Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/894

BERLIN. pality have led to an increased city budget, which amoimted to more than $20,000,000 in 1893-94, and to over $25,000,000 in 1900, not including the income and expenditure of various city works, amounting to over $12,000,000. The department requiring the largest expenditure is the building department, over $4,500,000 ; the board of educa- tion spends about $3,500,000, whereas the police department requires about $1,500,000. and the board of health about $1,250,000. The total debt of the city amounted to 256,000,000 marks in 1893, and" exceeded 287,000,000 in 1900. The numerous city improvements offset these items of expense and indebtedness. There is an ex- tensive system of asphalt pavements, which have been continually increasing for the last 20 years. Two abattoirs erected in Berlin in 1883 at a cost of $5,000,000 have supplanted about a thousand private slaughter-houses, and make it possible to enforce every regulation for health under a very efficient and cheap service. The civic water- works yield a net income of 2,500,000 marks per year (in addition to supplying what is used for public needs), after defraying all the costs of operation and providing for the extinction of the debt incurred in erecting the plant. The sewerage system is on the most modern hygienic plan, all the city sewage being conducted, by means of a comprehensive system of sewers, to a sewage farm of about 30 square miles in extent, a few miles away. It required an outlay of $30,000,000 to perfect the system and buy the necessary land; but the city is already utilizing the farm to great advantage by raising tliereon all kinds of vege- tables, fruits, and cereals, and the accruing pro- ceeds in time will not only cover the entire cost of maintenance, but also pay off the original out- lay. Berlin has a perfect system of street-clean- ing. It is thoroughly organized under municipal control, and costs the city less than half a million dollars a year. Berlin owns its gas plant. Though not owning its street-car sys- tem, which will become the property of the city at the expiration of the charter of the com- ]jany in 1911, Berlin receives an annual sum from the company exceeding 1,000.000 marks. Its system of municipal market-halls recently intro- duced is a worthy su])p!cment to the other mu- nicipal institutions which enable the city oflvrials to enforce strictly all the sanitary measures and protect the poor against impure tood and extortionate prices. A comprehensive system of parks and squares, some eighty in number, provides breathing-space for the most crowded portions of the city.

The rapid growth of the city's population, re- sulting in a great rise of real-estate values, led to great ovt rcrowding of the poorer classes of the population in large tenements. Many of them were forced to live in cellars, which previous to the reforms mentioned below were damp and shut off from light. As a result there was an extremely high death-rate, varying in different parts of the citv with the nature of the d-olI- ings. In 1873 the rate was 28 per 1000, and it continued to grow. In 1885 an exhaustive statis- tical investigation was made, with a view to establishing the connection between the death- rate and the number of rooms occupied by a fam- ily. The results were startling, showing an extra- ordinary increase of the death-rate with the crowding into inhumanly narrow quarters. This eau.sed the municipality to adopt a new stringent code of building regulations in 1888, which hag been instrumental in greatly improving the con- dition of the Berlin tenements, and diminishing the death-rate, as seen from the following statistics of mortality: 1885, 29.98 per 1000; 1890, 27.55; 1892, 26.00; 1897, 1861; 1898, 1816.

A system of municipal lodging-houses enables the authorities at once to control the floating homeless population of the city and to provide sanitary and cheap lodgings for the needy. The poor-relief service is complete and thoroughly organized under municipal control. Berlin is divided for that purpose into 250 districts, with as many local committees to take charge of the work. In addition to the salaried officers, between two and three thousand citizens, receiving no salary, are engaged in the work. In 1898 Berlin spent over 10,000,000 marks on poor-relief, not counting the expenditure of about 5,500,000 marks on hospitals free to the poor.

The population of the city has increased with great rapidity. From 202.000 in 1820. it grew to 411,000 in 1849, to 826,000 in 1871, 1,579,000 in 1890, and 1,901,567 in 1901.

The origin of Berlin dates back to the early part of the Twelfth Century, when a small fishing-village, inhabited by Wends, arose at a ford across the Spree, between the old settlements of Spandau and Kopenick. Near by there sprang up in the same period the village "of KiiUn, and the two places prospered side bj' side. Early in the Thirteenth Century, Berlin acquired municipal rights, and in the beginning of the Fifteenth Century it was one of the leading cities of the Middle Mark of Brandenburg, possessing extensive trading privileges, an independent mint, and its own courts of justice. From the close of the Fifteenth Century it was permanently the residence of the Margraves of Brandenburg. The introduction of the Reformed religion (1539) was the cause of many civil tumults, and the Thirty Years' War, in the course of which Berlin was besieged by the Swedes and the Imperialists, destroyed the growth of the town. Its population declined from 12,000 at the beginning of the war to 6000 at the end, and its trade was practically brought to a standstill. The town received new life from the Great Elector, Frederick William (1640-88), who rebuilt the deserted places, laid out suburbs, and surrounded the town with strong fortifications. By the construction of a canal from the Spree to the Oder, he made Berlin an important centre of foreign commerce and ship-building, and he laid the foundation of its industrial prosperity by encouraging the settlement of immigrants from other countries, and especially of Huguenot refugees from France. The work of extending nnd beautifying the city was carried on by Frederick I., the first King of Prussia, and his successors. In 1709 IvJllln, together with three suburbs, was united to Berlin. Under the patronage of Frederick the Great large manufactures of silk and cotton grew up, and toward the end of the Eighteenth Century, Berlin, from a garrison town and royal residence, had become lather an industrial centre. Its growth continued steady in spite of its occupation by the Austrians in 1757, the Russians in 1760, and the French from 1806 to 1808. Under Frederick William III. and Frederick William IV. the limits of the city were extended, many public