port cities, Richard Lawton and Robert Lee, eds., Population and Society in Western European Port Cities, 1650-1939 (Liverpool, 2002), includes a thorough account of Bremen's demographic patterns (by R. Lee and Peter Marschalck), with accompanying problems, though limited primarily to such issues as defining fertility and migration.
3.
One of the few philanthropic funds, the Rohlands Foundation, was limited to aesthetic improvement of the city. The owner of the wool factory, after 1900, aided those who ended poverty-stricken, through no fault of their own; see Dietmar von Reeken, Lahausen: eine Bremer Unternehmerdynastie, 1816-1933 ( Bremen, 1996).
4.
Wolfgang Köllmann, Sozialgeschichte der Stadt Barmen im 19. Jahrhundert ( Tübingen, 1960), remains a classic account of the development of a small city. By the early twentieth century, many railway workers- low civil servants under the German system-lived in Barmen, and the Social Democrats fought for increased housing subsidies as well as better rates of pay from the national government, illustrating that small city's dependency on Berlin for social improvements. For details, see Dieter K. Buse, ed. Parteiagitation und Wahlkreisvertretung (Bonn, 1976), 74-75.
5.
Nancy R.Reagin, A.German Women's Movement: Class and Gender in Hanover, 1880-1933 ( Chapel Hill, 1995), esp. ch. 3; placing this work in the context of German urban history is Andrew Lees, " Cities, Society, and Culture in Modern Germany," Journal of Urban HistoryXXV (1999), 734-44.
6.
The best overview of urban planning and movements for social reform remains Brian Ladd, Urban Planning and Civic Order in Germany, 1860-1914 ( Cambridge, MA, 1990), which employs Frankfurt's housing reforms as one of its case studies (165-80); Andrew Lees, Cities, Sin and Social Reform in Imperial Germany (Ann Arbor, 2002) is especially strong on the modernity of specific liberal reformers employing morality arguments about crime and degeneration to advocate social improvements. The importance of progressive liberals and of a reform-minded mayor to achieve improvements in Frankfurt's housing is especially well presented by Jan Palmowski , Urban Liberalism in Imperial Germany: Frankfurt am Main, 1866-1914 (Oxford, 1999.
7.
For an example of the communal endeavors of a leading Social Democrat in Berlin, see Ursula Reuter, Paul Singer (1844-1911) ( Düsseldorf , 2004), chapters 4 and 6.
8.
P.H. Laurent , "Antwerp Versus Bremen: Transatlantic Steamship Diplomacy and European Port Rivaly, 1839-1946, Cahiers d'Histoire MondialeIX (1966), 938-46.
9.
Rolf Engelsing , "Bremisches Unternehmertum: Sozialgeschichte 1780-1870," Jahrbuch der Wittheit zu BremenII (1958), 86-124.
10.
A solid overview identifying some of the strategies of Bremen merchants is Hartmut Roder, "Bremens Wirtschaft im Wandel (1850) bis 2000)," Bremisches JahrbuchLXXXI (2002), 55-82.
11.
Rudolf Schuster , Die Entwicklung der Bremischen Vorstädte im dritten Viertel des 19. Jahrhunderts (Bremen, 1949), 61.
12.
See N.J.G. Pounds, "Port and Outport in North-West Europe ," The Geographical JournalCIX (1947), esp. 217-21.
13.
Bremische Biographien des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts ( Bremen, 1912; reprinted in facsimile Bremen, 1976), 159.
14.
At present the federal Wasseramt honors his legacy on its Internet site, which provides a biographical resumé-some of it is taken directly from Bremische Biographien des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, including information on dredging the Weser and rebuilding the harbor. See http://www.wsv.de/wsa-hb/aktuelles/ sonderthemen/franzius1/. [The Baumt is responsible for zoning and building control. The Wassermant is responsible for dikes, sewers, and water supply.)
15.
Gustav Kappe , Die Unterweser und ihr Wirtschaftsraum. Formen und Kräfte einer Landschaft am Strom (Bremen, 1929), 22, provides a map of the straightened river plus illustrations of the additional corrections in 1920. Franzius' own account, published in 1899, has not been accessible, but a summary indicates that he compared it to other projects, "River Regulation Works, and Harbour and Canal Construction in Germany," P.I. Civil Engineers135 ( 1899), 224-57.
16.
Pounds, "Port and Outport," 219.
17.
After 1900, Franzius turned in the other direction, toward the Upper Weser. He undertook to re-channel the river to provide a connection to the Mittellandkanal and access to Rhine-Ruhr industrial developments. He also oversaw the building of bridges, including railway bridges, across the river at and near Bremen.
18.
Above based on biographical entry in BremischeBiographien, 161.
19.
Schuster, Die Entwicklung der Bremischen Vorstädte, 38.
20.
Richard J. Evans , Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830-1910 (London, 1983 ), 298-303, points to vigilance, an organized group of informed doctors as well as water purification in seeking to explain the difference.
21.
In general, for Bremen history, see Herbert Schwarzwälder, Geschichte der Freien Hansestadt Bremen (Bremen, 1976-1980), Vol. II, and specifically for this period, Dieter K. Buse, "Urban and National Identity: Bremen, 1860-1920 ," Journal of Social HistoryXXVI (March 1993), 521-37.
22.
Using 1847/51 as an index of 100, imports increased in value from 1887/91 at 672 and by 1907/8 to 1819, while exports moved from 621 to 1669. Ludwig Beutin, Bremen und Amerika (Bremen, 1953), 193, 321. and F. Waldthausen, Der Bremen Vermögensschoss (Berlin, 1911), 135-37 based on statistical yearbooks.
23.
From 1894 to 1907, agriculture declined from 6.1 percent to 4.9 percent of the employed, industry and crafts hardly changed from 46.8 percent to 44.9 percent, trade and transport increased from 30.4 percent to 32.8 percent, and public and self-employed declined slightly from 7.8 percent to 6.8 percent. However, the guilds held their own as a percentage of the population. Based on comparisons taken from Statistisches Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches [hereafter SJDR] XIX (1898), 23 and XXXI (1910), 12.
24.
Based on SJDR XXV (1904), 36-41 and XXXVI (1915), 72-77.
25.
In absolute terms, the number of master craftsmen with attached journeymen and apprentices increased from 4,164 in 1883 to 7,516 in 1904, though in relative terms, they only stayed at the same percentage of those working, which had increased from 71,271 to 110,535 in the same years. Based on J. Jacobi, Bremische Gewerbekammer ( Bremen, 1884), 108-9 and SJDRXXIX (1908), 57.
26.
This section is based on reading the local newspapers and parliamentary debates; to avoid overburdening the notes, only examples will be referenced.
27.
Schulz, Ebert in Bremen , 122.
28.
Verhandlungen der Bremen Burgerschaft [hereafter VVB] (1900), 485.
29.
Cited in Schulz, Ebert in Bremen, 131.
30.
Schulz, Ebert in Bremen , 132.
31.
VBB (1903), 596.
32.
VBB (1904), 321.
33.
Lothar Gall inspired a series of city studies, including one on Bremen by Andreas Schulz, Vormundschaft und Protektion. Eliten und Bürger in Bremen 1750-1880 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2000), which tries to demonstrate that the citizens had increasing influence in the public realm, but avoids the ultimate issue of access to power.
34.
Thomas Kuhne , "Demokratisierung und Parlamentarisums," Geschichte und GesellschaftXXXI ( 2005), 293-316, astutely reviews the question of political reform in Imperial Germany and concludes that the possibilities were ambiguous, especially given the federal divergences.
35.
This is also the perspective of Mohring, Sozialdemokratie, 105-20, though he examines none of the parliamentary efforts after 1905.
36.
Mark Willock , "Chancen und Grenzen Liberaler Reformpolitik auf der Kommunalen Ebene. Das Beispiel Bremen 1900-1914," Jahrbuch zur Liberalismus-ForschungXVIII (2006), 59-78, esp. 69-76.
37.
Hugo Wagner , Beitrag zur Lösung der Arbeiterwohnungsfrage in Bremen. Bremen [ca 1907; copy in Staatsarchiv Bremen; no pagination].
38.
Untersuchung der Wohnung der minder bemittelten Klassen in Bremen. Im Auftrage der Deputation wegen Wohnungsinspektion veranstallet im April 1904 und bearbeitet vom Bremischen Statischen Amt [Bremen, 1905], 9. Signing as responsible for this very thorough survey of lower class housing were Boehmert for the statistical office and Wegener for the trades inspection office. Both were known for their progressive outlook. 39. Speech partly reprinted in Schulz, Bremer Anfänge, 77, from Bremen Bürgerzeitung [hereafter BBZ] April 6, 1895.
39.
Ergebnis einer Statistischen Erhebung über die Lebensverhältnisse der Bremischen Arbeiter. Bremen: Arbeiter-Sekretariat, 1902.
40.
Speech reprinted in Schulz, Ebert in Bremen, 26-29.
41.
Published as Untersuchung der Wohnung der minder bemittelten Klassen in Bremen. Im Auftrage der Deputation wegen Wohnungsinspektion veranstaltet im April 1904 und bearbeitet vom Bremischen Statischen Amt [Bremen, 1905].
42.
Speech reprinted in Schulz, Ebert in Bremen, 15-16. He noted that the trades inspector had already, in 1896, reported on the overcrowding.
43.
Speech printed Schulz, Ebert in Bremen, 25-26.
44.
Schulz, Ebert in Bremen , 27.
45.
Lengthy letter of April 11, 1903 in the archival collection of Kunsthalle Bremen, Archive, dossier94.
46.
See Staatsarchiv Bremen 4, 21-520 Bau-und Wohungshygiene, auch Wohnwesen-Allgemeines und Verschiedenes. Bd. 1 1897, 1901-1913 and "Die Zählung der leerstehenden Wohnung im November 1913," Mitteilungen des Bremischen Statistischen Amts im Jahre 1913. The latter indicates a decline in available dwellings.
47.
A touching account of the destruction of a starving Bremen family and the building of workers' social resentment is offered in Robert Pöhland, Die Pohlands im Krieg (Frankfurt, 1996).
48.
This is but one example, further represented in Regine C. Hrosch, ` Welttheile und Winde ' Arthur Fitgers Gemälde im Haus Seefahrt zu Bremen (Bremen, 1996), esp. 20-23. Also D.K. Buse "Urban and National Identity: Bremen, 1860-1920," Journal of Social HistoryXXVI ( 1993), 521-37.
49.
Though the state's financing of its large infrastructure projects is not clear in detail, the outlines are provided in Harald Wixforth, "Unserer Lieben Ältesten Tochter." 150 Jahre Bremer Bank. Eine Finanz- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Hansestadt Bremen. (Dresden: Hauschild Verlag, 2006).
