LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE fc MUNICIPAL LIFE AND GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY MUNICIPAL LIFE AND GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY BY WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON . AUTHOR OF "THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN GERMANY," "GERMANY ANU THE GERMANS," "SOCIAL INSURANCE IN GERMANY," ETC. ETC. WITH APPENDICES LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON FOURTH AVENUE & 30 STREET, NEW YORK BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 1914 PREFACE THE completion of this book realises a long-cherished wish and intention the fulfilment of which, owing to many reasons, has repeatedly been deferred. In various writings on German life and institutions, now covering a period of just twenty-five years, I have touched upon isolated aspects of the subject of municipal government. Now, for the first time, I have the satisfaction of dealing with the subject systematically, and so of giving to it, as I trust, a treatment worthier of its importance. The actual work of writing has been spread over four years. The book, as its title explains, is concerned solely with questions of urban administration, yet without the limitation which the use of the word " municipal " might seem to suggest. The larger German cities and towns correspond for all practical purposes to the municipalities of the United Kingdom, as the smaller German towns correspond to our urban districts ; hence it has appeared to me justifiable to consider convenience rather than strict historical and technical accuracy in the use of the terms " municipality " and " municipal," and to follow common wont in applying these terms to urban organisations, institutions, and activities generally, irrespective of the question of incorporation as understood in this country. On the subject of sources, a special remark needs to be made. This is not a book written from books, though German literature has, of course, been freely used. A picture of German self-government derived merely from the study of laws and viii PREFACE commentaries would be not only inadequate but misleading. A true picture must be drawn from the life, and whatever value this book may possess is due to the fact that it shows German municipal authorities as they actually are, and engaged in the practical day-to-day tasks of local administration. Several facts should emerge definitely and clearly from this story of the life and government of German towns if it has been told successfully. One is the far wider range of administrative powers which the German towns possess and exercise as compared with the towns even the large incorporated cities of the United Kingdom. This fact is illustrated by almost every chapter, and need not be enlarged upon in this place, but municipal workers will find the fact itself, and still more its explanation, deserving of more than passing thought. If it be true that the average English citizen has little idea of the degree to which the authorities which govern him are bound fast in legal fetters, it must also be confessed that these authorities themselves show a strange disposition to accept their fate as natural and inevitable. In the development of its system of urban government Germany followed principles so elastic and so accommodating that its municipalities have been able to cope with their growing responsibilities with surprising ease and facility. Impressed by the larger autonomy enjoyed by German towns, I have even dared to ask the question, whether in this country the proverbial home of free institutions we yet really understand what true self-government means? The reader must answer that question for himself after weigh- ing the evidence offered for his guidance. Stress has also been laid on the important and almost dominant position occupied in German local government by the permanent official and expert. In emphasising its respect for systematic training and special knowledge in that domain, PREFACE ix however, Germany is merely carrying out a principle which rules in every other department of its national life. I am duly conscious of the fact that the setter forth of strange gods, that belong not to the national pantheon, is guilty of the worst kind of sacrilege. Yet I do not forget that an investigation which leads to no clear conclusions is like an uncompleted syllogism ; it may affirm interesting propositions, but its main purpose is not fulfilled. Hence the candid avowal of my conviction that, while German municipalities can teach us little or nothing worth learning in regard to the electoral basis of local government or the constitution of the town councils, their institutions of the professional and salaried mayor and aldermen represent the highest and most efficient development of municipal organisation reached in any country. Most Englishmen at heart prefer the worst of amateurs to the best of experts, and would rather be wrong with the one than right with the other. They will long persist in that preference, and will long cling to the honest belief that the country's greatness is based upon it. Frankly recognising, therefore, the impossibility of carrying all my readers with me on this question, I shall be satisfied if what is said in these pages should serve to secure for the German system of ad- ministration by trained officials greater consideration than it has yet received. It would assuredly be unwise, even if it were possible, to imitate the German system in any indiscriminate and whole- sale fashion. Nevertheless, many of those readers whose opposition to that system is rooted in a stubborn prejudice against what is vaguely called "bureaucracy" may be re- assured if they remember that " bureaucracy " means different things in different countries, and that bureaucratic abuses seldom threaten and can never prevail where there exist a wholesome public opinion and a vigorous public spirit. x PREFACE Full recognition has also been given to the further fact that the German municipalities are confronted with most, if not all, of the problems of urban life which beset us to-day in this country, yet with the difference that upon some of them they have been working longer and to more deliberate purpose, with the result that they are able to offer us much useful experience. If I specially mention here the taxation sys- tems, the land and town planning policies, the social welfare schemes, and the educational activities of the great munici- palities, it is because these various provinces of local adminis- tration best illustrate the large powers and wide jurisdiction claimed by the governments of German towns. The writer of a book of this kind, necessitating inquiries in great number and variety in many quarters, is compelled, even against his will, to make a severe call upon the courtesy and forbearance of others. Without the assistance given not for the first tune by German Mayors, Directors of Municipal Statistical Offices, and other public officials and authorities, much of the statistical and other information contained in the following pages would have been inaccessible. Most gladly I record my indebtedness for all such valuable help, and also for a good deal of information, needed for comparative purposes, furnished by the Town Clerks of many of the larger towns of England, Wales, and Scotland. Thanks are equally due to the friendly critics, most of them authorities upon special questions, by whom many of the chapters were read before they reached the publishers' hands. Amongst these I would mention in Germany, Dr. Hugo Preuss, of Berlin, the historian of German municipal government; Dr. Otto Most, of Diisseldorf, a member of the Municipal Executive of that town and the head of its Statistical Office ; Herr Otto Miinsterberg, of Danzig, councillor of commerce and member of the Prussian Diet ; Dr. Hugo Marx, of Moabit, Berlin ; PREFACE xi Dr. Stiibben, of Berlin, the authority upon the housing ques- tion ; Herr J. Weydmann, head of the Poor Relief Board of Strassburg ; Dr. F. Niichter, of Nuremberg ; Herr Karl Mackensen-Rogers, of the Schoneberg (Berlin) municipal authority ; and the directors of the Central Office of the German Municipal Congress ; and in England, Mr. H. G. Pritchard, the secretary of the Association of Municipal Corporations, and Mr. F. Stevens, clerk to the Urban District Council of Beckenham. The debt due to my wife, for advice, help and encouragement, cannot be paid with thanks. NOTE. In the conversion of German values the Mark has for convenience been taken in all cases as equivalent to the Shilling, though its value in exchange is in fact more than two per cent. less. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT PACK Rise of the towns in mediaeval times Decay of the towns in the era of abso- lutism Stein's municipal reforms in Prussia The revisions of Stein's Municipal Ordinance Municipal constitutions of the other States . I CHAPTER II ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS The status and connotation of towns Principles of local administration Range of obligatory and permissive functions Powers reserved by the State : the Police authority State control over education General scope of State supervision . . . ... 29 CHAPTER III CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS The franchise and mode of election The "Three-class" system of election and plural voting Elegibility of electors and the privilege of house- owners Procedure at elections Working-men on municipal authorities . 58 CHAPTER IV DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS TOWN COUNCIL, EXECUTIVE AND MAYOR Position of the town councils Organisation and constitution of the execu- tive Functions of the executive The mayor and his functions The " magisterial '' and "mayoral" executive systems compared Devolution of administrative duties: Deputations, Commissions, etc. Honorary service in communal administration The administrative staffs Schools for communal government Municipal congresses and leagues Joint administrative boards for common purposes State supervision and control Si CHAPTER V LAND POLICIES Extent of land owned by the towns Communal estate as a source of revenue Influence of land policies upon municipal development Sale of public land for housing schemes . . . . 123 xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER VI THE PLANNING OF TOWNS PACK The modern town plan Alignment plans and building permits Special taxa- tion of building sites and betterment contributions Power to expropriate landowners and to pool properties Protecting the streets against disfigure- ment Administrative area of German towns The modern incorporation movement ....... 141 CHAPTER VII HOUSING POLICIES Character of the housing problem in German towns The evil of land and house speculation Remedial measures adopted by the communes The reaction in favour of small houses Miscellaneous administrative measures Erection of houses by local authorities Public assistance to building societies Municipal inspection of dwellings Municipal house registries Building regulations ...... 161 CHAPTER VIII PUBLIC HEALTH Public health authorities The public hospital system Inspection of foods and drinks Sewerage, drainage, and scavenging Public swimming baths Parks, gardens, and recreation and sports grounds Municipal cemeteries and crematoria . . ' . . . . .189 CHAPTER IX TRADING ENTERPRISES The old German tradition The modern revival of municipal trading The system of concessions combined with royalties Scope of modern municipal enterprise Revenue and profits from trading enterprises Gas supply Electric light and power works Water supply Tramways and transport Docks and quays Furtherance of trade and industry Public abattoirs, market halls, and food supply Municipal savings banks Mortgage and rent-charge banks Insurance enterprises Miscellaneous trading enter- prises The execution of public works : rtgie versus contract Municipal workpeople : conditions of employment . . . 208 CHAPTER X RELIEF OF THE POOR Characteristics of the German poor relief system Organisation of the poor relief authority The Elberfeld system of poor relief Character of assist- ance given Assistance in return for work Forced labour houses for workshies and loafers Cost of poor relief in German towns . . 260 CONTENTS xv CHAPTER XI SOCIAL WELFARE WORK PAGE Scope and purpose of social welfare policy The crusade against infant mor- tality Municipal guardianship of illegitimate children School doctors School dentists Feeding of necessitous children Children's care centres The crusade against tuberculosis Convalescent homes Muni- cipal lodging-houses for single men Municipal labour registries Assisted unemployment insurance funds Public works for the unemployed The poor man's lawyer Municipal pawnshops Miscellaneous welfare work . 279 CHAPTER XII INTELLECTUAL LIFE Public libraries and reading-rooms Primary schools Secondary schools Continuation and technical schools Municipal expenditure on education The drama and music . . . . . . 311 CHAPTER XIII MUNICIPAL FINANCE Sources of municipal revenue The budget Borrowing powers and loans Extent of communal indebtedness Improvement of municipal credit facilities Balance sheets of municipal authorities . . . 337 CHAPTER XIV MUNICIPAL TAXATION. I. THE LOCAL INCOME TAX Local autonomy in taxation Variety and incidence of local taxes Individual basis of taxation Communal taxation in Prussia Principles governing the choice of taxes The local income tax Relief to small incomes Local income taxes in the other States . . . 362 CHAPTER XV MUNICIPAL TAXATION (continued). II. THE REAL ESTATE TAXES The land and building taxes Property transfer tax Unearned increment tax " Betterment " taxes or special assessments . . . 386 CHAPTER XVI MUNICIPAL TAXATION (continued). III. TRADE, CONSUMPTION, AMUSEMENT, AND OTHER TAXES The trade tax Tax on large stores Consumption taxes (entrance dues and excise duties) Amusement taxes Miscellaneous local taxes Church taxes 403 xvi CONTENTS CHAPTER XVII MUNICIPAL TAXATION (continued']. IV. CORRELATION AND YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES FACE Disparity in local taxation Relative yield of local taxes Taxation of real estate in Prussia Relative local taxation in Germany and England . 419 CHAPTER XVIII SURVEY AND COMPARISON Modern reform movements Constitution of local authorities Derivation of duties and powers Scope of administration Systems of local taxation External supervision and control Concluding remarks . . . 435 APPENDICES I. ORGANISATION FOR PURPOSES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY 461 II. REGULATIONS OF MUNICIPAL LAND FUNDS . . . 468 III. BY-LAWS RELATING TO BETTERMENT CONTRIBUTIONS . . 473 IV. TOWN PLANNING AND EXPROPRIATION LEGISLATION OF GERMANY 476 V. AGREEMENT FOR THE ERECTION AND SALE OF WORKING-CLASS DWELLINGS BY THE MUNICIPALITY OF JENA . . . 484 VI. RULES OF THE MUNICIPAL LEGAL ADVICE OFFICE AT NUREMBERG 489 VII. MUNICIPAL THEATRE REGULATIONS OF HALLE (THE SUBSIDY SYSTEM) ....... 491 VIII. MUNICIPAL REFORM PROGRAMMES . . . 496 INDEX ....... 501 MUNICIPAL LIFE AND GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY CHAPTER I THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT Rise of the towns in mediaeval times Decay of the towns in the era of Absolutism Stein's municipal reforms in Prussia The revisions of Stein's Municipal Ordinance Municipal Constitutions of the other States. IT is the purpose of this book to explain the organisation and scope of municipal government in Germany, and to follow its actual workings in the life of the communities of to-day. Often, however, the present is only understood by the past, and to its problems the past sometimes holds the key. This is pre-eminently the case with the government of German towns, and hence a brief historical survey of the subject seems essential. Such a survey must at least bring into prominence the early tradition of self-government, must trace the vicissitudes through which the towns passed, from their rise to independence in the middle ages to their fall during the period of absolute sovereignty, and must show the profound significance of the great municipal reform the charter of rights of modern German towns which was introduced in Prussia by Stein at the beginning of the nine- teenth century, and which set all Germany on a new path of municipal development. For the purpose of a review confined within limits so narrow, three periods in the history of German towns may be fixed. The first may be held to cover the second half of the middle ages, down to the Reformation, during which period the 2 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY towns gradually gained a position of unexampled freedom and autonomy. The second period covers the two centuries which witnessed the ascendency of the doctrine of absolute sovereignty and the decadence of the towns, culminating in their lowest degradation at the time of Germany's subjugation by Napoleon, The third period dates from the municipal and agrarian reforms of Stein, and embraces not only the political regeneration of Germany, but the rebirth of the towns, which have won back much of their olden independence, and have gained more than their olden prestige and prosperity. The current of municipal history did not, of course, continue unbroken in any one of the periods indicated ; the towns experienced many oscillations of fortune ; within each period times of progress alternated, locally if not generally, with times of reaction ; yet the foregoing epochs synchronise with certain broad streams of tendency and they may serve our purpose. RISE OF THE TOWNS IN MEDIEVAL TIMES. A history of German municipal life would carry us back to the early cen- turies, when many of the Roman camps and colonies on the Rhine and other rivers formed the nuclei of towns. For the most part these towns were destroyed by the German tribes who contested the Roman occupation, though they were rebuilt at a later date and still remain, the most ancient survivals of urban organisation. A more definite point of departure would be the tenth century, to which fell the reign of the Saxon Emperor Henry I. (919 to 936), known distinctively in German history as the " town builder," because as a measure of protection against the Hungarians and Slavs he promoted the settlement of towns and freely conferred upon them important privileges. For the halcyon days of municipal life and government, however, it is necessary to advance still farther in mediaeval times. Never before or later did the towns on the whole enjoy so large a measure of autonomy as in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Of these centuries Dr. H. Preuss writes that " they formed one of the most brilliant and fruitful periods for the internal development of Germany, a period of great progress THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 3 in intellectual and material culture, of great increase in national wealth, and in population. The two hostile forces whose contest dominated the internal history of the centuries immediately following, the towns and the princes, laid in the same epoch the foundations of their power." 1 Long periods of preoccupation with political affairs in- disposed the rulers, imperial and territorial, to give serious heed to questions of local government, or to be jealous of the growing powers and assumptions of the towns, while their continual want of money led them to barter away privilege after privilege, the acquisition of which proportionately strengthened the towns in their endeavours after independence. Often the emperors found the towns useful auxiliaries in their warfare with the bishops and feudal princes, and for friendly services thus performed they were willing to pay a good price in the bestowal of civil rights and franchises. At that early period it was the fixed ambition not only of the large but of the smaller towns to be self-governed, self- contained and self-sufficient. To that end they sought to acquire from their rulers and overlords, often at great sacrifice, the suzerain rights which connoted a condition of dependence, market rights, rights to levy tolls and dues, coinage rights, legal jurisdiction, and the like. Often these struggles for freedom were crowned with complete success, and many mediaeval German towns became for all practical purposes States within the State. As a rule the towns determined their own forms of government, and the result was that in the thirteenth century no two towns had the same constitution ; each had some feature peculiar to itself in regard either to organisation, powers, mode of appointing councils, or names and titles.* Burghership 3 of one of the autonomous German cities of the middle ages often ranked higher in local estimation than State citizenship ; the civic tie was stronger, the civic sense 1 " Die Entwickelung des deutschen Stadtewesens," Vol. I, pp. 30, 31. 1 F. W. Barthold, " Geschichte der deutschen Stadte." Vol. III. p. 3. ' The word " Burg," meaning originally a fortified place or castle, which occurs in so many combinations, and which appears in English in the old town- name " burg " and the later " borough," was the earliest German term for town. The citizens became " Burger " (burghers or burgesses), and the head of the community " Biirgermeister " (burgomaster, or mayor). 4 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY of community more personal, the civic feeling of independence more real, than the political, in countries which were rent by feud and in which the spirit of nationality was weak and undeveloped. And so an old German rhyme ran : " No man's lord and no man's wight, That is the freeborn burgher's right." l There is no clear evidence to determine the time at which the towns became formally governed by councils and senators. Preuss writes : " The same historical obscurity and the same conflict of learned opinion prevail as to where, how, and when a council (Rat) was established in German towns as a civil form of government, as on the question of the origin of the town itself whose corporate constitution found characteristic expression in this institution." This writer, however, con- cludes that the institution of the local council was common by the middle of the twelfth century. 2 The council did not proceed at first from the citizens as a whole, but was formed by the more influential families and was composed of members of these on a self-applied principle of social prece- dence. In some parts of the country thriving cities and towns combined in federations and leagues for mutual defence against predatory knights and the feudal nobility, for the preservation of peace, and for the furtherance of the common interest of trade and commerce. The most powerful of the purely defensive leagues was that of the Rhenish towns, formed in the middle of the thirteenth century under the leadership of Mayence and Worms and embracing a hundred towns, with many territorial overlords. In the following century the Swabian League similarly united all the towns of South Germany. These and other federations, in Bavaria, Westphalia, and elsewhere, were formed primarily for political purposes. More important from the economic side of the life of the towns, and more lasting in its influence, was the great federa- tion of the northern trading centres. Small local guilds of 1 " Niemands Herr und Niemands Knecht, Das 1st des Biirgerstandes Recht." 1 " Die Entwickelung des deutschen Stadtewesens," Vol. I. pp. 28, 2g. THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 5 traders known by the Low German name of " Hansen " had existed before, but it was not until the thirteenth century that the historic " Hansa," known later as the Hanseatic League, was formed for the systematic conquest of foreign markets. When the Hanseatic League was at the height of its power, in the second half of the fourteenth century, it con- tained nearly ninety seaport and inland towns in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Russia, had depots in many foreign trading centres, in London, Bergen, Bruges, Novgorod, and elsewhere, and even maintained its own fleet. From the sixteenth century onward the Hansa dwindled until before the Thirty Years' War it embraced only fourteen towns, a number later reduced to three, Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck, the only free cities of Germany that remain. In spite of these alliances, however, the towns clung tena- ciously to their individual independence as much in economic as in administrative matters, and jealousy for their own special trades and handicrafts led them to surround themselves with customs barriers as formidable as the walls by which they were protected against unfriendly neighbours. But the time was at hand when the vigorous energy which had wrested independence from needy rulers was to be under- mined and paralysed by internal rivalries and dissensions. From the beginning of the fourteenth century the power of the local aristocracies was seriously challenged by new forces which had risen up in all the larger towns. Already the merchants and handicraftsmen had formed themselves into corporations and guilds, and as the strength and prosperity of their orders increased they sought to obtain a corresponding influence in local administration. The struggle was especially keen in those towns in which the dominant families and factions had used their power for their own purposes. In many of these the franchise was restricted to a small privileged class ; office was appropriated by usurpers without right to speak or act for the community ; and often the very formality of election was abolished and the clique in power governed as arbitrarily as the overlords in the past. Life appointments and an abusive use of the power of co-optation paved the way for a sort of dynastic succession in local government. Member- 6 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY ship of the councils ran in families, and no one without patri- monial influence had a chance of serving the commonwealth. Now the trade and handicraft guilds contested the claim of the patricians to rule, and in some towns the struggles between the rival forces were marked by great bitterness and even by violence. For a long time the fortunes of war were uncertain, for the families fought hard for their privileges. In the fourteenth century the corporation of the rich citizens of Cologne pre- vented the introduction of a representative council by assuming the functions of the council itself and appointing its own members to the mayoralty and other offices. At Nuremberg also the patricians obtained complete power and long maintained it. In that town a score of patrician families claimed to fill the town council and to hold all offices. On the other hand, at Ratisbon (Regensburg) and elsewhere they were entirely superseded or were required, to their disgust, to join the guilds. At Augsburg and Speyer, the patricians and guilds came to terms and divided the local council between them. In some towns the old patrician council survived in the form of a " small " or " inner" (engerer) council, as dis- tinct from the " great " or " general " (grosser) council formed by the guilds and able to impose its will upon the selecter body in all important matters. This two-chamber system of government is perpetuated in different forms in modern municipal constitutions. In the middle of the fourteenth century there were in Augsburg fifty-one " families " and seventeen guilds. The small council consisted of fifteen members of the " families " and twenty-nine delegates of the guilds, with two mayors, one nominated by each constituent body ; while the great council represented only the seventeen guilds, each of which nominated twelve members. In most places the ultimate result of this class contest was that the guilds first gained an entrance into the local councils and then step by step controlled them. DECAY OF THE TOWNS IN THE ERA OF ABSOLUTISM. The acquisition of office by craft and guile inevitably led to abuses of many kinds to self-enrichment, nepotism, and wholesale THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 7 corruption ; and these evils created others even more disas- trous in their ultimate effects. For the citizens, cut off from intimate association with the corporate life of their towns, lost in civic pride and attachment, and their very spirit of independence became weakened. A social structure, civil or political, is only stable in proportion as it is stayed on broad and secure foundations. This condition of strength was lacking to the later mediaeval town oligarchies, and their weakness became the opportunity of the princes, now eager to reassert their old suzerain rights and to regain the old position of domination. Just as aforetime the towns had become powerful and their autonomy had been strengthened in proportion as authority at the centre became weak, so from the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century the process was reversed ; the rulers reasserted their power and revived and extended their early prerogatives, while the towns settled more and more into the position of governed rather than self-governing communities. Sometimes the citizens themselves called in outside help, and the princes had then a stronger pretext for active inter- ference. For a time they made no deliberate attempt to abolish the systems of local government which had grown up during the time of their lethargy, but contented themselves with the exercise of large powers of direction and supervision. As absolutism gained ground, however, the State more and more invaded the sphere of purely local administration. Step by step the governing power was wrested entirely from the hands of the citizens and the delegated councils, and was exercised, down to the minutest details, by the central authority in the name of the ruler. This recovery of renounced prerogatives was not, however, in all cases a mere parade of force, but sometimes followed almost inevitably from predisposing causes. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) had left the whole country poor, exhausted, and demoralised, its industry and trade ruined, its population decimated. Towns which had grown prosperous by successful industry or by bold trading adventure both at home and abroad were thrown back centuries in numbers 8 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY and in wealth. Thus before the war began there were in Berlin and Kolln (old Berlin) 1236 inhabited dwellings, but in 1651 (three years after the peace) 1052 ; in Brandenburg the number fell from 1144 to 554, in Frankfort-on-the-Oder from 1029 to 523, in Potsdam from 191 to 101, in Rathenow from 299 to 153, and in Mittenwalde from 245 to nil. It was the same in the South. Augsburg in 1618 had a population of 45,000 ; in 1645 the number had fallen to 21,000. Many towns suffered still more ; in some the population was reduced by more than three-quarters, while their trade was wiped out altogether. German historians have pictured the devastation wrought upon the towns at that period by siege and sack, by sword, fire, and plunder. " For every town," writes Gustav Freytag, " there were intervals of comparative tranquillity, lasting for years, and places no large number which were destroyed but once during the war were able to recover. But the most terrible thing was the second, third, fourth repetition of the old misery. Leipzig was besieged five times, Magdeburg six times, and most of the smaller towns were still oftener occupied by foreign soldiers, so large and small towns equally were ruined. . . . By this war Germany was thrown back two hundred years as compared with its more fortunate neigh- bours, the Dutch and English." 1 The renewal of prosperity within the sorely afflicted States was a work altogether beyond the power of local effort. Sagacious princes, like the Great Elector in Prussia, devoted themselves unwearyingly to the task of building up the lost fortunes of their lands, their peoples and towns. But with the succour which they brought to the towns went hand in hand, almost inevitably, a growing usurpation of the privileges which the towns had possessed, and now held within a waver- ing grasp. Liberty weighs but lightly against poverty and distress in the scale of human values, and under the prevailing circumstances the princes were able to regain without great difficulty all and more than all the power they had lost. Absolutism conquered all along the line ; and even the Governments of the City Republics reflected the prevailing 1 " Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit," Vol. Ill, pp. 198, 199, 235. THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 9 spirit. Just as the prince spoke of " his " subjects, so the oligarchic council of Hamburg spoke of " its " citizens, and admonished them in the best manner of the autocratic over- lord. So we find that council issuing a proclamation in 1602 affirming the principle of absolutism in its purest form. " If a Government should be godless, tyrannical and covetous, the subjects have still no right to resist ; they should rather regard such a condition as a punishment of the Almighty visited upon them for their sins." The reaction reached its flood mark in the middle of the eighteenth century, by which time urban autonomy had virtually ceased to exist in most of the German territories. If local government bodies were allowed to continue, they were deprived of power, were reduced to a condition of absolute subordination, and were treated simply as committees for executing the orders of the sovereigns. More often these, through their agents, governed the towns at will, imposed and collected the taxes they thought best, and from the proceeds at once defrayed the costs of local administration and rein- forced the State exchequers, yet without deigning to render an account. Nowhere was this autocratic system carried to greater extremes than in Prussia raised to a kingdom in 1701 under Frederick I., Frederick William I., and Frederick II. (the Great), who incorporated as no other German sovereigns the revived spirit of autocracy. The Hohenzollerns had never favoured the excessive independence of the towns. Before they became electors of Brandenburg the towns within this territory had enjoyed the utmost freedom, but with the new dynasty a reaction at once set in. Hitherto the towns had adopted their own constitutions, and the forms they chose were such as best suited their needs. The Elector Joachim I. deemed that the interests of the State would be served better by uniformity. Hence, after travelling through his lands and visiting the towns in turn, he drew up a general ordinance (1525) providing for the creation everywhere of town councils similar in character and number of members. Experience soon proved the impossibility of imposing upon the towns any such uniform system of local government, but the first TO MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY step had been taken towards depriving them of the old autonomy. 1 The later Prussian monarchy was built up by the jealous and persistent enforcement of the principle that no internal power might contest the will of the Crown and State in any department of national life. Hence, the more the monarchy was consolidated, the more were the rights and independ- ence of the towns restricted, until by the middle of the eighteenth century the towns were reduced to the position of vassal communities. The spirit of absolutism was never more frankly avowed than in a document of the year 1736 in which one of the War and Domain Chambers 2 of Frederick William I. laid down the relationship of that sovereign towards the government of Berlin, the capital of his young kingdom. " That the president of the town," said this declaration of royal right, " should be nominated and appointed by his Royal Majesty is self-evident ; . . . but that the consules, 3 syndici, and senators should be appointed entirely by the Council and then merely be confirmed by his Majesty is contrary to the maxims and constitutions hitherto governing the Rathaus system. ' Principia republicana ' bring the ' publico ' more harm than good and have long ago been purposely suppressed and abolished and in consequence cannot be reintroduced without infraction of the royal authority. His Royal Majesty and his High Councils know better than the magistracy how the Rathaus should be formed, the town governed, and the common weal be best served." 1 Ludwig vom Ronne and Heinrich Simon, " Die preussischen Stadteord- nungen vom 19 November, 1808, und vom 17 Marz, 1831," pp. 18, 19. * The principal concerns of the early Kings of Prussia were the " army " and the " domains," which formed the main sources of their revenues. In the latter part of the Great Elector's reign there were two Finance Ministers, one for each of these departments. " Under Frederick William I. the two depart- ments were united, and a General Supreme Financial War and Domains Directory was established, while in every district the representative of the Government was the War and Domains Chamber." These chambers inter- fered in every department of local government, which they virtually annexed. (J. R. Seeley, " Life and Times of Stein," Vol. I, p. 48.) * The members of the council or Rat appear to have been described in Latin documents as " consules " from the first quarter of the twelfth century forward. (Barthold, " Geschichte der deutschen Stadte," Vol. I, p. 257.) THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT n When such sentiments could be avowed so frankly there was clearly no possibility of disputing them. Frederick William I. openly declared that it was his policy in local government to appoint mayors who should be his " creatures." " In that way," he added, " I shall remain master. Otherwise I must be dependent upon my subjects, and that is not to my mind." 1 The King even sold the positions of magistrates or senators to the highest bidders, and filled public offices with retired soldiers for whom a livelihood could not otherwise be found. Side by side with or over the municipal mayors he ap- pointed military governors, who had jurisdiction over most matters of local government, e.g., building, market regulation, street lighting, cleaning, and paving, and poor relief, while the Crown directed the entire system of local taxation and finance. The theory was even set up that municipal property was State property, and certainly it often passed under the control of State officials. All sorts of privileges and immunities were arbitrarily con- ferred by the Crown. The officials of the Court, State officials, and the military were excluded from the jurisdiction of the local authorities, and the King exempted from local taxation whom he would ; even the court purveyors went free. Dr. Hugo Preuss estimates that early in the eighteenth century one-tenth of all the properties in Berlin were " free houses," the occupants of which were exempt from the local property tax payable by the ordinary citizens. Every community over which the ruler set his agents was thus divided into rival camps Crown and town with conflicting loyalties and antagonistic interests. In Berlin at the close of the century one-half of the population was exempted from the jurisdiction of the civil government. 1 The words suggest comparison with the speech on the constitution question made by Frederick William IV. to the United Diet in April, 1847. " I feel bound," he said, " to make the solemn declaration that no power on earth shall move me to convert the natural relationship between sovereign and people with us especially so powerful because of its inner truth into a conventional, constitutional relationship, and that I will neither now nor ever allow a written paper to interpose like a second providence between our Lord God in Heaven and this land, in order by its paragraphs to govern us and to replace the sacred fidelity of old." 12 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY How complete was the triumph of absolutism was shown when the Prussian Common Law (Landrecht) came to be pro- mulgated in 1794 ; for while this document confirmed the nobility and the feudal proprietors in all their privileges, including independence in administration, it declared all the powers and rights of the towns to be subject to royal grant. Thus the Crown formally set its seal upon its claim that the towns possessed no life and individuality of their own. At the opening of the nineteenth century the form of government under which Berlin, the capital, lived was that of a semi-military autocracy. There were both a mayor and an executive of sorts, but they were not chosen by the citizens, and when members of the executive died or retired, new ones were co-opted by the remaining body. The powers exercised by the executive were unimportant the manage- ment of public buildings and other property, the over- sight of the guilds, presentation to certain of the churches, and a limited responsibility for the care of the poor. The general administration of the city the maintenance and lighting of the streets, the provision of schools, the care of public health, public poor relief, and the rest was in other hands, and chiefly in those of authorities or individuals appointed by the Crown and responsible to it alone. Not only in Berlin, however, but everywhere local initiative and responsibility had been reduced to a shadow. " The spirit of distrust which prevails throughout the Prussian system of State administration," wrote the Konigs- berg Police Director Frey, " has heaped control upon control, and has led to the affairs of the communes being brought under the same system. Everything, however trivial it may be, must be examined by the authority above, everything must be there decided, everything be there ordered." It was the custom of Napoleon when he found German towns without a representative government promptly to call one into existence, and set it in the place of the agents of the Crown. Accordingly when, after the battle of Jena (October, 1806), which completed the collapse of Prussia, Napoleon entered Berlin, he abolished the military and Crown govern- ment of the city and created a civil authority called the THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 13 comite administratif, which was elected by a constituent body of sixty delegates chosen by 2000 of the most substantial citizens. The sixty hoped that they were intended to act as a deliberative assembly, but such was not Napoleon's inten- tion ; having chosen his committee they were not called together again. On the other hand, the comite administratif remained in office for two years. In some other towns Napoleon introduced the French system of municipal govern- ment by mayor and council, under which the former, nominated by the Crown, was made responsible for the entire manage- ment of local affairs. STEIN'S MUNICIPAL REFORM IN PRUSSIA. For the next half century the history of municipal reform in Germany is virtually the history of the system of local administration introduced in 1808 by the Minister Baron vom Stein, and copied, in its main principles, with modifications, by the other important States. The German principalities succumbed before Napoleon and the armies magnetised by his genius for the same reason that the town governments had fallen three centuries before, because of the narrowness of their foundations. Absolute rule, rooted in militarism, had been tried and had failed as a basis either of political or civil government, and in its abolition lay the only hope of national renewal. " The State," writes Seeley of Prussia, " seemed to have fallen in pieces because it had no principle of cohesion, and was only held together by an artificial bureaucracy. It had been created by the energy of its Government and the efficiency of its soldiers, and now it appeared to come to an end because its Government had ceased to be energetic and its soldiers to be efficient." 1 " The absolute monarchy, with all its unlimited power," says a German writer, " proved incapable of either creating or replacing a State or national fellowship." 2 Absolutism continued so long as the sovereigns were strong enough to be supreme in their own territories, and when it fell there was nothing left to take its place. The collapse of the absolute monarchy hi France saw the rise of a new nation 1 " Life and Times of Stein," Vol. I, p. 261. * Preuss, Vol. I, p. 197. 14 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY upon its ruins. In Germany nationality was only a name. In degrading the status of local citizenship the rulers had de- stroyed the citizen's attachment to town and State at once. Hence it was that when Prussia's hour of supreme trial came in 1806 the people were at first too crushed and apathetic to respond. " In reducing the communes to a condition of en- feeblement," writes Dahlmann, " the nation as a whole had been deprived of power and courage ; for having been dis- qualified from discharging the duties of everyday life it was incapacitated from meeting larger responsibilities." * " Then it became evident," writes Ronne, " how many civic virtues had been extinguished, that the towns were without public spirit, that all desire to bring sacrifice for the common weal, all zeal and all love for public affairs had been lost, and that thus the surest foundation of true patriotism was lacking." 2 So completely had the German peoples been dragooned by their multiplicity of petty autocrats, so well had they learned the lesson that the first and only duty of the citizen is to obey the ruling power, that when Napoleon entered the country they accepted the new suzerainty almost as a matter of course, and when the usurper approached their towns it happened that not only patricians and populace, but State officials and military officers, received him at the gates. So lightly may the sentiment of loyalty hold a compelled and over-disciplined people. 3 1 F. C. Dahlmann, " Die Politik," ister Band, p. 216. * Ludwig von R6nne and Heinrich Simon, " Die preussischen Stadteord- nungen vom 19 November, 1808, und vom 17 Marz, 1831," p. 25. 3 Writing of the disintegration of the Empire as formally ratified by the Peace of Luneville in 1801, Treitschke says, " The German nation bore the overwhelming blow with incredible indifference. Scarcely a cry of patriotic anger arose when Mayence and Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Treves, the spacious, beautiful lands which were the cradle of our earliest history, passed over to the stranger. . . . The great majority of people regarded what had happened as an inevitable necessity, and even across the right bank of the Rhine everyone believed that Germany's western frontier had now been settled for all time." Treitschke, however, laid the whole blame for this strange national apathy to the influence of the Roman Catholic Church to " crozier government." (" Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Jahrhun- derte," ister Theil, pp. 172, 173, 175 ; see also p. 251 for the reception of Napoleon in Prussia after the battle of Jena.) All this story of the temporary eclipse of patriotic fervour only adds greater glory to the sequel. If this were a political history, it would be neces- sary to tell of the noble uprising of the German peoples, first of the north and then of the south, during the years 1807 to 1815, culminating in Napo- leon's overthrow and in the birth of modern Prussia and Germany. THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 15 In the disaster which overwhelmed Germany during the years of Napoleon's domination, 1806 to 1812, the greatest losses, territorial, financial, and moral, fell on Prussia, because it had most to lose. With the battle of Jena Prussia's power was completely destroyed, and by the succeeding Peace of Tilsit (July 7, 1807) it lost all its territories west of the Elbe, with part of its eastern provinces, and its population was reduced from ten to five millions. When Prussia's fortunes were at the lowest ebb, and its very extinction as an independent State seemed imminent, Stein succeeded in convincing the King (Frederick William III.) that the only hope of national renaissance lay hi the abolition of the feudal system and the emancipation of the peasantry, combined with a fundamental reform of local government, leading up to the institution of a national parliament. Here we have to do only with Stein's administrative reforms, though, like them, the land reforms associated with his name, and in a less degree with that of Hardenberg, his colleague in the Ministry until January, 1807, were inspired by the conviction that Prussia's greatest misfortune was deprivation of liberty, and that its only hope lay hi its restoration. 1 Stein aimed at the creation of free towns in a free State. It was his belief that Prussia could only be recreated by its own forces and energies. If a new State was to rise upon the ruins of the old it must be by the co-operation of the whole nation. To him the most natural field for the exercise of such co-operation was the commune. Hence, his first task was to strengthen whatever remained of the old tradition of free, self-governing communities, to adapt the old communal system to new conditions, and to modernise the administrative organisation of the provinces. But there he did not intend to stop. Above a reformed system of local and provincial government, broad based upon it, he desired to construct a system of national government, regulated by a free constitu- tion. Thus the nation was to be fitted for political duties 1 The Land Edict was dated October 9, 1807, and its purpose was described as to facilitate ownership and the free use of landed property and to determine the personal position of the agrarian population. " After Martinmas, 1810," it ran, " there shall only be free men." 16 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY and rights by being first trained in the duties and rights of citizenship in town and village, in district and province. The idea which underlay all Stein's plans was a large decen- tralisation of State authority, which was to add weight and importance to civic life without organically weakening the central power. So long as absolute sovereignty lasted, the hand of the State controlled all local affairs, and as these were claimed as part of the State's sphere the local authorities themselves came to be regarded as State agents. Stein wished to readjust this unnatural relationship, to rehabilitate the civil authority in local self-government, to assign to it a wide province of action, and within that province to make it virtually supreme. The debased condition of municipal government in Prussia at that time, and with it the vastness of the change contem- plated, are well reflected in a letter written by Stein to his colleague Hardenberg. " I regard it as important," he said, " to break the fetters by which the bureaucracy obstructs all human movement, to destroy the spirit of avarice and per- nicious self-interest, and the attachment to mechanical forms which dominate this form of government. The nation must be enabled to manage its own affairs and to emerge from the condition of tutelage in which an ever restless and vigilant Government seeks to keep it." While Stein was contemplating his great reform an event occurred which might have changed the whole course of Prussia's internal history. In a strong and almost violent letter of reproach, the King, on January 3, 1807, charged Stein with being a " contumelious, defiant, obstinate, and disobedient servant of the State," and warned him that unless he became more tractable he would be deprived of office. 1 The next day Stein handed in his resignation, which the King accepted in silence. The double affront was soon to be avenged. In July came the Peace of Tilsit, and in the hour of that crushing humiliation all eyes turned to the dismissed states- 1 If the word " Crown " had been substituted for " State," the hard words might have described Stein not unfaithfully. A German writer speaks of the " divine bluntness " (Grobheit) and " scathing sarcasm " which brought him into frequent collision with the King. For Stein was one of the few men who dared to tell the King the truth the things he ought to know, instead of those he wished to know. THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 17 man. Yielding to the wishes of his people and his Queen, and to the advice of Napoleon himself, the King urgently invited Stein to return. Stein magnanimously obeyed the summons, and took over office on his own terms. During the succeeding fourteen months he was at the head of the Govern- ment, until on November 24, 1808, he received dismissal again and finally left the Prussian service, the victim of royal weak- ness and fickleness and of the animosities and conspiracies of petty and incapable rivals. Napoleon immediately followed his dismissal with a decree of banishment from Prussian territory, but the odium of his exile was not Napoleon's, but the King's. During his brief retirement in 1807 Stein had occupied him- self with the question of local government, and his reflections were set down in an essay " On the proper Form of the Central and Provincial Councils of Finance and Police in the Prussian Monarchy." In this document he proposed a municipal reform by which the military bureaucracy was to give place to self-government by the citizens. Directly he returned to office Stein told the King that one of the first things to be done must be to reform local administration, and the King agreed. Nor need it be doubted that Frederick William was perfectly sincere in his acceptance of his Minister's proposals as right and necessary for the time, little though the prospect of popular government even for the towns can have appealed to his political instincts. The first-fruits of the reforming spirit was the Municipal Ordinance of November 19, 1808, applying to all the towns of the kingdom, as reduced by Napoleon. It is a much- debated question how far this reform, in its final form, was the work of Stein. Stein is described by his equivocal friend and captious critic, Theodor Schon, as lacking in constructive statesmanship, yet quick to detect worth in the ideas of others and to give practical effect to convictions clearly formed. In this case Stein was clearly a borrower. Of the necessity of municipal reform he had been convinced, not only by the fact of Prussia's fall, but by the study of English local government and political institutions, which he held in great admiration ; that he used the advice, suggestions, and even the plans of i8 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY others when the time came for practical measures is no derogation of his genius as an original thinker and an epoch- making statesman. More than the Emperor Henry I. he deserves to be regarded as Germany's pre-eminent " town builder." Seldom has a great measure of social reform fructified so rapidly as that enacted in the famous municipal edict bearing Frederick William III.'s signature but Stein's name. The first crude suggestion may be traced to a scheme for the reform of the local government of Konigsberg, devised in 1807 by a judicial official of that town, by name Brand, and sub- mitted by him to Stein, then Minister, and afterwards, on Stein's advice, to the King. Even more, however, Stein appears to have been influenced by another Konigsberg jurist, the Police Director Frey, a man who had come under the personal influence of Kant whose personality had dominated the intellectual life of that " city of pure reason " up to 1804 and who in public spirit and political sagacity was far in advance of his time. German authorities all agree that next to Stein himself Frey deserves the principal credit for this great reform. A recent writer, Dr. Clauswitz, points out that the literature of the time to which Stein's Municipal Ordinance fell " con- tains no indications that there was then any active desire on the part of the citizens of our towns for a more effective share in the management of their affairs, and up to the present no evidence to this effect has been produced from the archives of the towns and the Governments." 1 Not only so, but no endeavour appears to have been made to sound the towns beforehand as to their wishes in the matter. When the sug- gestion was made even Frey himself opposed it as purpose- less, believing that in the existing conditions of municipal life there would be " few people able to pass a mature judg- ment upon the most suitable organisation of town government ; better show the dependent communes the way by which they may attain independence, without asking them whether they are disposed to follow it." Emphatically the reform was given to the nation " from 1 " Die Stadteordnung von 1808 und die Stadt Berlin," p. iii. THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 19 above." In truth, Stein wished to create an effective system of self-government as much for the sake of the State as in the interest of the people, who were henceforth to manage their own affairs. By it the State was to gain some relief of duty and responsibility, and the people a new training in civic virtue. The purpose of the Municipal Ordinance was formally denned in the preamble as follows : "To give to the towns a more independent and efficient constitution, to create for them in the civil "parish a firm point of union, to give to them active influence upon the government of the community, and by such participation in local government to stimulate and preserve public spirit." In a word, the State was once more to stand aside and to give to the corporate life of the towns room to move and expand. As we shall see, the reform created also a strong local bureaucracy, but this bureaucracy was intended to keep in close touch with the citizens, deriving from them its authority and responsible to them for its actions. For the beginning of the nineteenth century, and for a country whose civic life was just emerging from the occulta- tion of absolutism, the first Municipal Ordinance was, with all its limitations, a singularly enlightened measure ; even tried by modern ideas, it must be held to rank as a fine piece of constructive statesmanship, and the proof of this claim is furnished by the fact that it has proved adaptable to all the changed conditions incidental to a century of growth, and that under the revised forms in operation to-day the German towns are exercising in some directions wider powers of self- government than any other towns in the world possess. It is worthy of note that greatly as both Stein and Frey admired English political institutions and were influenced by English political thought, the Municipal Ordinance of 1808 bears no direct trace of English influence. In all his reforms and projects of reform, Stein constantly referred to the example of this country, but it was the free spirit of English public life and institutions rather than the institutions them- selves that he sought to transplant into Germany. So in the case of municipal reform, it was the free play of public opinion 20 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY and the free expression of personality as he observed them in England, that he wished to cultivate ; for the forms in which they should be embodied he went to the history and genius of his own nation. On the other hand, the Ordinance contained obvious traces of the municipal reforms introduced in France at the Revolution, and several of its clauses were taken bodily from the Municipal Decree of December, 1789. Any detailed examination of the provisions of the original Ordinance would be superfluous in a book which is concerned rather with present conditions than the beginnings from which these conditions have emerged, yet a brief summary of some of the principal administrative clauses will enable the reader, as he follows the later chapters, to observe for himself how far Stein's reforms have determined the course of municipal government down to our own day. First, the representative principle was frankly recognised. The government of the towns was to be by mayor, magistracy or executive, and popular assembly, and all were to issue directly or indirectly from the free choice of the citizens. The assembly was to be elected on a franchise which for the time was liberal ; and it was to appoint in turn the executive body and the head of the community. The old and arbitrary method of election by guilds and corporations was abolished, and the popular assembly was made eligible by the entire body of enfranchised citizens. For this purpose the inhabitants of a town were divided into (a) burgesses (burghers), or freemen, in full possession of civil rights, including the right to hold property and follow trades in the commune, and to exercise both the " active " and " passive " franchise, i.e., to elect and be elected to public office ; and (b) the denizens or residents (Schutzver- wandte), who were to be entitled to the full use of all communal institutions, but not to elect or be elected ; while both classes of citizens were liable to pay local taxes on equal terms. For the purpose of fixing qualifications for the possession of the franchise, the towns were divided into three classes on the basis of [civil population, viz., " large " towns, containing over 10,000 inhabitants, "medium" towns, containing from 3500 to 10,000 inhabitants, and " small " towns with a popu- THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 21 lation below 3500. x The right to vote was conferred upon property owners and all males, otherwise qualified, hi receipt of income of at least 200 thalers (30) in large towns and 150 thalers (22 los.) elsewhere, and it was stipulated that two-thirds of the members of a town council were to be house- owners. Election was for three years, one-third of the members retiring annually. Further, voting was to be secret and votes were to be of equal value. With a view to ensuring the utmost independence for the assemblies elected, the Ordinance stated in words taken hi part almost literally from a French law of the Revolution time " The communal deputies do not require a special instruction or authority from the citizens, nor are they obliged to account to the latter for their decisions. The law and their election are their authority, then: conviction and their view of what is best for the commonweal of the towns are their instruction, and their conscience the authority to which they have to give account." The first portion of this proviso is still in force. Municipal office was to be honorary unless a man gave his whole time to the work. Not only so, but acceptance of office was to be obligatory, and refusal to act when required was to be punished by deprivation of civil rights and higher taxation. But, again following French example, no judges or judicial officers were to be eligible to. sit upon municipal bodies. Mayors and members of executives were to be appointed for six years at a time, with the proviso that if salaried officers other than the mayor and the treasurer were not reappointed they should be pensioned ; later these appointments were made for twelve years, and the pension proviso was extended to the mayor and treasurer. It is characteristic of the first Municipal Ordinance, as compared with later revisions, that it concentrated power in the hands of the representative authority. " The town councillors as a whole," it said, " control the entire administra- tion of the municipality in all its branches." The executive 1 In the whole province of Brandenburg there were at the beginning of the nineteenth century only three " large " towns in this sense : Berlin, Potsdam, and Frankfort-oii-Oder. 22 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY was not only to be elected by the town council, but was to be entirely subordinate to it. The questions entrusted to the local authorities comprised finance, taxation, and loans, the care of the poor, of schools, and of public health, and the right to acquire and hold real estate, but all judicial jurisdiction was withheld from them. Here the municipal edict did not go as far as Stein wished. In particular no police functions were conferred upon the local authorities. Upon this point Stein and Schon were in conflict, and for the sake of peace and of seeing something done speedily, Stein gave way, accepting as a compromise the provision that the State might devolve police functions not on the commune, as the French Municipal Decree provided but on the municipal executive. While thus endeavouring to rehabilitate the towns, Stein had no desire to deplete the power of the central executive unduly. Hence, a general right of supervision was retained by the State, " lest (in his words) a number of small republics should be created." Stein's memorandum, accompanying the law, stated : " The citizens are charged with the undivided administration of their communal affairs. The influence of the State is entirely restricted to supervision, with a view to seeing that nothing is done contrary to the purpose of the State and that the existing laws are observed." It was required that appointments of " magistrates " or aldermen should be confirmed by the provincial authorities, while the chief mayors of the large towns were to be nominated by the Crown from lists presented by the towns. The Ordinance was introduced first in the provinces of East and West Prussia, in Konigsberg and Elbing respectively, at the beginning of 1809. A little later it was introduced in Berlin, in the province of Brandenburg, and during the next two years it came into force throughout the whole of the diminished kingdom. Five days after the promulgation of the Ordinance, Stein had been dismissed from office. On the whole it does not appear that the electors used their new liberties rashly. The prevalent depression and hopelessness of the nation were alone sufficient to deter them from venturing upon radical changes. Often the old mayors were returned again to office, and some towns even appointed military officers THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 23 to important positions in the local government. The Vienna Congress of 1814 restored to Prussia the provinces since known as Posen, Rhineland, and Westphalia, part of Pomerania, and Saxony, but the King was not in a mind to make further concessions to popular movements, and the Ordinance was not at once introduced into the regained territories. While in the eastern part of the monarchy municipal government was reorganised under Stein's Ordinance, and reflected to some extent the spirit of the French Municipal Decree of the Revolution, in the western provinces of Prussia, and in the west and south of Germany, Napoleon's municipal legislation had great influence. Napoleon had modified local government in France in the direction of centralisation ; not only were the mayors appointed by the State from lists sub- mitted by the local councils and constituted for all purposes State agents, but the councils were neither so independent nor entrusted with such wide powers as in East Prussia. This system had been introduced in the Rhine province and in Bavaria, created a kingdom by Napoleon's grace, before the issue of Stein's Ordinance, but it was amended a little later. In Wiirtemberg, another of Napoleon's kingdoms, municipal reform on very democratic principles was introduced at the same time. There a departure from Prussian principles was made in that town council and executive were both made eligible, on a liberal franchise, by the citizens, who also selected three candidates for the mayoralty, from whom the Crown made choice. Town council and executive consisted of the same number of members, and all important decisions required the assent of both, but provision was made for joint sittings. In this State, too, the police authority was vested in the communes. THE REVISIONS OF STEIN'S MUNICIPAL ORDINANCE. The revisions of the various systems of town government which gave to them the existing forms need not detain us long, as their interest is for the most part only historical. The most critical was that to which Stein's reform was subjected, while the cause of Prussian liberty was under the shadow of the July Revolution of 1830. All the portents were unfavour- 24 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY able, but if the towns had enemies they had also friends, and one of the staunchest of these was Wilhelm von Humboldt. From the first Humboldt fought resolutely against the re- actionary spirit which had gained the upper hand ; he was jealous for Stem's noble handiwork, and resented the idea of its being despoiled by violent hands. " The Municipal Ordin- ance," he wrote in an address to the Crown Prince in 1831, " has for twenty- two years proved itself a beneficent law, and has become precious to the citizens. The visible evidence of its wholesome influence may be seen in the prosperity of the urban populations, in a higher civic sense, an increased participation in municipal affairs, and a greater readiness to introduce praiseworthy reforms." He apprehended, after reading the draft, that the Government proposed to restrict the independence of the communes in a way Stein never contemplated, and he warned it in particular against disturbing the relationship between town councils and executives. Humboldt's fears for the independence oi the town councils were in part realised. Hitherto the executive had been subject to the council and had been bound to carry out its wishes ; under the revised Ordinance of March 17, 1831, it became the predominant partner. There was a reapportion- ment of administrative functions. Some were reserved for the town council alone, some for the executive, and some for joint action ; but in regard to the first the executive was empowered to object, while as to the last there was always the possibility of conflict, in which case the Government would be able to intervene. The State claimed the right to appoint a commissary in the event of delay in appointing an officer needing its approval, and also to dissolve any town council which " continually neglected its duty or fell into disorder or partisanship " a characteristically vague proviso, capable of arbitrary interpretation. As to the constitution of the town councils, the franchise was raised, for the acquisition of citizenship carrying the power to vote was now made dependent upon the ownership of real estate of a value of from 300 to 2000 thalers (45 to 300), according to the size of the town, or an income from a fixed trade of from 200 to 600 thalers (30 to 90), or, subject to THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 25 two years' residence, of an income from other sources of from 400 to 1200 thalers (60 to 180), though persons not so qualified who had shown themselves " worthy of exceptional confidence " might be enfranchised by the vote of the town council and the municipal executive. Election by guilds and corporations was again permitted. On the other hand, the towns were given more latitude in regard to the number of councillors and members of the executive eligible, and the proportion of house-owners upon the councils was reduced from two-thirds to one-half, as it still remains. Salaried members of the executive were henceforth to be appointed for twelve years and unsalaried members for six years, but life appointments were allowed. While thus there were gains as well as losses, the general effect of the revision was reac- tionary, and when the Government tried to apply the new Ordinance to the old provinces the resistance offered was so great that the attempt was abandoned. It was, however, introduced in other parts of the monarchy, including the province of Westphalia and several Rhenish towns. In Saxony, where a constitution was introduced in 1831, a reformed municipal ordinance, based on the Prussian and Bavarian laws, was passed in the following year. In 1831 also, Baden abandoned the Napoleonic system and adopted a municipal organisation more suited to the liberal spirit of its people, and approximating to that of Wiirtemberg. The Crown still claimed the right to confirm appointments to the mayoralty, but if a town chose the same man thrice its veto lapsed. The law of Bavaria was revised in 1834. The next revision was that of May 3, 1853, which gave to the Prussian Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces its present form. The object of this further revision was to adjust the constitutions of the towns to the altered political conditions. But the new conditions were those of a time, not of growth and expansion in political life, but of unrest and reaction, and some of the alterations reflected the anti- democratic spirit then dominant in Government circles throughout Germany. Inspired by the French Revolution of 1848, the German peoples had similarly tried conclusions with their rulers, and had failed. No time could have been 26 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY less opportune for the reconsideration of the question of self- government. Three years before (March n, 1850) a local- government law applying to all communes, both urban and rural, had been passed, and, reflecting the liberal spirit preva- lent for the moment, it introduced a number of improvements, but a short trial proved the impossibility of bringing town and country under one system, and it was repealed. The Ordinance of 1853 applied only to the towns. The distinction between burgesses and denizens was abolished, but so also was Stein's principle of equal and secret voting, which gave place to the three-class system of election ; J the representative body was still further subordinated to the executive ; and the State reasserted much of the influence and control in local government which it surrendered half a century before. A detailed consideration of this Ordinance and of the laws which, with it, govern the administration of Prussian towns to-day must, however, be reserved for separate chapters. The new Ordinance disappointed the popular parties everywhere, and when the first elections took place under it in Berlin in 1854 so indifferent were the electors that not one in five took the trouble to vote. In general principles the systems of municipal government at present in force in the western provinces of Prussia follow that applying to the eastern provinces, though most of them were modified in some respects by general laws of July 30 and August i, 1883. The towns of the province of Westphalia are governed under a constitution dating from March 19, 1856 ; those of the Rhine province under a constitution of May 15, 1856 ; those of the province (and former kingdom) of Hanover, annexed by Prussia in 1866, under its old consti- tution of June 24, 1858 ; and those of the province of Hesse- Nassau, formed out of territories similarly annexed in 1866, under a constitution dated August 4, 1897. Frankfort-on- Main, until 1866 a free city, is governed under a separate constitution of March 25, 1867 ; the province of Schleswig- Holstein, annexed in 1864, under a constitution of April 14, 1869 ; and the territory of Hohenzollern under one of July 7, 1900. 1 For an explanation of this system of voting, see pp. 64, 65. THE TRADITION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 27 MUNICIPAL CONSTITUTIONS OF THE OTHER STATES. In the rest of the Empire municipal government in general follows the Prussian system, the East Prussian organisa- tion of the executive being in force in some States and the West Prussian or French organisation in others. The towns and other communes of Bavaria are governed under laws of April 29, 1869 (the territories right of the Rhine), and July I, 1869 (the Palatinate) ; the towns of Saxony, except Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz, which have separate constitutions, under two laws (for large and for medium and small towns respectively) of April 24, 1873 ; the towns and other communes of Wiirtemberg under a law of July 28, 1906, since revised ; the towns and other communes of Baden under laws of November 19, 1906 (for towns with over 3000 inhabitants), and September 26, 1910 (for small towns and rural communes). In the Saxon duchies of Central Germany, urban government is not regulated by uniform ordinances, but by special local laws and decrees. Peculiarities presented by these various laws, where of sufficient importance, will be noted in the proper place. The entire subject of local self-government is regulated by each State for itself. The diversity of political and communal life is so great, particularist traditions are so strong and so characteristic, in the various States, that the idea of imperial municipal legislation on the lines, for example, of the English Municipal Corporations Acts of 1835 and 1882 or the Local Government Act of 1894 has never been seriously proposed. The premature imperial constitution which was drafted by the Frankfort Diet of 1849 did, indeed, include in its generous survey of German affairs the " fundamental rights of the com- munes," but with wiser restraint the authors of the constitu- tion of 1869-1871 left the federal States to manage their own internal affairs, even, in the case of Bavaria, to the extent of retaining a poor-relief administration at variance with the practice of the rest of the Empire. Altogether it is estimated that there are in operation in Germany at least thirty municipal ordinances, to which must be added a number of special ordinances regulating the government of the rural communes. All the main principles of local organisation and government 28 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY are laid down in these statutes, but the towns are left to decide many matters of detail by local by-laws, subject in some cases to approval by the State supervisory authority. In a country divided into so many independent political territories and jurisdictions, this separate legislation creates serious administrative difficulties, particularly in the border districts. The most confused systems of local administration are found in the duodecimo States of Thuringia, where State boundaries often meet in the middle of towns and villages. There are hi that part of Germany over forty communes, large and small, in which this division exists, the two portions of the commune being subject to different administrative laws, e.g., of Prussia and Weimar, of Weimar and Gotha, of Altenburg and Saxony, of Reuss and Bavaria, of Meiningen and Weimar, etc. In some places urban properties and even single dwelling-houses fall in two States, with the result that a higher rate of taxation is paid in one part of the town than in another. Or the anomaly may take the form of a double provision of churches or schools in small villages. 1 During recent years, however, an attempt has been made to remove anomalies of the kind by exchanges of territory where the areas of conflict were of small extent. 1 This conflict of administrative authority at times has a humorous side. In a small Thuringian village there was a few years ago (and may be to-day) a public-house situated in two States with different closing hours, so that when the earlier hour struck, the guests adjourned to a room in another part of the building and there continued their libations in due legal form. CHAPTER II ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS The status and connotation of Towns Principles of local administration Range of obligatory and permissive functions Powers reserved by the State : the Police authority State control over education General scope of State supervision. FOR the purpose of this book only such towns as come under the special laws on the subject of urban govern- ment (Stadteordnungen or Municipal Ordinances) enacted in the various States have been considered. Nevertheless, as the object throughout has been to offer points of contact and comparison with English municipal boroughs and urban districts, particular reference is made to the larger towns, a course attended by the great advantage that statistical and other data relating to the government of these towns exist in great abundance. THE STATUS AND CONNOTATION OF TOWNS. No very definite meaning is attached to the term " town " in Ger- many. For it must be remembered that Stein's Municipal Ordinance did not create towns or even prescribe the con- ditions upon which the status of town might be acquired ; it only laid down the manner in which towns then existing or to be created should be organised for the purpose of self- government. 1 There is plenty of documentary evidence of the granting of charters to new communities, emerging from a rural to an urban character, from the eleventh and twelfth centuries 1 Dr. O. Most writes (" Die deutsche Stadt und ihre Verwaltung," Vol I, p. 5) : "A civil parish (Ortsgemeinde) is a town in an administrative sense if its constitution and government is ' urban ' ; in other words, if it has possessed a municipal constitution always or has received it in the course of its history." 29 30 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY forward. But, says a studious writer, " of the origin of this particular municipal charter right (Stadtrecht), when, how, and where the actual conditions became crystallised in a special law and a special social structure, we know nothing at all." 1 The mediaeval town, however, stood for a definite social conception that of a more or less autonomous community possessed of certain charter rights, depending in the main upon trade and industry, and often surrounded by fortifi- cations. Some of the old characteristics of urban organisation no longer apply ; yet two, at least, are clearly marked. One is the greater independence of the towns for purposes of local government and the higher development of their civic life, and the other is the predominance in the towns of commerce and industry in various forms. As to the latter, however, just as there are in Germany towns with a population almost exclusively agricultural, so there are " rural " villages which are entirely dependent on industry. In the past, population had little significance in determining urban organisation, so that to-day German " towns " differ far more in number of inhabitants than do the boroughs of England or the burghs of Scotland. In one province of Prussia (Brandenburg) there is a town with a population below 500, while in another province (Rhineland) a commune with 101,700 inhabitants ranked until 1910 as a village. At the last census (December, 1910) Prussia had 1276 towns, of which only 282 had a population exceeding 10,000, while 229 had from 5000 to 10,000 inhabitants, 477 had from 2000 to 5000 inhabitants, and 288 had under 2000 inhabitants. On the other hand, 106 rural communes had a population in excess of 10,000, and five of them one of over 50,000. In Baden there is a town with less than 200 inhabitants. The International Statistical Congress regards as towns all places with a population in excess of 2000, and this definition, though arbitrary, is commonly accepted by German municipal statisticians. Above this limit of 2000, differentiation in nomenclature begins. Towns with less than 5000 inhabitants are regarded as " rural " towns, those with under 20,000 inhabitants as " small " towns, those with from 20,000 to 1 Preuss, " Die Entwickelung des deutschen Stadtewesens," Vol. I, p. 13. ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 31 100,000 as " medium " towns, and those with over 100,000 inhabitants as " large " towns ; while of late years a new class of " million " or " world " towns, to comprise those with a population exceeding a million, a class at present con- taining the imperial capital only, though Hamburg will soon join it, has been recognised. The status of a " town " is now usually acquired in virtue of population the number varying in different States by the grant of what would in this country be called a charter of incorporation hi the case of a borough. In Prussia and Bavaria towns are given this status in virtue of separate Royal Orders, in Saxony by resolution of the Minister of the Interior, followed by royal sanction. Nowadays the status of town is not given readily in Prussia. Of 119 Prussian towns with over 25,000 inhabitants in 1910 only thirteen were created during the past sixty years. One reason for the reluctance to create towns is the objection of the circle authorities to see their jurisdiction narrowed. PRINCIPLES OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATION. The government of a German town answering to the description given is com- posed of three co-ordinate factors: the town council, the executive (differently named), and the mayor. In explaining the position which each of these factors occupies in the ad- ministrative system, attention will be concentrated upon the practice of the four kingdoms, and particularly the various provinces of Prussia. Before that is done, however, it is necessary to make clear wherein German local government consists. The characteristics of German municipal govern- ment which must chiefly impress the outside observer are the wide power exercised by the local authorities and the facility with which these powers are from time to time extended and adjusted to changing conditions. Perhaps the first question that would most naturally occur to an English student wishful to know the range of these powers would be in what law or laws are they specified ? Our inquirer would ask for such laws in vain, however, for the administrative powers of German towns are not specifically laid down in statutes and therein formally delegated by the 32 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY State. Reading through what are known as the " constitu- tions" of the towns of Prussia the so-called Town or Municipal Ordinances one is struck by the fact that their authors were not concerned to define precisely the duties which the towns might discharge and the powers which they might exercise. All that these documents do is to charge the local authorities with the general administration of communal affairs, so that whatever became at any time a " communal affair " fell ipso facto within the sphere of the municipal government. As though they had foreseen a vast development of municipal life, they refrained from handicapping the future by undue limitations. Hence it was that when the great era of town extension opened in Germany, over forty years ago, the local governments were at once both ready and able to meet their new responsibilities without any such fundamental adminis- trative reforms as were called for in the case of the boroughs of this country twice within half a century. It will be necessary to recur repeatedly in the course of later chapters to this unique characteristic of German municipal government its flexibility and adaptability to new conditions. The local authorities have to govern their communes, but it is not said in what government consists, where power to govern begins and where it ends. They are authorised by general laws to raise revenue by taxation, yet these laws do not enumerate all the taxes at their command ; certain traditional taxes are named, and these may be levied or not at will in the future as in past, yet if they prove insufficient the right is given to introduce or invent others, for it is one of the funda- mental principles of German local government that the com- munes shall be able within limits to choose such taxes as they like. So, too, the authority has to administer the town's property, but no limit whatever is set to the kind or amount of property which it may acquire and hold. The law is similarly silent upon the important question of trading enterprise ; this wide realm of activity a town is left to enter and possess at will, with none to say it nay. The corporation of a great town like Manchester is compelled to defend in the highest courts in the land its claim to carry parcels by its tramways, and the power is denied it. German ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 33 municipal tramways carry parcels, coals, and even (at night) coffins anything which it is expedient to handle. 1 The corporation of Sheffield similarly goes to the High Court for decision of the question whether it can sell gas stoves, and it learns that it does not possess this dangerous power. German towns can traffic in any article by the sale of which they can promote the convenience of the community, without leave of Parliament, Ministry, or law court. In a word, where in this country the powers and duties of local authorities are set forth in statutes of the realm, and local Acts having the same force, which may be neither enlarged nor diminished, every German commune is its own law draughtsman and, within certain limits, its own legislature. Let the town clerk of an English municipal borough be asked what powers his council can exercise, and he will point to volumes of laws and heaps of textbooks and answer that he is trying to learn but does not yet know for certain. And the greater his experience the greater will be his incertitude. For not only are the warrants for these powers scattered about in countless statutes and orders and by-laws, but nothing can be done for which there is not express legal sanction ; the powers granted are often subject to a variety of interpretation, and no one can be sure what the plainest of laws means until it has been rewritten by the courts, while the bogey of ultra vires confronts the local authority at every turn. It is probable that almost every town clerk in the country sooner or later climbs the stairs that lead to the chambers of some noted parliamentary lawyer in London in order to ask if this thing may be done and if that must be left undone, and what is the inner meaning of terms and phrases apparently so simple, yet, in fact, beset with endless pitfalls for the unwary. On the other hand, let the mayor of a German town be similarly questioned and he will at once answer that there is practically no limit to the administrative powers which he and his colleagues may exercise ; they can do everything, in fact, that the good government of the town may seem to require. A German town, likewise, is governed by laws, by- 1 In 1911 the tramways of Germany carried over i j million tons of goods of all kinds. 34 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY laws, and orders of various kinds, but for the most part, they are of its own making, and together they form the " communal law " of the town. A form of government devised on these autonomous and elastic principles enables the German States to dispense with any Ministry corresponding to the Local Government Boards of the three British kingdoms. Control is, of course, exercised in various directions, in major questions by the Ministries to which the matters at issue naturally belong, and in minor by the State commissaries who have the oversight of local govern- ment ; but there is no room or necessity for State departments charged with the special function of keeping the local au- thorities in order, lest they should by a hair's breadth exceed the law in one direction or fall short of it in another, and incidentally of doing much of their work over again. The questions of competence and the disputes between communes and the supervisory authority which inevitably arise do not involve long protracted and expensive legal proceedings, but are determined by special Administrative Courts with juris- diction over all matters of local government. The difference between the German and English systems may be illustrated by the administration of the Poor Law. Remembering how in this country local administrative action upon this question is directed in every detail, from the building of a workhouse to the ingredients of the inmates' soup, by the central authority in London, let the reader contrast the position of an important English Board of Guardians with that of the poor relief board of a German municipality, which is simply a part of the general local administration, working autonomously, devising its own policy and executing it, without dictation or even advice from outside, and as free from State interference as the committee that manages the gas works or pays the salaries of the official staff. Or the difference may be illustrated in another way. Special laws have recently been passed in this country to enable local authorities to introduce the system of school doctors, to feed necessitous children, and to plan their towns rationally. All these things were done long before in Germany as a matter of course, in every case without special legislation, and ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 35 simply on the voluntary initiative of the communes them- selves. Again, there are scores of English towns which would like to make known their attractions as residential places or health resorts. They have medicinal baths and springs, for example, but cannot make them known as they would. The reason is that without special powers, obtainable only by costly Acts of Parliament, they cannot expend any money on advertising these advantages. One reason why English people crowd to German baths is that the municipal authorities in these places have so persistently advertised the special goods they have to offer as to create the idea that the same goods cannot be obtained elsewhere, which is not always the case. The medicinal virtues of these places may be all that is claimed for them, but without advertising they would not attract as they do. In thus advertising themselves, German towns need no special powers or permission. They can spend what they like on what they like, and they do it. There is the same facility of action in so important a matter as the incorporation of suburbs. Except in the rare case of two towns amalgamating legislative procedure is unnecessary, and there is not even an inquiry answering to the Local Government Board inquiries in this country. .All that is needful is that the communes which desire to come together shall embody the con- ditions of amalgamation in a formal agreement, and directly this has been sanctioned by the Government or its agents the transaction is complete. Incorporation is, in effect, marriage before the registrar, whose only function is to witness the contract and wish the new partners for life a happy and prosperous union. The necessary costs involved would be hardly more onerous on either side were it not that communes whose absorption is desired by their larger neighbours often stipulate for a substantial payment down by way of solatium, or for partial exemption from certain taxes during a prescribed period. So the principle runs throughout the entire administration of German towns ; except where the State has reserved special powers of intervention, the towns are as free from control from above as a German principality is free in its internal affairs from the control of the Imperial Legislature. To use a 36 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY homely simile : while the German town, grown to man's estate, exercises the freedom and independence of manhood, the English town is still protected and chaperoned by its ever present and often fussy nurse, the " Board above." Realising the incomparably greater elasticity of the German system and the almost unlimited scope which it offers for any exten- sion of functions or powers which changing circumstances may show to be needful or expedient, one is at times inclined to ask if in our own country, the vaunted home of free institu- tions, we really understand at all what self-government means. The far-reaching powers of German local authorities are so little recognised or understood in this country that it seems desirable to emphasise them, and the theory underlying them, at the outset. Repeated decisions of the Prussian Supreme Administrative Court on the subject hold good in principle for all the States. " No Prussian law," runs a decision of that Court of March 10, 1886, " sets definite limits to the activity of the communes as such. The communes have a general right to promote the moral and economic interests of their members in so far as special laws may not prescribe definite exceptions. In the absence of such laws the boundary between the province of the communes and that of the State, as the higher commonwealth, is determined solely by ' local ' considerations, i.e., by the consideration that communal duties shall be of a local character. Whatever communes may do within their own province and with their own resources for the advancement of those interests, unless it is on principle forbidden, may be regarded as a communal affair." A decision of the same court of September 21, 1886, bears out this view : " The urban commune, using its own resources, may claim as falling within its sphere everything that promotes the welfare of the whole community and the material interests and intellectual advancement of the individual members. It can of its own accord establish any institutions and arrange- ments for the public good which serve this end. It has a general right to promote the moral and economic interests of its members, and to use the resources available for the purpose, though always and herein is the limit the transgression of ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 37 which would constitute an infraction of the law subject to the condition that it and its organs restrict themselves to the care and representation of local interests." It is worth while to quote the comment upon these rulings of a careful German writer on municipal government. " It is the object of urban administration," says H. Kappelmann, " to maintain the local commonwealth in a vigorous con- dition, to strengthen and increase its vitality, and to equip it for the fulfilment of all the duties required by a progressive age and the demands of civilisation. It is not sufficient merely to meet the necessities of the moment, but the needs of the future must be anticipated. The administration must not be carried on too one-sidedly from the standpoint of finance, but must comprehend the entire being of the com- munal organisation, must develop its latent powers and use them for the common good." 1 One of the most practical advantages of the German system of local government is its unity. The whole work of adminis- tration (excepting certain functions reserved to the police) is concentrated in the hands of one authority, which, in spite of the devolution of powers to subordinate bodies, exerts complete control. For example, though the taxes levied in a German town are many, falling upon the citizens in varying number and with varying weight, there is only one taxing authority the local council and its executive ; and all taxes pass into a common fund from which the needs of the various spending departments are supplied. The same authority administers education and poor relief ; it is responsible for the planning of the town, for the roads, and for sanitary arrangements, and in addition to discharging all the other multifarious duties which the widest idea of local government would convey to the English mind, it directs the social welfare activities of the community, and promotes the interests of art and learning, music and the drama, not within the limits of a penny or any other rate, but exactly in the degree of its appreciation of the importance of culture, for in regard to none of the matters specified are its spending powers restricted. 1 " Verfassung und Verwaltungsorganisation der Stadte," ister Band (Prussia), p. 55 (Verein iiir Sozialpoiitik) . 38 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The effect of this unity of government and powers is that the citizen in all civic matters has to do with one authority only, and the arrangement makes as much for his convenience as for efficiency and economy in administration. 1 RANGE OF OBLIGATORY AND PERMISSIVE FUNCTIONS. In course of time a wide range of activities has become the common possession of all towns. Of these some are obligatory, others voluntary, and it rests with each local authority to narrow and widen its voluntary activities at will. To the obligatory functions of municipal government belong the general work of administration, including sanitation and other measures for protecting public health, the laying out of streets, the pro- vision of elementary schools, and the care of the necessitous poor. Further duties not immediately connected with self- government are assigned to the local authorities by special laws either of the Empire or the States, e.g., the establishment and conduct of industrial and commercial courts of arbitra- tion, the keeping of the civil registry, and certain duties in connection with the administration of the social insurance laws, the enrolment of recruits, the preparation of jury lists, the assessment and collection of certain State taxes, etc. The State also delegates to the mayors or executives a number of duties, generally of a minor order, with a view to lightening the work of the central authority in matters of local interest. Many powers exercised by the communes are permissive, and are acquired in virtue of local statutes or by-laws a clear survival of the larger autonomy of the distant past. For example, the Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces of Prussia provides for the adoption of by-laws (Ortsstatute) concerning " those affairs of the commune and the rights and duties of its members " in regard to which the Ordinance allows of diversity of practice or contains no special stipula- tions, also concerning special local conditions and institutions, 1 In contrast to this unity of administration the case of the Yorkshire township of Wilsden mentioned in the newspapers while this chapter is being written as " a curiosity in local government " may be cited : " Wilsden pays rates in one urban district, is in two other administrative districts for hospital and poor law purposes, buys its gas from one town and its water from another, and finally votes for parliamentary purposes in a different area altogether." ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 39 such as the introduction of new or the modification of existing local taxes. No definite limit is set to the directions in which this important right to acquire additional powers by by-laws may be exercised ; except that the by-laws may not contravene Imperial or State laws. Where the adoption of by-laws is proposed, the municipal executive first makes its recommendations to the town council, and before the latter comes to a decision upon them the matter is left open for the expression of public opinion. A town council may at times decide before the public has been con- sulted, but it does so in disregard of the strict letter of its obligation. The two branches of the local authority having assented, the sanction of the supervisory authority is necessary. Not only, therefore, can by-law powers be obtained expedi- tiously, but no expense is entailed. Upon this subject the deputy-mayor of one the largest towns in Prussia writes : " There are no costs incidental to the obtaining of local by- law powers. By-laws simply require the sanction of the District Committee in order to become at once operative. The time necessary to the granting of this sanction varies according to the simplicity or otherwise of the legal questions involved. Many local by-laws are sanctioned within a fortnight of their having been adopted by the town council." 1 Far more of the permissive powers now exercised by the communes in virtue of by-laws are authorised by imperial and State laws as passed from time to time, and naturally the number of these constantly increases. Thus in virtue of such by-laws towns may establish continuation schools where the law does not make this act obligatory ; they may assign 1 Compare with this statement the fact that during the seventeen years 1897 to 1913 the Corporation of Leeds was compelled to obtain nine special Acts of Parliament in order that it might administer its area efficiently, and that the cost incurred in so doing was 64, 795. Further, a House of Commons return of December 17, 1906, of the expenditure incurred by the twenty-eight metropolitan borough councils during the years 1901 to 1906 in promoting and opposing Bills in Parliament showed that the sum of 9844 was expended by twelve councils (more than one-half by a single council) in promoting Bills and the sum of 62,089 by all councils (26,954 by four councils only) in opposing Bills. The total expenditure incurred in both these ways was 7 J .933- A return of the same date relating to the London County Council shows that during the years 1903 to 1906 that council expended 67,967 in promoting and 33,066 in opposing Bills in Parliament, a total expenditure of 100,973. 40 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY dangerous and noxious trades to prescribed portions of the administrative district ; they may restrict the hours of labour of assistants, apprentices, and workpeople engaged in business undertakings on the church festivals and Sundays beyond the limits laid down by the Industrial Code ; they may fix the intervals at which wages must be paid to workpeople coming under that statute and may require employers to pay the wages of minors to their parents or guardians ; they may adopt measures to protect the public streets and squares from disfigurement ; they may introduce systems of house inspec- tion ; and towns with a population of 15,000 and upwards may adopt by-laws requiring that licences for pawnshops, inns, and restaurants shall be granted only on proof of public need. The issue of early closing regulations for shops rests with the higher administrative authorities, but the local authority must be consulted before they are enforced. Similarly, the communes must be heard before premises are licensed for the sale of alcoholic beverages where such licences are granted by a State authority. A very wide range of functions commonly discharged by the municipal authorities are quite voluntary in character. Such are the provision which they make for higher education, since this is regarded as primarily a State affair, the various measures known under the collective term " school hygiene," including the appointment of school doctors and dentists and the feeding of the children of the poor, measures for the advancement of science, art, and culture generally, such as the establishment or support of libraries, museums, art galleries, theatres, concerts, and the like, the provision of public baths, market halls, abattoirs, certain arrangements for disinfection, hospitals of certain kinds, institutions for advice to mothers and the care of infants, dispensaries for consumptives and dipsomaniacs, and a host of other institu- tions and agencies of the kind embraced in the term " social welfare." Most of the larger towns carry on savings banks and pawn- shops, finance building societies, and conduct mortgage banks for the purpose of advancing to landowners and builders money wherewith to develop their property in the commune ; ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 41 they act as legal guardians of Poor Law children and children of illegitimate birth ; while house registries, labour registries, legal advice and information agencies, house building, unem- ployment insurance schemes, fire insurance, and trading enterprise on a wide scale belong to the normal work of pro- gressive communes. Such a programme of duties and func- tions carries the conception of town government far beyond the narrow view still prevalent in our own country. " Old in history, yet young in their energetic advance," said a recent German writer with truth and pardonable pride, " the German towns are to-day the standard-bearers in intellectual, economic, and social progress." 1 In one direction the competence of the local authorities, in Prussia, at least, is specifically and effectively restricted ; they may not in their discussions stray from the domain of local affairs into other paths ; in other words, they may not mix in politics. For a vague and ambiguous prohibition of the Municipal Ordinances, capable of wide application, is in practice interpreted in this one sense, with the result that if ever a town council should be so daring as to make representa- tions to the Government on political questions they are flatly ignored. The prohibition, dating as it does from a remote and transitional period in Prussia's constitutional history, is felt to be an unnecessary restriction of the right of self- government. In the life of modern communities it is often impossible to draw a clear dividing line between political and economic or social questions, but the Government overcomes the difficulty by extending the ban to all matters of party controversy. For example, it is notorious that the large towns of Prussia suffer from a quite indefensible under- representation in the State Diet, though by far the greater part of the proceeds of the State income-tax is derived from the urban populations. Nevertheless, the Supreme Administra- tive Court has decided that a communal authority is not com- petent to petition Parliament for the reform of the franchise and an increase in the representation of the towns, and if petitions in this sense are sent, as they occasionally are, they are invariably rejected as unconstitutional. 1 Dr. Most, "Die deutsche Stadt und ihre Verwaltung," Vol. I, p. 51. 42 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY In the Southern States there is not this fear of political discussion. Thus in Bavaria party political matters may not properly be brought into the council-chamber, but far from objecting to the discussion of legislative questions, whether they border on politics or not, the Government encourages the local authorities to make their views thereupon known in this way. Not only are the latitude and power of initiative which German municipal governments exercise and exercise, as we have seen, by prescriptive right rather than by formal legal permission so extensive as to be without theoretical limits, but the urban communes are on the whole free from vexatious control and restriction at every turn by slow-moving and often captious Ministries of State. The " Board above " is not the terror which it is in some countries. It is possible for German communes to enlarge their spheres of activity and enterprise in entirely novel ways, and even to adopt and impose new taxes, without going to Parliament for special powers. Authority may, it is true, have been obtained in matters of this kind, but to obtain it is almost a formality ; and in no case does it involve elaborate and procrastinating procedure. Even in the case of a new local tax, all that is necessary is to convince the supervisory authority of its wisdom and urgency and then, without appeal to the Legisla- ture and costly struggles in parliamentary committee-rooms, sanction is obtained, and the tax becomes at once operative. A particular illustration will best serve to show the facility and expedition with which important reforms in local taxation can be introduced in Germany, and conversely the almost insuperable obstacles which stand in the way of similar reforms with us. Everybody knows the controversy which in this country has raged over the vexed proposal to tax urban land values for local purposes. Resolutions and Bills have been debated in the House of Commons, and to at least one Bill a second reading has been given ; the municipal authorities of the United Kingdom have held conferences on the subject ; and the London County Council tried to persuade Parliament to confer upon it particular powers for dealing with the question in connection with public improvement schemes by its " better- ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 43 ment " taxation proposal. In spite, however, of many years of persistent agitation it has proved impossible as yet to secure legislation to enable municipal bodies to raise revenue by special taxes upon the land within their administrative boundaries, and the taxation of " unearned increment " has only been introduced as a State measure. Germany is supposed to be a country peculiarly conserva- tive in traditions and habits of thought, and certainly the legitimate rights of property are not less carefully guarded there than here. Nevertheless, the very principles of real estate taxation which some prominent English statesmen have professed to regard as impossible and others as dishonest have for years been in actual operation in all the large German towns, having been adopted on the proposal of the local authorities, endorsed by the State supervisory officials. There are in Germany five municipal real estate taxes, work- ing smoothly and yielding large revenues, that are as yet unknown in this country (i) the land and (2) building taxes, which have from the first been one of the main founda- tions of local taxation, and which differ from our nearest approximation in that they fall not on the occupier but directly on the owner ; (3) a tax on all sales and exchanges of real estate ; (4) unearned increment taxation ; and (5) " better- ment" taxes on property the value of which is increased by public expenditure. The last three taxes have been intro- duced by a local option as complete and as easy to exercise as the option to acquire gas and water works or to build a swimming-bath. These with the other customary local taxes will be duly considered in later chapters. POWERS RESERVED BY THE STATE : THE POLICE AUTHORITY. Nevertheless, there are certain restrictions of the powers of self-government, more indeed in the nature of direction and supervision than of absolute curtailment ; and behind all State powers of control lies in reserve an ultima ratio more summary and powerful than the English mandamus. For in Prussia a town council may in extreme circumstances be dissolved by royal decree on the proposition of the Govern- ment, in which event a re-election must take place within 44 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY six months from the date of the decree, and in the meantime the business of the municipality be discharged by special authorities or officials. This drastic power is seldom used. The very wide powers of supervision and control exercised by the central executive over local authorities in England have their principal justification in the large grants made by the State towards the cost of certain branches of local govern- ment. In Germany such control is justified solely on the theory that all local government is a devolution of State function and authority. The State has renounced certain powers, but subject to the condition that it may still claim to satisfy itself that these powers are properly exercised by the authorities to which they have been transferred. The sphere in which this devolution or decentralisation of powers has been least complete is that of police functions. By the old common law of Prussia "it is the office of the police to provide the measures (Anstalten) necessary to main- tain public peace, security, and order, and to avert danger threatening the public or individuals." This definition of police function, of course, goes far beyond the conception held in this country. Under it, for example, the police authority in some States claims competence in such matters as the issue of building regulations and the control of building, the regulation of public traffic, the administration of the laws and regulations affecting the sale of food, the inspection of dwellings, and the regulation of lodging-houses. In early times the towns exercised both independent police and judicial functions. This right they lost in course of time, and Stein's municipal reform of 1808 simply set its seal upon the arrangement then existing in Prussia. " The State reserves the power to establish its own police directions in the towns, or to transfer the exercise of police functions to the magistracy, which will then exercise the same in commission. In this capacity the magistracies shall be regarded as State authorities." So ran Section 166 of the first Municipal Ordin- ance, and in Prussia this provision remains still in force. Under the influence of the Liberal ideas which flowered pre- maturely in 1848, only to be nipped by the cold winds of reac- tion, the first draft constitution for Prussia (Decembers, 1848), ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 45 as drawn up by the National Assembly, included " local police functions" amongst the larger powers to be granted to the communal authorities, but the constitution as promulgated a year later (January I, 1850) was without this provision, and instead it asserted the unconditional right of the Crown to control the police in every department and to depute its administration to communal officers at will, always " in the name of the King." The powers reserved to the State police authority inevitably lead to certain anomalies and to a conflict of authority which, though it may not be attended by serious practical disad- vantages, is deplored by municipal reformers. 1 Thus it may happen that a local authority may build a street, yet be unable to open the street to traffic or to close it when once opened ; it may build a dock or a canal, but be unable to say how they shall be used ; it may build a market hall, but the regulation of business therein may be determined by another body altogether. In some of the large towns the fire brigade arrange- ments are in the hands of the police, though the towns bear the whole expense. The case of Berlin and the adjacent royal residence towns of Charlottenburg and Potsdam is perhaps abnormal, but it well illustrates the practical effects of this division of authority. The Prussian Alignment Law of July 2, 1875, makes the laying down of all street building-lines in these places " and their immediate surroundings " dependent upon royal sanction, which in most cases (though by no means universally) is given or withheld by the Government and not by the Crown. On the strength of this provision, the Govern- ment claims on behalf of its royal master the right to say whether and where public monuments of all kinds shall be erected in the streets of Greater Berlin a claim which the 1 I have thought it right to represent the anomaly of the police system as it appears to German municipal authorities themselves. To an outsider it might appear that the grievance is more theoretical than practical. For in a majority of towns the mayor is the State commissary for police purposes, so that the functions of police administration, though reserved by the State, may be said in a sense to come back to the town through its chief citizen. Nevertheless, this view of the question does not take account of the strong sentimental objection to the existing arrangement, and of the value and importance of sentiment in such a matter a foreigner is not in a position to judge fairly. 46 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY municipality of Berlin resists, yet without power to make its resistance effective. The Government has also the power and has on several occasions exercised it to grant or prolong the concessions of tramway companies, or otherwise to sanction large street works, without consulting the local authority ; not long ago a tramway concession was thus prolonged in spite of the fact that the undertaking was about to fall to the town in virtue of a legal contract. In asserting the theory of State responsibility for police action on this wide basis, a Government may adopt one of three courses : it may either place the entire police arrange- ments of a town in the hands of its own independent staff of officers, who are in Prussia known as the royal police ; or it may transfer the police authority to the municipal govern- ment, while placing at the head a Crown official ; or, finally, it may confer this authority personally upon the mayor or another member of the municipal executive, who is for police purposes regarded as a State commissary. If a member of the executive other than the mayor is entrusted with the super- intendence of the police, he is in that capacity quite inde- pendent of the mayor, and is answerable for his acts only to the Government. In towns which form part of rural circles the supervision of the police administration is exercised by the Landrat. At the same time all regulations issued in towns by the local police authority need the assent of the municipal executive unless they refer to measures of public security, but if this assent is refused appeal may be made to the District Committee, which has power to quash such refusal. With the assent of this Committee a District President may also annul police regulations so issued. The theory of police control of public health and sanitation is a mechanical deduction from the fact that the efficacy of such control rests ultimately on prohibition and if necessary on compulsion, the exercise of which depends in the last resort upon appeal to force majeure. It is, however, contended that it is irrational to entrust to the police the purely negative function of forbidding and punishing acts prejudicial to the common welfare without at the same time arming it with power to promote public health by positive and preventive ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 47 measures. The advocates of municipal unity concede that positive and preventive measures are the corollary of penalties and prohibitions, yet they maintain that such measures belong in a special manner to the province of local government and not to that of the police. The anomaly of the existing dualism is increased rather than diminished by the fact that, while the State persists in retaining so many of the old police functions, it usually exercises them vicariously through the mayor of the commune, who must act as the State's deputy if required. The mayor in consequence occupies an invidious position ; on the one hand he is the official head of the town, chosen by and re- sponsible to the representative assembly ; on the other hand he is the State's agent, so embodying in his person and dis- charging democratic and autocratic functions simultaneously. Nearly all German towns with over 200,000 inhabitants have a State police organisation, and it is significant that of the seven exceptions only three are in Prussia. In the towns with from 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants the organisation is about equally State and municipal, while in towns with a smaller population the police authority is almost invariably municipal; but the term "municipal" implies in Prussia that the local mayor acts as the State's deputy. In those Prussian communes in which the police administra- tion is wholly or in part in the hands of Crown officers the State is liable for two-thirds of the cost, while the communes pay the remaining third and also about one-sixth of the cost of pensions. Where the police administration is in local hands the communes bear the whole costs. In the other important States the costs of police administration where exercised by the State as it is in the large towns fall primarily upon the towns concerned, and the State either bears a fixed percentage of the total sum or makes a capitation grant on population. The police question is one of the few outstanding causes of discord between large municipalities and the Government in Prussia. Try as they will to enlarge their jurisdiction in this direction the local authorities have so far failed com- pletely. When several years ago a bill came before the Prus- sian Diet imposing additional police charges to the aggregate 48 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY amount of a quarter of a million pounds upon the twenty-five " large towns " of the kingdom, the representatives of Berlin, Breslau, Danzig, and Posen vigorously protested and demanded that the entire police administration should be transferred to the municipalities, which would then, they said, " be glad to bear all the necessary expense." The Minister of Finance brusquely replied that they " had to bear all the necessary expense already, on which account the Government was under no obligation to bargain with them." In South Germany the police system is, as a rule, a recog- nised part of local government, and is administered, like any other branch of local government, by the mayors and executives in their capacity as municipal officers, though subject to the usual oversight. In Bavarian towns police matters are referred to a special police senate of the executive, charged with independent powers. Only in the larger towns does the State exercise police functions direct. In Saxony the Prussian system prevails. STATE CONTROL OVER EDUCATION. Another sphere in which the local authorities are subject to unlimited financial liabilities without possessing complete administrative powers is that of elementary education. Here Government inter- ference is at least as far-going as in this country, yet with the less justification, according to English ideas, since the greater part of the cost of primary education falls upon the local authorities. The Prussian Supreme Administrative Court in 1914 gave a decision which was intended to make clear the position of the State and the local authority in relation to education. " In determining the question whether the Government was justified in intervening in a school question it is necessary to distinguish between questions of internal and those of external school administration. The administra- tion of internal school affairs is the business of the State. Within that province the State does not simply exercise supervision over an outside administration ; the State itself manages all internal school matters. It may naturally delegate its powers to others, as to school deputations, but when the State itself acts it alone exercises authority." ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 49 To say that the State jealously guards its powers is to put the matter mildly. As the use of school buildings is regarded as an internal matter, the Government claims to decide both how these shall be used and how not be used, although it may have made no contribution whatever to the cost of providing them. The commonest conflict between the Govern- ment and the local authorities on the subject arises out of the desire of the latter in many towns to treat the Socialists as citizens rather than outlaws. The Municipal Ordinance of 1853, still in force, states that " institutions belonging to the town shall be accessible to all citizens without distinction." The intention of the statute is plain enough, but there are ways of evading it, for before parliamentary legislation came absolutism ruled and its prerogatives, though restricted in 1850, were not abolished. The following is a common illustration of how both the letter and spirit of the local constitution are overridden. A town council offers schoolrooms to a Socialist organisation for gymnastic exercises. The supervisory authority advances the plea that gymnastic exercises are part of education and to this plea it attaches the reminder that in virtue of a Ministerial decree of 1839 no one can teach without a certificate duly issued with State sanction ; such a certificate cannot be given to a Socialist body : hence the permission to use the schoolrooms must be revoked, and revoked it is. The logic of this reasoning may be admirable, but its ingenious authors forget that in the government of men and women too much logic can be a dangerous thing. Here, again, it is in Prussia only that the State bureaucracy shows this unyielding distrust of popular movements. As in every department of government, national as well as local, a more accommodating spirit prevails in the South. Because of the firm hand which the Government still maintains upon the schools, the two officially recognised churches, the State Protestant and the Roman Catholic, are allowed in some States far more direct influence in the form of inspection than the laity in general would be disposed to concede. GENERAL SCOPE OF STATE SUPERVISION. In addition to the influence which it exerts upon local administration owing to the reservation of powers, as already explained, the State exercises a general control over certain acts and proceedings of local authorities by requiring these to be submitted to its agents for sanction. In Prussia the primary responsibility for this control rests with the Ministry for the Interior, cor- responding to our Home Office, but in special matters over- sight is exercised by, and sanction must (where necessary) be obtained from, the Ministry of Finance (taxation, loans, etc.), the Ministry of Ecclesiastical, Educational, and Medicinal Affairs (education and also, with exceptions, public health), the Ministry of Public Works (railways and tramways), the Ministry of Commerce (docks, harbours, and navigation), and the Ministry of Agriculture (forestry, fishery, veterinary police, etc.). These Ministries do not as a rule communicate directly with the local administrations, as do the Local Government Board, the Board of Trade, the Board of Edu- cation, and the Home Office in this country, but through provincial officials and authorities, to whom their supervisory powers in most matters are for this purpose delegated. The sanction of the supervisory authority is usually needed alike in Prussia and the other States in the case of alterations of the communal area (including the incorporation of suburbs) , the appointment of mayors and other members of the execu- tive, the making, alteration, and repeal of local by-laws, the sale of communal estate, the issue of loans, the imposition of fees and dues of certain kinds, to the special assessment of property to " betterment contributions," the introduction of new taxes, the alteration of existing ones, and to the increase of certain taxes beyond the rates specified in the law sanction- ing them. The Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces of Prussia also specifies the sale or material alteration of objects of special scientific, historical, or artistic value, and particularly of archives, and changes in the common use of town properties, e.g., forest, meadow, pasture, turbary, etc. The State is able to make its oversight in these matters effectual in virtue of its right to require reports, to inspect documents, and to call for oral information. ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 51 It will be seen that nearly all the matters in regard to which the State asserts a right of veto which in effect generally means no more than a right to be consulted are either (a) matters in regard to which the State and the local authority are equally concerned (e.g., the appointment of members of the executive, in view of the State functions which they may have to exercise, and finance and taxation, in view of the inter- relation of national and local taxation, as will be explained later) ; (6) matters in which two or more local government bodies are concerned (e.g., incorporation proposals), or (c) they involve interests extending beyond the present, and in regard to which an outside and impartial judgment may be advantageous (e.g., the alienation of public property). The right of the State to supervise the action of local au- thorities is exercised through officials and bodies differing alike according to the State, the special local authority concerned, and the importance of the measure requiring State approval. To enumerate the various " instances " through which the State acts, even in the case of the four kingdoms, would confuse rather than assist the reader without a detailed explanation of the organisation of local government in each of these States. It will be sufficient to say that supervision is exercised in the case of Prussian towns through the Chief Presidents of Provinces, the Government or District Presidents, and the District Committees, except in the case of Berlin, where sanction is given by the Chief President of the Province or the Government. In most cases appeal is allowed to the State official or authority next in administrative rank, and the special Minister of State to whose department the matter in dispute belongs is the final instance. There are several ways of enforcing decisions. In the event of a mayor and executive refusing to obey an order of the supervisory authority to discharge duties incumbent on them, the authority may impose a fine not exceeding 15, with imprisonment not exceeding four weeks in default of payment, or may institute disciplinary proceedings. A fine can be repeated until the order of the supervisory authority has been obeyed. Under certain circumstances works can be executed by the supervisory authority at the cost of a com- 52 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY mune. Finally, as we have seen, if a town council prove refractory, it may be dissolved and the election of a new council may be ordered, the Government, meantime, carrying on the administration by commission. The extent of this delegated State interference depends largely on the degree of sympathy and the spirit of accom- modation shown by the supervisory authorities and the communes in their relationships one with the other. When the State commissary and the head of the commune are on good working terms everything goes smoothly ; there is a minimum of obstruction, and irksome vetoes are rare. Often, however, the attitude of a Government or its agents is ob- viously dictated by political considerations. Thus police powers are delegated to the authorities of some towns which are refused to Berlin, since Berlin stubbornly persists in being governed by a council which is not merely under Liberal influence, but contains a strong and an increasing representa- tion of Social Democracy. Where Socialism in any way enters into a case of reference, the local authority may con- fidently count in advance on the exercise of the official veto. Hence, in Prussia appointments of Socialist town councillors to education committees are invariably vetoed, however suitable these men may be owing to education and experience, and though eligible to sit on any other municipal committees. In some cases the town councils enter silent protest against this form of interference by leaving vacant the positions which cannot be filled according to their judgment. In some parts of Germany it might seem that the necessity for State interference in local government would cease altogether but for this perpetual fear of Socialism. The town council of Gera, two-thirds of whose members are Socialists, decided in 1911 to publish public advertisements in the widely circulated local Socialist newspaper as well as in the burgher Press. The Government stepped in and prohibited the proceeding on the ground that " the communes are part of the body politic, and for that reason must scrupulously avoid any business connection with a party which seeks the subversion of the existing social order." The curious thing is that it never occurs to the most timorous of Governments ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 53 or State commissaries to refuse to allow the local authorities to collect the tainted money of the Socialist citizen in the form of taxes. Occasionally a town resists Government attempts to thwart its will, and wins. Not long ago an interesting dispute between the municipality of Nuremberg and the Bavarian Government had this result. An extension of cemetery accommodation being necessary, the town council proposed to make provision in the new burial ground for a crematorium. Prejudice against cremation at that time was nowhere so violent as in Bavaria, and the Government on hearing of the proposal warned the executive beforehand that the expenditure of public money on such an object would not be allowed. The project seemed doomed, until it occurred to the municipal executive to ask the Government to produce any law forbidding a project of the kind or expenditure upon it in the next budget, or, con- versely, requiring the Government's consent in the matter. The Government was unable, and the town set aside the necessary sum for building. This item the District Committee, in the exercise of its supervisory functions, disallowed, where- upon the executive appealed to the Courts against its action as an infraction of the right of self-government and won its case. The same disallowance by the District Committee was repeated when the town council in its budget provided the sum needed for working the crematorium. Appeal again followed with the same success. The Government thereupon acknowledged itself beaten, and when the crematorium was completed issued regulations for its use. Perhaps the most irritating feature of this species of inter- ference, however, is that it is exercised for the most part in relation to petty matters ; and often the only apparent pur- pose is to remind the local authority that the power to amend and reject certain measures remains intact. At a recent municipal congress a speaker of high authority in municipal politics, alluding to the interferences of many supervisory officials, said that were they to cease, German towns " would have more self-government than England, which would have reason to envy us." Yet when the worst has been said the fact remains that irksome State control is not inherent in the 54 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY law. There is no necessity for it ; it is simply exercised in virtue of an abstract right, and is due to a wrong-headed belief that because rights exist it is essential that they should be used. The remedy, therefore, requires no amendment of the law, but simply the cultivation by the supervisory authorities of broader and suaver views, and above all of a greater faith in the desire of the local authorities to do well than in their proneness to make mistakes. At the same time there are certain departments of local administration in which the warmest friends of self-government would not desire that every town should enjoy complete autonomy. So long as the preponderant representation on the councils of property owners continues 1 it is perhaps safer that buildings regulations, for example, should be issued from above, and that local taxing powers should to some extent be subject to the sanction of an independent outside authority. Writing in a German Socialist review, a well-known authority on municipal government contended that the fact that building regulations were issued by the State police authorities had " preserved the population from unrestricted exploitation by the ' house agrarians,' and that the State bureaucracy was far more free from the direct influence of the Urban landed interest than were the communal authorities/' 2 He applied the same principle to local taxation (as to which the Govern- ments of most German States give a prominent place to taxes on real estate), and came to the conclusion that " unlimited local self-government would mean the abrogation of a large part of the State control and supervision that is necessary under existing social and economic conditions, to the special injury of the working classes." While, therefore, some measure of State oversight is uni- versally regarded as necessary and useful, it is complained that the supervision shown is often far too inelastic, mechanical and formal, and has the effect of obstructing free movement and of delaying necessary decisions. The towns can and do exercise wide powers powers wider, perhaps, than belong to local authorities anywhere else but they wish to exercise 1 See Chapter III, pp. 71-73. * Dr. Hugo Lindemann, in " Sozialistische Monatshefte," No. 21, 1910. ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 55 these powers with more facility and expedition, and, above all, to be freer from purposeless restraint in small, unimportant matters. It must be confessed that there seems little prospect of any immediate change in this direction. The Governments speak continually of the " need for greater decentralisation," but to them and the local authorities these words mean different things ; the Governments understand by decentralisa- tion merely the delegation of duties from a higher to a lower State authority, the Government having still the last word, and reform on those lines can bring little relief to the town councils and their executives. When the worst has been said on the subject of State super- vision, however, it is necessary to warn the reader against rash conclusions and unwarranted prejudices. It may be granted that, according to all the laws of probability, municipal governments so formed and so hemmed around by possi- bilities of obstruction should be futile and inefficient, doomed by their very constitution to a mechanical and unfruitful existence. The fact that the contrary is the case shows how unsafe it is to judge social institutions, whose vitality and vigour depend less upon formal legal sanctions than upon the force of human personality within and behind them, by the mere letter of the statutes by which they are created and regulated. Anyone who makes a careful study of German systems of municipal government will sooner or later arrive at a point at which two sets of impressions confront him, and seem to contend for direction upon his judgment. Rising from the study of laws and commentaries he finds, perhaps, that the picture left in his mind is that of local authorities sub- ordinated to a rigid bureaucratic system. He is impressed by the devices which seem to have been specially created for the purpose of subordinating these authorities to the central executive, of ensuring that their activities shall in no respect conflict with the general policy of the Government, and that the old idea of the town as a sort of local republic shall not again assert itself. If his inquiries went no further he might be inclined to conclude that whatever else such authorities might be and do, they had little relationship with genuine self-government. 56 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Turning, however, from the study of the theory of his subject to administration in practice, he sees the town governments pulsing with life and energy, bold in enterprise, executing on their own initiative policies of far-going public importance, and claiming as a right wide spheres of administrative activity which are entered either little or not at all by the corre- sponding bodies in this country. He sees powers being exercised from day to day and from hour to hour for which there is no specific legal sanction. He knows that the State's rights of control of which he is aware might, if applied arbitrarily, make self-government in any true sense of the words im- possible, yet that wide self-government is the secret of the splendid administration of these towns. The antinomy created by the apparent conflict of theory and practice will hardly perplex the student who has followed the evolution of German communal government sufficiently far into the past, for such a search will show that, except during the period of absolutism, when the State claimed to direct every department of the national life, the powers exercised by the towns have never been subject to hard and fast limitations, that the local government laws do not, indeed, recognise any such limitations, and that at all times the local administrations have resolutely striven to enlarge their independence, and as far as possible to take the place of the central executive in the corporate life of their com- munities. "It is the object of every German town," says a recent German writer, " to become a State." This ambition, as we have seen, was often realised in the middle ages ; it was rudely dispelled during the period of absolutism ; yet though Stein, when he gave to the Prussian towns a new constitution and a new life at the beginning of the nineteenth century, sought to guard against a revival of the old local sovereignties, the ancient spirit and aspiration still persist under modern con- ditions. Unquestionably the law offers scope for unnecessary and even vexatious interference by the State and its authorities, but defects of this kind must not be allowed to conceal or minimise the essential fact that self-government in practice ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 57 is broad and generous, because the principles upon which it is based permit of indefinite development and expansion. " Like the absolute State of old," says a recent German writer, " the modern towns are conscious of the will and the power to advance and to direct the entire social life of their citizens. Once again they are endeavouring as in the golden age of municipal life to associate economic power with the promotion of social activities, to become nursery grounds for the sciences and the arts, and centres of culture. It is in the nature of every vigorous community that it should desire to become a ' State ' and to be everything to its members." 1 1 Dr. Phillipp Stein, " Das Verhaltniss der freiwilligen und zwangsgemein- schaftlichen Korperschaften in der Wohlfahrtspflege," in " Gemeinde- Betriebe," p. 432 (vol. of " Verein fur Sozialpolitik," ister Band). CHAPTER III CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS The franchise and mode of election The " Three-class " system of election and plural voting Elegibility of electors and the privilege of house- owners Procedure at elections Working-men on municipal authorities. THE representative assembly is differently named in different States, e.g., communal council, town deputies' assembly, citizens' committee, college of representatives, etc. It will be convenient to adhere to the term adopted in incor- porated towns in this country, and speak of town councils. In most States the number of members of a town council is proportionate to the population of the commune. In Prussia it varies from four to 144 ; in Bavaria, 1 8 to 60 ; in Saxony, three to 84 ; in Wiirtemberg, five to 43 ; in Baden, 40 to 115 ; in Hesse, 12 to 42 ; and in Alsace-Lorraine, ten to 36. The Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces of Prussia fixed the number of councillors at 18 in communes with from 2500 to 5000 inhabitants, at 24 in those with from 5001 to 10,000 inhabitants, 30 for 10,001 to 20,000 inhabitants, 36 for 20,001 to 30,000 inhabitants, 42 for 30,001 to 50,000 inhabitants, 48 for 50,001 to 70,000 inhabitants, 54 for 70,001 to 90,000 inhabitants, and 60 for 90,001 to 120,000, with 6 more for every 50,000 additional inhabitants. This ratio was fixed at a time when large towns were few, and if applied to many of the populous centres to-day councils of unmanageable size would sometimes be the result. Thus Berlin might have a council of 300 members instead of 144, and Charlottenburg one of 120 instead of 72. Hence it is seldom that large towns elect to have councils of the full number allowed by law. The Municipal Ordinance for the Rhine Province fixes a lower ratio ; the number of councillors is 12 in communes 58 CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 59 with not more than 2500 inhabitants, 18 in those with from 2501 to 10,000 inhabitants, 24 in those with from 10,001 to 30,000, and 30 in those with over 30,000 inhabitants ; but the statutory maximum may be increased by local by-law. In the province of Hanover the number may not be less than four nor more than 24; in the province of Schleswig-Holstein not less than six nor more than 30. The councils of some of the larger towns of Prussia are composed as follows (the populations in 1910 are given in parenthesis) : Berlin (2,071,200), 144 ; Konigsberg (246,000), 117 ; Breslau (512,100), 102 ; Charlottenburg (306,000), 72 ; Magdeburg (279,700), 72 ; Neukolln (237,300), 72 ; Stettin (236,100), 72 ; Frankfort-on-Main (414,600), 71 ; Halle (180,800), 66 ; Essen (294,700), 62 ; Cassel (153,200), 54 ; Danzig (170,300), 63 ; Cologne (516,500), 45 ; Diisseldorf (358*700) 58 ; Aix-la-Chapelle (156,100), 39 ; and Hanover (302,400), 36. Most of these councils are below the full permissible size. In some of the other States a rather lower ratio of repre- sentation is adopted, though in them likewise the communes are grouped according to population, and the number of councillors is uniform for each group, subject in some States to the right of the communes to modify the normal ratio by by-laws. The town councils of important towns in the minor States contain members as follows : Leipzig (589,900), 72 ; Chemnitz (287,800), 57 ; Munich (596,500), 60 ; Nuremberg (333,ioo), 60 ; Stuttgart (286,200), 32 ; Mannheim (193,900), 96; Karlsruhe (134,300), 98; Strassburg (178,900), 3&. 1 THE FRANCHISE AND MODE OF ELECTION. The modern municipal constitution marks, hi most States, a complete departure from the time-honoured tradition of the " burgher " or freeman, who alone was admitted to civil rights and privileges in the old German towns. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, indeed, the unit of urban self-govern- 1 The membership of town councils in towns of the same size in Great Britain may be illustrated by the following figures, which in every case include the mayor and aldermen : Birmingham, 120 ; Bolton, 96 ; Bradford, 84; Bristol, 92 ; Cardiff, 40; Dundee, 28; Glasgow, 113; Huddersfield, 60 ; Leeds, 68 ; Leicester, 64 : Manchester, 140 ; Newcas tie-on- Tyne, 76 ; Salford, 64 ; Sheffield, 64. 60 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY ment, where it existed in an effective form, was the Biirger- gemeinde, or community of such fully enfranchised inhabi- tants. They alone possessed the right to take part in the town's government, the right to use the common lands, the right to share in the benefits of the town's charities, founda- tions, and other institutions, and the right to maintenance at the common charge in the event of poverty. The rest of the inhabitants were outside the pale of this complete citizenship and were simply denizens ; they were known as Beisitzer or Schutzverwandte, that is, they had a claim to shelter and protection, but not to the privileges enjoyed by the freemen. The same distinction between freeman and denizen is still drawn in some parts of Germany, where the enjoyment of certain civic privileges is reserved to the " burghers " who there form an oligarchy within the local republic and is not extended to the residents generally, even though in possession of legal settlement. Often the freemen in this restricted sense formed of old a very small section of the inhabitants. Thus in 1805, before the first Municipal Ordinance was introduced in Prussia, Berlin had only 12,860 freemen in a population of 155,700. The status, and with it the rights, of full citizenship were generally acquired by descent, and only in rare cases by gift or purchase ; but with the growth of the towns the existence of the two orders of citizens, living side by side, became increasingly anomalous. Often it happened that the pros- perity of a town was entirely due to an influx of enterprising men, who brought with them capital, industry, and intelligence, and bore most of the taxation ; yet all the rights and privileges of citizenship were monopolised by an insignificant minority of men, for the most part without education, substance, or public spirit, while the only privilege granted to the new- comers was that of paying taxes. The reform of local government introduced by Stein in Prussia placed citizenship upon a broader basis. The status of the freeman, carrying the right to take part in local elections and to undertake office in the communal government, con- tinued in virtue of certain prescribed conditions, but it was not acquired exclusively by birth, gift, or purchase. CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 61 The Municipal Ordinance in operation in the eastern provinces to-day states that the franchise may be exercised by " independent " persons, subject to certain qualifications, and it defines as " independent " all males who are twenty-four years of age, have households, and have the free disposition of their goods. The occupation condition of the franchise has in general been abandoned, however, and with greater reason, inasmuch as all persons in receipt of a fixed minimum income are liable to local taxation. Thus lodgers so liable and other- wise qualified are held to be eligible to vote, even though they are the sons of the occupier or share rooms with others. The right to vote is restricted to males and, as a rule, to residents, and the usual qualification in Prussia is the owner- ship of a dwelling-house in the commune, assessment to State income-tax, or the carrying on of an independent business or of a regular occupation for gain, all these conditions implying liability to pay local taxation. In most of the provinces of Prussia absentee owners of property taxed in the higher classes can also vote in local elections. A taxation qualifica- tion of some kind applies in all the other States. A term of residence is also prescribed, and this is usually one year, as in Prussia, though it is sometimes two years, as in Bavaria and Baden, or three years, as in Wiirtemberg, and the usual age qualification is twenty-four years, but in Bavaria twenty-five years, and in Baden twenty-six years. In most Prussian provinces the franchise is given only to persons of Prussian nationality, but in the provinces of Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse- Nassau, and Hohenzollern, and in some of the other States, it may be exercised by all Germans duly qualified. In some States women owning property may vote by proxy. There are certain disqualifications, either permanent or temporary ; the former include chiefly judicial conviction of certain offences, and the latter bankruptcy, refusal to under- take honorary civil office when required, non-payment of taxes due in respect of the preceding year, and the receipt during the twelve months preceding an election of poor relief in money, but such relief must be continuous or periodical in order to disqualify ; relief on a single occasion, or even casually to meet passing need, does not count. Assistance given out of public funds other than those expressly assigned for the relief of the poor does not create a civil disqualification. Towns have often charitable funds at disposal, and help from these does not rank as poor relief. As a rule the details of the franchise qualifications and dis- qualifications are determined by every town for itself, and are embodied in its electoral by-laws. Thus the qualifications of an elector in Berlin are that he shall be twenty-four years of age, be a Prussian subject, shall have lived in the commune for twelve months, be a householder or a lodger, have paid his current local taxes, and shall not have been in receipt of poor relief for twelve months. Sometimes a very lenient view is held on the subject of poor relief. The Schoneberg and Charlottenburg town councils have decided that the receipt of poor relief shall only disqualify for the exercise of the local franchise (a) when relief is continuous and in money, relief on account of children being here included ; (b) in the case of prolonged maintenance in an infirmary or similar institution ; and (c) in the case of temporary maintenance in hospital in place of relief of the first two kinds. Single doles of money, school materials for children, and casual assistance to meet pressing distress do not disfranchise. The franchise provisions of the Prussian municipal constitu- tions have in the main been adopted in Baden, Oldenburg, Hesse, and the Bavarian Palatinate, but Bavaria right of the Rhine, Wiirtemberg, and several smaller States retain a restricted definition of citizenship, while Saxony and the province of Hanover combine the Prussian and South German principles, and Alsace-Lorraine still adheres to the general principles of the French communal system. Burgess fees are still collected in many parts of the country. In Prussia they are common in the eastern provinces, where the fee varies from a few shillings to 2 or more. In some cases the fee is graduated according to income, and where the amount is high the burgess may be allowed to purchase his citizenship on the instalment principle. In the province of Hanover fees are almost general, and range from 3 to g. In Bavaria the freemanship fee varies with the size of the commune. In towns with over 20,000 inhabi- CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 63 tants it may be as high as 8 ios., in towns with from 5000 to 20,000 inhabitants, 6 8s. ; in towns with from 1500 to 5000 inhabitants, 4 55. ; and in smaller communes, 2 2s. The communes are not compelled to levy fees, but nearly all do, as much for the sake of revenue as from jealousy of the stranger. Thus Nuremberg receives more than 6000 a year from this source. There the fees charged are from 2 ios. to 8 ios. for persons with a settlement in the town, from 5 to 8 ios. for German subjects without a settlement, and from 10 to 17 for foreigners. There are, however, certain exemptions, as, for example, domestic servants, shop assistants, factory operatives, and other wage-earners who have a settlement and have followed an occupation for fifteen years since coming of age with the same employer. In Wiirtemberg communes may charge new residents admitted to the franchise from 55. to ios., but this does not supersede the condition of three years' residence. In Baden persons who acquire freedom by birth may be required to pay from 6s. to i6s. according to local circumstances, and in the case of others the fee is from 5 to 10 per cent, of the sum of taxed capital of the commune divided by the number of its inhabitants, all freemen excluded. Where the vote is restricted to freemen it often happens that the majority of the adult inhabitants are disfranchised. While in nearly all the provinces of Prussia, with their wider local franchises, from 15 to 18 per cent, of the inhabitants are qualified to vote, in Bavaria the proportion ranges from three to six per cent. The proportion in Berlin is about 19 per cent., but in the town of Hanover it is less than four per cent. The latter town had in 1911 a population of 360,000, and 60,000 of its inhabitants paid local taxes, but only 12,000 persons, mostly house-owners, were enfranchised citizens. This small body elects the town council, and the town council in turn elects the aldermen. In all the towns of the province of Hanover there were only 23,000 voters out of a total of 263,000 taxpayers a ratio of one in eleven as against one in five in the town of Hanover and in many of these towns local government is entirely in the hands of the house-owners and the officials, the latter possessing the franchise in virtue of their position. 64 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY^ Occasionally the freemanship of a town is conferred on residents and others who have distinguished themselves by local enterprise or public work, but the honour does not appear to carry the weight attached to it in this country. The same compliment is still more rarely paid to noted women, yet with less grace, since, owing to the sex disabilities suffered by women in civic affairs, they cannot exercise the rights which citizenship carries with it. There is wide diversity in the method of electing the town councils. Most State laws simply prescribe the general principles of election and leave the towns to adopt by-laws determining not only the qualification for the franchise but the manner of its exercise. Almost the only point of agreement is the disqualification of women both for election and for the vote. Two principal methods of voting are practised, an equal franchise for all persons entitled to elect, as in Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Alsace-Lorraine, and the " three-class " system of voting, or a modification of it, as adopted in most of the Prussian provinces though not in the provinces of Schleswig-Holstein and Hanover, nor yet in the former free city of Frankfort, which are all governed under separate Municipal Ordinances in Baden, Brunswick, and some parts of Saxony. Some Saxon communes are allowed to vary the " three-class " grouping by classing the voters in broad occupational groups. THE " THREE-CLASS " SYSTEM OF ELECTION AND PLURAL VOTING. What is known as the " three-class " system of election is so general in Prussia and withal so unique that a brief description is desirable. Under this system the burgesses of a commune are divided into three classes according either to the amount of their incomes or more usually of the direct State and local taxes they pay. The classification is made in the following manner : First, the aggregate sum of the income of the electors or the aggregate sum of the taxation payable by them, as the case may be, is ascertained. Then the names of the electors are recorded in a list according to the amount of their income or of the taxes they pay, and they are divided CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 65 into three groups, the first containing so many as are necessary to make up exactly one-third of the total income or taxation, the second containing so many of the next following names as make up another third, and the third containing the remainder. Persons who are not assessed to any State tax owing to exemp- tion fall always into the third class. Provisions exist to meet the case of persons of equal income or taxation falling into different classes. Each of these three groups elects one-third of the councillors. If the number to be elected should not be divisible by three, the second division claims the first member who is left over, though if two are over one falls to the first division and the other to the third. This is the same system of voting that was prescribed by the Prussian constitution of 1850 for the choice of the primary electors in the election of the Lower House, and it was embodied in a revision of the Prussian Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces which took place in 1853. A variation of the " three-class " division of the electorate was introduced by a Prussian law of June 30, 1900, applying to communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants. Under this law the electors are first divided into three groups on the normal principle, and all who pay more than the average amount of taxation, calculated on the aggregate sum, are put in the second or the first class. For the purpose of determining in which of these classes they will vote the total taxation now represented by the two classes is halved, and there vote in the first class so many of the highest taxed electors as are necessary to make a moiety, while the rest go into the second class. The effect of this arrangement is to increase the first two classes of voters and especially the second and pro- portionately to diminish the third, which more than ever becomes a working-class group. The same law empowers communes, by adopting a by-law, to divide the electors, on the same principle of average taxation, into twelfths and to assign them to the three classes in the ratio of five, four, and three, as determined by the sum of taxation payable. The effect of the " three-class " method of apportioning voting power is that in towns with a considerable section of well-to-do or wealthy taxpayers these form the select first 66 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY and second classes, while the vast majority of working- people vote together in the third class. Only in towns where social extremes are absent are the three classes at all fairly pro- portioned in number, and these towns are rare. As a rule, from one to four per cent, of the electors are in the first class, from ten to 15 per cent, in the second, and from 85 to 90 per cent, in the third. In 1912 the citizens of Berlin qualified to vote in communal elections numbered 386,736. Of this number, 353,704, or 91-5 per cent., were in the third class ; 32,096, or 8*3 per cent., in the second class ; and 936, or 0-2 per cent., in the first class. Yet each set of voters had the right to elect one-third of the councillors. In other words, a taxpayer in the first class had more than thirty times as much voting power as one in the second class and nearly 400 times as much as one in the third class. Much the same ratio of voters exists in the neighbouring town of Charlottenburg, where in 1909 1-5 per cent, of the whole fell to the first class, 12-5 per cent, to the second, and 86 per cent, to the third. Charlottenburg, however, is a town of rich people, and a man must there pay at least 140 in taxation in order to vote in the first class. Of 48,800 electors in Neukolln, near Berlin, in 1912, 618 or 1-3 per cent, formed the first class, 11,100, or 22-7 per cent., the second class; and 37,100, or 76 per cent., the third class. The average taxation in these classes was 126, 7, and {2 2s. respectively. In Cologne in 1913 the proportions were one per cent, in the first class, nine per cent, in the second, and 90 per cent, in the third. A recent classification of the electors of 114 Prussian towns showed that 8600, or 1-3 per cent., fell in the first class ; 48,950, or 7 per cent., in the second ; and 629,360, or 91-7 per cent., in the third. In some towns it happens that a single voter forms the first class for himself. The disappearance of a single rich inhabitant may entirely change the balance of voting power. At Essen so long as the last member of the Krupp family lived the first class of electors consisted of four indi- viduals ; on the death of Herr Krupp the number at once increased to six hundred, and there was a large transference from the third to the second class. The effects in actual electoral results are equally anomalous. CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 67 Thus in a recent election to the Berlin city council, in the smallest electoral district into which the voters of the first class were divided sixteen electors returned three members, while in the district with most voters of this class three members were returned for no electors. In the third class the number of electors per member ranged from 6500 to 8900. The skilful use of this curious system of electing members of the local councils enables the mining companies in the colliery districts of Westphalia to secure predominant influence on these bodies in small places, and so to regulate taxation. In one commune several years ago there was only one tax- payer in the first class a colliery company, which elected two of its officials ; in the second class there was also one taxpayer another company, which likewise sent two of its officials into the council; while in the third were the colliers, who chose a colliery manager and a contractor acceptable to the company. It happened in a small industrial commune in 1913 that the director of the manufactory which employed most of the inhabitants voted alone on its behalf in the first class and elected one councillor, then voted alone on his own account in the second class and elected himself, Baden has also a modification of the " three-class " system of election, but in 1910 it was amended ; for while formerly the electors were allotted to the three groups by twelfths, viz., one-twelfth to the first class, two-twelfths to the second, and nine-twelfths to the third, they are now divided into six, and assigned in the ratio of one, two, and three, and in addition the proportional principle has been introduced in the elections both to the town councils and the executives. In Saxony, while the normal basis of election is equality of franchise, the law gives communes the right to adopt by- laws dividing the electors into classes, as in Prussia, and allotting a certain proportion of the seats to each of these classes or to distinct districts. Some years ago Leipzig introduced the Prussian system and its example has been followed by other towns, as the only way of preventing the capture of the councils by the working classes. Chemnitz has gone further and introduced a system of representation of estates. Here the electors are divided into five classes. The 68 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY first or general class contains all who do not belong to the other four classes and has subdivisions composed of persons who are assessed to the State income tax to the amount of 90 ios., and those who pay from 90 los. to 125. The second class comprises the wage-earners ; the third the learned pro- fessions, including officials, teachers, clergy, lawyers, doctors, etc., paying State income tax on incomes in excess of 125 ; the fourth the industrial class with a like taxable income and the heads of the trade guilds, and the fifth the tradespeople with the same income, and directors of public companies. The town council consists of fifty-seven members, one-third of whom are re-elected every two years in the proportion of three or four to each class of voters. Dresden has adopted a social or occupational grouping of the voters independently of amount of income or taxation. There are five classes, viz. : (a) those who follow no calling, as rentiers, pensioners, etc. ; (b) work-people and others cor- responding to them in social position ; (c) officials, teachers, clergymen, lawyers, doctors, and artists ; (d) independent tradesmen in so far as they do not fall in the next class ; and (e) persons who are liable to pay contributions towards the costs of the Chamber of Commerce. Each of these classes is again divided into two sections, viz., citizens who have been in possession of freedom longer than ten years, and those who have had it for a shorter period, and the 84 seats in the town council are allotted to the electors of these sub-classes in the following proportions : Classes (a) and (b), 6 in each sub-class, total 12 ; classes (c) and (d), 6 in the first sub-class and 18 in the second, total 24 ; class (e), 6 in each sub-class, total 12. Like several other devices in the political constitution of Prussia, from which it was taken, intended to serve as a break- water against popular pressure, the three-class system of election is almost generally condemned, yet the parties whose influence it preserves find it very convenient in practice. The system is, of course, a thorn in the flesh to the Labour party, which under it fails to secure representation proportionate to its numbers. Even the Liberals readily admit that it is an awkward and obsolete arrangement which would have little chance of adoption in modern legislation, yet they are not CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 69 eager to abolish it, for while they accept the principle of a universal and equal suffrage in political government they are not prepared to apply it in local affairs. That the system is undemocratic is not, of course, an argu- ment against it in an undemocratic country; but putting political theories on one side it may be claimed for this unequal distribution of voting power that it broadly asserts the prin- ciple of proportional representation according to liability to taxation, and as in Germany local taxation falls with far greater weight upon the rich than the poor the system is perhaps less anomalous in practice than it appears in theory. It should be remembered that while, owing to the operation of this system of voting, the mass of small taxpayers are unable to commit a town to large enterprises the cost of which would fall with enormous preponderance upon others, should such a power be exercised by a combination of the larger taxpayers they would have to bear the brunt of the burden. The province of Hanover still retains its old plural system of voting, the number of votes up to a maximum being proportionate to the amount of taxation paid. So lately as 1910 a town council in the province was refused permission to reform its system of voting on the ground that the new franchise would have restricted the electoral privileges of the large taxpayers. In some towns one vote may be claimed for every 55. of taxes paid, with the result that a handful of electors may appoint the local council and hence control its policy. A plural franchise exists also in several of the small Thurin- gian States. Thus in the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen it may be exercised to a maximum of ten votes in the towns, the ratio being one vote in respect of local taxation up to 155., two votes for taxation from 155. to i ios., three votes for i los. to 2 ios., four votes for 2 ios. to 3 155., five votes for 3 155. to 6, and one vote more for every additional 5 of taxes paid to the maximum stated. At the present time there is in some States a strong move- ment in favour of proportional representation in the election of municipal bodies, and in several States the system has already been introduced, either generally or partially. The 70 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY motives which influence the friends of proportional representa- tion differ in various towns. Where the three-class system of voting prevails it is the Social Democratic party that seeks a change, since it is unable otherwise to obtain representation corresponding to its electoral strength, or even to secure representation at all. On the other hand, where election is direct and the taxpayers do not vote in classes, the Labour party sometimes obtains a representation which threatens middle-class preponderance, and in such cases the call for the adoption of the proportionate principle comes from the parties still in power. Proportional representation in local elections has been introduced in Bavaria (where it applies to all communes with over 4000 inhabitants), in Wurtemberg (where it applies to towns with over 10,000 inhabitants, and to elections to town councils and executive alike), in Baden (where it likewise applies to the election of the executive bodies), in Oldenburg, and elsewhere, but in some cases its adoption is optional. ELIGIBILITY OF ELECTORS AND THE PRIVILEGES OF HOUSE- OWNERS. In order to be eligible for membership of a municipal council a person must be a qualified voter and be in the enjoyment of full civil rights. Various persons are, however, disqualified by their position, e.g., in Prussia, officials and members of the authorities by which the State exercises over- sight over the communes, members of the local executive, and all paid officers of the commune, clergymen, certain servants of the Church, such as organists, cantors, ushers, and even grave-diggers, elementary school teachers, judicial officers of certain classes, and police officials. The same disqualifications apply more or less in the other States ; Saxony extends the ban even to clerks and night-watchmen in the town's service, but exempts teachers in public schools. Again, father and son or two brothers may not simultaneously be members of a council, and if elected the elder is admitted to membership. There is no rule disqualifying persons who have business dealings with a local authority from sitting on that authority. Some Municipal Ordinances contain the provision that town councillors may not take CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 71 part in discussions or negotiations relating to matters in which they are pecuniarily interested, but as a rule both councillors and unpaid members of the executives are permitted to con- tract with the authority of which they are members, though the practice is much criticised. Not long ago a Social Demo- cratic member of a Central German town council brought forward a motion intended to prevent colleagues from con- cluding contracts with that body. The proposal was resented by the rest of the councillors as superfluous and offensive, yet it was referred to committee for examination. The result was the discovery that nearly one-half of all the members were regularly doing business with the council. In general, it may be said, the government of German towns is undoubtedly clean and wholesome. Instances occasionally come to light of land speculation by town councillors at the public expense, of bribery of minor officials, and the like, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule, and the severity with which public opinion visits irregularities of the kind bears testimony to the existence of a healthy sentiment on the subject. An antiquated provision contained in the Municipal Ordinances of many parts of the country is that requiring that a fixed proportion of the councillors shall be resident house-owners. 1 In the earliest Prussian Ordinance of 1808, the proportion was two- thirds. The Ordinance of 1831, while increasing the income qualification for the vote, reduced the representation of the house-owners to at least one-half of the total, and this ratio still continues both in Prussia and Saxony. The revised Municipal Ordinance issued for Saxony in 1873, indeed, empowers towns to adopt by-laws giving to house-owners representation beyond one-half, and some towns have fixed the proportion at two-thirds. In practice the ratio invariably exceeds that required or allowed by law ; often it is as high as 70 and 80 per cent., and sometimes it exceeds 90 per cent. The number of house-owners in the councils of some of the larger Prussian towns in a recent year was as 1 The Prussian Municipal Ordinance of 1853 for the eastern provinces, as now in force, amplifies the term as follows : " Owners, usufructuaries, and such persons as have an inherited right of ownership." 72 follows : Berlin 92 out of 144 councillors, Charlottenburg 37 out of 72, Konigsberg 53 out of 102, Coblence 25 out of 30, Breslau 52 out of 102, Danzig 45 out of 63, Aix-la-Chapelle 38 out of 39, Barmen 29 out of 36, Bielefeld 35 out of 45, Cassel 47 out of 60, Diisseldorf and Hanover 31 out of 36, Crefeld 33 out of 36, and Bonn 38 out of 39. The house-owners' privilege is a source of much controversy. There was no doubt a practical justification for it at the time of its introduction, and even much later so long, indeed, as the systems of plural ownership, house speculation, and house farming had not set in. It has been estimated that even up to the middle of last century half the voters in the first and second classes in many towns were actually house-owners. In the larger towns to-day, however, houses are largely bought to sell again and not to live in ; a large proportion of the houses in towns of rapid development change hands almost with the frequency of popular stocks and shares, and the direct interest of the owner in his building is often quite impersonal and fugitive. The old house-owners formed a settled element in the population ; they were men of substance, who had a large stake in their town's welfare. The real house- owners are now the mortgage and land banks, which finance the nominal proprietors, and the fact that in large towns a modern " house " connotes not one dwelling but several or many, owing to the practice of barrack building, restricts the house-owning class still more. An analysis of all the citizens of Schoneberg, near Berlin, brought to light the fact that the total number of house-owners qualified to be elected to the town council in 1908 was only 900, or about 3 per cent, of a total of 28,000 persons so qualified. In Berlin it was found that there were only 9000 house-owners eligible for election, yet the total number of electors exceeded 350,000. The privilege is doubly inequitable in towns where the basis of taxation is predominantly income and not real estate. Further, it is becoming more and more recognised that the limited choice of representation which this system imposes is incompatible with the great tasks which modern munici- palities have to discharge, such as the carrying out of en- lightened land, housing and sanitation schemes, and the like, CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 73 and thus is contrary to the welfare of the general body of citizens. It may be admitted that the " house agrarians " as the urban property owners are commonly called have not in general flagrantly abused their great powers, and that in many cases their domination has proved compatible with the pursuance of a steady, if not a heroic, policy of progress, yet it is unquestionable that the strong property influence upon the town councils would nearly everywhere have been used with far less discretion and moderation did not the German system of municipal government place at the head of local affairs a permanent mayor and executive, virtually independent of the representative assembly, and required both by law and tradition to keep free from all outside interests and influences. In a Bill for the amendment of the Municipal Ordinance, which was introduced in 1876, the Prussian Government pro- posed to abolish the house-owners' privilege, since (said the expose des motifs] " the need and even the utility of such a provision singling out for privilege a particular class of the inhabitants have been much called in question, and appar- ently not without reason." The Bill was not passed, and the Government has not again proposed this reform. PROCEDURE AT ELECTIONS. The period of election is various; in Prussia (except in the province of Hanover), Baden, and Alsace-Lorraine it is six years, in Bavaria and Hesse nine years, but in Saxony as a rule only three. One-third of the members retire every two years in Prussia, and in Bavaria every three years. Elections take place in November in Prussia, and voting lists are published in the preceding July for inspection. Towns are divided into districts or wards for electoral purposes ; the Prussian Municipal Ordinances provide that if any class of voters (on the " three-class " system of grouping) contains more than 500 persons, two or more electoral districts may be formed, but modifications of this provision are allowable. Where the electors vote by wards, the candidates may be chosen from amongst the general body of qualified citizens. Thus the area of Berlin is divided for voting purposes into forty-eight wards, and the number of 74 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY voters in the various districts ranges from about 4000 to 7000. The polling is conducted by committees appointed by the mayor and town council. A fortnight before the date fixed for the election the voters must be invited by individual or public notice to attend at a time and place stated to record their votes. The period during which voters may exercise the franchise is fixed by the council of every town for itself ; in large towns the votes of the electors in the numerous third class are sometimes taken on several days. In recent years there has been a growing tendency, especially in Saxon towns, to hold the elections on Sunday. The municipal authorities of Berlin and several of the adjacent large towns, of Mann- heim and other places, recently decided to allow the electors in the third class to vote on Sunday. Some of the laws and ordinances on municipal government are without provisions as to the publicity or otherwise of elections, and leave the towns to decide for themselves by by-laws whether they prefer secret or open voting. Secret voting is the rule in Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Alsace- Lorraine, but open voting by oral declaration is usual in most parts of Prussia and in some other States. Voting is everywhere direct ; that is, the method, followed in the Prussian parliamentary elections, of choosing primary electors who make the definitive selections does not here apply. Election is either by absolute majority of votes cast (with second ballots between the candidates who fail to obtain an absolute majority), as in Prussia, Bavaria, and Alsace-Lorraine ; or by simple or " relative " majority, as in Saxony. Membership of a town council is almost invariably an honorary office. Some Municipal Ordinances expressly pro- hibit the payment of salary or remuneration for services rendered, but allow the refund of out-of-pocket expenses. It has been decided that such a return of bare expenses pre- cludes the payment of any fixed sum, but the latter practice is nevertheless followed. In many towns, councillors have free tramway tickets, but this privilege has been discontinued in some Prussian towns owing to a recent decision of the Supreme Administrative Court declaring it to be an infraction CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 75 of the spirit of the law. Wiirtemberg is an exception to the rule of honorary service, for there payment is allowable at the rate of 55. a day in small communes, los. in communes of medium size, and 155. in large towns. In some parts of the country e.g., the Rhineland province of Prussia, the Bavarian Palatinate, and Alsace-Lorraine the mayor is ex officio chairman of the town council. In the eastern provinces of Prussia and elsewhere, however, the chairman is a member of the council, chosen by it, and occupy- ing the position of the President or Speaker of a German legislature, while the permanent mayor corresponds to the head of the Government. An elected chairman is usually appointed for one, two, or three years. The Municipal Ordinances as a rule fix no special times of meeting, but provide only that the councils shall " meet as often as business requires," yet shall be convened at the discretion of the chairman, or on the requisition of one-fourth of the members. Monthly ordinary meetings are common. As a rule one-half of the members form a quorum. Sittings are public in Bavaria this applies also to meetings of the executive but in certain circumstances a council may deliberate behind closed doors. Questions are, as a rule, decided by a bare majority of votes, and in the case of a tie the chairman has a casting vote. In Prussia, however, certain decisions can only be adopted by a two- thirds majority, as, for example, the introduction, alteration, or repeal of by-laws. Power is reserved by the Government to dissolve a town council by royal order in extreme cases, and to take over its duties until a new body has been elected. Nowadays, elections in the towns are largely fought on political lines, though not as understood in this country. In the Protestant parts of the country the struggle is mainly between the Liberal, Conservative, and Socialist parties, but in the Roman Catholic districts the Centre or Ultramontane party joins issue, with the usual success. The Conservatives, however, do not enjoy in Prussia, under the Municipal Ordin- ances, the privileged position secured to them by the parlia- mentary system, with its unequal distribution of seats, for, not being specially a plutocratic party, the " three-class " 76 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY method of voting does not help them in the towns. Hence they are often content to allow the Liberals of different com- plexion to contest supremacy with the Socialists, though there are towns in which Conservatism is a very active factor in local government. Except in times of special political excitement, or when religious or confessional issues are in- volved, as is often the case in the large Rhenish towns, the electorate does not exercise its privilege in any large measure. In recent elections to the Berlin City Council less than 50 per cent, of the qualified electors on the average exercised the franchise, and in some wards the proportion was as low as 30 per cent., while the highest proportion was 60 per cent, in wards completely under Socialist domination. In the adjoin- ing town of Charlottenburg barely one-third of the qualified electors took the trouble to go to the poll. WORKING-MEN ON MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES. In compo- sition German town councils are not unlike English, except that Labour has on the whole less representation. Thus, of 39 members of the Aix-la-Chapelle town council as constituted in 1912, two were doctors, two lawyers, three architects, four officials, two agriculturists, three were rentiers, eight were business men, 13 were manufacturers and directors of works, one was an engineer, and one an apothecary. Of the 59 members of the Chemnitz town council in that year, two were doctors, two lawyers, eight officials, 23 business men, four manufacturers, nine handicraftsmen, two rentiers, two engineers, two architects, and there were also one apothecary, one editor, and one working-man. The attitude adopted towards municipal service by the working classes, or, to give them their corporate description, the Labour party, calls for special reference owing to the intimate relation between Labour and Socialism in Germany. The Labour party is in effect the party of Social Democracy, for hardly in any other capacity are the working classes represented in local politics. The part played in municipal life by the Social Democratic party during the past twenty years has been very conspicuous, and its influence upon the action of the local authorities has been fruitful in many CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 77 directions. During this period the attitude of the Socialists towards municipal work has undergone a complete change. A party resolution of the year 1888 declared that " the ex- penditure of intellectual and material force involved in partici- pation in local elections is quite disproportionate to the possible advantages to be secured, and, further, the gain of a few seats in the communal councils has in nowise promoted the development of the Labour party." This negative declaration of policy is not the only one which the Socialists of Germany have found it expedient to revise and reject during recent years. Experience proved that abstention from local elections and refusal to participate in local govern- ment placed the party at a great tactical disadvantage, and deprived its leaders in town and village of many opportunities of advancing the social and material interests of the working classes. The old position of aloofness was abandoned, and for some years the Socialists have made strenuous efforts to assert for themselves upon local government bodies as strong a position as that which they have obtained in the Imperial legislature and the Diets of some of the Southern States. Berlin is a noteworthy example of the advance of Socialist influence in municipal government. In 1884 the Socialists held only five seats in the council of 144 ; ten years later they held 1 6, and their number is now 45, all elected as repre- sentatives of the third class of voters. Upon the councils of some of the smaller towns they have a permanent majority. They have played the part, it is true, of the proverbial " pike in the carp pond," for they have invariably carried sword and not peace into the council-room, yet the severest of their critics has never denied that their influence on the whole has been on the side of efficient and progressive, if expensive, government. It is notorious also that no party more ardently and unweary- ingly insists on clean and straightforward dealings in local administration, or more relentlessly makes war against cor- ruption than the Socialists, whose only defect in this matter is a too ready inclination to believe that all men save them- selves are liars, and to suspect dishonesty and double-dealing where they do not exist. It must also be said to the credit of 78 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the Socialists that they do not act upon the comforting faith that " where God gives office He gives brains," but take great pains to qualify themselves for public life. To this end the party organises courses of study in the theory and practice of municipal government, and holds national and local con- ferences for the exchange of views and experiences. Many municipal assemblies would breathe a serener atmosphere if the Socialists would revert to their old self-denying ordinance and keep out of municipal politics altogether, yet no one will deny that they have raised the standard of administrative efficiency and have greatly accelerated the pace of municipal advance. Sometimes they set a pace which the rest of the com- munity finds too rapid, and occasionally their very ardour proves their undoing, for success at one election is followed by rout at the next. Miilhausen, in Alsace, is one of the towns which for a time passed under Socialist influence, and the history of the few feverish years of Socialist domination (1902 to 1906) illustrates the zeal and temper of the party. During that period the wages of municipal workpeople were in- creased, and their hours reduced, and minimum rates in the one case and maximum hours in the other were fixed ; all these workers were given holidays six days after one year's service, and 12 days a year after three years' service ; full right of coalition was given to them, and the strike clause was abolished from public contracts. A free labour registry was established, assistance was given to workers and their families during labour disputes, works for the unemployed were made a part of municipal policy, contracts were given only to firms which paid standard rates of wages, coal was supplied at cost price to the inhabitants during the winter months ; and the out- door relief granted under the Poor Law was raised to what was called an " existence minimum." The salaries of elementary teachers were increased until the school staff of Miilhausen was the best paid in the province. Model dwellings were built for workpeople and families with small means. Fine new schools were provided, school fees were abolished, teaching materials were freed, a dental clinic was opened for scholars, school baths were provided, sickly children were CONSTITUTION OF TOWN COUNCILS 79 sent to "cure" baths and "holiday colony" schools, con- tinuation schools were introduced and attendance thereat was made compulsory, and a forest school was established. The entrance duties (octroi) on necessaries of life were abolished. Large purchases of land were made ; the streets were asphalted, electrical tramways were introduced, the theatre was taken over and worked by the town, cheap performances being arranged for scholars and for working- people ; an efficient sewerage system was carried out, and finally a debt of a million pounds was contracted. Less owing to dissatisfaction with their policy than its cost the middle-class parties com- bined and swept away the precipitous reformers, and with them the mayor and the too energetic members of the executive. The Socialists have found it a more difficult task to pene- trate into the executive bodies; for there ratification from above is usually necessary, and few Governments allow Socialists to occupy offices election to which is subject to official veto. In Prussia this rule applies not only to appoint- ments to the mayoral office and to the executive, but also to appointments to such subordinate bodies as education com- mittees, since education falls within the province of State supervision. Although the constitution declares that " all Prussians are equal before the law," there were Royal and Ministerial Decrees before the constitution was granted, and one of these, dated 1701, requires members of education committees to see that the children under their care are " trained to be loyal, moral, and religious members of society." On the strength of this hoary document Socialist educationists, however eminent and however competent in every other department of local administration, are refused a place on these committees. In the South a more tolerant spirit prevails ; and in Baden and Wiirtemberg there are both Socialist senators and mayors. According to a report made to the party congress held at Jena in September, 1913, the Social Democrats are now represented on the local government authorities of 509 towns and 2973 rural communes, their representatives on the town councils numbering 2753, and on the rural councils 8928. 8o MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Further, they had representatives upon the executives of 133 towns, and upon the executives of 120 rural communes. Most of the Social Democratic members of municipal executives (93 per cent, of the whole) were found in Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Baden ; only two in Prussia (in Frankfort-on-Main, where confirmation by the Crown is not needed), and two in Saxony. CHAPTER IV DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS TOWN COUNCIL, EXECUTIVE AND MAYOR Position of the town councils Organisation and constitution of the executive Functions of the executive The mayor and his functions The " magisterial " and " mayoral " executive systems compared Devolu- tion of administrative duties : Deputations, Commissions, etc. Hono- rary service in communal administration The administrative staffs Schools for communal government Municipal congresses and leagues Joint administrative boards for common purposes State supervision and control. THE German town council, as we have seen, is constituted of much the same material as the English borough or urban council, but the German mayor and executive have no equivalent in the local government system of this country. For, wide as are the powers of self-government possessed by German towns, these powers are exercised, not directly by the representative assemblies, but by executive bodies as a rule chosen by them and for the most part consisting of what would be regarded in this country as permanent officials. Herein lies the most noteworthy feature of the German system. Perhaps the most convenient name by which to describe the members of these bodies is " aldermen," a term the more allowable since the unsalaried members of a municipal execu- tive correspond with sufficient closeness to the aldermen of English corporations. In the province of Hanover and the Free Cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck the term " senators " is used ; but in the governments of these city States the college of senators discharges legislative as well as executive functions. POSITION OF THE TOWN COUNCILS. In the mediaeval town governments of Germany the executive powers were usually c 81 82 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY divided between the " weiterer " and the " engerer " Rat a more or less representative council chosen by the freemen and an inner and smaller council which acted as a sort of second chamber. The old tradition has its counterpart in the bi- cameral system which was introduced by the Municipal Ordinances of last century. Under that system it is the right and duty of a town council to exercise general oversight over the government of its area in the words of the Municipal Ordinance of 1853 for the eastern provinces of Prussia, to " control the administration " ; but while it is theoretically responsible for the decisions adopted to this end and has un- limited power of initiative, all administrative functions are delegated to a "magistracy'" (Magistral} or executive, of which the mayor is the president or chairman. " The ' Magistracy,' ' says this document, " is the supreme authority of the town and administers the communal affairs of the town." Neither in Prussia nor any other State was the representative assembly intended to be the predominant partner in the local administration. The terms in which Stein explained the pur- pose of his Municipal Ordinance of 1808 made this clear. Its object was said to be " to form by law a firm point of union for the citizens, to afford them influence upon the administration of the community, and by this means to stimulate their public spirit." Local government was still, however, to be controlled by executive officers : all that the citizens as a body might do was to create the machinery of government and to give to this machinery impulse and direction. Most of the Prussian Municipal Ordinances now in force date from the reactionary period which followed the revolutionary movements of 1848, and they bear strong traces of the heavy hand of autocracy, which after having been rudely shaken had once more recovered confidence. Throughout, their provisions betray a somewhat grudging assent to the principle of popular government as understood in this country. The State or rather the Crown is shown as ceding part of its power unwillingly and with a fixed determination not to allow that ceded power to travel too far away from its grasp. Hence while representative assemblies were created they DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 83 were hemmed round by limitations ; in no department of municipal life were they to have a perfectly free hand ; and frank recognition of a right of popular supremacy in local affairs in the English sense finds no expression in these documents. True, the electorate was no longer narrowed down to a select body of freemen as of old, yet it was limited by property and income franchises, and an endeavour was made to dissociate from the citizens the assembly elected by and from them and to make it independent of popular influence, for the town councillors were told that they were " not bound by any in- structions or directions of the electors or electoral districts." The jurisdiction of these bodies was also carefully and jealously defined. They were, indeed, entitled to decide all communal affairs which were not assigned to the executive, yet so wide did the competence of the latter go that in no other sphere than finance could the town councils claim to hold the balance of power. Their very powers of deliberation were restricted, for it was provided that " the town councillors may only discuss matters other than communal matters if these have been referred to them by special laws or, in individual cases, by the supervisory authorities." And finally, as if uncertain whether constitutional checks would prove effective to curb popular assumption and avert disaster, the local constitution- makers of that day invoked the good offices of the church and of Providence, for the Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces of Prussia contains the direction that at the principal service on the Sunday preceding the election of town councils all clergymen should call attention to " the importance of this proceeding." More important was the entire divorce of the executive from the legislative side of government. Although local councils might not now be taken away, it was cdnceived that they might be effectively checkmated by the creation of senates holding a quasi-State status and representing still to some extent the tradition of government from above. Hence each council was to choose a college of executive officers who when once elected were to be more or less independent of 84 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the constituent body. Even these executives themselves were only half trusted, however ; hence in order to ensure their acceptability to the Government the confirmation of each individual member by the Crown or its agents was required. The confirmation provisions of the Municipal Ordinance of 1853 faithfully reflected the spirit of distrust in which this enactment was conceived. " In the confirmation of magis- trates," ran the Instructions to the Ordinance, "the greatest conscientiousness must be exercised. The right to cancel election and in consequence to order administration by commission must be dutifully exercised in all cases in which the interests of the communes or the State require it, without regard to the consideration whether temporary discontent may as a consequence be occasioned." Throughout Germany, indeed, the system of municipal administration repeats still on a small scale the system of political government. In it are found all the well-known constitutional provisions for limiting the direct authority of the electorate, all the checks and safeguards against precipi- tous action, all the devices for placing executive functions and powers beyond the control of the popular assembly. Just as the Imperial and State Parliaments lack legislative independ- ence, genuine executive authority, and effective control over the bureaucracy which really rules the country, so the town councils are subsidiary or at most auxiliary bodies ; their jurisdiction is limited at every turn; first by the limitation of their deliberative powers, then by the institution of the per- manent mayors and executives, and finally by the supremacy of the State authorities in certain matters. So, too, the doctrine of " Ministerial responsibility," which is affirmed by the political constitutions of most States, yet is without reality in any of them, has its counterpart in local government in virtue of the fact that in some parts of the country the mayors, once chosen, are not only independent of the town councils, but are practically irremovable, even when provision is not definitely made as is the case in some States for their appointment for life. Just as in relation to the national legislature the Ministers stand outside the body DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 85 to which they are nominally responsible, so in some parts of Prussia the salaried aldermen are not members of the local councils and have no right to vote in their proceedings. Ministers and aldermen are alike, however, in the fact that they can claim to attend all meetings and to speak or to be heard through a deputy at any time upon any subject be- longing to their jurisdiction, just as legislature and council respectively can require their attendance for the purpose of information. There is one sphere in which, in municipal as in national government, the popular assembly is almost supreme. This is the sphere of finance. Herein lie the principal check of the town council upon the executive power and the effective safe- guard of its ultimate responsibility, and, in the event of serious conflict, of its ultimate power to assert its will. For no tax can be adopted or collected without the town council's sanc- tion ; the council decides how the moneys of the town shall be employed ; and it votes the budget, which may be fixed for one or three years at a time. In regard to the budget, indeed, the citizens in general have to be considered in Prussia, for it must be published for a week for their information, and must simultaneously be presented to the supervisory authority. It follows also that the council has a right to re- quire a full account of the use of public funds. In the words of the Prussian Municipal Ordinance of 1853, J ust as * ne council " controls the administration," so it is " therefore entitled to be satisfied ... as to the employment of all com- munal revenue. For this purpose it can require the magis- trates to produce all documents and appoint committees, to which the mayor is empowered to delegate a member of the executive (magistracy)." Other questions belonging specially to the town council's province are the use and disposal of public property, the validity of elections, the election of mayor and aldermen, the contracting of loans, and the adoption of by-laws, decisions as to some of which require confirmation by the supervisory authority. In the South more power is, on the whole, reserved to the town councils, and in Baden as, indeed, in the Prussian 86 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY provinces of Schleswig-Holstein and Hanover also the councils and executives act together ; but most German forms of urban government repeat with greater or less fidelity the leading features of the Prussian bicameral system as in opera- tion in the eastern provinces. The supremacy of the pro- fessional executive conflicts altogether with the practice of local government in this country, where a bad amateur is usually more acceptable than the best of experts ; but there can be little doubt that the German system represents both a higher and a more efficient form of municipal organisation than our own. To deny that would be to imply that the modern Parliament, with its corollaries of a paid Ministry and a body of permanent officers known as the civil service, repre- sents a decline from the old national folkmote. ORGANISATION AND CONSTITUTION OF THE EXECUTIVE. It is the purpose of the representative assembly to represent the entire community and to voice its opinions and wishes, but the execution of resolutions adopted by the assembly rests with the mayor and a certain number of magistrates or alder- men who form the executive. The organisation of the execu- tive takes two principal forms. The form introduced by most Prussian Municipal Ordinances is commonly known as the " magisterial constitution," under which the executive power is vested in a body which acts collectively and of which the mayor is ex officio the head. This body is known as the magistracy (Magistral] in East Prussia and Bavaria right of the Rhine, and elsewhere senate or council. The magistracy is a replica of the Ministry of State, each of whose members administers his department independently, though when matters have to be decided jointly decision follows the vote of the majority. Under this system the mayor does not act as chairman of the communal assembly. The other form, which is peculiar to the Prussian province of Rhineland, to Hesse, the Bavarian Palatinate, and Alsace- Lorraine, and owes its existence largely to French influence, is known as the "mayoral constitution," and under it the conduct of communal affairs is vested in one officer, the mayor, DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 87 who is simultaneously the chairman of the town council. In the work of administration he is similarly assisted by col- leagues, known as Beigeordnete, corresponding to the French adjoints who together may likewise be known as the magistracy but his authority is larger than that of the mayor under the magisterial system. Some of the Municipal Ordinances of the western districts of Germany allow choice to be made between the two systems, but it would appear that towns under the "mayoral" con- stitution seldom or never go over to the " magisterial " system. In towns with no more than 2500 civil inhabitants in some parts of Prussia the mayor may discharge executive functions alone, in which event he also acts as chairman of the council. The general rule is that both the mayor and the members of the executive, whether salaried or not, are elected by the town council. In Wiirtemberg and the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, they are chosen by the burgesses in the same manner as the town councillors ; while in Westphalia the mayor and salaried aldermen are elected by the town council, and the unsalaried aldermen by the town council and executive in joint sitting. There is great diversity in the size of the executive in different States. The Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces of Prussia lays down the following ratio of aldermen to population : in communes with less than 2500 inhabitants, two ; in communes with from 2500 to 10,000 inhabitants, four ; from 10,000 to 30,000, six ; from 30,000 to 60,000, eight ; from 60,000 to 100,000, ten ; and in communes with a population over 100,000, two more for every 50,000 additional inhabitants. In Westphalia the ratio is two for towns with less than 2500 inhabitants, four for towns with from 2500 to 10,000 inhabit- ants, six for those with from 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants, and two more for every additional 20,000 inhabitants. In Rhine- land the ratio is two for towns with less than 10,000 inhabit- ants, four for towns with from 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, and six for towns with over 20,000 inhabitants. As a rule the normal membership of the executive may be modified by local by-laws. In Bavaria the executive consists of the mayors (of whom 88 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY there may be two in communes with a population over 10,000 and three in those with a population over 50,000), legal members, civil members (varying from six to twenty according to the size of the town), and technical experts, the last-named voting only on matters affecting them. In many towns the ratio of town councillors to aldermen is three to one. In Baden the executive numbers from fifteen to thirty-one. It was originally intended that the unsalaried members of the executive should predominate and that professional members should be the exception. With the multiplication of municipal business and the extension of trading enterprise to provinces never contemplated when the existing laws were enacted, the number and influence of the salaried aldermen have constantly increased. It is regarded as essential that the heads of all the great departments of municipal work should enjoy the highest administrative rank as members of the executive ; hence in the large towns that body comprises not only jurists, but experts on education, Poor Law, medicine, and public health, as well as technical experts of various kinds, though a certain number of honorary members are also elected, these occupying virtually the position of English borough aldermen, and, like them, often elected term after term. The Prussian Municipal Ordinances provide specifically for the appointment of paid aldermen to the offices of syndic, chamberlain or treasurer, secretary for education (Schulrat), commissioner of public works (Baurat), corresponding broadly to the Roman aedile, and administrator of forests (Forstrat}. It is the chief business of the syndic to see that the executive in any of its measures or resolutions does not act contrary to the law, to put in legal order all actions at law or other proceedings of a legal character in which the town may be involved, and in general to watch the legal side of municipal work in every direction. This official must have had a proper legal training, and have passed the State legal examinations. The chamberlain or treasurer superintends all financial business, prepares the budgets, controls revenue and expenditure, investments, loans, etc. The secretary for DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 89 education is at the head of the educational system of the municipality, and serves on the school committee. The commissioner of public works is responsible for the order and security of the municipal real estate, including all buildings and land belonging to the town, and he also advises on all new erections and prepares plans for the same. He is, however, an official distinct from the usual town surveyors, architects, and building inspectors. Other technical experts are nowadays appointed according to need, and the number is never final. The appointment of unpaid aldermen is almost universal, and their presence on the executive is regarded as of great advantage. Their duty is to see that the opinions of the popular assembly receive due consideration, and in general they serve as a useful counterbalance to the influence of the permanent officials, who may incline towards mechanical and strictly formal views on questions of policy. As a rule, honorary aldermanship is the reward of long years of public life. In the executives of most large towns are usually found men of ripe experience, sound business training, shrewd practical judgment, and often of ample leisure, who bring to official deliberations and decisions the quick judgment and free play of the unofficial mind. In the province of Hanover some of the unpaid aldermen or " senators " must belong or have belonged to the trading class. Sometimes unpaid aldermen are given full responsibility for important departments of work and even for trading enterprises, but their proper function is deliberative. Although the spirit of the Municipal Ordinances requires that the salaried and honorary members of the executive should be well balanced, with a leaning to an excess of the honorary element, so as to secure to lay influence proper weight, there is no definite rule as to the ratio of the two sections of the executive. They are often elected in equal numbers, but while in some towns there is a strong pre- ponderance of unpaid members, in others there are no honorary senators at all. The following figures, showing for a recent year the ratio of salaried to unsalaried members of the executives in go MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Unsalaried Members. Total. 2 8 - 4 10 17 34 7 ii 15 29 I? 2 4 15 25 13 12 25 12 3 II I 10 13 24 10 21 14 24 15 27 12 21 13 24 some of the larger towns of Prussia, illustrate the prevailing diversity of practice (the salaried members include one or more mayors) : Salaried Members. Aix-Ia-Chapelle Barmen Berlin Bielefeld . Breslau Cassel Charlottenburg Cologne Danzig Diisseldorf Elberfeld . Essen Frankfort-on-Ma n Hanover . Konigsberg Magdeburg Posen Stettin The executives of large towns in other States are formed as follows : Augsburg Chemnitz Dresden Karlsruhe Leipzig Mannheim Munich Nuremberg Stuttgart . Strassburg There is a danger always of the number of aldermen exceed- ing that at which executive work can be transacted with a maximum of efficiency and expedition and a minimum of inconvenience, while experience has shown that the larger the executive becomes the more the danger of cliques and parties increases. Hence additional aldermen are appointed sparingly, and often only when the multiplication of municipal enterprises requires some reinforcement of the responsible expert chiefs. Berlin has for sixty years had an executive of thirty-four members, one-half salaried and the rest honorary. When Salaried Unsalaried Members. Members. Total. ii 14 25 12 18 3 17 22 39 4 23 27 14 17 31 4 23 27 17 20 37 13 2O 33 5 28 33 7 7 DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 91 new officials of the first rank have been needed the executive has on several occasions averted addition to its ranks by appointing responsible heads of departments, without seats in the executive, with the name " magisterial directors." The town council dislikes this arrangement, however, inas- much as while it possesses the sole right to appoint the execu- tive, the right to appoint staff officials rests with that body alone, and it is unwilling to forgo control over appointments to the more important offices. This attitude in 1913 led to a departure from the tradition which fixed the number of senators at thirty-four, for in that year an alderman was elected to take charge of the department of public health. As in the case of membership of town councils, father and son, father-in-law and son-in-law, brothers and brothers-in- law may not be simultaneously members of an executive in Prussia, and should such couples be elected the elder of the two is chosen. Nor may such relatives be chosen simultane- ously as members of the executive and the town council. Other persons disqualified from being members of the executive are officials and members of authorities through whom the State exercises oversight over the communes, town councillors, and certain minor communal officials, clergymen, church ushers, and teachers in public schools, judicial officers, with the exception of technical members of the commercial, indus- trial and similar courts, officers attached to the State Attorney-General's office, and police officials. The executives in the Southern States have peculiarities of their own. In Bavaria a modification of the East Prussian executive, called also by the same name, viz. " magistracy," is in operation. In Nuremberg the executive not only administers the civil affairs of the town, but acts as the police authority. The executive is composed of the chief or first and a second mayor, both jurists, seven " councillors " with legal training, two technical experts (for the departments of buildings and schools), and twenty civil (burgher) councillors, the maximum allowed by law. The first mayor is elected for life, the second mayor for six years at a time, though in his capacity as a member of the senate his is also a life appoint- ment ; the legal and technical members of the executive are 92 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY appointed for varying periods, and the civil members for six years. The civil members are chosen from amongst the enfranchised citizens. Both the legal and civil members of the executive have a right to vote upon all questions, but the technical members vote only upon questions affecting their special duties. The arrangements in the towns of Baden correspond rather closely to those in English boroughs, for the town council and a body of aldermen act together both for deliberative and executive purposes. The various departments of public work and enterprise are managed by technical officials, who enjoy wide powers and considerable independence. These officials are members of the committees which deal with the matters in their care, and vote at meetings, but they are not repre- sented in the senate, where the mayor alone represents their opinions and expounds their proposals. The principal draw- back of the Baden system is that it throws upon the mayor responsibility for an immense amount of detail and to that extent curtails the time available for more important duties. Hence there is a strong movement in favour of the addition to the senate of permanent officials on the analogy of the " magisterial or " mayoral " regimes of Prussia, but no one wishes to see the honorary members outnumbered. The term of election of the aldermen or adjoints is different according as they are unpaid or paid. The Prussian Ordinances usually fix six years for the unpaid members and twelve years, as in the case of mayors, for the paid, though both mayors and salaried aldermen may be appointed for life. In Wiirtem- berg, where the town council and the executive are equal in number, the aldermen are elected for six years ; in Baden the salaried aldermen are elected for nine and the honorary for six years. In the Prussian province of Hanover life appointment is required by law from the first and in the kingdom of Saxony in the case of re-elections. Although municipal bodies, the executives are regarded as mediate State authorities in distinction to the immediate authorities appointed directly by the Government in the name of the Crown. The Municipal Ordinance for the province of Hanover says expressly : " The magistracy is the adminis- DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 93 trator of communal affairs, and at the same time the State authority." On this theory of their office is based the right of the Crown or Government in most States to confirm the appointment of members to these bodies, and to remove them from office if found guilty of conduct contrary to the supposed interests of the State, a right exercised as a rule through the subordinate supervisory authority. 1 Thus in the eastern provinces of Prussia all appointments of aldermen, salaried or honorary, require to be confirmed by the District President, who can only object if the District Committee agrees with him ; should the Committee disagree, the District President may appeal to the Minister of the Interior to decide, and the same right of appeal is allowed to the municipal executive or assembly in the event of an appointment being quashed. In Berlin appointments to the executive are con- firmed by the Chief President of the province of Brandenburg (who is also the Chief President of Berlin), without the District Committee being consulted. Where sanction is withheld it is not necessary to give reasons. In Bavaria only the legal members of the executive need to be confirmed. Refusal to confirm is comparatively rare, except when persons known to belong to the Social Democratic party are chosen, yet even then it occurs only in Prussia and the other States in which the acceptance of Socialistic views is held in official circles to incapacitate a man from serving the community faithfully. The right of veto proves at times a useful political weapon in the hands of the Prussian Government in its crusade against Polish and Danish influence. The custom as to qualifications for the position of salaried or professional aldermen is various. In Prussia, where the authors of the existing Municipal Ordinances were more con- cerned that these officials should be acceptable to the Crown and Government as loyal and pliant individuals than experi- 1 Dr. Hugo Preuss says : "In Prussia there is no delegation of State functions to the mayors of towns, even of large towns, and indeed least of all of such towns. And yet all Prussian Municipal Ordinances require that the mayors shall be confirmed by the Government. This provision is nothing less than a survival of the direct Government appointment of State officials." Nevertheless, the transference to the mayors of certain police functions re- served by the State, as already explained, must be regarded as in conflict with the early part of this statement. 94 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY enced in the arts and sciences of town government, appoint- ment is still not legally dependent upon the possession of special qualifications, except in the case of the syndic and the public works commissioner, and the same thing applies in Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Hesse. Special training is pre- scribed, however, by the laws of some of the other States. Thus the law of Bavaria requires that paid members of the executive, except those occupying technical positions, shall be jurists ; and the law of Saxony requires that at least one member of the executive shall be so qualified. This is a question, however, which custom has decided in a way not contemplated by law. The development of municipal government, the extension of its powers and functions, and, above all, the widening of the scope of public economic enter- prise have everywhere compelled German towns to turn more and more from the rule of the amateur to that of the expert, and the modern administrator is expected to combine special fitness for his particular department of work with personal qualities of the highest order. FUNCTIONS OF THE EXECUTIVE. The duties of the executive are multifarious, and belong to the most important pertaining to local government. The executive is first of all responsible for the due execution of all Imperial and State laws and regulations incumbent on a commune, in which relationship it is quite independent of the town council. Further, it has to execute the resolutions passed by the representative assembly, for though the latter possesses full right to initiate measures and proposals it is the business of the executive to put these in proper form, and when they have been adopted to apply or enforce them, though it is not legally justified in doing this unless it has convinced itself that they are legitimate, unobjec- tionable, and in nowise contrary to the law or the public welfare. The Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces of Prussia specially mentions the following matters as falling to the province of the executive : (1) To execute all laws and decrees as well as the orders of the authorities to which it is subject ; (2) to formulate the resolutions of the communal assembly DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 95 and give effect to them "in so far as it agrees with the same " ; (3) to administer the communal institutions and to super- intend the institutions for which special administrations are appointed ; (4) to administer the revenues of the commune ; (5) to administer the property of the commune and to protect its rights ; (6) to appoint communal officers after hearing the com- munal assembly thereupon and to supervise the same ; (7) to have custody of the documents and archives of the commune ; (8) to represent the town in external matters and to negotiate with authorities and private persons in its name, to carry on correspondence and to execute communal documents ; and (9) to apportion communal contributions and services (taxes) according to the laws and resolutions amongst those liable and to collect the same. The Ordinance states generally, however, that it is the duty of the executive to enforce the decisions of the town council " in so far as it is in agreement therewith." The reservation is one of the utmost significance, for it gives to the executive a position of great independence. Should the executive refuse to enforce any resolution of the council on the ground that it exceeds the latter's competence or is contrary to the public interest, it must duly report to the council its reasons for such refusal. Should the council hold to its decision and the executive still decline to give way, appeal may be made to the District Committee to decide between the conflicting opinions. Naturally local authorities are slow to call in the aid of the supervisory body, and internal disputes are usually settled by compromise. A large number of the duties of the mayor and executive lie quite outside the sphere of communal government, as, for example, those relating to the elections to the Diets, to the Imperial Parliament, the assessment and collection of certain State taxes and contributions, certain military matters, the 96 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY preparation and publication of jury lists and the election of arbitrators, the supervision of the trade guilds and the regulation of various matters within the sphere of the Indus- trial Code, the decision of disputes of certain kinds where there is no Industrial Court, and the institution and management of industrial, commercial, and trade guild courts, and courts of arbitration, together with the many duties imposed upon them by the social insurance legislation. In addition, the chief mayors of some of the large towns are called to the upper chamber of the Diet. It is, however, in its capacity as a body of permanent heads of departments that the executive does its most important work. It is responsible (under the mayor) for the administra- tion of all municipal institutions and enterprises, such as schools, hospitals, savings banks, parks, markets, Poor Law agencies, houses of correction, sanitation, sewerage, and water works, and the various works connected with transport, lighting, etc. Other duties are the administration of the town's property and finances, and the regulation of local taxation (subject to control by the town council), the collection of the taxes, the guarding of the town's rights in all directions, the appointment and the supervision of officials, the care of the public archives, and the representation of the municipality in its corporate capacity, though here the person of the mayor comes into special prominence. Most important of all, while it is the business of the executive to work out and put into operation the schemes of the representative assembly, its own power of initiative is unrestricted, subject to endorse- ment by that assembly. The executive with its head, the mayor, may be regarded as at once the brain and the hands of the communal assembly. It is a standing committee, watching day by day the interests of the town, ever on the look out for new opportunities of useful action, exercising direct control over every one of the town's manifold activities, and bringing to the discharge of all its functions the skill, resource, knowledge, and experience that may be expected from a body of trained experts. The work of the executive goes on all through the year, and from year to year. The town council may meet often or rarely, DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 97 but the executive never suspends either energy or vigilance. It is the sleepless eye of the municipality, that looks behind and before, and keeps continual guard upon the interests of the community. Perhaps in no department of affairs has the German faith in the value of science and training been more justified than in local government, for the institution of the permanent executive places at the service of every town a body of skilled experts, each equipped for his work by special knowledge and preparation. It is a commonplace observation that German municipal enterprise years ago extended to some directions which are only now being touched in this country. Yet this fact need not excite surprise when it is remembered how long and how well Germany has been served by these special corps of trained men, whose business it is not merely to wait on public opinion, which is as a rule so little informed as to a com- munity's real needs and truest interests, but to anticipate those needs and to safeguard those interests by the exercise of intelligent foresight, ever influenced in its action not by fugitive exigencies, but by considerations of future and per- manent utility and advantage. If it be conceded that the institution of the standing executive possesses these great merits, it must be admitted that a rare degree of insight and prescience characterised the statesmen who created this insti- tution generations ago, when communal government was in its infancy, and when^ts scope and responsibilities were insignifi- cant in comparison with the requirements of the present day. In some of the large towns of Prussia constant increase of municipal work has led to the appointment of a certain number of paid adjuncts to the magistracy with the name " assessors " (Magistratsassessoren), who after a certain term of service become "councillors" (Magistratsr&te). They are assigned to the various committees, and sometimes are entrusted with the direction of minor departments of administration. Some of these officials are elected for six years at once, and later they may be appointed for life. The executive decides at will the frequency of its meetings. As a rule, it meets once a week on a fixed day in the larger towns, but in the smaller towns it may meet only when required. 98 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY THE MAYOR AND HIS FUNCTIONS. Although considered last, the mayor is the most important member of the municipal government. He is the crown of the structure, perfecting but also adorning it and binding it together. The representative authority, in the words of the Prussian Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces, " controls the administration," the magistracy or executive is " the supreme authority of the town and manages its communal affairs," but the mayor " directs and superintends the entire business of the urban administration." In the larger towns the Crown often confers upon the mayor proper the title of first or chief mayor, and where in such cases a deputy is appointed he is known as second mayor or only as mayor ; except in Saxony and Bavaria, the title of chief mayor is honorary and not statutory, and is held by favour of the Crown. Berlin, Cassel, Charlotten- burg, and Frankfort-on-Main have each a chief mayor and one mayor ; Munich and Mannheim have a chief mayor and three mayors ; and many large towns only a chief mayor or mayor. Whatever their rank, mayors are, as a rule, chosen for twelve years, and on re-election they may be appointed for life. The new Municipal Ordinance for Wiirtemberg, however, abolished life mayoralties in the case of new appointments and fixed the tenure at ten years, but gave existing life mayors the right to submit themselves for re-election if they were so disposed. In that State the mayors are chosen by the general body of enfranchised citizens, and only the aldermen are chosen by the town council. Appointments to the office of mayor unconditionally require confirmation by the Government in Prussia and Bavaria ; con- ditional confirmation only is necessary in Wiirtemberg, i.e., if a nominee has received two-thirds of all votes given by the electors (in this case the qualified citizens) he needs confirma- tion only on a declaration of unfitness made by a Disciplinary Court ; in Baden confirmation is not necessary. In Frankfort- on-Main, which is under a separate constitution, the chief mayor is nominated by the Crown, and the second mayor needs confirmation. The mayors are also chosen by the Crown in the communes of Neu-Vorpommern and Riigen. In the DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 99 eastern provinces of Prussia the Crown confirms appointments both of mayors and deputy mayors in towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants ; while in smaller towns these appoint- ments are confirmed by the District President, who may only refuse assent if the District Committee supports him, but the District President may appeal to the Ministry of the Interior when his decision is not endorsed. The provisions applying in Prussia in the event of non- confirmation of appointments are the same in the case of mayors and members of the executive generally. If confirma- tion is withheld in due form the town council or the executive may appeal to the Ministry of the Interior, who may reverse the refusal. When an appointment is not confirmed it is the duty of the town council to present another nomination, and in the event oi this not being acceptable, or of the same candi- date being presented, or of refusal to present at all, the District President may appoint a commissary to act at the town's expense until the town council makes an acceptable appoint- ment. The German mayor stands in the forefront of municipal life and government in a way that the English mayor and the Scottish provost do not. An English mayor has no administrative power beyond that which is conferred upon him by the town council, every one of whose members is his equal in matters of juris- diction. The German mayor has the same status and authority in the domain of local administration as that which belongs in Germany to the head of a Government. To add to his dignity, if he happens to be the head of one of the larger Prussian towns he is invariably called to the House of Lords as a member for life. The presidency of the executive is his first function. He directs its proceedings, allots to the members their several ressorts or departments of work, and requires of them a periodical account of their stewardship, for to him directly they are in the first instance responsible. There is not a functionary in the service of the municipality who does not owe him perfect obedience and undivided fidelity, and over whose actions he has not a controlling voice. Just as the executive may refuse to permit the town council to do actions which it believes to be illegal or improper, so it is the right ioo MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY and the duty of the mayor to control the action of his own colleagues, whether they form with himself a college or not ; if they in turn are about to commit themselves to a question- able cpurse of procedure he may intervene with a definitive prohibition, and their hand is at once stayed. In all his relations with his colleagues, indeed, whether they be fellow-members of a " magistracy," as in the eastern parts of Prussia, or adjoints, as in the west of the kingdom, the mayor occupies a dominant position. So far does his power go that, in the event of laxity on the part either of municipal officials or of members of the executive, it is the mayor who finds fault, admonishes, warns, and, if need be, resorts to severer measures. So, too, he grants leave of absence, or refuses it at will. The " right to reprove " the mayor may exercise very sparingly, yet he asserts it very jealously as against any pretensions of the town council to use it in his place. Not long ago, during a sitting of the Berlin City Council, a remark made by a member of the executive led the chairman to reprove that official. The chief mayor promptly rose in protest. " Reproof," he said, " is a disciplinary measure, and the chairman of this assembly possesses no right of reproof in respect of any member of the executive ; that right belongs to me alone." The right is, indeed, formally secured to him by the Municipal Ordinance under which the towns of the eastern provinces of Prussia are governed. It has even been decided by Court of Appeal that a mayor has a right to reprove an unsalaried member of the executive in the event of abuse of office. This right to control and judge the official conduct of his colleagues on the executive extends also to the subaltern officials, and here again the mayor will suffer no interference. The Charlottenburg chief mayor re- cently issued an order forbidding the drinking of beer during office hours. This infraction of a treasured privilege excited protest, and the town council wished to debate the obnoxious order. In the exercise of his right to determine the agenda the chief mayor refused to allow his authority even to be criticised. There is only one exception to this personal supremacy of the mayor ; it is the case of the member of the executive who represents the police authority in its relation- DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 101 ship to the municipality where the mayor himself is not chosen to do so, as he usually is. Even under the " magisterial " system the mayor can in certain eventualities act entirely on his own responsibility. Such are the cases in which a prior resolution by the executive would occasion a harmful loss of time ; the mayor must then decide alone, yet report to the next meeting of the executive for the purpose of having his action ratified or reversed. Further, in respect to functions which the State transfers to him the mayor is perfectly independent and is under no obligation to consult his colleagues or the town council. In passing, there are certain notable disqualifications for the office of mayor, as there are for that of the magistracy ; persons interested in the retail sale of intoxicating drinks, agents of fire and hail insurance companies, and collectors of State income tax are all excluded. The mayor is a salaried official, and his position is a pro- fessional one, requiring in the occupant special training. This office has been compared to that of the English or Scottish town clerk, but the analogy is very slight. The German mayor does, indeed, discharge personally or by deputy many of the functions which belong to the town clerk, but his power goes very much further, and his influence and official dignity are greater. He is, in truth, a microcosm of the entire adminis- trative life and activity of the town. Nothing can be done without him ; he is elected by the municipal body, but in many ways is independent of and superior to it. He directs policy, initiates measures, and helps forward or discourages the measures of others according to his wisdom. He repre- sents the town in all public capacities and official relationships. He is its Prime Minister, its Home Secretary, and its Foreign Secretary all in one. To take a homelier illustration, he is both the mainspring of the municipal clock and the clock face ; he keeps the machinery going, and he tells the time. His col- leagues on the executive are the wheels, and indispensable though they are, they would be useless without the motive force which propels them ; and just as there are clocks which go without wheels, so a German municipality might dispense with an executive, and still more a town council, but without 102 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY its mayor it would be the mere shadow of a reality. 1 Such a man and such an office carry great weight in Germany. The mayor of a large provincial town is an enviable person who, having arrived at this goal of ambition, is usually content to remain where he is for life. For the fine flower of the municipal service, however, fate sometimes has richer rewards in store. For just as every professional alderman is the potential mayor of some commune or other, larger or smaller, so the first citizen of one of the great towns has ever before him the possibility of becoming one day a Minister of State. The law of Prussia prescribes no specific qualifications for the position of mayor, yet the fact that it is a professional and, nowadays, a highly paid position, carrying great influence and an enviable social position, has widened the area of choice and attracted to the office men of the highest attainments. Alike in large and smaller towns the great majority of mayors and many of the salaried members of the executives are men of legal training. Of 329 salaried officials belonging to these ranks in 33 large towns of Germany in 1911, 235 were jurists, 54 technical experts, 22 philologists, three doctors, three political economists, and 12 other men with some other special training. Side by side with them were experts who had the management of special departments of municipal work, e.g., doctors, architects, educationists, experts in forestry, etc. Less importance is attached nowadays to a purely legal training and preparation. This may be useful, but it is felt that for an official who has to administer finance, commercial enterprise, education, poor relief, social reform, and above all 1 As an illustration of the way in which the fortunes of German towns are made by able mayoral administrators, whose business it is to devote all their thought to this end, the following public tribute to the retiring chief mayor of Duisburg-on-the-Rhine may be quoted from a Berlin newspaper of February 12, 1914 : " The chief mayor of Duisburg is about to seek well-earned rest after thirty- four years of work. When in 1880 he took over the direction of the town's affairs Duisburg had 34,000 inhabitants. To-day Duisburg, with the amalga- mated Ruhrort and Meiderich, has a population of 244,000. This remarkable development is specially due to the far-sighted municipal policy pursued by the chief mayor, who made it his endeavour to attract new industries to the town. His greatest triumphs were the formation of the partnership with the State for the creation of the docks as the result of which Duisburg is the largest inland port in the world and the incorporation of Ruhrort and Meiderich in 1905." DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 103 to manage men, other qualifications are more necessary, such as a thorough grasp of economic science, great business aptitude, practical sense and savoir faire, and a considerable knowledge of the world and men. Recently there has been a disposition in some towns to seek mayors outside the ranks of those trained in municipal service, for the belief is growing that for this office and the responsibility which it carries " the best is only good enough." Not many years ago no body of public servants were paid so poorly relatively to their responsibilities and rank as the mayors and permanent aldermen of German towns. Of late there has been a great improvement, and the salaries of these officials are still on the up-grade, thanks to the keen competition of the larger towns for good men. Berlin pays its chief mayor a salary of 2,000, Frankfort-on-Main pays 1800, and the salaries in other towns are : Diisseldorf, 1650 ; Charlotten- burg, 1525 ; Breslau and Cologne, 1500 ; Nuremberg, 1360 ; Essen, 1350 ; Leipzig, Magdeburg, and Altona, 1250 ; Hanover, 1200 ; Stettin and Aix-la-Chapelle, 1150 ; Konigs- berg, Schoneberg, and Elberfeld, 1100 ; Barmen and Wilmers- dorf, 1075 ; Dortmund and Freiburg, 1050 ; and Dresden, Chemnitz, Crefeld, Duisburg, Mannheim, Strassburg, Posen, Stuttgart, and Wiesbaden, 1000. Many other large towns pay their chief mayors between 800 and 1000, while the salaries paid in smaller towns are proportionately lower. " Second mayors " receive as a rule from 800 to 1000, but the latter sum only in exceptional cases. Sometimes a mayoral residence or a grant on account of residence is added to the chief mayor's salary. In some cases representation money is also paid, though all costs of the kind are usually discharged by the town direct. In towns with from 5000 to 10,000 inhabitants the mayor's salary commonly ranges from 250 to 400. The conditions of retirement are liberal. Thus the Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces of Prussia provides that both mayors and paid members of the executive shall in the event of incapacity, or of their not being re-elected at the expiration of any period of appointment, receive as pension one-quarter of their salary after six years of service, one-half after twelve years, and seven-tenths after twenty-four years. 104 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Service in one communal administration counts for pension in another; hence when a pensioned officer enters State or communal service elsewhere his pension is either forfeited or suspended to the extent that his pension and his new salary together may exceed his earlier income. Statutory provision is also made for widows and for orphans up to a certain age. THE " MAGISTERIAL " AND " MAYORAL " EXECUTIVE SYSTEMS COMPARED. Reference has been made already to the two principal forms in which the executive is found in Prussia and other parts of Germany the " magisterial," as in the eastern districts, and the " mayoral," as in the west and several peculiarities of the two forms may be noted here. Under the " magisterial " system the executive acts as a body and its decisions are determined by the vote of the majority. The mayor as its chairman can give a casting vote in the event of a tie, but otherwise as a member of the executive he is simply primus inter pares, and he is bound by the decision of a majority of his colleagues except in the exercise of powers transferred to him personally by law or the Government. Some Municipal Ordinances give the mayor the right to object to resolutions of the executive, in which case its only remedy is to appeal to Government or to the Administrative Court. It would lead us into details too technical in character to explain the course of procedure laid down for the meetings and deliberations of the "magistracy" to instance the ques- tions which can only be determined in plenary sitting, those less important matters which can be transacted without severe formality, the order of business which must be followed, the system of reports and references, and the like. While in parts of Bavaria meetings are open to the public, in Prussia secrecy as to all proceedings is usually prescribed by law, and neither verbal nor written communication may be made by a member of the executive as to any business that has been transacted, on pain in certain eventualities of dismissal from office. Should a member be in any way personally interested in any matter of discussion he may not take part, but must withdraw from the sitting. Under the "mayoral" regime the town councils withhold from DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 105 the executive certain powers possessed by the " magistracy," but they lose them to the mayor. This official is both the administrative head of the town and the president of its representative assembly ; he directs the entire work of the commune, and assigns to each of his adjoints, whether paid or unpaid, his special duties, while the adjoints are responsible to him personally. There is here no college of aldermen in which every question has to be decided by the majority, for the adjoints are in effect the mayor's assistants. Except in questions of prime importance, each adjoint is supposed to manage his department independently, and to bear responsi- bility for his own decisions, yet this independence is only theoretical, for the mayor has the last word always, and he can accept or reject at will any policy or measure proposed by his colleagues, so that in the event of disagreement the adjoint has to choose between compliance and resignation. It is a much discussed question which of the two systems of executive government is the more efficient. The question is clearly one for the application of the dictum : " That system of government is best which works best," and the fact that towns which have organised their government upon one method seldom or never go over to the other suggests that there are advantages as well as possible defects on both sides. Hitherto the idea has been widely prevalent that the "mayoral" system was best suited to small towns or suited to them only ; nowadays, owing to the greater expedition of business pro- moted by this system, it is regarded by many authorities as even more expedient in large towns than in small. On the other hand, under the " mayoral " system there is always a fear of the mayor becoming excessively bureaucratic. For though the chairman of the town council, like the English mayor, and controlled by that body, he is still the executive head of the town, and responsible for the direction of all its affairs. Such a position carries great responsibility and requires the exercise of wide powers, but it also conduces to a sort of informal dictatorship. The East German mayor is likewise the head of the executive, but he is subject, in theory at least, to the control of his colleagues, who act with him as a college; under the "mayoral" system this 106 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY control is absent, while the control theoretically possible to the town council is in practice unreal and apparent. Under the " magisterial " system also the popular assembly is at a disadvantage in its relations with the executive. Not only do the individual magistrates or aldermen under this system possess far more power than is enjoyed by the ad joints under the " mayoral " system, but as between executive and town council the balance of power is overwhelmingly on the side of the permanent officials. Herein lies a source of frequent friction. Because they possess such large power, and because they are in a sense set apart from the town council, to which none the less they owe their existence, the " magistrates " in their corporate capacity are far more ready to assert their rights, and far more jealous of any invasion of them, than the adjoints. It is a common experience that the mayor and senators of a town under the " magisterial " regime do not invariably show the same spirit of accommodation and the same friendly co-operation which seem to characterise the general relationship of town council and executive under the rival system. When the interests of the town are threatened from the outside, whether by the State or private individuals, " magistracy " and town council work together with un- divided will, but in internal matters the relationship between the two bodies is apt to be strained owing to suspicion on both sides, and here and there to partake even of the character of an armed peace. It is not that the men who form the "magistracy" in Eastern Prussia are different in character and temperament from the mayor and adjoints of the west, but that the conditions under which they work are not equally conducive to harmonious dealings. Not long ago a thoughtful writer in the " Cologne Gazette " (June 3, 1911) called attention to this fact, and his observa- tions will probably be endorsed by all impartial observers of the two systems in actual working. He wrote : " The meet- ings of the municipal bodies in Rhenish towns create always the impression that the mayor, adjoints, and town councillors regard each other as equal partners, co-operate willingly, and evince no natural antagonism. In Berlin, on the other hand, one has only to read the reports of the city council's meetings DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 107 in order to be convinced that the ' magistracy ' and the council regard each other as born enemies, each eager to invade the domain of the other and to resist invasion in return. Nor must it be supposed that the jealousy shown towards the municipal bureaucracy is confined to the Social Democrats, for it inspires all parties, which in this common prejudice forget their own antagonisms." A council can, of course, exercise the right to refuse to reappoint undesirable honorary senators when their time of office expires, yet even if changes are made it is with the knowledge that the new men will be sure, sooner or later, to assimilate the prevailing temper and tradition. DEVOLUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES : DEPUTATIONS, COMMISSIONS, ETC. Just as the English borough and urban district councils work through a series of committees, so under the German system of communal government subordinate bodies are formed for the management of various branches of municipal work and enterprise and for purely deliberative purposes. These bodies are constituted in any desired number by the executive, to which they are directly subordinate, and they have no direct contact with the representative assembly or any outside authorities. They are named differently in different towns, but the principles upon which duties are devolved upon them are everywhere the same. In Berlin and other Prussian towns these bodies are of two kinds " Deputations " and " Commissions." Among the branches of administrative work which are most commonly entrusted to these bodies are finance, buildings, poor relief, public health, municipal estate, town planning, land purchase, abattoirs, gas and power works, tramways, sewerage, educa- tion, theatres, public parks, market halls, and scavenging. The Deputations and Commissions may consist (i) of mem- bers of the executive only, (2) of these and members of the town council, or (3) to both elements a sprinkling of outside citizens may be added. In large towns the first constitution is usual, since greater unity and expedition of procedure is thus attained. The members of the executive who sit upon these bodies are elected thereto by the executive itself, while io8 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the town council elects its own body and co-opts the out- siders. The honorary members of all kinds are generally elected in proportion to the strength of parties represented in the town council. The mayor is ex officio the chairman, and in his absence the senior member of the executive present takes his place. In no way, however, is the authority of the mayor limited or weakened by the existence of these sub- ordinate bodies, however formed. The Deputations and Commissions receive their orders from that officer and the executive, and within the limits of the work and authority entrusted to them they enjoy considerable independence, with the proviso that they are in the last resort subject to the control of the authority from which they proceed, and that they have no control over finance. The Deputations occupy a higher status than the Commissions, however, in that they possess administrative functions while the Commissions are deliberative bodies. At the same time even a Deputation cannot bring forward in the town council any proposal inde- pendently of the executive. If individual members do so it is only in their capacity as councillors. Special rules apply in Prussia to the constitution of the School Deputation, which must consist (according to the size of the town) of one to three members of the executive, one to three members of the town council, an equal number of experts on educational questions, and when non-municipal schools are subject to the Deputation a representative of such schools must be added. As a rule this Deputation numbers nine (or ten) in the larger towns, six (or seven) in towns of medium size, and three (or four) in small towns. All the members of such a Deputation need to be confirmed in office by the Government, which claims this right in virtue of the contention that such a Deputation is a subsidiary part of the State education authority, while all other Deputations are merely auxiliary to the municipal executive. The consequence of this liability to confirmation is that persons politically objectionable to the Government can always be kept out of office. As illustrating the close connection between State and Church in Prussia, it may be stated that in small towns the leading clergyman must be one of the experts on the School DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 109 Deputation ; and indeed the co-operation of the clergy in education is enjoined by law as of special importance. The place which the Deputations occupy in the administra- tion of a large city may be illustrated by the case of Berlin, which has separate Deputations for poor relief, the care of orphans, finance, schools, taxation, public libraries and reading- rooms, industry (including the supervision of the trade guilds), building plans, etc., means of communication (tramways, railways, steamboats, etc.), gymnastic halls and bathing- places, charitable foundations, municipal real estate, sewerage and the sewage farms, the artistic property of the city, the market halls, waterworks, gasworks, the labour house and shelters for the homeless, the care of the blind, technical and continuation schools, municipal fire insurance, higher schools, hospitals and public health, the care of imbeciles, parks and gardens, the provision of fuel, the provision of writing materials, chemical laboratory for hygienic and industrial purposes, the internal decoration of the town hall, and street cleaning. There is also a large group of Commissions. Devolution to bodies smaller and of minor importance, known as curatories (Curatorieri) , is also usual in Berlin. These bodies have charge of the convalescent homes, the savings banks, the public cemeteries, the Frederick William Hospital and Invalids' Homes, and the cattle markets, abattoirs, and meat inspection. To take a Prussian town of smaller size, the town council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in the Rhinelano* province of Prussia, has Deputations, Commissions, and Committees for fifty-nine different branches of municipal work or enterprise. In illustration of the plan of devolution usual in South Germany the case of Nuremberg may be cited. There a warden or curator (Pfleger] is assigned to every municipal institu- tion, property, and branch of public work, and it is his duty to exercise supervision over his trust in the name of the executive, and to see to the execution of all decisions of that body in relation to it. Special councils (Rate), of which the first mayor is chairman, exist for the administration of poor relief and of the schools, and for the care of orphans. Other departments of public work and enterprise for which special no MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY administrative or supervisory committees exist are the gas- works, electricity works, tramways, buildings, gardens, cattle market and abattoir, chemical laboratory (analysis of food- stuffs), hospitals, cemeteries, pawnshop, savings bank, insur- ance, labour registry, schools, library and archives, charitable endowments, statistical office, registry of birth, deaths, and marriages, finance, hospitals, etc. Many of the larger towns keep in touch with public opinion by the issue of daily or weekly Official Gazettes (often called Gemeindeblatt] . Primarily intended for municipal announce- ments, reports of town council meetings, and other official information, these journals sometimes devote attention to the affairs and news of the day party politics excluded and in several towns they compete for public favour with the ordinary newspapers. In addition to publishing official bulletins, Berlin, Mann- heim, Cologne, and several other large towns have municipal intelligence bureaux, for the purpose of supplying the Press and the citizens with information relating to administrative matters. Another and more important branch of the municipal intelligence service is the Statistical Office, an institution which has reached a high standard of efficiency in German towns, and is worthy of wider imitation in this and other countries. Forty-six German towns have organised special and permanent departments for statistics, directed by trained men of the highest capacity, and producing year by year reports and records which of their kind are rarely equalled in any other country. Some of these Statistical Offices date from half a century ago, and most of them can boast a distinguished record of honourable achievement in the service of local government. It must be added that German towns appear to take great pride in the worthy housing of their local administrations. The new town halls of some of the great towns Munich, Leipzig, and Berlin among the number are noble and dignified structures that fitly typify the largeness of conception which characterises municipal life and enterprise in Germany. Often the ambition to own a stately town hall leads towns into extravagant outlay far beyond either their financial resources DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS in or their needs ; debts of some such towns bear traces of the penalty of unjustifiable ostentation, but this is a matter in which German towns generally are disposed to prodigality, and their autonomy enables them to indulge in architectural luxury to any extent they please. HONORARY SERVICE IN COMMUNAL ADMINISTRATION. It will be seen from the plan of devolution described that although the German system of municipal government is based on the principle of rule by the expert it does not taboo honorary service. Rather it sets the professional officer and the volun- tary worker in their right relationship ; with the former at the front, always directing and controlling municipal policy. But devolution does not stop with the larger administrative committees, upon which the permanent officials predominate or otherwise exercise complete control, for room is found in other directions for a large variety of honorary service. In most States such service is an obligation not to be evaded save on ample grounds. The first Prussian Municipal Ordin- ance of 1808 went so far as to punish citizens who systematic- ally neglected to exercise the vote by disentitling them either to vote or to take any part in the government of their commune. That provision no longer stands, yet all citizens eligible to vote in local elections are still liable to accept honorary office in the communal government if called upon so to do, and to hold such office for three years, unless ex- empted by reason of permanent illness, affairs which require their frequent or protracted absence from home, age (over sixty years), the holding of some other public position, practice as a physician or surgeon, or other special circumstances. The punishment for refusal to accept office is deprivation of rights as a citizen for a period of from three to six years, and taxation on a higher scale. Apart from membership of the representative assembly, honorary service plays a prominent part in connection with the committees for poor relief, the care of orphans, housing, education, and the management of charitable foundations administered by the town. The army of honorary workers may be divided into two ii2 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY sections a first reserve, composed of " burgher deputies " and district superintendents, and a second reserve, comprising the large body of miscellaneous citizens, both men and women, who are liable to serve on committees, or in such other ways as the mayor and executive may think best. The " burgher deputies," who are found both in North and South Germany, are co-opted citizens of character and substance, upon whom the mayor and executive are able to fall back when special work of an honorary kind has to be done. These "burgher deputies" do not sit on the council, but are prominent upon the more important committees, such as the assessment and taxation committees. An important part in the public life of the town is also played by the district superintendents (Bezirksvorsteher), who are honorary officers appointed by wards or localities for the purpose of assisting the executive in various matters within their districts, e.g., the general oversight of the streets, bridges, watercourses, wells, etc., ambulance depots, and the hundred and one petty matters of order and decorum that mean little individually but together contribute so much to the amenity of public life. The distritt superintendent is also expected to acquaint himself with the social conditions of his fragment of the town, so that his knowledge and advice may be of value in the administration of poor relief and the " social welfare " agencies of the municipality. More numerous are the workers who are called upon to co-operate on the various committees already enumerated. In the constitution of these committees a fair attempt is made to enlist the services of all sections of the community. For example, Berlin had in 1913 no fewer than 446 district poor relief committees, with 5650 members, of whom 2299 were described as tradesmen and handicraftsmen, 837 merchants, 351 manufacturers, 140 restaurateurs, 98 architects, surveyors, engineers, and chemists, 52 doctors, veterinary surgeons, and dentists, 265 schoolmasters and teachers, 13 clergymen, 351 State and municipal officials, 5 lawyers, 58 apothecaries, 46 bank officials, 22 church and cemetery officials, 548 rentiers, 91 overseers and journeymen, 7 unskilled labourers, and 134 followed miscellaneous occupations. When, in 1914, Berlin set DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 113 up its new Housing Board it was formed of 20 paid officials and 743 honorary members, these being divided amongst 118 district committees, each with from four to 12 members. In some of the spheres of work above mentioned women take an important part, though still prevented by the prejudice, conservatism, and shortsightedness of the sex in power from contributing all the effort and influence they would like to the common stock. In many towns they are admitted rather than welcomed to the education, housing, poor relief, and orphans' committees, yet sometimes on unequal terms, being permitted only to deliberate and not to vote. They are more readily nominated upon the less official committees which direct certain branches of the town's general " social welfare " work. It is estimated that a total of 18,000 women are engaged in communal work of various kinds in some 300 communes, and that about 450 occupy positions as salaried officials. The States in which on the whole the value of women's work in local administration has been most widely recognised are Baden, Bavaria, and Saxony, yet comparing individual towns there is still great disparity in the degree of recognition extended to women. THE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFFS. The general conditions of service of municipal officials, their rights and duties, their pension claims and the claims of their survivors are, as a rule, laid down in special laws in each State. The rules as to the appointment of mayors and salaried members of the executives have already been explained. The higher officials next under them are appointed either by the mayor or the executive or by the town council for the practice differs in various States ; but the officers of minor rank are invariably appointed by the mayor alone or in conjunction with his colleagues of the executive. In general, the higher appoint- ments are, either legally or by prescription, life appointments. It has been estimated that over 40 per cent, of the officers engaged in the general administration and under 30 per cent, of those engaged in the technical departments of government are so appointed. As a rule, the aspirants for positions on the permanent staff are required to serve for several years either H4 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY without salary or for a nominal payment, and, in view of this long time of probation and of the high educational qualifica- tions required, the salaries paid, even to the occupants of the highest positions, cannot be described as excessive. Nevertheless, the competition for admission to the municipal service is keen, and the administrations of large towns in particular have always long lists of aspirants-in- waiting, ready to take the place of the probationers directly these have been settled in permanent positions or otherwise disposed of. The supernumerary offices are filled subject to less onerous qualifications, though here, again, it is probably the fact of certain employment, the prospect of good retirement allow- ances, and the satisfaction supposed to be incidental to employment in the public service that attract to the ranks rather than liberality in present remuneration. In many towns the minor offices are systematically thrown open to young men who have passed through elementary schools and have carried further their education by private effort, while in some towns the municipal executive superintends the special training of the future officers of the lower grades. In most Prussian towns the salaries of officials on the establish- ment are paid quarterly, but in the larger towns of other States monthly, in advance. The efficiency of the administrative staffs of German towns is best proved by the results of their work as seen in the exemplary government of these towns. The one fault found by German critics of the organisation of local government is that it has imbibed the spirit of the State bureaucracy too freely ; resolutions are adopted with laudable promptness, but their execution is apt to be unduly delayed owing to the wearisome routine which has to be observed, not because routine is necessary, but because it has come to be regarded as part of the system. German municipal officials themselves often complain of the futile, tedious, time-wasting red- tapeism by which they are bound or bind themselves, and it is a fair conclusion that an average English mayor or town clerk would make short work of much of the needless circum- locution and formality which German municipal governments have unwisely borrowed from the State bureaucratic system. DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 115 SCHOOLS FOR COMMUNAL GOVERNMENT. It would be strange if the land of schools failed to link up its seats of learning with its system of communal government. The science of local government for Germany persists in so regarding local government may be studied in a host of colleges and schools in all parts of the country. Diisseldorf and Cologne have special colleges for communal administration where future officials and town councillors are taken through the entire range of administrative questions. Other schools in Prussia are those of Hagen, Aschersleben, and Bochum, while in Berlin instruc- tion is given in some of the continuation schools to young people desirous of entering the lower grades of the municipal service. In Saxony there are schools for communal officials at Cottbus and Nerchau (the latter with 145 pupils in training in 1911). The same purpose is served in Bavaria by the regular courses of lectures held in connection with the Munich Trade College. A school for communal officials exists at Eisenach for the Thuringian States, with a two years' course on such questions as local finance and taxation, education, poor relief, town planning, police functions, and social legis- lation. Other towns, like Ludwigshafen, have established schools for the training of police officials. The municipal authorities of some of the larger towns directly superintend the training of certain classes of minor officials. Accepting young men direct from school as probationers, they prescribe for them a suitable course of instruction in continuation classes, and, after three years, examinations are held upon the results of which depends the chance of permanent engage- ment. MUNICIPAL CONGRESSES AND LEAGUES. German municipal authorities unite in a large number of federations and con- gresses for mutual protection, assistance, advice, and the periodical discussion of questions of common interest. The most influential of these organisations is the Municipal Congress for the Empire (the Dcutscher Stddtctag), to which are affiliated all towns with a population exceeding 25,000 and ten municipal leagues. Its members represent more than one-fourth of the population of the Empire. The Con- n6 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY gress exists to further the interests of the affiliated towns and their governments in every possible way, to afford oppor- tunities, by conference and otherwise, for the exchange of ideas, and to place at the disposal of the affiliated authorities the collective knowledge and experience of the members. The Congress meets every three years in different parts of the country, and meetings of the executive are held as circum- stances may require. When important questions of public policy or legislative proposals affecting the towns come to the front, the Congress or its executive presses its views upon the Government and is heard with respect, if not always with agreement. The Congress has in Berlin a central office (Zentralstelle] which, in addition to keeping a large library, serves as a clearing house for the collection and dissemination of information relating to any and every department of town government. Local authorities report to it their experiments and experiences, and it calls upon them for reports upon such special questions as may be submitted to it for investigation. Its journal is a treasure-house of useful and informing facts bearing on practical questions of local government. Separate municipal congresses exist for all the important States, and for some of the Prussian provinces. In addition there are many conferences of mayors. JOINT ADMINISTRATIVE BOARDS FOR COMMON PURPOSES. The opportunity of combining for special purposes, on the principle of the English joint board or committee, is offered to adjacent communes by special laws in Prussia, Saxony, and other States. " Communal unions " of this kind have long been common in Saxony, and a law of 1910 further facilitates their formation. The purposes usually served are tramway construction and regulation, road maintenance, and the supply of water, gas, and electricity, but in some cases communes have combined for the purpose of obtaining loans on more advantageous terms. The formation of an inter- communal union of the kind, and the regulations under which it works, are subject to the sanction of the Government or the higher administrative authorities. In the new law the Govern- ment reserves power to compel communes or manorial districts DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 117 to combine when by remaining apart they would be unable to discharge certain of their duties satisfactorily. Prussia first adopted legislation to facilitate such com- bination in the case of rural districts in the form of the Rural Commune Ordinance (Landgemeindeordnung) of July 3, 1891, applying to the seven eastern provinces of the kingdom. This permissive measure allowed combinations of adjacent rural parishes and manorial districts, and of these and towns ; but towns might not combine amongst themselves. Never- theless, experience showed that there were many cases in which joint action between adjacent towns was desirable and almost imperative as, for instance, for the provision and regulation of transport arrangements, for town planning, building regulations, forest preservation, water supply, hospital pro- vision, taxation, education, poor relief, sewerage, etc. In order to meet such cases a law was passed in 1911 not merely placing urban districts on the same level as rural in this respect, but providing for the compulsory combination of urban and rural districts under certain circumstances. A separate law on the same lines was passed in the same year creating for the larger part of the area of Greater Berlin including seven urban districts and two rural districts (circles), the latter comprising a number of populous com- munes of an urban character, a joint board (Zweckverband] for the purpose of regulating the entire tramway systems of the district, of acquiring, building, and working tramways on the common account where necessary, for town planning, and the acquisition and maintenance of large areas of land to be kept out of the builders' hands and reserved as forest, parks, gardens, sport and recreation grounds, and the like. The joint board was an administrative necessity, called for by the omission of Berlin to incorporate the neighbouring areas years ago, when the Government was not only willing but wishful that Greater Berlin should form an administrative unit. A lethargic and short-sighted city government allowed the precious opportunity to pass unimproved and it has lamented its mistake ever since. The consequence is that within this large area to all intents and purposes a single community administrative anarchy n8 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY prevails, as illustrated by the absence of any uniform plan of town extension, street building, or traffic regulation, unequal taxation, conflicting practices in poor relief and educational policy, etc. For a distance of over twelve miles in various directions the boundary of Berlin consists of streets which are common to the city and the suburbs, so that it is only necessary to cross a street in order to enter another juris- diction, while forty Berlin streets are continued in suburban communes without break of any kind. In a memorial on the subject addressed to the Government several years ago, the Chief Mayor stated : " The city of Berlin in the execution of traffic schemes has to encounter almost insuperable obstacles in consequence of the absence of organisation in Greater Berlin. Every individual commune carries out its own traffic policy without regard to the interests of the whole or even of its neighbour commune." Not only so, but the adjacent communes wilfully obstruct each other whenever there is the slightest conflict of interest. A few years ago the municipality of Berlin proposed to erect a hospital on a piece of land belonging to it in an adjacent township. This friendly neighbour not desiring the presence of the hospital, its council promptly prepared a building plan for the area to which Berlin's land belonged, and ran a street through the site, which, in consequence, became useless for the purpose intended. The union with Berlin of all the adjacent communes is the logical solution of the problem, but as that is no longer possible some mitigation of existing difficulties is being sought by means of a joint board for the purposes named. Its members number 101, and comprise the chief mayor of Berlin (as chairman) and 100 representatives of the affiliated communes and districts, allotted in the ratio of population, and elected by the communal authorities (by town councils and executives together in the case of towns) and "circle" diets. There is a representative executive committee, but the practical work of the board is conducted by a permanent paid director, assisted by a staff of technical and other officers. The joint board is a first step towards greater uniformity of action within an area which should never have been allowed to be subdivided into administrative fragments, and while DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 119 there is no likelihood that it will pave the way for any large measure of incorporation, the extension of its present pur- poses and powers will inevitably be brought about by the mere force of circumstances. ORGANS OF STATE SUPERVISION AND CONTROL. The municipal administrations come into contact at many points with the higher local government authorities, inasmuch as these exercise supervision on behalf of the State. For that reason, and because these authorities will be mentioned repeatedly throughout the following chapters, it seems desir- able to indicate at this stage the broad outlines of the Prussian system of " provincial," " district," and " circle " govern- ment, reserving a fuller exposition for the Appendix. The corresponding organisations in the other States differ more in name than in functions. For administrative purposes the monarchy is divided into twelve provinces, thirty-seven " Government districts " (Regierungsbezirke), and further into rural and urban " circles " (Kreise), and rural and urban communes, and manorial districts. In 1910 the circles numbered 592 (of which 105 were urban), the town 1276, the rural communes 35,970, and there were 15,368 manors. The " circles," exclusively of the towns within them, are also divided into sub-districts (Amtsbezirke) for the administration of various police functions in the German sense. 1 The head of the province is the Chief President (an official created by Stein as part of his scheme of administrative reform), who is assisted by a Provincial Council; there is a representative assembly or diet, and the executive body is the Provincial Committee. For administrative purposes Berlin is detached from the province (Brandenburg) to which it belongs geographically, and is constituted a separate " Government district." The " Government districts" are organised for purely State purposes, in contrast to the province and the " circle," both of 1 The laws relating to local administration in Prussia will be found in " Organisationsgesetze der inneren Verwaltung," by Anschiitz, and an expo- sition of them in Hue de Grais' " Handbuch der Verfassung und Yerwaltung." 120 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY which have also corporate rights. The head of a " district " is the Government President, and the executive body is the District Committee, a majority of whose members are laymen nominated by the Provincial Committee. At the head of the " circle " is the Landrat, whose office and title have existed in the Mark of Brandenburg for many centuries. He directs the executive, viz., the Circle Committee, which is elected by the representative body, the Circle Diet. In each of the foregoing administrative districts the general direction of affairs is exercised by the permanent heads, who are all State officials. The towns, as we have seen, are governed by a mayor, a magistracy or executive, and a town council. In regard to the " circles" it should be stated further that towns with a civil population of at least 25,000, 30,000, or 40,000, according to the province, have a right to withdraw for administrative purposes from the "circle" to which they naturally belong, and to form independent urban " circles "; and towns with a smaller population may be given the same right in special cases. l Where a town forms a " circle ' ' it has a " town committee," composed of the mayor or his deputy, as chairman, and four other members who, in a town governed by a magis- tracy, are chosen by that body out of its members, and in other towns are chosen by the town council. This " town committee " discharges the duties of an ordinary Circle Committee, one of which is to act as a court of administration in the case of certain disputes, and another to grant con- cessions or licences of certain kinds. Graded though they are in rank in the bureaucratic sys- tem, the chief presidents, district presidents, and landrats are all supreme in their several jurisdictions ; they " act 1 In Bavaria the larger towns occupy a corresponding position and are known as " immediate " (unmittelbar) , inasmuch as they do not belong to a minor but a major provincial division, as the large Prussian towns to a " district " and not to a " circle." Similarly the English Local Government Act of 1888 recognises as " county boroughs " those boroughs which on June i of that year had a population in excess of 50,000. Under the same Act the Local Government Board may constitute any borough with the requisite population a " county borough." The effect of this status is that the boroughs are for certain purposes taken out of the county, so that they combine county with borough council powers, and in consequence are exempted from county taxation. DISTRIBUTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS 121 independently with full personal responsibility within their respective spheres of administration, except in matters regarding which joint action is prescribed by the law." 1 These officials have no counterpart in British local administra- tion. The Prussian Provincial and Circle Diets and Committees may appear at first sight to have an analogy to our county and rural district councils, but directly the organisation, functions, and competence of the two groups of authorities are examined fundamental differences come to light which far out-balance the identity of certain of their duties. The importance of the provincial, district, and circle authorities for the purposes of communal government lies in their supervisory functions, and in the case of the last two in their functions as lower administrative courts. Re- sponsibility for the general oversight of local government rests with the Ministry of the Interior (Home Office), but while financial and educational questions are referred to the Ministries for these departments, decrees issued by the latter are signed also by the Minister of the Interior. Practical oversight, however, is delegated to the local administrative officials and bodies through whom the provincial, district, and circle administration is carried out. Here we are concerned only with the towns. " State over- sight of the administration of communal affairs in towns is exercised in the first instance by the Government President, and in higher and final instances by the Chief Presidents, in so far as the laws do not provide for the co-operation of the District Committee and Provincial Council." 2 (In the case of Berlin the Chief President takes the place of the Government President, and the Minister of the Interior that of the Chief President.) The District Committee is the lower supervisory authority in most important matters regarding which municipal action requires sanction. In the case of by-laws introducing new taxes or altering existing ones, however, the assent of the Government President and oi the Minister of Finance is also necessary. 1 Section 3 (2) of Gesetz iiber die allgemeine Landesverwaltung of July 30, 1883. 1 Gesetz iiber die Zustandigkeit der Verwaltungs- und Verwaltungsgerichts- behorden, August i, 1883, Titel IV, sect. 7. The Provincial Councils and the District and Circle Com- mittees act in certain cases as courts of appeal, and the last two as administrative courts, subordinate to the Supreme Administrative Court, which is a purely judicial tribunal. The District Committee deals with disputes relating to boun- daries, complaints against resolutions of a town council relating to the acquisition, possession, or loss of burgher rights, inclusion in voters' lists, elections to the council, the right to decline or resign office, etc., alleged transgression of powers by the mayor, members of the executive, or other municipal officers, complaints against the executive in matters of taxation, disputes as to claims for pensions, etc. Disputes between poor relief unions regarding liability for maintenance are also referred to the District Committee in the first instance, the Federal Settlement Board acting for Prussia as a final court of appeal. CHAPTER V LAND POLICIES Extent of land owned by the towns Communal estate as a source of revenue Influence of land policies upon municipal development Sale of public land for housing schemes. '"T^HERE are few German towns that do not own a con- 1 siderable proportion of the land within their administra- tive areas. Often this intra-urban estate is supplemented by far larger possessions outside the boundaries. One of the first things a modern town does on receiving the urban status is to buy as much land as possible for the purpose of meeting all conceivable public needs, present and future, of competing with private adventurers when the interests of the community seem to require it, and incidentally of securing to the town a share in the increasing value of land which experience shows will inevitably result from public and private enterprise and growth of population. Not only does a town thus largely buy land, but it endeavours to distribute its estate as equally as possible throughout its area, so that in all directions it may make its influence as a proprietor felt in the land and house market. The ownership of land is, however, an old tradition of communal life in Germany, going back to a period far ante- cedent to the existing systems of local government. The practice cannot be attributed to legislation, nor is it followed by virtue of any special powers granted to the towns ; for while the powers of English urban districts in relation to land ownership are severely restricted by law, German towns are free to buy real estate on any scale whatever with- out permission of any kind, unless, indeed, the contracting of a special loan should be necessary, in which event the 123 124 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY assent of the State commissary is necessary. This assent, however, entails no local inquiry corresponding to the in- quiries of the Local Government Board, simply because the German States have no Local Government Boards and no use for them ; the proceeding is almost a formality, intended to remind the communes that the State, though it devolved upon them their wide powers of self-government, likes still to be consulted now and then, and it is arranged expeditiously through the post. For, strange as it may sound to English ears, the Governments of Germany, without exception, far from wishing to hamper the towns in their land investments, have often urged the towns to buy as much land as possible, and not to sell. EXTENT OF LAND OWNED BY THE TOWNS. The extent of land owned by German towns will probably surprise those who are unacquainted with the large views of communal enterprise held in Germany, where large towns are as ready to spend a quarter of a million pounds in buying land as an average English town of the same size is to spend ten pounds upon a watering-cart. For example, the following are the percentages of their entire administrative areas that were owned by the towns named in 1910 (roads, streets, railways, water, and fortifications are all excluded, but the property of charitable foundations under public management is regarded as town property) : Freiburg in Baden, 77-7 per cent. ; Fiirth, 66-2 per cent. ; Stettin, 62-5 per cent. ; Heidelberg, 61-1 per cent. ; Coblence, 59-5 per cent. ; Brandenburg, 52-8 per cent. ; Augsburg, 49-0 per cent. ; Mannheim, 48-6 per cent. ; and Frankfort-on-Main, 47-7 per cent. Cologne, Munich, Saarbriicken, Wiesbaden, Hildesheim, Karlsruhe, and Darm- stadt own from 30 to 40 per cent, of their areas, eleven other towns about one -quarter, and five others about one-fifth. Taking actual areas, the following was the extent of land (exclusive of roads) owned by some of the larger German towns in 1910 or 1911, with the ratio to population : LAND POLICIES 125 EXTENT OF TOWN ESTATE AND RATIO TO POPULATION. Towns. Population (191) Extent of town lands. No. of acres per looe inhabi- tants. Within adminis- Outside adminis- TotaL area. area. Berlin 2,071,300 53.6 512,100 414,500 68,300 83,3 00 66,600 85,800 193,900 596,500 65,400 178,900 2l6,IOO Acres. 5.452-8 9,264-2 2,667-4 11,868-4 3,062-8 9,846-2 3,670-2 758-3 7.339-6 5.724-7 911-7 6,549-2 8,810-5 Acres. 46,899-6 8.375-3 14,127-7 3.554*3 9,509-5 2,247-9 8.813-5 76,944-9 1 60-5 7,068-2 27,632-6 4.9I5-3 7,162-0 Acres. 52.352-4 I7.639-5 16,795-1 15.522-7 12,572-3 12,094-1 ",483-7 77,703-2 7,5i'i 12,792-9 28,544-3 ".464-5 I5.972-5 25-3 326-6 32-8 37-4 184-8 M5-7 186-3 903-5 38-6 21-4 439-1 64-0 73-9 Brandenburg Breslau Frankfort- on-Main . Frankfort-on-Oder . Freiburg-in-Baden . Furth Gorlitz Mannheim Munich Rostock Strassburg Stettin These figures are exclusive of lands belonging to charitable foundations under municipal management or oversight, the extent of which sometimes exceeds that of the land which the towns own outright. A return of the land owned in 1911 by 51 communes form- ing the heart of Greater Berlin, published by the Charlotten- burg Statistical Office, shows that all these owned estates, varying in extent from i to 40 per cent, of their areas. But the total proportion of land in public ownership was far greater, for in many communes the municipal authorities of adjoining places, the State, and other public bodies had also large freeholds. Taking only the larger communes the owner- ship of their areas was divided as follows : 126 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY DISTRIBUTION OF COMMUNAL AREAS IN GREATER BERLIN, IN PERCENTAGES. Communes. Proportion of area owned by (a) The Commune. (b) Other communes, State, and other public bodies. (c) Private individuals. Berlin . . o/ /o 34-8 32-2 33-8 23-1 i-3 17-4 9-5 32-5 39'9 I2-I 2O'7 I3-3 IQ-6 25-1 o/ /o 12-9 0-2 75-6 (State) 26-8 8-5 18-7 17-7 2-8 41-2 65-5 12-5 6-4 o/ /o ? 54'9 68-2 76-6 23-1 55-8 82-0 48-8 ? 85-1 38-1 21-2 67-9 68-5 Charlottenburg Friedenau Grunewald Johannisthal Neukolln Reinickendorf Schoneberg Spandau Steglitz . . Tempelhof Treptow \Veissensee Wilmersdorf The largest estates were owned by the following towns : Towns Population (1910). Extent of town lands. Within adminis- trative area. Outside adminis- trative, area. Total. No. of acres per jooo inhabi- tants. Berlin 2,071,300 305,980 237,300 172,800 62,950 20,700 43,000 A ores. 5.425-8 1,861-4 510-8 759-3 172-2 588-6 516-2 Acres. 46,899-6 2,659-7 2,729-1 1,886-1 1,311-6 1.037-4 1,674-7 Acres. 52.352-4 4.52i-i 3.239-9 2,645-4 i,483'7 1,626-0 2,192-9 25-3 14-7 I3-7 15-3 23-6 78-5 51-0 Charlottenburg . . . Neukolln Schoneberg Steglitz Tempelhof ^Veissensee Berlin has an estate (principally acquired for irrigation purposes) more than three times greater than its administrative area, and Schoneberg, Steglitz, Neukolln, and Weissensee all have estates larger than their own areas. As in Prussia so in the less progressive parts of the country. According to a return published by the Bavarian State LAND POLICIES 127 Statistical Office the landed estate of all the communes of Bavaria has an area of one and a half million acres, of which rather more than one-half is forest. What the large and wealthy towns do on an imposing scale, the small towns do with equal enterprise, if in a more modest way. Of towns with a population between 50,000 and 60,000, Offenbach owns 2230 acres of land, Hildesheim 2770 acres, and Kaiserslautern 5785 acres. During the present year the little town of Kalbe on the Saale expended just 14 a head of its 12,000 inhabitants in buying for 168,000 a large estate for the purpose of creating a number of small holdings and labourers' allotments, as well as for disposing of sites for industrial works. One reads with astonishment also of the Rhenish town of Wermelskirchen, with a population of 15,000, which has during the past thirty years increased its estate from two to 1270 acres. Long views and wide perspectives characterise the land policies of German towns. Their eyes are set not upon the needs of to-day for these often were foreseen and provided for long ago nor yet those of the near future, though " near future " in German official language connotes a period of 25 years, but upon the interests of coming generations. It is significant that a friendly critic of the energetic land purchase policy which Frankfort-on-Main pursued under the direction of its late Chief Mayor Adickes, remarked :" Adickes worked less for the present generation or even the children of the present generation than for its grandchildren and great- grandchildren ; his work will bear fruit in distant generations." Even Gorlitz with its 77,700 acres of land an estate sixteen times the area of the town is still unsatisfied. Quite recently the local House Occupiers' Associations, in petitioning the municipal executive, which initiates and controls land purchase there as everywhere, to add further to the town's estate, urged it in extending its land policy to " count not by years, but by centuries." The steady and systematic manner in which land is pur- chased might be illustrated by the experience of almost any large town. Thus during the period 1880 to 1908 Breslau expended over a million and a half pounds in the purchase of 128 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY land within the communal area, of which sum 1,199,000 was expended on land needed for public purposes, and 330,000 on land intended for re-sale. The land transactions of this town have throughout this period been on an increasing scale. During the first half of the period the purchases amounted to 420,000, during thesecond half to 1,094,000. In addition, land was purchased to the value of 308,000 outside the municipal area, 139,000 being expended in purchases in the immediate neighbourhood of the town. At the present time Breslau owns about one-quarter of the entire municipal area, and six times as much outside that area. The town of Konigsberg increased its estate as follows during the years 1890-1909 : Year. Within the municipal boundaries. Outside the municipal boundaries. Total. 1890 Acres. 3QO Acres. 756 Acres. 1146 I9O5 . 1060 Q73 2033 IQO6 1186 073 21 59 1907 1284 1462 2746 1908 I 351 1499 2850 1909 1414 1586 3000 In addition, foundations belonging to the town and under municipal management owned 57 acres of land in 1909. The estate of Munich increased as follows during the eighteen years 1891-1908 : Year. Within the municipal boundaries. Outside the municipal boundaries. Total. 1891 Acres. 2610 Acres. 2318 Acres. 4 028 1895 . 2Q3I 2Q27 : 858 IQOO . 3Q2I 6782 IO 7O^ IQOI . AO25 6700 jo 815 I9O2 . 4264. 7O3O II.2Q4 IQO3 . 43Q5 7343 ii 738 IQO4 . 4513 7660 12 l82 IQOS . 4662 7567 12,229 1006 . 5035 778O I2,8l5 IQO7 . S33I 8240 13 571 1908 5332 8J.3Q 13 771 LAND POLICIES 129 The town now owns nearly one-third of the entire municipal area, and an area half as large as the whole commune outside. The steady growth of municipal estate is shown further by the following table setting forth the proportions of the administrative area owned by some of the larger German towns (exclusive of roads, streets, water, and fortifications) in 1910 as compared with 1906 and 1901-2 ; where a decrease is shown, it is usually attributable to the incorporation of new suburbs : PERCENTAGE OF MUNICIPAL AREA OWNED BY TOWNS AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 1901-2. 1906. 1910. Augsburg "V7 M-6 ilQ'O Barmen 2-1 II'I 2O'O Charlottenburg 4'2 IO-O 2 t-Q Cologne 17-8 28-* 11 -Q Crefeld 43 17*2 I \-6 Darmstadt V1 ai"3 Frankfort-on-Main . . Halle 57-8 18-2 59-8 477 22-1 Hanover AA'O 4V8 2 J'Q Karlsruhe I V7 ' 19-8 ^8-7 Konigsberg 12-7 18-6 Liegnitz I7'6 2 VQ Mannheim q-6 48-6 Munich 2O-6 26-6 ^0-8 Nuremberg 8-1 9-6 I c-4 Posen 6-1 8-9 IO-4 Spandau 50-8 48-3 42*^ Strassburg 47-<5 4I'S In 1910 alone 73 of the large towns of Germany bought land to the aggregate extent of 9584 acres, and to the aggre- gate value of over 4,000,000. The 51 communes in Greater Berlin purchased during the ten years 1901-11, 20,600 acres of land at a cost of 17,500,000. Half of this land was in their own areas, and the remainder in communes for the most part near at hand. Thus Berlin bought during this period 5460 acres, Charlottenburg 2560 acres, Weissensee 2080 acres, Schoneberg 2060 acres, Neukolln 1690 acres, Pankow 1500 130 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY acres, and so on. Charlottenburg now owns 2500 acres of land as yet not built upon, with a value of over a million and a quarter pounds, and the value of all its real estate is about four and a half millions sterling. In 1886 Freiburg- in-Baden owned 11,000 acres of land with a value of 925,000. In 1909 its estate was only 2000 acres larger, but its value was then 3,200,000. Kiel has bought land so systematically during the past thirty years that it now owns a large part of the land on the periphery of the town, including most of the choicest forest and woodland. So long as the building land is not needed it is let as garden allotments, with the result that the town has now between 4000 and 5000 tenants, from whom it receives 2500 a year in rents. Sometimes a town will make a great coup, and occasionally single land-purchase transactions running into a million pounds are carried out. The city of Berlin has of late made large additions to its estate and particularly its forest land. Several valuable estates lying north and north-west of the city, and containing some of the most favourite river and lake scenery of the province of Brandenburg, have been acquired to an aggregate extent of some 13,000 acres. Within the last few months Berlin has bought another estate of 15,000 acres (Lanke) at some distance from the city, at a cost of just under a million pounds ; part of the land is to be sold on lease for the building of small houses, but the greater part will probably be converted into public park. So, too, the municipality of Konigsberg in 1909 bought from the Imperial War Department the fortresses with the moats there, comprising a total area of 755 acres, for the sum of 1,450,000, payable in twenty yearly instalments without interest. The cost of demolishing the buildings and walls, levelling the ground, and laying out streets and roads is esti- mated at about an equal sum. The town council of Halle in 1909 similarly voted over a million pounds, to be raised by loan, for the acquisition of land " in the interest of a progressive land policy." As a rule, it will be found that, where forest and woodland surround a town, the municipal authority has taken care to LAND POLICIES 131 secure as much as possible for the use of the inhabitants. Germany has immemorially protected its forests, and next to the States the largest owners of forest lands are the communes. Of a total area of 35 million acres of forest in 1900 the States owned 11,075,000 acres, and the communes 5,645,000 acres. The largest proportions of forest in communal ownership are in Baden and Alsace-Lorraine, viz. 45 per cent. ; the proportion in Hesse is 36 per cent., in Wiirtemberg 29 per cent., hi Prussia and Bavaria only 12 per cent. Of the larger towns, Frankfort- on-Oder owns 15,570 acres of forest, Brandenburg 11,220 acres, Stettin 10,570 acres, Frankfort-on-Main 8590 acres, Breslau 5140 acres, Wiesbaden 4750 acres, Coblence 5000 acres, and Aix-la-Chapelle 3230 acres. Many of the small communes of woody Wiirtemberg own tracts of forest larger than those of all but a few favoured towns; for example, Baiersbronn with 7200 acres, Freudenstadt with 6200 acres, Rottweil with 5600 acres, and Hall with 5000 acres. Some of the larger towns of Prussia have of late years greatly increased their forest estates by purchases from the State, which is usually ready to sell to the communes on more or less favourable terms. The Government recently offered to the Joint Traffic and Town-Planning Board (Zweck-V erband] for Greater Berlin 2 5 ,000 acres of forest for the sum of 2 , 500 ,000 , subject to the conditions that the forests shall be maintained and that if any portions are needed for State purposes they may be repurchased at the selling price, viz. 6d. per square metre, the State paying interest on the money and refunding outlay upon land so bought back. The idea is to make wide approaches to the forest from all the large railway stations, so that it may be easy of access from any part of Greater Berlin. Kiel, Diisseldorf, Hanover, and Cologne have also been able to buy forest land from the State on a price varying from 6d. to 2s. per square metre. In the eastern provinces of Prussia the communes are required to cultivate their forests on systematic principles, and their plans of cultivation need to be submitted to the District Presidents for approval. The District Committees are also empowered to call upon the communes to afforest 132 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY suitable areas, and on their recommendation State grants may be made for the purpose. In other provinces the State exercises oversight over communal and other forests by means of its technical officials. COMMUNAL ESTATE AS A SOURCE OF REVENUE. The ownership of land and forest by the communes often proves an important source of profit. Many of the small communes of Baden derive much of their revenue from forests ; in some cases the proceeds amount to 305. and even 403. a head of the population. The inhabitants of two little towns, Wellendingen and Oberwinden, are exempt from taxation owing to the yield of the public forests, and the Oberwinden folk are supplied with fuel free of charge. The village of Langenanbach with 780 inhabitants owns land and forest yielding in timber and limestone 2500 per annum, an amount which covers all local expenditure and the cost of water, and leaves a balance to be added to the credit of the commune yearly. The revenue of one small but favoured Wiirtemberg commune is increased by 12,000 a year by its forests and that of another by 8000. The little Prussian town of Goslar owns forests which yield 6500 a year in profit. All such profits pall, however, before the gains which accrue to many large towns owing to their systematic trading in land. In the administrative year 1911-12, Diisseldorf made a profit of 21,400 on the turnover of its municipal land fund. Magde- burg bought land on the south side of the town at los. gd. a square metre, to a total value of 300,000, and succeeded in selling two-thirds of it at 4 a square metre for 1,300,000, while it bought land on the north side of the town for 235. a square metre, and sold it for 433. In 1912 Cologne owned land to the value of 2,900,000. Since a separate department was created thirty years ago for the administration of the town's estate, a profit of 625,000 has been made upon land transactions, and the department has paid its way always. During the ten years 1901-11 land purchases to the value of a million and a half pounds were made, and in addition the town acquired for extensions the site of the old fortifications and other State lands for about LAND POLICIES 133 the same amount, while it sold land to the value of a million pounds. In 1911 the town of Ludwigsburg on the Rhine bought 48^ acres of land within its area for 13,940, and sold 14^ acres for the same sum. There was thus an addition to the public estate of 34 acres without cost. One of the most interesting examples of successful land enterprise is furnished by the old Wiirtemberg town of Ulm, whose population is 56,000. Since 1891 Ulm, under the rule of a mayor convinced of the wisdom of a progressive land policy and strong enough to carry it out, has bought some 1280 acres of land at different times for 316,000, while it has sold 420 acres for 406,000, showing a cash profit of 90,000, apart from the addition of 860 acres to the town estate. As a result of Ulm's land policy its assets increased between 1891 and 1909 from 583,500 to 1,990,000, an increase of 1,407,000, equal to 25 a head of the population. Another result is that of the larger towns of Wiirtemberg only one has a lower taxation than Ulm. It is solely owing to its successful land policy that this enterprising town, without imposing heavy burdens on the general body of ratepayers, has been able to undertake a programme of social reforms which has created for it an honourable reputation throughout Germany. The objection is sometimes raised that to the extent that the towns increase their proprietary share of the administrative area they proportionately dimmish the revenue derivable from the land taxes, which are so important a source of local revenue in Germany, such as the land tax, the tax on the sale and trans- fer of real estate, and the unearned increment tax. This loss, however, is usually more than compensated for by the gain which rewards prudent trading, irrespective of the saving effected by acquiring betimes land necessary for public pur- poses at a later date. Many towns follow this policy of land purchase so systematically and on so large a scale that they have found it necessary to create special administrative departments, under responsible and expert officials, to direct this branch of municipal activity. It is a common practice to float the Municipal Land Board with a large grant or loan, which may range from a quarter to a million pounds. In 1910, 50 of 134 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the 91 German towns with a population over 50,000 had established special land purchase funds. 1 INFLUENCE OF LAND POLICIES UPON MUNICIPAL DEVELOP- MENT. But land buying and selling is not an end in itself. As a consequence of its land policy a German municipal authority generally has land of its own suitable for public works which it desires to take in hand ; it can determine within certain limits in what directions the town shall extend ; by the steady increase in the value of its estate it shares with private owners in the material gain caused by municipal growth and development; it is able to institute and assist important housing schemes ; and to some extent it can check private and professional land speculation. Instances might be given of municipal authorities which, owing to the large reserves of land in their ownership, have been able to give a new impetus to industrial development, and to renew the life of old and stagnant communities. " In the modern development of towns a relatively large ownership of land is of fundamental importance for a com- mune," wrote the late chief mayor of Mannheim, whose land policy was marked by unique enterprise. " Such municipal property represents an asset of indispensable and continually increasing value, and therefore provides the surest basis for the financial policy and the credit of the commune. An ex- tensive and favourably situated estate makes the municipality almost independent of private property in the discharge of its own duties in the matter of building, enables it to compete with private owners in the general land market, and places it in the position to check the worst evils of land speculation. The ownership of land, besides being so important for a town from a financial standpoint, places in the hands of the local administration a valuable instrument for regulating building enterprise and housing conditions, and a lever by means of which the commune may influence the development of in- dustrial and commercial conditions." The case of Mannheim is of special interest, inasmuch as its modern land policy is merely the development of a tradition as old as the history of 1 See Appendix II, " Regulations of Municipal Land Funds," pp. 468-472. LAND POLICIES 135 the town. When the town was formed out of the two villages of Mannheim and Dornheim over three centuries ago it was already rich in public lands, of which it owned 750 acres. On the demolition of the fortifications the commune took over the land thereby set free for residential and other public pur- poses. Other additions followed, and in 1890 the town owned J 375 acres of building land, in spite of large sales for industrial and residential purposes, the formation of parks, streets, etc. The town's land policy was placed on its present basis in 1888, when the town council, acting on the recommendation of its mayor and executive, decided to expend in future at least 10 per cent, of the proceeds of all sales of town land in the purchase of new property. From that time forward the town appeared in the market as a buyer whenever land was for sale, and no opportunity was lost of preventing eligible land from becoming the object of private speculation. Up to the end of 1904 a further 390 acres of land had been acquired for building and street purposes, 102 acres for the purpose of industrial undertakings, 284 acres for the construction of an industrial dock, and 929 acres for the purpose of rounding off existing properties. When the two communes of Kafertal and Neckarau were incorporated 3550 acres were added to the public lands, and at the end of 1905 the communal estate, after further sales and assignments of all kinds, had an area of 6080 acres, or more than a third of the entire area of the municipality. The extent to which the town was interested in the estate market at that time may be seen from the fact that of 9800 transfers of real estate, representing a value of i8J million pounds, which occurred in Mannheim between the years 1892 and 1905, the municipal transactions (purchases and sales) numbered 1600 or 16 per cent, of the whole, with a value of a million and a half pounds, or 8J per cent, of the whole. The foresight shown in assuring to the town the control of the outer districts, a matter so important for a large town alike from the standpoint of housing, transit facili- ties, and public health, may be seen from the following statement showing the proportions of land in municipal ownership in eight rings of a kilometre (jj mile) wide from 136 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the centre outwards in so far as this area belonged to Mann- heim : 1. First kilometre 13-26 per cent. 2. First to second kilometre, 27-52 ,, 3. Second to third ,, 37'59 ,, 4. Third to fourth ,, 24-36 ,, 5. Fourth to fifth ,, 21*20 ,, 6. Fifth to sixth ,, 23-09 ,, 7. Sixth to seventh ,, 54'4o 8. Seventh to eighth 73'4i ,, To-day Mannheim owns 7500 acres of land, all but 160 acres within its enlarged administrative area, the extent of which is 18,470 acres. Its estate averages over 38 acres per 1000 inhabitants. Not only has the town's modern industrial pros- perity been built upon its land policy, but the municipal authority claims that this policy has had a steadying influence on land prices and has in no small degree discouraged land gambling by removing a large amount of the best land beyond the reach of the land and estate companies and other private speculators. Equally interesting in its way, as an illustration of how the development of a modern town may be beneficially influenced on the social side owing to its land policy, is the case of Essen, the seat of the cannon industry. Before the great development of Essen began some thirty or forty years ago the town had owned considerable estate, but most of it had been sold by town councils who were unable to foresee the town's coming ex- pansion and needs, in order to pay off debts incurred for public purposes. Later, when the steel age in the history of Essen opened, the enterprising men at the head of its government pursued a vigorous land-purchase policy. Several large estates within the municipal area were bought on favourable terms, and while much of the land was used for streets and cemeteries and open spaces, for churches, schools, and public buildings, other portions were set apart for residential purposes. Archi- tects and town planners were called in, and the town built on its own land many blocks of working-class dwellings, artistic in design and healthy and convenient in arrangement. Private LAND POLICIES 137 builders imitated the town's example, and handsome new quarters came into existence. In spite of the rapid increase of its population, the housing problem was never allowed to become acute, and a new and progressive movement was given to the development of the town. SALE OF PUBLIC LAND FOR HOUSING SCHEMES. Wherever German municipal authorities are most earnestly endeavour- ing to cope with the housing problem, made difficult and urgent owing to conditions met with only in a country of rapid industrial development, one of their most powerful auxiliaries is the ownership of an abundance of building land. In using this land for housing purposes a town usually follows one of three principal courses, viz. (a) it builds houses upon its own land ; (6) it sells land to co-operative and other building societies formed for providing working-class dwellings ; or (c) it combines these two methods by disposing of land on the leasehold principle. The Governments urge the communes to buy land freely, and to promote house building by leasing it to public utility building societies, but not to sell outright. In a circular letter addressed to the Government Presidents of the country, the Prussian Ministers of Trade and Commerce, Education, and the Interior of that State, said : " A judicious communal land policy is of far-reaching importance for the better adjustment of housing conditions. The existing evils have their chief source in unhealthy land speculation, which in part can only be combated by changes in legislation. A powerful means of checking this speculation is, however, available at present in the acquisition of as much landed estate as possible by those communes whose con- tinuous growth converts the surrounding agricultural and garden land in ever increasing measure into building land. The manner in which the land so purchased, which as a rule should permanently remain in the hands of the commune, should be used for building whether the commune itself, either directly or through contractors, should erect dwellings upon the land and either let or lease them, must be left for each commune to decide for itself. It is, however, specially 138 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY consonant with a healthy land policy that the land in the pos- session of a town which is suitable for small dwellings should on principle not be sold, even though a temporary dearth of dwellings should exist. The sale of communal land for the purpose of combating the dearth of dwellings may, indeed, have the momentary effect of causing dwellings to be built and offered in larger number and at lower rents, but in the end it can only serve the ends of land speculation. The sale of communal land for the erection of small dwellings can only be judicious if the commune reserves a conditional right of pre-emption, or if other effective security is offered that the land shall not become the object of private speculation." The Saxon Minister of the Interior has issued a similar admonition to the communes in that country to " increase their estates betimes to the extent of their power, yet to retain all land in their possession and only to sell where there is a guarantee that no speculation will take place." All three methods are followed ; yet while in the past the towns have been ready to sell outright, the present tendency is to dispose of it only on the leasehold principle, with a view not merely to controlling the manner of its use, but of securing to the community the benefit of all increasing value. Land is so sold on a large scale by the municipalities of Mannheim, Leipzig, Charlottenburg, Neukolln, Breslau, Halle, Dortmund, Frankfort-on-Main, Aix-la-Chapelle, Diisseldorf, Duisburg, Elberfeld, Essen, Wiirzburg, Ulm, Karlsruhe, and Strassburg. This public land is usually sold subject to conditions intended, as far as possible, to prevent speculation in the houses built upon it. In some cases the town reserves a right of pre- emption, in others an unqualified right to buy back after a certain term of years. The term of lease varies from 60 to 100 years. The plan of selling land on lease has been widely followed in Posen by the Government (the land being State property) and in Frankfort-on-Main, the land being sold alike to build- ing societies, co-operative societies, and private individuals, chiefly for the erection of small dwellings. The usual term of the lease is from 60 to 70 years. In some cases the yearly LAND POLICIES 139 payment is calculated per square metre of land leased; in others it is 2\ per cent, or, as in Posen, 3 per cent, of the sale value of the land. Mannheim disposes of land on different methods, e.g., sale subject to a right to repurchase at the expiration of a fixed term, such repurchase applying both to the land and the buildings erected upon it, and leasehold tenure on the English system, under which both land and building revert to the town without any consideration on the determination of the lease. Several years ago the municipality of Bremen bought a large area of land in the north-west of the municipal area with a view to offering at a reasonable price sites for industrial extension and new undertakings, and of providing for the future requirements of the town itself. This land has since been systematically planned, streets have been laid out, an area has been marked out and partially sold for industrial purposes, other land has been reserved for working-class dwellings, and tramway connections have been provided. Land is offered to working-men at a low price, which includes all costs of street-making and sewering, on condition that only buildings for one or two families may be erected, and money is lent at 4! per cent, interest to the extent of 90 per cent, of the cost of land and buildings, this being advanced by the State Pension Board with municipal guarantee, while the final tenth part is either paid down or is guaranteed by the workman's employer. With a view to preventing specula- tion the town reserves the right to buy the house during a period of twenty-five years should the owner or his successors wish to sell, should the property be wilfully depreciated in value, or should the owner get into financial difficulties. In fixing the terms of repurchase all value due to unexhausted improvements approved by the town will be added to the original cost, and, on the other hand, depreciation will be deducted. Many other towns give security for loans advanced to building societies by the statutory Pension Boards or by the Governments, and still more advance building money at 3 \ or 4 per cent, to the extent of from 75 to 90 per cent, of the land and buildings together. 140 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY How towns are enabled by their land policies to counteract and even prevent speculation was explained by the mayor of Saarbriicken to a recent meeting of the Rhenish Association for the Building of Small Dwellings. Since 1885 the munici- pality of Saarbriicken has bought land systematically in all parts of the communal area, and has resold it at moderate prices on condition of its being built upon within two years. " In consequence," said the mayor, " systematic commercial land speculation has not been able to secure a footing in Saarbriicken. The acquisition of suitable land by the town is facilitated owing to the fact that the town from time to time notifies to the public only that part of its town plan which relates to the streets just about to be opened, and for the rest publishes only the general provisions relating to town extensions or indeed withholds information altogether. The carrying out of the town building plan has throughout been attended by no real difficulties, and the pooling and re-parcelling of private sites have been easy to carry out always, since those interested have ever the example and influence of the town before their eyes. Under these circumstances the rational opening up of the land has had the effect of keeping building enterprise in healthy lines, and housing conditions have been greatly improved." So, too, the chief mayor of Ulm stated at a meeting of the German Land Reformers' League held at Gotha on October 3, 1910 : " The town now owns four-fifths of the entire municipal area. With us an unearned increment tax has no purpose, since there can be no speculation." CHAPTER VI THE PLANNING OF TOWNS The modern town plan Alignment plans and building permits Special taxation of building sites and betterment contributions Power to ex- propriate landowners and to pool properties Protecting the streets against disfigurement Administrative area of German towns The modern incorporation movement. BUT a land purchase policy needs as its complement a policy of land and town development. All the enter- prise shown by German towns in the increase and manage- ment of their land reserves would be futile and its financial success would be dearly bought, if it exerted no direct and beneficial influence upon the building of the town, its housing conditions, and its outward amenities generally. Here are seen the real purpose and the wisdom of the German system of town planning. One may often read in German newspapers that such-and-such a town has bought a large adjacent estate " with a view to the expansion of the town." The English idea is that towns should expand " naturally," without any attempt by the local authorities to regulate their growth. And our towns may so expand and do : it is only a question of how they expand whether fortuitously or on rational and healthy lines. 1 The German regards his town as a living organism, whose development both deserves and needs to be controlled with the utmost thought and care. The official town plan in which this idea of town life finds expression is a 1 The Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909 is, of course, a long stride forward a stride made on sudden impulse, in our English way but it re- mains to be seen how far public opinion, still so largely uninformed on this question, will provide the motive and impetus necessary to carry reform to practical issues. Hitherto both foresight and the instinct for order and system have been lacking, and these cannot be created by legislation ; its business is rather to devise machinery and methods. 141 142 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY distinctly German conception, and is one of the most valuable contributions made by Germany to the science of civic govern- ment. The spirit in which the governing authority of a large and progressive German town views this question is well shown by the following statement of the principles on which the land and housing policy of Mannheim is directed : " Every town in course of development needs to its extension outwards a uniform and comprehensive building plan. If this plan is to offer a foundation for the art of town building it must be drawn up on large lines, must anticipate the needs of a distant future, and pay due regard to the requirements of traffic, hygiene, and taste. The fulfilment of this task con- stitutes a very important part of all social reform in our towns." Thus the modern industrial era of Mannheim may be said to have opened towards the end of the 'sixties of last century. Its movement forward had hardly begun before the municipal authority proposed a plan for the exten- sion of the town in various directions, so that the growth of Mannheim during all the past forty years has followed lines deliberately laid down with a view to organic and systematic development. THE MODERN TOWN PLAN. The earlier town plans pro- ceeded too exclusively from the standpoint of convenience of communication ; local authorities were apt to be satisfied if provision existed for wide often too wide thoroughfares, and everybody was given a fair chance of moving from place to place with ease. Housing considerations in particular were given a secondary place. Now a larger conception prevails, and in the drawing up of modern town plans regard is had to every factor in the life and development of the community- traffic, housing, trade and industry, recreation, access to the open country, and the like. Most towns in planning their areas adopt what is called the " zone " system. The so-called " zones " are not, however, concentric areas extending out- ward, but merely separate districts to which different building regulations apply, e.g., as to the amount of a building site to be left free, the height of buildings, and the width of streets, THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 143 the general rule being followed that higher buildings may be erected and a larger proportion of the ground be covered in the inner district, and that building must be less dense and houses lower in the outer areas. Graduated building regulations of this character are in operation in many of the large towns in relation to new town extensions. A still more important division of the town area is that into districts as determined by the purposes for which the land may be applied. Thus the newer town plans invariably set apart a special area for industry, and there the erection of factories and workshops is permitted. In many cases the location of this industrial district has been determined by nature or unalterable conditions, e.g., rivers, canals, or railway systems ; but where a town is able to begin with a clean sheet industry is given the least delectable part of the municipal area, and regard is had to the prevailing winds, so that annoy- ance from smoke and noise may be reduced to a minimum. Another district is usually reserved for houses of a better class ; others are intended for working-house dwellings, and sometimes there is a country-house area, in which only villas surrounded by gardens may be erected. Provision is also made for public gardens and other open spaces. The width of the streets varies according as they are main arteries, secondary thoroughfares not intended for heavy traffic, or are merely intended for local use. It is not unusual for new main streets in large towns to be divided into sections, each devoted to a distinct kind of traffic. For example, on each side of the street, divided in the middle by an avenue of trees, may be found in succession trottoir, carriage-way, tramlines, and footway or riding-way. In the laying out of new districts traffic is some- times relieved by running auxiliary streets parallel with the main arteries. Apart from the ordinary building alignment laws and the laws on the subject of expropriation, no special legislation has been needed in order to enable the local authorities to cany out even the largest of their town planning schemes. Such works fall within the general scope of communal government, and now as in the past the towns usually act on their own initia- tive and responsibility, though the Governments are not slow 144 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY to bring pressure to bear upon backward authorities. The Prussian and Bavarian Governments have for years been specially insistent upon the importance of the early and systematic planning of urban areas subject to rapid increase of population. The larger towns, however, need no outside pressure of this kind. It is questionable whether a town of any importance can be named which has not taken up the question in the spirit of earnestness which it deserves, and the credit for what has been done in Germany in this domain belongs almost wholly to the local authorities. Help, advice, and suggestions are, of course, obtained from every source available. Thus the incorporation in 1910 by Leipzig of six suburbs, adding 5000 acres of largely undeveloped land to its administrative area (now 18,400 acres) and the necessity of making certain clearances and improvements in the centre of the town, have led the town council there to establish a special Town Extension Office for the working out of its town plan on a larger scale and on more systematic lines than before. So, too, Diisseldorf, in view of its largely increased area (now 27,900 acres), due to repeated incorporations, in 1911 instituted a competition for plans for the laying out of the undeveloped districts by the town, and prizes of 4000 were awarded for the best schemes submitted. One of the most ambitious projects of the kind contemplates the planning on comprehen- sive lines of a large part of the industrial district of which Diisseldorf is the natural centre. The underlying idea is to earmark the entire area for the special purposes for which it is best suited. A large housing plan is proposed as an essential part of the scheme, portions of each urban and rural area being assigned exclusively for residential purposes. The industrial zones are to be marked out, the heavy iron and steel industry having its allotted sphere of influence, beyond which it is not to be allowed to go. Provision is to be made for adequate road systems and for efficient tramway communications through and within the district, and it is proposed that a large area shall be devoted to open spaces forest, parks, gardens, recreation grounds, playgrounds for children, etc. THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 145 In proof of the great interest taken in the future develop- ment of suburban Berlin on uniform lines it may be stated that the Association of Berlin Architects some time ago drew up a scheme for the systematic laying out of an extensive area, comprised within a radius of fifteen miles from the centre of Berlin, and including, at least, a hundred town- ships of all kinds. It is proposed that due provision shall be made for a network of streets and thoroughfares of width proportionate to their purpose, running into the outskirts, and intersecting these in various directions, with special ways for motorists, cyclists, and equestrians ; for new railway communications joining those already existing ; for tramways, canals, and wharves ; for special residential and industrial districts, each with parks, gardens, lakes, children's play- grounds, and other open spaces ; for recreation grounds for adults, race-courses, sports fields, allotment gardens, and the like ; while sites are to be reserved for public buildings churches, libraries, museums, schools, theatres, gymnastic, swimming and bathing establishments, hospitals. Since these proposals were made, a statutory Joint Traffic and Town Planning Board has been created by special law for Greater Berlin, and whatever scheme may eventually be carried out under the new conditions, the hope and aim is to secure that the future development of this immense area shall follow uniform lines and be part of a comprehensive plan. Apart from the influence derived from the ownership of a large part of the administrative area, a local authority is able to make its town planning schemes effective in several ways, viz., (a) by the power to restrict the right to build to land lying on streets made by the authority or by it declared ready for use ; (b) by the enforcement of building regulations (in some States with the approval of the supervisory authority) prescribing among other things the width of the streets, the maximum proportion of a building site that may be built upon, the minimum area of courtyards and gardens, the height of buildings, the ratio of cubic contents to number of inhabi- tants, etc. ; (c) by the power to levy upon adjacent owners special contributions towards the cost of public improve- 146 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY ments and other works increasing the value of their property ; and (d) by powers of expropriation and in some communes power to pool the property of various owners and to re-appor- tion it in a different manner where otherwise areas are difficult of development. In the words of a well-known German authority upon the land and housing question : " The Building Alignment Law, the Building Regulations, and the Law of Expropriation are the fundamental conditions of modern town planning." ALIGNMENT PLANS AND BUILDING PERMITS. In Prussia the orderly planning of towns is made immeasurably easier owing to the right of local authorities to decide which land within the administrative area shall be eligible for building purposes. Owners of land are not able to build where and when they will. In order that a site may be built upon at all, however suitable it may seem in the eyes of its owner, it is essential that it shall be formally recognised on the building plan as ready for the purpose and shall lie upon a street duly planned by the local authority. Hence no land or estate company would dream of laying out its property without coming to a clear understanding with that authority. Such an under- standing is more than a formality, for, while the local authority usually puts no needless obstacle in the way of town extensions promoted by private enterprise, it insists upon public interests being respected at every turn. A speculative land company may use unscrupulous methods in disposing of its land, but the fact that it sells land as " building land " does not make it such. The legal aspect of the matter was recently stated by the Landrat of the Teltow Circle, near Berlin, in a formal warning to land purchasers. " In view of the increasing parcelling of estates in the vicinity of Berlin," he said, " it appears desirable to warn intending buyers. By means of favourable repre- sentations these are often led to believe that the plots of land which they propose to buy are building sites. As to that I would remark that only such land can be described as a building site which lies on a street provided for in a building plan, and prepared in accordance with the local by-laws for THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 147 public traffic and for building. Buyers of land are, therefore, urgently advised to inform themselves on this point by appli- cation to the communal, police, or supervisory authorities before completing purchase." On the other hand, the German official does not spare the land gamblers. If these people are found trying to dispose of land which has not been approved by the local authority for building purposes the public is frankly warned against them. Thus the president of a commune near Berlin (Zehlendorf) in 1910 published the following official notice : " No building plan has been proposed for the land lying in the south-east of Zehlendorf, and for that reason the laying out of streets in that district cannot be expected for years ; all applications for permission to build will, with- out exception, be refused. The commune has nothing whatever to do with the ground plan of this estate used by the Land Company concerned, and this plan has no prospect whatever of being sanctioned." This power to regulate the opening up of new areas enables German local authorities to obtain from landowners conces- sions important for the planning of their towns. As in this country a local authority can claim from adjacent owners the land necessary for public streets as well as the whole costs of making such streets, and of providing drainage, paving, lighting plant, etc., which costs are, as a rule, payable as soon as building commences, but it can do much more. In Prussia the legal limit of the land that must be made over to the local authority for street making is 84! feet, or 42 feet for the adjacent owners on either side of the street. Often such a width is not needed, yet in large towns from 100 to 130 feet of road are not infrequently given free by owners anxious to get their land into the market. As the local authority has the final word in determining whether a new district shall be developed or not, it is seldom difficult to compel the owners to cede to the town all the land desired not only for wide streets and squares, but for schools and other public buildings that may sooner or later become necessary owing to growth of 148 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY population. Valuable -concessions of this kind are constantly obtained by the municipal authorities of Berlin and its suburbs in their dealings with the many land development companies there. SPECIAL TAXATION OF BUILDING SITES AND BETTERMENT CONTRIBUTIONS. But here the powers of the local authority over the owners of building land are not exhausted. German towns insist that when the community carries out extension and improvement schemes that bring profit to private persons the latter shall contribute fairly to the cost. In Prussia this is effected by two useful provisions of the Communal Taxation Law of 1893, one of which says that lands whose value is increased owing to the fact that building lines have been fixed in respect of them, may be taxed at a higher rate than other properties, the increase being proportionate to the greater value acquired, while the other and more important provision empowers communes to exact "betterment" contributions from the owners of property which benefits by public expenditure. 1 Communes are required, however, to levy such contributions when otherwise the costs inclusive of the interest on capital and the redemption charges would have to be raised by taxes. Before works of the kind are carried out a plan with estimate of cost has to be published and opportunity allowed for objections within a period of at least four weeks, and the sanction of the supervisory authority must also be obtained. The contributions may take the form of a single payment or of a yearly charge, the latter commutable on terms to be arranged. The principal public works towards the cost of which adjacent owners may be required to pay special contributions include extensions of streets or portions of streets, clearances of old buildings, the new paving or repaving of streets, the construction or renewal of footways, the erection of bridges, overhead ways and subways, the laying out of open spaces and public parks, the connecting of houses with the main 1 This provision is independent of the power given to communes by the law of July 2, 1875, relating to the planning and alteration of streets, to re- quire adjacent owners to contribute towards the cost of such works. THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 149 drainage, and the opening up of new areas. The law of Bavaria does not recognise " contributions " in the Prussian sense, though here and there communes have been authorised to levy them under a different guise, and Bavarian municipal reformers strongly advocate the granting to the local authorities of the large powers possessed by Prussian communes. The power to make these special assessments opens the way for " betterment " taxation on a wide scale and it is applied in many forms. For example, the municipality of Breslau used it in 1910 when it acquired and transformed into a garden and recreation ground for children an area of land at the junction of several streets which had hitherto served as a tipping place. The adjacent owners resisted the demand that they should bear part of the cost, yet although their objections were carried to the highest Court of Appeal the action of the municipality was supported. Again, in the same year, the town of Bautzen, at a cost of 14,000, com- pleted the building of a bridge across a valley dividing the town from a district suitable for building purposes. Towards the cost of this bridge the town council made an assessment of from 7^d. to is. 3d. per linear yard of frontage on all sites adjacent to the streets laid out in the building plan for the district. A more extended application of this principle of special assessments took place at Konigsberg a short time ago. There the municipal executive had an offer from the State of the site of the old fortifications. The executive wished to buy, but they made the conclusion of the contract dependent upon the acceptance by an unwilling town council of an amendment to the existing Municipal Land Tax Ordinance providing for the special taxation of such land in private ownership as would become more valuable owing to the demolition of the fortifica- tions and the opening up for building purposes of the adjacent area. 1 " The extraordinary increase in value," they asserted in a memorandum on the subject, " which is experienced by land adjacent to fortifications by the abolition of the radial restrictions on the use of the land suggests the thought and 1 Where fortifications exist all building is prohibited within a prescribed area, and this area is generally used as field and garden. the wish that the land so freed from restrictions shall make some compensatory return to the commune. This wish is the more justified, and becomes, indeed, an absolute demand of justice, when the commune pays for the demolition of the fortifications and the abolition of restrictions on the use of land, and to this end incurs far-going obligations and so large a risk, at the cost of the whole community, as is the case with our town." The executive proposed a tax of 4 and 8 per 1000 respectively (according to eligibility) of the sale value upon all land thus freed for building purposes, and on this being agreed to the project was carried through. 1 POWER TO EXPROPRIATE LANDOWNERS AND TO POOL PROPERTIES. Finally, in some of the States the towns, in the interest of public improvements and the systematic develop- ment and planning of their areas, have at command powers of expropriation of a kind unknown in this country. 2 No general law of expropriation applies to the Empire as a whole. The question of expropriation is, indeed, dealt with in the Im- perial constitution, but only in relation to the construc- tion of railways which may be deemed to be necessary for national defence or in the interest of the whole Empire, and even here expropriation must be legalised by special statute in each individual case. Most of the federal States have Expropriation Acts, however, some of them going back to the first half of the nineteenth century. Two methods of expro- priation are followed, viz., (a) either the principle of expro- priation for reasons of public interest is laid down in general terms, without enumerating the permissible objects of ex- propriation, or (b) the cases and the circumstances in which expropriation may be resorted to are specified. Laws of Saxony and Baden may be instanced in illustration of the first method, and laws of Prussia and Bavaria in illustration of the second. In general, expropriation in any given case is authorised by Royal Ordinance or Ministerial Decree, and no special or local statute is necessary to put the law in 1 See Appendix III, " By-laws relating to Betterment Contributions," PP- 473-475- * For a fuller statement of the German laws on the subject of expro- priation, see Appendix IV, pp. 476-483. THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 151 operation. The State of Hamburg is, however, an exception to this rule. In Prussia, owners of land can be expropriated under two laws : (a) for the purpose of street planning under the Building Alignment Law of f uly 2, 1875, relating to the " construction and alteration of streets and squares in urban and rural districts," and (b) for a wider range of purposes under the general law of June n, 1874, relating to " the expropriation of landed property." Expropriation can be resorted to of right in the former case by any commune which has adopted an alignment plan to the execution of which land belonging to adjacent owners is necessary, while in the latter case a special Royal Order is necessary in every case. The general law of 1874 provides for expropriation " for reasons of public welfare in respect of undertakings to the execution of which the exercise of the right of expropriation is necessary," and it is occasionally applied when land is needed for the laying out of streets and squares and the construction of buildings and works of public interest, such as hospitals, poorhouses, abattoirs and stockyards, market halls, schools, tramways, water conduits, etc., and for the removal of blocks of insanitary houses. The cost of procedure is light, since it consists merely of the fees of experts and surveyors. As a rule, expropriation proceedings for the purpose of street works under the law of 1875 can be carried through in three or four months, while a year or more may be needed in the case of expropriation under the general law of 1874. The full, but not a speculative, value must be paid for land compulsorily taken, the value being fixed by a committee of experts appointed by the State supervisory authority. In general no great regard is paid in Germany either by law or custom to the interests of speculators or the expectations of landowners who regard public need as their most valuable asset. The Prussian law of expropriation expressly says that in estimating the compensation to be paid no account shall be taken of " the increased value that may be acquired by the property in consequence of the new works." It is worth recalling here that when the Imperial War Department decided a few years ago to construct a great military road running 152 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY from Berlin through Charlottenburg, across the river Havel, and on in a straight line for a total distance of twelve miles to the military camp at Doberitz, it expropriated the owners of the land needed, and in spite of the fact that speculation and frequent re-sale had driven up the former value ten and fifteen fold it paid compensation only on the valuation officially ascertained before the project was proposed. 1 The modern German laws on town planning go beyond crude expropriation, however, for they provide for the compulsory " pooling " of entire areas of undeveloped urban land with a view to the re-distribution of this land amongst the various owners, in the old proportions either as to area or value, in such a way as will best promote the opening up of the district affected, the laying out of public streets, roads, and spaces, and the advantageous use of building plots (Umlegung). Baden has a general law on the subject, dating from 1896, and its powers have been used repeatedly by the town of Mann- heim, though compulsion was not needed in all cases. The law of Saxony provides for the expropriation and pooling of urban properties by means of local by-laws which only need to be sanctioned by the Minister of the Interior. In Prussia similar powers have been conferred upon four large towns by special laws, but as yet there is no general statute on the subject. Frankfort-on-Main first obtained a local Act in 1902, and it is significant that the mere possession of the power to compel unwilling owners to come into the pool made its application unnecessary. During the first ten years 14 areas with a total extent of 375 acres were pooled and re-distributed, with the assent of the owners. Originally consisting of 643 lots belonging to 149 different owners, the land was re-parcelled into 298 lots after a deduction ranging from 25 to 40 per cent, for street purposes, and the greater part of the land is now built upon. When the Frankfort-on-Main law (called after its 1 The Prussian Canal Law of April i, 1905, providing for the construction of a canal from the Rhine to the Weser, empowers the State to expropriate the owners of land within one kilometre (five-eighths of a mile) of the canal, such power to be exercised in favour of the provinces of Westphalia, Rhine- land, and Hanover, and the State of Bremen, with a view to securing to them the increased value which may be given to the land owing to the works carried out. THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 153 author, the chief mayor of the town "lex Adickes") was under discussion an endeavour was made by a body of ardent municipal reformers to have it applied to Prussia generally, but without success. Posen, Cologne, and Wiesbaden have, however, since secured the same powers, and there is a strong movement in favour of legislation to enable all communes so disposed to acquire these powers by the simple device of adopting by-laws to that end. What the energetic governing authorities of the large Prussian towns in particular want is some more summary and more expeditious method of planning and developing the new areas which they are constantly absorbing than tedious and uncertain applications for Parlia- mentary powers or even the less circumstantial device of the royal decree, and it is hoped that the Government and Legis- lature will before long fall into line with Baden, Saxony, and other States. PROTECTING THE STREETS AGAINST DISFIGUREMENT. One other illustration of the concern of German local authorities for order and dignity in the appearance of their towns must be mentioned. This is the care taken to prevent the disfigure- ment of the streets and public places by hoardings or by buildings and other erections of an inartistic character, or even out of keeping with the general architectonic aspect of their surroundings. In so doing the authorities are assisted by general laws, police regulations, and the power to adopt special by-laws on the subject. Hoardings are tolerated in few towns, and so far does the German aesthetic sense rebel against public reclame that railway stations and tramcars are equally free from the meretricious allures that in this country greet the eye wherever it turns. The old common law of Prussia of 1794 contains the provision that buildings which spoil the appearance of a public place may be prohibited by the police authority charged with the regulation of buildings, and this authority can require the removal of any erection or street obstruction that is offensive to the eye. A law of July 15, 1907, deals with the question on more general principles. Under this law the building authority is empowered to refuse sanction to the erection of any buildings 154 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY or to alterations that would grossly disfigure important streets or public places either in town or country, or in general spoil the aspect of a locality. Power is given to communes to adopt by-laws for the protection of the architectural characteristics of important streets or places of special historical or artistic interest. These by-laws may make the use of signboards, inscriptions, or the like dependent upon police permission. Before the police as the building authority can either grant or refuse sanction to build, the opinion of experts and of the mayor or municipal executive must be taken, and the local authority is given a right of appeal against police decisions to the higher administrative authority. A number of Prussian towns have adopted by-laws under the statute of 1907. Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and the Free City of Bremen have since adopted laws on the same lines. In Bremen no plan for a new building or the alteration of an existing one is passed until it has received the scrutiny and sanction of a standing committee consisting of four officers belonging to the municipal public works department, three architects, and two art experts. Many Prussian towns have gone further and have established special municipal offices for advice to builders and architects upon matters of style and taste. No charge is made, and there is theoretically no obligation to follow the advice given unless the builders' plans infringe the local regulations, yet the good offices of the municipality are both freely used and highly valued. The municipality of Baden-Baden adds rewards to advice, for it gives premiums every year to architects and builders whose erections are adjudged to comply most nearly with certain prescribed conditions as to artistic design and quality of materials, and best harmonise with the general architectonic scheme of the town. By the adoption of these and similar common-sense methods, and by insisting that the building like the planning of a town should be considered as a whole, it is hoped to prevent the architectural anarchy which has often reigned in the past, and even to rectify many mis- takes which have been inherited from times when the building speculator was left to his own devices. The amenity of civic life in Germany is further protected by a law, applying to the THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 155 whole country, providing that before industrial or trading undertakings which would cause injury or even inconvenience to the neighbouring residents can be established the consent of the higher State authorities must be obtained. TOWN PLANNING AS A STUDY. Finally, hi its town planning schemes and its endeavour to add dignity and decorum to the outward aspects of municipal life, Germany shows unwavering fidelity to the national belief hi the expert and the efficiency of education and training. Instead of trusting to the intuition and judgment of the practical man that precious town builder by " natural " methods, who has made so many of our English industrial towns the hideous abominations they are- Germany acts on the assumption that as town planning is a science and an art, it ought to be studied like any other science or art, and indeed more thoroughly and laboriously than most, since the vital welfare of entire communities is at stake. Hence it follows as a matter of course that some of the technical universities regularly offer courses of lectures on town planning, both from the theoretical and the practical side. These lectures attract large numbers of students who are preparing for a career in the administrative service either in connection with the State or the local government bodies. A special seminary for town planning has been attached to the Royal Technical University in Berlin since 1907 ; the lectures cover every phase of the subject, and all incidental questions are treated from the architectural, technical, sanitary, and financial standpoints. In Saxony the Govern- ment instituted a similar seminary in connection with the Dresden Technical University in 1910, and a seminary is attached to the Technical University of Danzig. The colleges for communal administration and social science at Cologne and Diisseldorf likewise provide courses of lectures on this subject as a part of their regular work. Town planning exhibitions and conferences also play an important part in the development of a healthy official and public opinion upon this important question. The exhibitions held in Berlin in 1910, Diisseldorf in 1910 and 1912, and Leipzig and Karls- ruhe in 1913 have given a great impetus to the town planning 156 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY movement both in Germany and abroad, and have been fruit- ful in stimulating interest in local government in many ways. ADMINISTRATIVE AREA OF GERMAN TOWNS. It will be convenient to give here some indication of the extent of the more important German urban districts. English students of municipal government visiting Germany are invariably surprised at the apparent large area of the towns whose acquaintance they make. While there are large German towns with a far less density of population than any towns of the same size in this country, on the whole the conditions in the two countries do not greatly differ. A classification of the areas of 93 German towns with 50,000 inhabitants or more, with a total population in 1910 of 16,711,600, contained in the " Statistical Yearbook of German Towns " for 1913, shows an average area of 10,138 acres, and a ratio of 17-7 inhabitants per acre. A classification of the areas of 81 English towns of corresponding size, with a total population in 1911 of 11,459,800, shows an average area of 7622 acres, and a ratio of 18-6 inhabitants per acre. The collective area of the 93 German towns had increased by 78 per cent, since 1870. Dividing the towns into three groups, according as they contain (a) more than 200,000 inhabitants, (b) between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants, and (c) between 50,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, we get the following comparative figures : GERMAN TOWNS. No. of towns.. Population. Aggregate area. Average area. No. of inhabitants per acre. A 22 10 1 06 700 Acres. 381 348 Acres. 16 ^82 26-"; B 24. . 3,423 ooo 227 121 94.6? I S'l C 46. . 3 iSl QOO 2 sj. /ill 7 27O Q-C Together 93 . . 16,711,600 942,880 10,138 I 7 -7 ENGLISH TOWNS. A i s . . s, 864, 800 24O 177 16,012 24'4 B 23. . 2 Q2Q 8OO I 37 223 c 066 21'3 C 4 3 . . 2,665,2OO 240,168 5,585 II'I Together 81 . . II,459,800 617,568 7,622 18-6 THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 157 Of the German towns with the largest area relatively to population, the most important are the following (the figures relate to 1910) : German Towns. Population. Area. No. of inhabi- tants per acre. Miinster oo ^oo Acres. 1 6 564 Acres. c.g Bonn 46 700 7 7O8 6-1 Miilheim (Ruhr) 112 600 17 -3 I C 6"> Saarbriicken 105 100 12 GO 3 8-* Remscheid 72 200 7 SlS 9-2 Magdeburg 27Q 7OO 26 68^ IO-S Hagen 88 600 8 114 IO-Q Crefeld I2Q 400 II 737 II Diisseldorf 3">8 700 28 800 I2'4 Frankfort-on-Main 414 6OO 3-} IAZ I2'4 Aix-la-Chapelle 156 ooo 12 SOI I2-S Duisburg 22Q SOO 17 47O I VI Oberhausen 80 QOO S ISO I7*S Cologne ci6 soo 28 Ql6 I7'Q The town with the largest area is Hagenau in Alsace, with 45,600 acres to a population of 19,000, or 2^ acres per in- habitant. Many of the larger areas are of comparatively recent growth, being the result of successive incorporations of adjacent com- munes and rural districts. Thus the area of Nuremberg in- creased during the years 1825-1905 from 400 acres to over 16,000 acres, due to the absorption by the old walled town of fourteen communes and seven other areas, effected by nine separate acts of incorporation. The population during this period increased from 33,000 to 294,000. Of other old towns, Munich has increased its area from 4200 acres in 1854 to 22,180 acres ; Hanover from 2230 acres in 1859 to 24,800 acres ; and Magdeburg from 1850 acres in 1867 to 27,010 acres. Of 94 towns which at the census of 1910 had over 50,000 inhabitants only seven had an area in excess of 12,500 acres in 1871 ; now the number of these towns is 27. THE MODERN INCORPORATION MOVEMENT. One of the out- standing facts of Germany's modern development has been the aggregation of urban population and the multiplication of 158 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY " large " towns of over 100,000 inhabitants. At the begin- ning of last century there were only two towns of that size, viz. Berlin and Hamburg, and by the middle of the century there was only one more, Breslau, soon to be joined by Cologne and Munich. In 1870 the number of " large " towns had in- creased to eight by the addition of Dresden, Konigsberg, and Leipzig ; there were 15 in 1880, 26 in 1890, 33 in 1900, 41 in 1905, and 48 in 1910. More than one-fifth of the entire popu- lation of the Empire now lives in " large " towns. The remarkable growth of the large towns that has fallen to the last generation is in part due to their incorporation of the growing suburbs. Legislation makes easy the amalga- mation of willing communes. In Prussia, minor measures of incorporation can be effected by Royal Decree, and only in the case of the union of towns is a special law necessary, though the Circle Diet has a right to be heard if it objects. Where certain prescribed reasons of public interest are held to apply, adjacent areas may be compulsorily added to towns by resolution of the District Committee after the opinion of the Circle Diet has been taken, but appeal is allowed to the higher instances. Of late years many large towns have been driven to incor- porate adjacent areas by the necessity of room for expansion, for public works and institutions sewerage, water, gas, and electricity, schools and hospitals, etc. for the carrying out of housing schemes, for the extension of tramway systems, for the drainage of outside districts already appropriated for resi- dences by the well-to-do, or for the equalisation of taxation within wider areas. Since 1880 Leipzig has gained a popula- tion of 180,000 by measures of incorporation, and in the same way Cologne and Dresden have each gained a population of 115,000, Essen one of 95,000, Saarbriicken one of 75,000, Duisburg one of 70,000, and Frankfort-on-Main one of 65,000. On the other hand, the incorporated suburbs have often had a great inducement to join their lot to prosperous and well- governed towns. Hanging upon the skirts of large towns, many of them have had to drag on a penurious existence, con- scious of liabilities and obligations of all kinds, yet unable, because of restricted resources, to fulfil them, and owing to the THE PLANNING OF TOWNS 159 munificence of their wealthy neighbours most of the amenities of social life which they have enjoyed. For such places in- corporation has been a great relief ; they have secured public improvements beyond their own capacity to provide, they have on easy terms become partners in profitable undertakings of all kinds, and the privileges hitherto used by sufferance have become their rights. 1 Dortmund, in Westphalia, for example, carried out in 1913 a large scheme of incorporation the financial benefits of which were entirely on the side of the eight adjacent rural communes taken in. In most of these communes Dort- mund already had substantial proprietorial interests in one a park, in another a cemetery, in two others docks, and so on but the determining motive was the need of space for expansion and for a large and rational housing plan. So favourable were the terms offered to the incorporated communes that four of them will pay local income tax at a much lower rate than heretofore, while all were able to conclude hard bargains securing to them preferential treat- ment for a long term of years in regard to other taxes, to electricity, water, and sewerage charges, and other matters. To Dortmund a larger area was essential, however, and it was willing to pay the price. As a result of the incorporation its area was increased from 5700 to 12,500 acres and its popula- tion from 214,000 to 248,000. Some of the great towns, however, owe their growth pre- eminently to industrial expansion. Thus the population of Diisseldorf by natural increase of population and immigration alone grew from 40,000 in the middle of last century to 95,000 in 1880, 145,000 in 1890, 214,000 in 1900, and 290,000 in 1910, while the increase of its administrative boundaries in 1908 the first time for five centuries brought in a population of 70,000, making the total 360,000 at the last census. Its area was thus increased from 12,170 to 27,790 acres. Here and 1 " Often a measure of incorporation is the only means of rescuing a commune from its economic perplexities and of relieving it from the threatened danger of being no longer able to fulfil its communal duties. And if at the outset the step often entails heavy sacrifice upon the economically stronger commune concerned, the proceeding, though at first perhaps regarded as one of dire necessity, in the end usually proves a blessing to both parties, and hence to the newly created unity." Kappelmann, " Verfnssung und Ver- waltungsorganisation der Stadte," p. 10 (Verein fur Sozialpolitik). 160 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY there several communes of large size have been united to form a single town ; as, for example, the union of Duisburg, Ruhrort, and Meiderich on the Rhine in the town of Duisburg in 1905, and the union of Saarbriicken and two other large communes in the town of Saarbriicken in 1909. The most remarkable exception to the incorporation move- ment is the city of Berlin. Twenty years ago the incorporation of several of the suburbs of Berlin, which have since grown into large towns, was favoured by the Government and urged by it upon the municipal council, but this body deliberately declined to enlarge the city's boundaries. Owing to the per- manent domination in the local administration of the party of what in Germany is regarded as an advanced Liberalism and to the steady growth of the Social Democrats in the repre- sentative assembly the Government's attitude has entirely changed, and to-day it is questionable whether incorporation of any of these suburbs, even were they willing, would be allowed. CHAPTER VII HOUSING POLICIES Character of the housing problem in German towns The evil of land and house speculation Remedial measures adopted by the communes The reaction in favour of small houses Miscellaneous administrative measures Erection of houses by local authorities Public assistance to building societies Municipal inspection of dwellings Municipal house registries Building regulations. TOWN planning has been raised to the dignity of a science in Germany, but in house planning and building the communes have not proved equally successful. A well-known German housing reformer, Dr. Stiibben, of Berlin, said recently : ' The price which we pay (in Germany) for the possession of the best planned towns in the world is the destruction of the home. High prices of land, high rents, and high taxes prevent the building of small houses and lead to the erection of huge barracks, with the result that the work- man, like many others, seeks recreation not in his home but in the public-house." The housing question is at least as acute in German towns as in others, though opinions will differ greatly as to the extent to which the German system of town planning is responsible, and it is doubtful whether Dr. Stiibben's dictum would be largely endorsed without careful reservations by other housing authorities in his own country. About the facts of the question, however, there can be little difference of opinion. Outwardly the streets of a German town usually give the impression of order, cleanliness, comfort and well-being. Except in the older quarters the streets are wide and well kept, and if the observer keeps to the streets he will detect few signs of bad housing and will rarely come across property that can be fairly described as of the " slum " order. It is only when the high portals on the street front are M 161 162 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY passed, the courtyards entered, the dingy staircases climbed, and the interior of the dwellings inspected that the special character and the seriousness of Germany's housing problem will be properly understood. " Behind the straight streets and within the chess-board planned building blocks," wrote a contributor to the " Soziale Praxis" (September 10, 1910), in reference to the towns of the Rhineland, " there are found, owing to perverse building regulations, made to suit the re- quirements of building speculators, narrow courtyards without air or sun, frightful ventilation shafts, the ever dark landings, semi-dark rooms, and other defects which are a parody on the simplest requirements of hygiene. The present generation will have to suffer for decades from the exploitation of specu- lators and the neglect of duty shown by the authorities. Gradually, however, we are coming to a new housing culture which cannot indeed wipe away inherited sins, yet which is endeavouring to give us whatever is possible under the exist- ing system of property and the existing structure of society." CHARACTER OF THE HOUSING PROBLEM IN GERMAN TOWNS. The congestion which exists in many towns is an obvious product of historical and physical conditions. In proof of this statement, it is only necessary to point to old fortified towns, like Danzig or Cologne, in which in earlier times buildings were almost necessarily huddled together within the walls without regard for sanitary considerations, to maritime and river towns like Hamburg and Kiel, whose building was largely determined by the natural traffic ways, and to towns settled in narrow valleys, like Elberfeld, where people built just where and as they could, and systematic planning was out of the question. In all such towns defective housing arrange- ments were to a large extent inevitable in the past. But the evil is far more widespread and extends to towns whose natural conditions offer no excuse for bad housing. It is, indeed, no exaggeration to say that, after allowing for much quite exemplary building, housing conditions are nowhere so bad with so little justification as in many of the newer indus- trial towns of Germany. Some of these towns have been in possession of conditions which, if wisely used, would have HOUSING POLICIES 163 secured the highest standard of working-class housing known anywhere extensive administrative areas, with an abundance of open land, excellent town-building plans worked out to the smallest detail, large estates hi municipal hands, wide powers whereby to regulate house building in every direction, and unlimited opportunities of helping building societies by the sale of public land and the loan of public money. Instead, however, of building its towns on the extensive principle, Germany has committed the inexpiable sin of creating the barrack house, consisting of any number of floors, up to seven, upon which small dwellings jostle against each other like cubicles in a doss-house. The large barrack house is specially characteristic of the east of Prussia and in a less degree of the west, though in the west there are seldom found the " side " and " back " houses and the arrangement of four or six dwellings on a single floor peculiar to Berlin and its suburbs. While the new houses built at Charlottenburg in 1910 contained on the average 24-4 dwellings per building, the ratio for the houses built at Essen and Aix-la-Chapelle was 3-7, at Crefeld 3-5, at Cologne 5, and at Diisseldorf 5-7. The most notorious home of the barrack house is, of course, Berlin. The average number of persons per inhabited house in that city is 77, so that Breslau with 52, Leipzig with 35, Halle with 26, and Frankfort-on-Main with 20 persons per house are almost exemplary by comparison. Berlin's high average of 77 inhabitants per house, however, implies a far more appalling congestion in the thickly populated working- class areas, for this average is kept down by the relatively small average prevalent in the well-to-do districts of the west, where whole districts have an average no higher than 26. In contrast to that relatively low figure there are large districts in the north and east of the city with an average of over 100 persons per house. The consequence is that, in the words of Dr. H. Preuss, " Berlin is, in ratio of area to population, the smallest city of over a million inhabitants on the face of the earth." If tuberculosis is a housing disease, as medical authorities more and more agree that it is, there is room for serious reflection in the fact that owing to the 164 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY intensive method of building adopted half the dwellings of Berlin contain only one room and a kitchen, that 33,000 of its dwellings have only one heatable room and 2400 no such room at all, and that 4090 dwellings consist simply of a kitchen. Who conceived this enormity ? How came it to dominate whole towns ? There was no need for it, even in Berlin. Land was abundant always, and until the barrack house conquered it was not excessively dear ; while fifty and even thirty years ago bricks and labour cost only half as much as now. There were large houses of four stories in Berlin two centuries ago, and in some of the old towns at a still earlier date, but they were not the prevailing type and often they were built for special purposes. Only when German towns began to renew their youth some forty years ago and house-building passed into the hands of speculators did the large " flat " house become really naturalised. Since then it has become an obsession. Municipal authorities accepted it blindly as the last word in domestic architecture and assumed that no other form of building was possible hi large towns. " The great barrack house owes its existence to accident and thoughtlessness," writes a well-known German housing authority. In part it was undoubtedly an expression of that unreasoning love of size and massivity which is so characteristic of modern Germany. It was this same characteristic that led the earlier town planners to lay down streets of great and often excessive width, irrespective of the purpose for which they were intended, just as their love of regularity led them to plan these streets in dismal straight lines. Only in recent times was the discovery made that the width of a street should bear some relationship to its purpose whether for heavy or purely local traffic and that long, straight, wind-swept streets lack in beauty what they gain in convenience. Mean- time, the excessive width of streets insisted on by cast-iron regulations added greatly to the cost of house-building, and in order to recoup himself and make the most of his plots the builder began to extend his houses vertically instead of horizontally. The discovery that five or six stories could HOUSING POLICIES 165 be built on a site which before had been occupied by three or four increased the value of the land, and even made dearer such land as was not intended for barrack houses, because of its potential use and value. THE EVIL OF LAND AND HOUSE SPECULATION. Infinite harm has also been done by wild and often unprincipled speculation. Much of the building enterprise in the larger German towns is unsound and unscrupulous, and behind it is the equally pernicious gambling of land companies ever eager to unload their property upon the public. There are in Berlin scores of land and estate companies, some perfectly honest, yet most of a speculative character, and some of the larger of these companies distribute princely dividends amongst their shareholders. The mischief done by many of these companies is not confined to the districts which, owing to their influence, are burdened permanently by excessive land prices and exorbitant rents, but extends to house property generally, and in the end the entire community is compelled to pay ransom to them. Worse still, much hi some towns most of the building is done by men of straw, working with money borrowed at high rates of interest. These speculative builders live from hand to mouth, they are provided with funds week by week to cover the current outlay, or as much of it as cannot be allowed to accumulate in debts that will never be paid, and by the time they have completed a block of dwellings the interest paid or accrued on advances and on the heavy outstanding mortgage that remains often represents a standing charge quite out of proportion to the intrinsic value of the property, and this charge the tenants have to pay. A large amount of house property, at least in the towns of mushroom growth, is heavily mortgaged, thanks to the exist- ence of an abundance of banks and moneylenders who are prepared to advance readily up to a very narrow margin of security. The effect is to draw into the web of house specula- tion hosts of people without either the brains or the con- science necessary to the responsible management of property. Not long ago a Berlin banking house published in a newspaper 166 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY of that city offers of loans on a scale showing that a property of the value of 7650 might be had for a payment on account of 500 (6| per cent.), the balance remaining on mortgage ; a property valued at 8150 for 600 (7! per cent.), one of 9500 for 750 (8 percent.), one of 10,100 for 800 (8| per cent.), and so on. In other words, on this system of speculation, the nominal buyers were only required to pay down between one- fifteenth and one-twelfth of the purchase price, the truth being, of course, that a person operating on these conditions no more owns his house than the stock exchange gambler who speculates in margins owns the securities for whose ups-and- downs he makes himself responsible. The margin of profit shown on these house transactions, after paying interest, but without allowances for repairs, rates and taxes, etc., ranged from i to i \ per cent, on the purchase price, and proportionately more upon the sum actually invested. This system of pseudo-house-ownership largely explains the short tenure of house properties in Berlin and towns offering equally favourable opportunities for unsound speculation. An investigation made by the Charlottenburg Statistical Office showed that 41 per cent, of all properties in that town changed hands during the five years 1900 to 1905. This rapid turn- over of property bears out the common observation of housing investigators that Germany more and more lives in rented houses. Dr. H. Wolff, of Halle, estimates that whereas in the middle of last century 50 per cent, of all dwellings in the large towns of Germany were rented and 42 per cent, owned by their occupiers, the proportions in 1900 were 85 and n per cent., and in 1910, 88 and 9 per cent. It is estimated that in Berlin 97 per cent, of all inhabitants live in rented houses ; in Breslau, 96 ; in Hamburg, 94 ; in Leipzig, 93 ; in Munich, 92 ; in Essen, 90 ; and in Cologne, 86 per cent. In large towns the tradition of the householder settled upon his own little domain survives only where the single family dwelling has kept at bay the flat and barrack house, as in Bremen, in this characteristic perhaps the most English-looking of German towns, Oldenburg, Lubeck, and a few other towns. Incidental to the practice of frivolous borrowing is the pernicious custom of house farming. A large owner of working- HOUSING POLICIES 167 class property will let a whole " book " of dwellings often as many as a hundred to a middleman agent whose only capital is his capacity to screw out of the tenants a shilling or two a week beyond the amount which he agrees to pay the landlord in chief. These parasites live by rack-renting, perform no useful service, and have no legitimate place in the social economy. In some towns harm has been done in the past, and is done to-day, by the curious stipulation found in the communal electoral law of some of the States Prussia and Saxony among the number to the effect that one half or more of the members of a town council, and it may be of the municipal executive as well, must be house-owners. The provision dates from a time of limited franchises, when a large proportion of the freemen of a town lived in their own houses, and when the burden of local taxation fell predominantly upon property owners. In general the effect of this arrangement upon the housing policies of the towns has not been beneficial, and in some cases it has been obstructive in a high degree. Indeed, when one allows for the conscious and unconscious play of self-interest and prejudice, it might seem remarkable that German towns have been able to do so much of late years to help forward housing reforms and to ameliorate the entire conditions of their areas, in view of the theoretical power of the statutory party of property to direct policy in accord- ance with its wishes. The effect of all these forces and influences, inelastic building regulations, intensive building, the mania for huge blocks, inordinate land speculation, professional building by men of straw, and heavy mortgage indebtedness from nearly all of which dear land follows ac certainly as night follows day, is seen in excessive rents, a tendency to pinch house room to the utmost, and a condition of congestion which is all the more deplorable since the areas of German towns are, in general, so large as to show a very favourable general ratio of space to population. In spite of the fact that the predominant dwell- ing of the British working classes contains four or five rooms while that of the German working classes contains only two of three, the former, as a rule, pay no higher rent. Other i68 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY classes of the population suffer equally from the dearness of house room, and only seldom is the accommodation fully adequate to the need. As a consequence, rent takes a specially prominent place in the domestic budget, for one-seventh or one-sixth of a man's income is regarded as a nominal ex- penditure on this one item, and in the case of the working classes a fifth and a quarter are very common. Speaking of the results of his own observations, a German housing authority, Herr Folsen, in a study of English and German housing in relation to land values, comes to the conclusion that house rent in Berlin is from 30 to 50 per cent, higher than in London, and that in general English housing is far cheaper than either German or French. Dr. Landmann said at the second German Housing Congress held at Mannheim in 1911, " If the price of land in the large towns, and even in those of medium size, does not fall, the classes of the population with only moderate means are doomed to suffer from ever- increasing housing difficulties." REMEDIAL MEASURES ADOPTED BY THE COMMUNES. Resuming the special aspects of the housing problem as presented to German municipalities and reformers, the prin- cipal are the existence of a large amount of property, particu- larly in the old towns, insanitary in surroundings and internal arrangements, high land prices, excessive rents, a great lack of small dwellings within the reach of the working classes and other people of small means, and above all the need for a decentralisation movement, so as to relieve the congestion in the heart of the large communities by diverting population to the outskirts. It is necessary now to inquire what is being done to grapple with a problem which forces itself upon all thinking persons at so many points. Relief is being sought in various directions, and by every town according to the special aspects presented by its own problem and its special facilities for dealing with the resulting difficulties. Improved legislation will admittedly be neces- sary before the question is done with, but meantime the local authorities are doing their best with the powers at their disposal. In many towns the old slums have been cleared HOUSING POLICIES 169 away wholesale at enormous expense. Hamburg has already expended several million pounds in this way ; costly clear- ances have also been made at Cologne, Frankfort-on-Main, Dortmund, Augsburg, Strassburg, and other towns, and as a result light, air, and health have been introduced into dark and foul places. The Strassburg improvement scheme em- bodies novel methods of procedure. The town has acquired for about 600,000 a large area of narrow streets in the Old Town and intends to demolish this property and construct a wide and handsome boulevard from the central railway station into the heart of the business quarter. Instead of itself building or negotiating the sale of the land that will be available for buildings the town has entered into an arrange- ment with a bank, which will dispose of the available sites at minimum prices and pay the town a fixed share of the profit. Where possible the land will be sold on lease for a term of 65 years, but the rest will be sold outright. Leaseholders will pay interest only slightly above that payable by the town on its loan, and at the end of the term the whole of the buildings will become public property without further con- sideration. Where the land is sold outright 20 per cent, of the purchase price has to be paid down at once, and the balance must be paid with interest in ten years. Improvement works of this kind can be carried out by the aid of the Expropriation Laws where necessary. In Germany as everywhere, however, the displacement of population under such circumstances creates the problem of its future housing. No law or local statute requiring provision to be made for the re-housing of working-people who may be so displaced is known to exist. Nevertheless, when after the cholera epidemic of 1892 the State of Hamburg cleared a large insanitary area in the inner town it sold the land subject to the condition that it should be used for dwelling-houses, a certain number of which should be for the working class, and the same principle has been followed in relation to later clearances. THE REACTION IN FAVOUR OF SMALL HOUSES. In some respects the German towns are simply endeavouring to retrace 170 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the ways unwisely chosen half a century ago, and just as Germany has taught England the importance and value of good town planning, so Germany is learning of England how to build good houses. 1 Happily a strong and wholesome re- action has set in against the barrack house. The speculative builder will cling to it as long as possible, just as Demetrius clung to his shrines, but amongst housing reformers no one can be found who has a good word to say for it ; the architect has rebelled against it, and the municipal authorities are more and more throwing difficulties in its way. " We must eman- cipate ourselves from the barrack house," said Government Councillor Freund, a high official of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior not long ago, " for the crowding together of dwellings is responsible not only for much sickness but also for much crime." ; ' The modern tendency," writes Dr. Most, as an active representative of municipal government, " is in favour of the small house in distinction to the barrack house, and in spite of opinions to the contrary this is now in general regarded as the most suitable and most favourable form of house." 2 " This form of dwelling," says, finally, a building expert, Herr Geusen, municipal surveyor of Diissel- dorf, where the barrack house has found a far too cordial welcome, " must be opposed with all the means available, not only for sanitary but for social and ethical reasons, and its abolition must be the principal aim in the remodelling of our towns. In contrast to it, the building of one-family houses, where they appear to be suited to the population, must be furthered in every way." 3 And so testimony to the discredit of the barrack house , might be multiplied almost indefinitely. But yesterday it stood against the world, with its crude, oppressive propor- tions, and barbaric ugliness ; now none is so poor as to do it reverence. The police and municipal authorities are giving 1 The compliment to this country is paid by Germany. Dr. Stiibben, of Berlin, writes : " In house-building we must learn from England. Just as English people have during recent years studied town planning with us, so we Germans have gone to England in large numbers in order to study house- building, and particularly the building of small houses." 2 " Die deutsche Stadt und ihre Verwaltung," Vol. II, p. 52. Ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 22. HOUSING POLICIES 171 effect to this accumulating condemnation of the barrack house by amending building regulations so as to restrict large houses to the inner districts of towns, while the permissible number of stories diminishes with the distance from the centre, and by abolishing the deep blocks with their double and treble courtyards. Thus the municipal authority of Mannheim divides its area into three zones or districts for building purposes ; within the first zone houses may be built to a height of five stories, within the second zone to a height of four stories, and within the third zone to a height of three stories, while detached side and back houses may not have more than four, three, and two stories respectively. So, too, the building regulations of Munich recognise five types of houses on the " closed " method of building (i.e. building in rows), and four on the " open " method (i.e. detached blocks) ; in the former case the permissible height is graduated from ground floor and four stories to ground floor and -one story, and in the latter from ground floor and three stories to ground floor and one story. On the other hand, every inducement is now being offered for the erection of small houses for one or two families on the periphery of towns, for the ideal of the " English home " is in the ascendant. " The Germans like to live together," writes Professor Vogt, of Frankfort ; " they fear having far to walk, and at first they even looked askance at suburbs." That was true of the generation that took its outdoor exercise in bowling alleys and that had never heard of garden towns, but it is no longer true to-day. A veritable migration to the country has set in, and around every large town may now be seen colonies of villas and maisonnettes, planted in the midst of field and woodland. Something is being done to alleviate the housing problem by administrative measures. With a view to cheapening the cost of house-building and thus of keeping down rents more, elasticity is being shown by the regulations relating to street construction ; wide streets are no longer insisted on where the probable needs of traffic do not require them, so that a given property can be used for a proportionately larger number of dwellings. The municipality of Bremen, in its i;2 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY desire to facilitate the building of small houses, to be occupied by their owners, and to preserve the reputation of the town as a town of one-family houses, decided in 1913 to allow such houses to be built on unmade roads not intended for through traffic and lined by front gardens. It is estimated that small houses can be built at a cost of 200 to 250, exclusive of the land. MISCELLANEOUS ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES. Among other measures of an administrative character, yet of wider scope, which are more or less within the power of all municipalities in proportion to their financial resources, and are being increasingly employed, are the extension of the communal boundaries by the incorporation of rural suburbs, with a view to bringing in new areas for building purposes, and of diverting population outward, the planning of these areas on systematic lines, the purchase of land and its disposal to building societies, the extension of tramways and other transport arrangements, so as to facilitate traffic between the towns and their suburbs, 1 the encouragement of building societies by the loan of money or the concession to them of rating privileges, the formation of mortgage funds for the advance of building money on easy terms to private individuals, subject to conditions as to the size and type of dwelling to be erected, the building of houses for municipal employees and for small occupiers generally, the division of the administrative district into zones and their assignment to special purposes (industrial works, residences, parks, etc.), the development of the land and building taxes, particularly in the direction of taxing all transactions in real estate, with special taxation of " increased value " or unearned increment, the increase of parks, recreation grounds, and open spaces, the introduction of an efficient system of house inspection, and the establish- ment of municipal house registries. Many of the foremost men in municipal government claim a wide extension of the existing limited powers of expropriation, so as to enable com- munal authorities to acquire and either use or redistribute 1 The subject of urban transport is fully dealt with in the chapter on " Municipal Trading Enterprises," pp. 232-240. HOUSING POLICIES 173 whole areas of their districts, according as circumstances may dictate. The action taken by many of the towns on some of these lines deserves special notice. ERECTION OF HOUSES BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES. In all the States the first public experiments in house-building have invariably been undertaken in the interest of municipal work- people. As long ago as 1901 (March 19) the Prussian Ministers of Trade and Commerce, for Education, and for Home Affairs issued a decree on the improvement of housing conditions, directing the Presidents of Government Districts to use their influence with communal authorities so as to persuade them to increase their real estate as much as possible, with a view to counteracting private speculation in land, yet urging them not to sell but only to lease such town land for building purposes. They were also to encourage communal authorities in small as well as large towns to " provide for their minor officials and the working-men engaged in public undertakings wholesome and convenient dwellings at as low rents as possible." The decree added : " A further means whereby influence can successfully be exerted towards the improvement of housing conditions is the facilitating of communication with the outer districts of the larger communes. Wherever abuses in housing conditions exist, care should be taken to develop the system of municipal communications, and to provide the necessary facilities for conveying working-people and school-children from and to the outer districts. In so far as the communes grant new concessions for tramways, etc., special provision to that effect should be introduced in the contracts." Similar decrees were issued more recently by the Governments of other States. These decrees powerfully stimulated the local authorities in many parts of the country, and a large number of towns have since provided dwellings for a portion of their employees, invariably upon town land on the outskirts. These houses are in general cheaper than similar houses in private owner- ship, for the municipalities are satisfied with the return of bare interest, and sometimes do not press for that. Of 106 towns with over 50,000 inhabitants, 42 (including Mannheim, 174 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Frankfort-on-Main, Diisseldorf, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Miilhausen, and Essen) had in 1909 built such houses. Some of the best of these municipal working-class dwellings are to be found at Miilhausen, for they combine, in a high degree, both comfort and elegance. They are built detached, each block surrounded by a considerable piece of land, and the style of architecture suggests rather a bijou suburban villa than a working-man's abode. The dwellings consist of three rooms and a kitchen, with a portion of the attic, and the use of a common drying-ground. Many towns go further, however, and build small houses for people of limited means generally. Of 15 of the larger towns which have been specially active in house-building one has built over 200 houses, five between 100 and 200 each, and the remaining nine 50 each. In Bavaria a number of small towns and even villages have built dwellings for the working classes. Two comparatively small towns, Freiburg in Baden and Ulm in Wurtemberg, have built houses on a specially large scale and their experience deserves more detailed reference since it represents a serious practical attempt to alleviate the housing problem by public action on commercial lines, and as such has attracted great attention throughout Germany. Freiburg's house-building enterprise dates from 1862. It began by building houses to sell at cost price, but when it was found that the owners were selling out at a profit it ceased to part with its houses and has since let them on a commercial basis to working - people, small officials, and others. The town owns, or manages as custodian of charitable funds, over 500 dwellings, and these it lets at rents which, while moderate, yield a satisfactory profit, but if to this number are added the dwellings provided by building societies receiving public assistance the town directly or indirectly controls over 1000 dwellings, or 6 per cent, of the total number in Freiburg. The houses contain from one to three living- or bedrooms, with kitchen and other accommodation, and a garden, and the rents range from los. to 335. a month. The town council has explained its housing policy as follows : " It is the purpose of the town to set a beneficent example in the HOUSING POLICIES 175 domain of house-building and to attempt as far as possible to equalise the fluctuations in supply. When it is satisfied that private enterprise meets all justifiable demands it will move slowly, while, on the other hand, it will be more active when abuses threaten. We can affirm with satisfaction that no serious complaint has yet been made of private individuals having been injured by the action of the town." The municipality of Ulm follows a different method in that it builds houses and sells them outright. It also sells land for building purposes, but subject to the right to buy it back with the buildings thereon during a period of a hundred years whenever the property changes hands or the owner fails to observe his obligations. The town further reserves a special right of re-purchase for a period of 200 years in regard to front garden ground in the event of its being needed for street improvements. Ulm began to build in 1894, when the town council assigned a vote of 10,000 for this purpose, and it has now built and sold some 175 dwellings to artisans, factory and other workmen, small officials, and others. Two types of houses are built two-story houses containing two dwellings, each with two rooms and a kitchen, etc., and a garden, costing with the land 300 ; and one-story houses, likewise containing two dwellings of the same size, costing 410. Buyers are expected to pay 5^ per cent, on the purchase price yearly, 3 per cent, as interest and 2| in repayment of loan, making a payment of 16 IDS. and 22 us. respectively for the two types of buildings. An additional sum of from 3 to 4 is payable for repairs, taxes, and water. It is required by the contract of sale that the buyer shall live in one of his two dwellings, and he may not charge for the other a higher rent than the town council approves ; if these and other conditions are not faithfully observed the town can exercise the right to buy back the land with the building. Where re-purchase takes place the value of the property is fixed by a committee of experts, of whom the owner nominates one ; the method of valuation followed is to take the cost price as a basis and to increase this by the unexhausted value of improvements made and decrease it by depreciation due to use. The sum 176 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY so arrived at, less interest and balance of purchase price due by the owner, is paid by the town. 1 PUBLIC ASSISTANCE TO BUILDING SOCIETIES. The policy of municipal house-building has many strong opponents in local government circles. These critics contend that house- building must in the main be left to private enterprise always, and that the most local authorities can do is merely to palliate unsatisfactory conditions where they exist ; hence that the more private capital can be attracted to this enterprise the more surely will the play of competitive forces tend to a reasonable level of rents and to an adequate supply of houses of the kinds needed. They claim, however, that municipal competition has the effect of frightening private capital away and that if carried to an excess it is capable of accentuating the very evils which it desires to remove. Towns which adopt this attitude restrict their action to the encouragement of building societies and the provision of credit facilities. These societies are as a rule of the " public utility " type, and exist for a semi-philanthropic purpose. They consist of public- spirited citizens who bind themselves by the rules to receive no more than 4 per cent, interest on their money. Most of the capital with which they work is, however, obtained from the State Pension Boards, communal and provincial authorities, savings banks, and other public sources, at a low rate of interest. Where municipalities lease or sell land to the societies or otherwise assist them they usually impose conditions as to the size and character of the dwellings to be built and the purpose to which they shall be put, and guarantees are re- quired to prevent their becoming objects of speculation ; in some cases a right of purchase is reserved by the town in certain eventualities. Leipzig is one of the towns which has on principle refrained from building houses, but which all the more readily assists co-operative building societies by the sale to them of land on easy terms. It was, indeed, one of the first towns to place leasehold land at the disposal of these societies. In 1901 it 1 See Appendix V, " Agreement relating to Municipal House Building at Jena." HOUSING POLICIES 177 leased to a " public utility " society for 100 years 125,000 square metres of land, at i^d. per metre yearly, for the purpose of cheap dwellings for the working classes. At the same time it became surety for loans to the amount of 185,000 granted to the society on favourable terms by the Saxon Pension Board. The municipality has the right to exercise supervision over the buildings with a view to ensuring that they are main- tained in a good condition. At the expiration of the lease the houses will become the property of the town without any payment. Since then the municipality has disposed of further areas of land on the same tenure, and it now lends money direct to building societies to the extent of 85 per cent, of the value of the buildings erected, redeemable in 50 years, charging interest at 4 per cent. The municipality of Mannheim leases land on easy terms to co-operative and other societies for the erection of small and cheap dwellings. Interest is charged at the rate of 3^ per cent, of the leasehold value of the land, as fixed at three- fifths of its actual market value. If the houses so built are placed at the disposal of municipal officials, teachers, or workmen, a further 30 per cent, of the value is deducted in arriving at the leasehold value, and interest is charged at the rate not exceeding 4 per cent. The duration of the lease is 75 years. The contracts on which land is so leased impose on the building societies the following obligations : 1. To submit plans to the town council before beginning the work of building and to carry out all amendments re- quired. 2. To complete the work of building within a fixed time. 3. To make no structural alteration to dwellings without permission of the town council. 4. To keep all buildings, both above and underground, in a good state of repair during the term of the lease. 5. To take steps to prevent sub-letting and the keeping of lodgers, and the use of the dwellings in a manner injurious to the health and morality of the inhabitants. 6. To obtain the assent of the town council to all rents charged and to observe the rents so approved. 178 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY At the expiration of the lease the town may require the society to remove the buildings within six months at its own expense, or to transfer them to the town, free from all liabilities, in which case the town must pay to the society one-fifth of the value of the buildings, as determined by experts. Similarly Frankfort-on-Main has sold to building societies land upon which some 1700 dwellings have been or will be built, and has advanced 200,000 towards the cost. A large part of the land has been reserved as recreation grounds and gardens. Among many other towns which sell or lease land and advance money to building societies on favourable terms are Cologne, Diisseldorf, Barmen, Strassburg, Essen, Dresden, Bremen, Aix-la-Chapelle, Magdeburg, Munich, Augsburg, and Nuremberg. The Munich Statistical Office recently published a list of 43 towns which had lent money to building societies to the aggregate amount of 1,085,000. The usual rates of interest varied from 3 to 4 per cent. In some of these towns the municipalities bear either the whole or a portion of the cost of street and sewerage works and of the laying of gas and water pipes in the case of houses built by " public utility " societies for the working classes, and in others the land and building taxes are reduced or remitted for a term of years. In Bavaria these societies have the benefit of a law which enables the State to exempt from the house tax for twelve years small dwellings built by co-operative enterprise. In some towns the funds of the municipal savings banks are largely used in financing " public utility " building societies, and here and there, as at Strassburg, the savings banks build at their own risk. 1 The practice of municipalities guaranteeing loans made to building societies by the State Pension Boards is becoming increasingly common. In addition to the cases mentioned, Frankfort-on-Main has undertaken a guarantee of the kind to the extent of 306,000, Essen one of 200,000, several other towns one of 100,000 each, and in 1912 sixty-five towns 1 This is quite independent of the loans on real estate in general advanced by the municipal savings banks, the sum of which in the case of 222 towns was in 1912 over /iGo.ooo.ooo. HOUSING POLICIES 179 had together become surety for loans to the amount of two and a quarter million pounds, advanced for the most part by the State Pension Boards. The towns of the Prussian province of Rhineland have been specially active in the matter, as in housing reform generally. Many towns also take shares in building societies, thus both helping to raise capital for building purposes and sharing the risk. Like the building societies, some of the municipalities themselves obtain money for building schemes from the Pension Boards, and in several States they are able to borrow from Government. Thus in Wiirtemberg the State lends money for house erection to communes to the full value of the buildings. Altogether a work of the utmost value is done by the municipalities on these various lines. Some time ago the German Labour Department instituted inquiries as to the extent to which the towns promoted housing schemes or assisted in their promotion. It was found that of 106 towns questioned, 42 had provided municipal work-people with dwellings ; 25 of these towns were in Prussia, five in Baden, three each in Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, two each in Saxony and Hesse, and one each in Brunswick and Alsace-Lorraine. Fifteen towns had built dwellings for people of limited means in general, Freiburg having done most in this direction. Professor Albrecht, of Berlin, estimates that the building societies, generally with public assistance in some form, had up to 1912 erected houses to the aggregate value of ten million pounds, and that they are building at a rate of 4000 a year. A recent inquiry into the action taken on the housing question by the municipal authorities in Prussia showed that of 122 towns with a population above 25,000, 38 had sold land at a cheap price (sometimes under cost) for the erection of small dwellings, 50 had established mortgage funds in- tended to encourage the same enterprise, 38 had taken shares in building societies, and 30 had reduced the taxation and other contributions (e.g., on account of street construction) due in respect of small houses. So far as the quality of housing accommodation goes, it is probable that the indirect effect of the action of municipal i8o MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY authorities and building societies is greater than the direct. The influence of house-building on semi-philanthropic lines on rents in general may have been insignificant, but the influence upon the working classes, upon their standard of taste, and so upon the builders who supply the housing needs of these classes, has been great. Owing to the enterprise of public authorities and building societies, the working-man becomes used to a better type of dwelling ; he learns to appreciate conveniences which he never enjoyed in the past balconies, larders, bathrooms, and the like and so private builders have to fall in with his requirements, and the general level of housing is gradually raised. As an offshoot of the housing reform movement the garden- town idea has materialised in many parts of Germany, and in the neighbourhood of Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg, Mann- heim, Karlsruhe, Magdeburg, Strassburg, Konigsberg, Posen, and Essen attractive rural colonies have sprung up, while several propagandist societies have been formed in furtherance of the movement. Some municipalities have offered the garden-town societies practical help. Mannheim and Strass- burg have both given security for large mortgage loans obtained by such societies and have taken shares in the undertakings. MUNICIPAL INSPECTION OF DWELLINGS. There is no Im- perial legislation on the subject of house inspection. The subject is regarded as an internal one which every State must settle for itself in accordance with its own traditions and circumstances. In most States the matter is not even regu- lated by general law but is left to local decision, with the result that the utmost diversity of practice may exist within the same State. As a rule, inspection is confined to dwellings containing not more than three rooms and to those in which lodgers are taken. The inspection of dwellings has been introduced on the largest scale in Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Hesse, in all of which States inspection is compulsory, and is carried out in conjunction with a central State inspectorate. Bavaria has specially distinguished itself in the matter. There inspection is exercised by the police authority, except HOUSING POLICIES 181 where a town forms its own housing committee with special inspectors, as has been done at Munich, Augsburg, Nurem- berg, and elsewhere. A Royal Decree of February 10, 1901, required the introduction of house inspection in all communes in the kingdom, with the object of " keeping a continuous and careful watch over the housing system, the improvement of housing conditions, especially as concerns people of limited means, and of adopting measures for the removal of evils." The Decree required the formation of Housing Committees in the larger towns, the members to be chosen by the local authorities (the medical profession being represented) for six years at a time. Where necessary, housing inspectors were to be appointed and special investigations to be made into housing conditions. The Decree also prescribed certain regulations on the subject of light and ventilation, heating and firing, the location and condition of rooms, and the keep- ing of lodgers, and provided for the issue of police regulations dealing with details. As a result of the Decree nearly all the communes with a population exceeding 10,000 appointed inspectors, and by 1906 when a Central State Housing Inspector was appointed housing committees had been formed in over 900 communes. Housing censuses and systematic investigations had also been made in Munich, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Augsburg, and other towns. On the whole the system of house inspection depended on honorary service, and remedial measures progressed slowly. In consequence of this the Government in 1907 required that trained inspectors should be appointed in all towns of 15,000 inhabitants, while in towns with a less population the ap- pointment of such inspectors was to depend upon circum- stances. The larger towns were also urged to create Municipal House Registries and to affiliate them to the existing Labour Registries, and this has been done at Munich, Nuremberg, and elsewhere. At present the Bavarian system of house inspection or " house care," as it is called, is a combination of official and voluntary service. The housing committees are, as a rule, composed of representatives of the house-owners and tenants (the statutory sickness funds and building societies being represented), members of the municipal 182 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY authority, Poor Law officials, municipal doctors, and women chosen for their interest in social work. Stress is laid upon friendly advice rather than coercion ; only when such advice fails of effect does the executive intervene with stronger measures. In Baden house inspection is compulsory in the larger towns. Ministerial Orders of June 27, 1874, and November 10, 1896, empower the State District Councils (Bezirksrate), working hand in hand with the communes, to institute in- vestigations into housing conditions where there is reason to believe that structural, sanitary, and moral abuses exist. These investigations are made by the local Boards of Health (Gesundheitsrdte) or special ad hoc commissions. Systematic inspection of dwellings may also be introduced, this being exercised by the State District Board (Bezirksamt), which is the building authority in Baden. These administrative orders were strengthened by a law of September i, 1907, requiring a system of house inspection to be introduced in all towns with over 10,000 inhabitants in conjunction with housing committees. For the purpose of such inspection Mannheim is divided into ten districts, to each of which an inspector (Wohnungskontrolleur) is attached. It is the duty of the inspectors to visit all houses in the town periodically and to report the defects noticed to the District Board, which promptly takes remedial measures. In Wiirtemberg all dwelling-houses consisting of from one to four rooms must be inspected once every two years. In- spection is exercised by the local police authorities, but in Stuttgart it is carried on in conjunction with the municipal house registry. There the municipality first tried a system of honorary house-visitors, the town being divided into 210 districts (each containing a definite group of houses), to each of which was assigned a visitor whose duty it was to visit the dwellings and see that they were kept in sanitary condition and in a good state of repair. The plan did not succeed ; the voluntary visitors did not in general take well to their duties, and house-owners were disposed to throw obstacles in their way whenever possible, in spite of their being armed with official entrance warrants ; and in course of time most of them HOUSING POLICIES 183 resigned office. As a consequence, the voluntary system was abandoned, and paid officers have since been introduced. The principal towns of Hesse have inspection by trained officers, and the same system is adopted in Strassburg, Miil- hausen, and Metz, in Alsace-Lorraine, and in the free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck. Hamburg has a very thorough system, in which room is found for much valuable voluntary service. The town is divided into " circles," and these again into " districts " ; for every " circle " there is a house-visitor (Pfleger) and for every "district" a chairman (Vorstchcr}. The chairmen and two senators form the " Authority for House Care," which has under it a staff of technical officers. Most of the towns in Saxony with a population above 5000 have introduced house inspection on more or less systematic lines ; Leipzig and Chemnitz have done so more thoroughly than the rest. In Prussia housing legislation still hangs fire, though Bills have been brought forward by the Government for public discussion, and the question of house inspection is a matter for local by-laws. 1 Many of the large towns have introduced efficient systems of inspection, exercised by technical officials working hand in hand with honorary visitors or house curators. In several cases the entire work of " house care " is vested in Municipal Housing Boards, with which are affiliated House Registries. The majority of Prussian towns have still no system of house inspection, however, though the exceptions include important towns like Essen, Berlin, Diisseldorf, Cologne, Charlottenburg, Aix-la-Chapelle, Breslau, Cassel, and Elberfeld, where inspection is exercised by the municipal authority, and Barmen, Crefeld, Bonn, and other Rhenish towns, where the police authority acts. While in some towns inspection is exercised by special officers trained for the work and devoting all their time to it, hi others there is a com- bination of paid and honorary service. The Essen system is regarded as one of the most efficient. It was introduced in 1899 as a branch of the town's social welfare work, and is directed by a Public Health Committee consisting of the 1 At the time of printing this book (March, 1914) an important Housing Law is before the Prussian Diet, and its provisions, if enacted, will remove or abate existing defects in this and other directions. 184 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY chief mayor or an adjoint, the district medical officer, the poor relief doctors, and a number of citizens, working in con- junction with district committees. One of the most recent systems of municipal house care is that which has just been established in Charlottenburg. Here all matters relating to housing are placed under the supervision of a Housing Board. This body is subject to a special Housing Deputation of the town council, consisting of 21 members, of whom five are members of the municipal executive, seven are members of the town council, and nine are co-opted citizens, election being for three years. Besides conducting a house registry this Deputation is responsible for the inspection of all dwellings consisting of not more than two habitable rooms and a kitchen, all dwellings in which lodgers are taken, and all dormitories for work-people and other employees who sleep in the houses of their employers. The house curators or visitors are paid officers. In order to facilitate the work of inspection and house registration, house-owners are required to notify to the police all dwellings vacant or let, and the police inform the municipal house registry. It is the intention of the Housing Deputation to collect periodical housing statistics and to endeavour to regulate the supply of houses in the town. For the purpose of inspection, the town is divided into fourteen districts, and each district is supervised by a small housing committee, the members of which include a doctor and a woman. The practical work of inspection is done by house curators whose duty it is to co-operate with house-owners and tenants in the removal of unhealthy conditions where they are found to exist. Where house inspection is seriously carried out special attention is given to lodging-houses and the lodger system generally. The lodging-house system is regulated by State law in Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Baden, and other States, while in Prussia, in the absence of a general law, uniform regula- tions on the subject are issued for large administrative areas. Mannheim has distinguished itself by the thoroughness with which it has for many years endeavoured by administrative measures to minimise the evils incidental to the practice, common amongst working-class households in German indus- HOUSING POLICIES 185 trial towns, of letting to lodgers rooms which should be occu- pied by the younger members of the family. The introduction of house inspection has inevitably raised the old controversy on the subject of municipal and police functions. Where towns were willing to take upon them- selves this responsibility they naturally wished to exercise real and not merely illusory powers, and hence some of them endeavoured to induce the police authority to stand aside and abdicate its rights in the matter. The municipality of Berlin, for example, before it settled the details of its new system of house inspection petitioned the Government to transfer to it the powers in regard to housing matters hitherto exercised by the State police authority. There as elsewhere the Government politely but firmly refused, on the plea that the control of dwellings could not be separated from that of building operations, public health, and public morals, all matters regulated by the police. All the Government would do was to promise to confer upon the housing officials who might be appointed by the municipality powers of entry similar to those exercised by the police, and with this crumb of con- cession the administration of the first city in the Empire had to be satisfied. The consequence of the reservation to the police of all their old rights is that the municipal housing depart- ments and their inspectors have no compulsory powers. Their work is in the nature of social welfare work; for while they can visit, inspect, and advise, they cannot coerce, punish, or even threaten offenders. While experience is being gained on many different lines of experiment, it seems to be agreed that the best system of housing control is that which combines trained officers with a sufficient body of honorary visitors and advisers. Thus, when Berlin in 1913 set up its new Housing Board it was formed of 20 salaried officials and 740 honorary members, these being divided amongst 118 district committees, each with from four to twelve members, according to the social character of the district. The police system of inspection has been found to be too uniform and rigid to produce the best results. What is needed is the neighbourly advice of sympa- thetic visitors imbued with the social spirit, and this is best i86 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY secured when the services of civilians are employed. Many towns have been sufficiently enlightened to recognise the importance of women's work in this branch of municipal government. Women inspectors and officials have been appointed in a few towns, and the housing committees now almost invariably contain a fair proportion of women. MUNICIPAL HOUSE REGISTRIES. The Municipal House Registry is a development of the new system of house in- spection. These institutions are now found in at least forty towns, mostly in West and South Germany. They are in- tended to register offers and wants of dwellings of two and three rooms. The registry places before house-seekers plans and other details relating to dwellings likely to interest them, thus saving them much useless wandering and loss of time. In Munich, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Charlottenburg, and some other towns the owners of these small dwellings are required to report them when empty to the public registry. As a rule no charge is made for registering or letting working-class dwellings, but a small fee (2d. or 3d.) is usually charged for middle-class houses and applicants. The experience of these registries is said to have been very favourable on the whole, for once established they soon prove a great boon to the small householders. One of the largest is that of Stuttgart, which receives in the course of a year as many as 10,000 offers of and applications for dwellings, while the Cologne and Essen registries deal with between 4000 and 6000. In general, from 40 to 60 per cent, of the house-seekers' wants can be met, though the proportion is higher where the supply of dwellings is very limited. In relation to this question of housing reform the German confidence in the value of statistics has received practical illustration, for, recognising that the first condition of useful action is a knowledge of the facts, many towns publish con- tinuous returns of the number of unoccupied dwellings, and these present a fairly faithful picture of the movement of the house market. It is assumed that a normal relationship between supply and demand exists when there is a surplus of 3 per cent. Some of the larger towns go further and make periodical HOUSING POLICIES 187 enumerations of all the houses within their areas, with returns of their accommodation, rent, etc. The Cologne Statistical Office also publishes annual returns from all the larger towns of Germany, showing the extent of their building activity during the year. BUILDING REGULATIONS. While the town plan lays down the general lines which the development of a town must follow, including the street and building alignments, the building regulations prescribe the general structural conditions, such as the proportions of a building site to be built on and left free respectively, the height of buildings, of stories, and of rooms, the size or air space of rooms, the lighting and ventila- tion arrangements, building material, etc. The regulations may also stipulate where the " open " and the " closed " system of building may be adopted ; the " open " system being building in small blocks with intervening spaces, and the " closed " the unbroken or terrace form of building. In Baden, Wiirtemberg, Brunswick, Hesse, Anhalt, and other States general codes of building regulations have been introduced for the whole State, these being adopted by the local authorities with such modifications as circumstances require, subject to the sanction of the competent State super- visory authority. In Prussia such general regulations do not as yet exist ; uniform regulations have been issued for several Government Districts in the Rhineland and other provinces ; but for the rest each commune has its own regulations, framed, as a rule, by the local building police authority with the acqui- escence of the Government. Most of the recent building regulations prescribe differential conditions for the inner and outer districts of a communal area respectively ; in the former less latitude is allowed to the builder in such matters as the style of building, height, number of stories, and proportion of plot to be left free. Not infrequently the regulations are relaxed in the case of small dwellings intended for persons of limited means, with a view to reducing the costs of construc- tion. Where uniform rules are not laid down by law, there is con- siderable diversity in the building regulations of different States, i88 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY and even of different towns within the same State, and only the general principles can be indicated here. A common rule as to the height of buildings is that this may not exceed the width of the adjacent street, including the side walks and the gardens, but everything depends upon whether the building is in an inner or an outer district of the town. In some towns a separate maximum is specified for back buildings, the measurements being here either definitely specified or propor- tionate to the size of the courtyard. Most building regulations prescribe the maximum portion of the building plot which may be built upon, or conversely how large a proportion must remain free ; the area that may not be built upon varies as a rule from 20 or 25 per cent, in the inner districts Of a town, but it may be 50 or 60 per cent, in outer districts. The maximum number of stories permissible depends on circumstances, and the requirements as to the size of dwellings also differ greatly. The Bavarian regulations state that a dwelling must, as a rule, contain at least one heatable room, one bedroom, and a kitchen, with storeroom ; while in Saxon towns a dwelling must contain at least one heatable room and one bedroom, with a kitchen if possible. Most regulations also contain provisions as to the minimum cubic contents of rooms in- tended for habitation, their height, the size of windows, etc. It will be understood that the provisions of the modern codes of regulations are, as a rule, enforced only in relation to new buildings, and that much of the existing house property in old towns falls far short of the official requirements. In these towns earnest efforts are being made to level housing conditions all round to a tolerable hygienic standard, but except within very narrow limits the task is often a hopeless one. In such cases the only comfort of housing reformers lies in the fact that in the populous towns there is a steady move- ment of population from the centre to the circumference and the suburbs. There is also some ground for the hope that in course of time the old and insanitary areas often found in the inner " city " districts will be abandoned as residential quarters and will be used or reconstructed for business purposes. CHAPTER VIII PUBLIC HEALTH Public health authorities The public hospital system Inspection of foods and drinks Sewerage, drainage, and scavenging Public swimming baths Parks, gardens, and recreation and sports grounds Municipal cemeteries and crematoria. A PAST high death-rate is one evidence amongst others that German local authorities in general have not until quite recent times devoted as much care and expenditure to the sanitary as to some other branches of administration. Great progress has been made during the last twenty years, however, and simultaneously the mortality rate has fallen as a consequence. For forty years prior to 1891 the general rate of mortality (including the stillborn), averaged over periods of ten years, had ranged from 26-5 to 28-8 per 1000 of the population ; the rates for the two succeeding decennial periods were 23-5 and 19-7 per 1000, and from 1905 to 1910 the rate steadily fell from 20-8 to 17-1. On the whole the decrease has been greater in the urban than the rural districts, and many of the larger towns in particular have a far more creditable record than small places, where natural conditions might seem to be more favourable to health. Nowadays the German municipalities regard their public health work as amongst the most remuneraiive as well as most urgent of their many activities, and shrink from no expenditure that can be usefully incurred on its behalf. As an example, the costs to Charlottenburg of public health administration in all its branches, including the expenditure on hospitals, baths, dis- pensaries for infants and consumptives, school hygiene, the care of consumptives, disinfection, scavenging and drainage, increased from 45. 2d. a head of the population in 1900 to 8s. 8d. in 1910. 189 igo MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY PUBLIC HEALTH AUTHORITIES. To some extent past in- difference to sanitation may be attributable to the absence of that constant pressure from a central authority, responsible for the general oversight of public health, which has done so much to stimulate English local authorities, and to give to this country its relatively high standard of sanitary administra- tion. The Imperial authorities which have to do with public health are the Imperial Board of Health and the Imperial Council of Health. The Imperial Board of Health was formed in 1876 to assist the Imperial Ministry of the Interior (or Home Office) in dealing with questions bearing upon public health and sanitation generally. It is essentially a research and advisory department upon a national scale, and its four sections deal with such important matters as water supply, sewerage, disinfection, and the disposal of trade effluents. The Council of Health, with nine committees for different branches of work, is affiliated to it. The Imperial Board of Health advises local authorities upon questions of sanitation, and the valuable results of its own constant investigations are placed at the disposal of these authorities in the form of reports and statistics. But neither the Imperial Board of Health nor the subordinate Council of Health possesses com- pulsory powers of any kind. In the States public health questions come under either the Ministry of the Interior (or Home Office) or a department of the Ministry for " Ecclesiastical, Educational, and Medicinal Affairs " (commonly known as the Kultusministerium) . The medicinal department of the Prussian Home Office organises all measures for the combating of infectious and certain other diseases as well as for the care of cripples ; it examines local schemes of water supply and sewerage, and generally advises local authorities upon matters affecting public health and sanitation. Though its functions are not so far-going as those of the British Local Government Boards, they are by no means of a negative character. In addition, a Royal Institu- tion for the examination and testing of water supplies and sewerage has existed in Prussia since 1901. It investigates questions relating to water supply, the disposal of sewerage, and the purification and utilisation of trade effluents, and has PUBLIC HEALTH 191 an experimental station in connection with the Charlottenburg irrigation works. The municipalities would probably have done more for public sanitation in the past, and have done it sooner, had the sole responsibility for sanitary administration rested with them instead of being to a large extent entrusted to the police authority and only exercised by the local authorities in- directly in virtue of the fact that the mayor of a commune is usually invested with police functions in the name of the Crown. In all the larger States the municipal authorities are re- quired to form committees for the purpose of co-operating in the administration of the public health laws. In Prussia (under a law of September 16, 1899), standing health com- mittees must be appointed in all communes with more than 5000 inhabitants, while for smaller communes they are optional. Such a committee must be constituted in accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Ordinances relating to all such devolution of the duties of town councils ; the number of members is determined by the council, but where possible a medical practitioner and a building expert must be on the committee. Sometimes one or more of the Poor Law doctors are also appointed. District sub-committees may be formed in the larger towns. In every case the term of office is fixed by the town council, but the minimum is six years. Member- ship of such a committee is honorary and may not be declined except for the reasons which exempt from honorary sendee in general. It is the duty of these health committees to acquaint them- selves, by inquiry and inspection, with the sanitary conditions of their districts, to support all sanitary measures taken by the police authority, acting in accord with the " circle " medical officer, to give opinions on questions relating to the public health which may be addressed to them by the municipal and police authorities, to instruct the public upon such questions, to investigate evils which may have a tendency to lead to the outbreak and spread of disease, and to initiate proposals for the removal of insanitary conditions generally, for the im- provement of existing arrangements, and for the introduction 192 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY of timely innovations. The questions to which the attention of the committees is particularly directed by the law include the condition of dwelling-houses and habitations in general, the cleanliness of the streets, public places, etc., water supply in all its branches, the pollution of water courses, trade in food-stuffs, public abattoirs, the relation of industrial under- takings to the public health, the condition of schools, the condition of the poor and sick and of institutions for their care, first-aid arrangements, bathing and swimming establish- ments, cemeteries, and mortuaries. Committees are expected to meet at least once in three months and to make visits of inspection at least once a year, and at other times when necessity arises, as on the occasion of floods, epidemics, etc. The " circle " medical officer has a right to attend and vote at all meetings of a committee, and he may require it to be convened at any time ; while a local committee is expected to meet that official at his request when he makes his periodical visits of inspection. Municipal medical officers are appointed, corresponding closely in status and duties to the same officials in this country. Some towns give to their principal medical officer a higher, some a lower rank, in so far as he is either given a place in the executive (as a " magistrate " or alderman), or is simply made the head of a department dependent upon that body. Berlin and Charlottenburg have lately created "medicinal councillors," with seats in the executive, who are responsible for all public health and sanitary matters falling within the province of the local governments. In Baden similar local health committees (called councils) have to be appointed, and are composed of the chief mayor of the town (as chairman) , an officer of the District Board (Bezirks- amt), a State authority responsible for the execution of the sanitary laws, two district medical officers, the Poor Law doctors, the district veterinary surgeon (a State official), members of the municipal executive, town councillors, a chemist, and the principal surgeon of the general town hospital. This council meets at irregular intervals, but the principal part of its work is done by committees. The divergence of the German from the English system of public health ad- PUBLIC HEALTH 193 ministration may be illustrated by the wide extent of police functions in this domain exercised in Baden. There, the District Board, as the police authority, administers the State laws and local by-laws and regulations relating to the sale of milk, the inspection and sale of meat, the trade in poisons, the manufacture of mineral waters, the use of beer stills, the sale of bottled beer, and the businesses of barbers and hairdressers, masseurs, knackers, quack doctors and uncertificated dentists. Quack doctors are required to be registered, to notify every change of address, and to inform the police of every case of death by violence, serious physical injury, poisoning, crime and offence against human life that comes within their know- ledge while following their barely tolerated vocation. THE PUBLIC HOSPITAL SYSTEM. Highly developed though the German system of public hospitals is, the provision of these institutions, other than for infectious disease, is volun- tary on the part of the local authorities, at least to the extent that they are not expressly required by statute to build them. An indirect form of compulsion may be said to exist, however, owing to the obligation of the communes to care for the poor in sickness. Thus in Prussia this liability arises in virtue of section i of the law in execution of the Imperial Settlement Law, viz. : " Every necessitous German shall receive at the cost of the poor relief union liable for his maintenance shelter, indispensable subsistence, the necessary care in sickness, and in the event of death seemly burial." Until two or three decades ago, indeed, the public hospitals were almost exclusively used for the sick poor, and it was only after the social insurance laws were passed and the need arose for a sufficiency of insti- tutions affording to the woridng classes all the advantages of modern medicine and surgery that any great extension of the hospitals took place. Here, however, as in so many other directions, where the interests of the less favoured sections of the population are concerned, the towns have ignored the letter of the statute and have considered only the welfare of the communities for whose good government they are responsible, and to-day treatment which was formerly the luxury of the rich is re- 194 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY garded as the necessity of the poor. The total number of public hospitals in Germany in 1885, shortly after the sickness insurance legislation came into force, was 1706, and the number of beds provided was 75,000. In 1907 the number of such hospitals had increased to 2222, and the number of beds to 138,000 . There was an increase of 30 per cent, in the number of hospitals and of 83 per cent, in the number of beds, com- paring with an increase of 42 per cent, in population. The ratio of beds to population increased from one to every 616 in- habitants in 1885 to one to 450 in 1907. These figures relate to public hospitals only. There had been a still greater relative increase in the number and accommodation of the private hospitals. These private hospitals, like private homes and asylums, can only be established under concession from the higher administrative authority, and in certain circumstances the local authority and the local police must be heard before such a concession is granted. In Prussia hospitals of all kinds are subject to State supervision. In 1911 over three million pounds was paid for the treatment of insured persons in hospitals under the Sickness Insurance Laws, and by far the greater part of this sum went to the institutions under communal or other public management. As a rule the main- tenance fees charged to insurance societies are under cost : the usual rates vary from 2s. to 33. 6d. a day. The Govern- ment, however, fixes rates uniform for the whole country for patients who are maintained in hospitals at the expense of Poor Law authorities, with a view to preventing unfair charges. The cost of " a large municipal hospital meeting only the moderate hygienic and scientific requirements " is estimated by German authorities at from 350 to 500 per bed, but while a few modern hospitals of the kind have cost more e.g. the Virchow hospital in Berlin, 625 ; and the latest Munich hospital, 535 probably most of the existing institutions have been erected and equipped at much less expense. 1 There would appear to be a strong disposition to give the doctors too free a hand, with the result that expenditure often goes far beyond actual needs. In 1913 the Prussian Minister 1 Dr. F. Schrakamp in " Die deutsche Stadt und ihre Verwaltung," Vol. I, p: 132. PUBLIC HEALTH 195 of the Interior issued a rescript to the Chief Presidents and District Presidents, calling attention to the growing tendency of local authorities to incur excessive expenditure upon the unnecessary embellishment of hospitals, and urging them to use all their influence in the direction of greater economy. It was stated in this document that an expenditure of from 150 to 200 a bed should suffice to build and equip hospitals meeting all the requirements of modern science. Such, how- ever, is not the opinion of the larger municipalities. The larger institutions are worked by permanent staffs, but in the smaller towns part-time surgeons and doctors are usually appointed, and as a rule patients may be attended only by the staff doctors. Many of the larger towns have supplemented their general hospitals with institutions for the treatment of special diseases, children's hospitals, sanatoria, infant dispensaries, convalescent homes, forest resorts, etc. Thus Weissensee, a working-class suburb of Berlin, beginning with an infants' dispensary, has just built a special hospital for infants containing 40 beds, at a cost of about 20,000, including model stalls for cattle. Staffs of outside nurses usually support the work of the dis- pensaries for infants and consumptives, and of the school doctors, or the local authorities subsidise district nursing associations which undertake this duty on their behalf. A remarkable awakening of interest in the condition and welfare of crippled children has occurred of late, and in many towns hospitals and homes for their treatment and education have been provided by the municipal authorities or by these in conjunction with private philanthropy. An admirable movement has of late been introduced in some towns by philanthropic societies with municipal en- couragement in the form of what is known as " hospital care " work. It is the object of these societies to look after the dependants of patients while in hospital, to prevent that too common tragedy of sickness amongst the poor, the break up of homes, and to help the patients on discharge to get back either to their old or to new employment. For efforts of the kind there is always need in large towns, and the movement has called forth much generous enthusiasm. 196 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Mention must also be made of the " Samaritan," first-aid, and rescue work carried on or subsidised by the local authori- ties. Berlin grants 3750 a year, Leipzig 1300 and Frankfort- on-Main 750 to agencies engaged in work of this kind. There are rescue depots in more than 130 of the larger towns, and in nearly 100 cases medical aid is provided on the spot. The provision of communal hospitals for the isolation and treatment of infectious diseases of certain kinds is compulsory under the Imperial Law of June 30, 1900, and in Prussia under a supplementary law of August 28, 1905. Here the supervisory authority is empowered to require local authori- ties to take the necessary steps. As a rule provision is made in connection with the general hospitals, but in order to meet the contingency of an epidemic the large towns usually have in reserve suitable buildings which can quickly be adapted to the purpose of isolation hospitals, and also sites upon which emergency hospitals can be at once erected. The Imperial Law of June 30, 1900, makes notification com- pulsory and empowers the sanitary authority to require dis- infection in the case of certain infectious diseases, viz., leprosy, Asiatic cholera, spotted fever, yellow fever, oriental bubonic plague, smallpox, and anthrax, but the number of notifiable diseases is increased in many States by statutes and by-laws. The Prussian law of August 28, 1905, promulgated in execu- tion of the Imperial Law, empowers the sanitary authority to require notification in cases of illness or death from diphtheria, puerperal fever, relapsing fever, dysentery, typhus, scarlet fever, hydrophobia, cerebro-spinal meningitis, trichinosis, trachoma, glanders, and in the case of deaths from tuberculosis of the lungs or throat. The administrative regulations of September 15, 1906, issued under this law provide that " measures " in this sense shall include rooms for the observa- tion and isolation of persons infected or suspected of infection, disinfecting apparatus, appliances for the conveyance of sick and dead persons, mortuaries, and burial places. All the larger towns have efficient disinfecting arrange- ments, but the extent to which the disinfection of dwellings after the occurrence of disease is compulsory varies greatly in different towns. Of 86 towns upon whose practice in the matter PUBLIC HEALTH 197 the " Statistical Yearbook of German Towns " reports in 1913, the disinfection of dwellings is compulsory in the case of diphtheria in 72 towns, in the case of cerebro-spinal meningitis in 57, in the case of puerperal fever in 54, in the case of trachoma in 49, in the case of tuberculosis of the lungs or throat in 68, in the case of relapsing fever in 58, in the case of diarrhoea in 68, in the case of scarlet fever in 71, in the case of typhus in 78, and in the case of dysentery in 64. In a majority of towns disinfection is carried out by police officials. In some towns disinfection is free for all households, but in most places a charge is made, this being reduced or remitted in the case of small dwellings or households with small incomes, the limit varying from 45 to 150. There is great diversity of practice in various States in the degree to which notification and disinfection are enforced in case of tuberculosis. In Prussia compulsion applies in the case of deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis, but not in cases of infected persons who remove from one dwelling to another. Hence some local authorities offer to disinfect free of cost in the latter event. Compulsory notification goes farthest in Baden, Saxony, and Bavaria, and a few of the smaller States. In Baden not only have all deaths from tuberculosis to be reported to the sanitary (police) authority, but doctors in attendance upon advanced cases of pulmonary tuberculosis are obliged to notify them in the event of a change of dwelling or of risk to neighbours ; and cases occurring in the schools have likewise to be notified. House disinfection is carried out by the urban sanitary officials, but the cost may be claimed from the persons concerned. In dangerous cases, without change of residence, it is the duty of the authority to adopt preventive measures, even to the extent of requiring the removal of the patients to a hospital. INSPECTION OF FOODS AND DRINKS. The inspection of foods and drinks is the duty of the sanitary police, but the local authorities co-operate in various ways. There is a tendency to make this inspection increasingly stringent. Animals slaughtered for food are inspected at the abattoir and all imported meat is also inspected there unless it has 198 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY already been passed by official veterinaries. A specially thorough system of food inspection is enforced at Munich. There, inspection is exercised by four different bodies of officials. All food which enters the municipal markets is examined by market inspectors ; all milk brought into the town and the milk trade in general are inspected by six special officials and tested at times by two chemists under the super- vision of veterinary surgeons ; there are 21 district inspectors, with assistants in addition, for the inspection of food stuffs in general in all parts of the town ; and all meat coming from outside the town is examined at the railway stations by veterinary surgeons. Great care is taken to secure not only the purity but a high quality of milk, and in Wiirtemberg the Government has recently placed a special responsibility upon the communes of origin. Believing that much milk is adulterated before it reaches the towns, the Government has introduced a regulation requiring the police to take and analyse periodically samples of milk in all rural communes which send away more than ten gallons daily, and the communes concerned are charged with the cost. A number of the larger towns have analytical laboratories for the examination of foods offered for sale, with a view to the detection of adulteration and of injurious constituents, while in some towns the services of State or university labora- tories are available for this purpose. Berlin has a municipal laboratory intended to serve both for the analysis of foods and of materials used for industrial purposes, and for chemical and bacteriological investigations generally. The public disinfec- tion service is also under it, and it helps in the training of nurses and assistants for the hospitals of the town. SEWERAGE, DRAINAGE, AND SCAVENGING. In referring to this branch of the province of municipal activity all technical questions must necessarily be passed over. As in other countries, the usual methods of treating sewage are either land nitration on the extensive or farm system, or artificial filtration on the open and septic tank systems. The difficulty of obtaining the necessary land and the heavy cost incurred PUBLIC HEALTH 199 are often insuperable obstacles in the way of the adoption of the former and " natural " method of irrigation. The largest irrigation farms are those of Berlin, 44,000 acres in area ; Konigsberg, 5720 acres ; Breslau, 4350 acres ; Magdeburg, 2800 acres ; Neukolln, 2650 acres ; and Dortmund, 2500 acres. In many ways Berlin's sewerage system, planned by the late Rudolf Virchow, and begun in 1873, is regarded as a model of its kind. Nearly one-half of the total area of the sewage farms is used for irrigation purposes, and about 400,000 cubic yards of sewage, drawn from the city and a number of adjacent towns and rural communes, are treated daily. Of the rest of the area, 11,660 acres consist of corn land, meadow land, garden land for small holders and labourers, dykes, water, railways, and roads, and there are 8750 acres of forest. Some of the farms produce fruit and vegetables for the Berlin market. The Farm Administration provides dwellings for married men and a large lodging-house for unmarried labourers who are unable to find accommodation in the nearer villages. The influence of an efficient system of sewerage is shown in the case of Berlin by a marked decrease of typhoid fever. In 1870 no fewer than 15,000 properties in the city then only about one-third as large as now were without connection with the sewerage system, and the rate of mortality from typhoid was 7-7 per 10,000 of the population ; in 1885 only 4500 properties were still unconnected and the deaths from typhoid numbered 1-6 per 10,000 ; and in 1900, when the sewerage system was in full operation, the typhoid rate had fallen to one in 25,000, and it is now one in 30,000. In most States the communes are empowered by law to levy contributions on account of sewerage works upon the adjacent owners of the streets drained. The usual rule is to charge the costs of construction proportionately to the length of frontage, and to levy an annual due for permission to connect with and use the main sewers. This sewerage due is based either upon the length of frontage, the number of connections with the sewer, the rental value of the property served (a common method of assessment in Prussian towns), the amount of the land and building taxes payable in respect of the property, 200 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY or the quantity of water carried. The owner is liable for the due and pays it in the first instance, though he may try to transfer it wholly or partially to the tenants in the rent. In Berlin the sewerage due is 2 per cent, of the rental value of the property connected, but here the large size of the blocks must be remembered. In small towns the charge, when similarly assessed, is usually less. Frankfort-on-Main is one of the few large towns in which the sewerage due falls on the occupiers. Dwellings the rents of which do not exceed 15 per annum are exempted, but those rented at from 15 is. to 20 pay | per cent, of the rental value, and from 20 is. upwards the charge is i per cent. The cost of street scavenging is also as a rule charged to the property owners and only in exceptional cases is it made a common charge. The methods of charging are either accord- ing to the length of the frontage of a property or the superficial area of street before it, a distinction being sometimes made between sites which are built upon and those which are free. Scavenging is now almost invariably done by the local authority or by contractors on its account. The removal of house refuse is done variously by the local authority or by contractors, but in either case the property owners are usually responsible for the cost in the first instance. In some towns, e.g., Berlin, Dresden, and Leipzig, the owners make their own arrangements. In some towns the necessary vessels are provided by the local authority, and for every vessel removed an empty disinfected vessel is left. The charge levied on the owners may be either a percentage of the build- ing tax, a percentage of the rental value of the entire house or building, or it may be proportionate to the number of rooms, the number of stories, or the number of families. In some towns no charge is made in respect of small dwellings. The disposal of house refuse has been greatly simplified by the various devices adopted for turning the refuse into value and by the use of destructors, which were first introduced from England. The municipality of Charlottenburg has a contract with a company which undertakes, in return for a payment of is. 9^d. per head of the population, to collect all house refuse in its own vessels on the " three-part system." For each house PUBLIC HEALTH 201 or block three vessels are provided, one for ashes and sweep- ings, one for food refuse, and one for paper, rags, broken pots, and similar rubbish. The ashes and clean refuse are sent away by rail and used for filling up marshy land, the food refuse is converted by patent process into dry feeding stuffs for horses, cattle, and sheep, and the clear refuse is sorted and turned as far as possible into money. The municipality recoups itself by charging house-owners a fee based on the rental value of their properties. The fee is fixed every year and is now about i per cent. In more than a hundred towns the street and house refuse is utilised, after treatment, for the generation of power. PUBLIC SWIMMING BATHS. Few if any towns of conse- quence are without public baths, and in most large towns the principal baths belong to the local authorities. Many German towns are encouraged to enterprise of this kind by the nearness of running water, and the towns on rivers like the Rhine and Elbe and their tributaries use this advantage to the utmost. In 1910 there were 335 separate bathing establishments in public hands in 51 towns with a population exceeding 50,000, while the number of establishments owned by companies and private individuals was still larger. Nearly all these towns owned swimming baths in number from one to six. Further, 72 of the 85 towns whose public bathing facilities are re- ported on by the " Statistical Yearbook of German Towns " for 1913 are shown as having equipped nearly 500 school buildings with baths. Many of the municipal baths have been planned and equipped with apparent disregard of ex- pense, and of thejr kind are probably without rivals in any other country. One of the largest and most sumptuous of these establishments was a gift to Munich, though it is under municipal management. It contains swimming basins for men and women measuring 450 and 225 square yards respec- tively, a Turkish bath, and a number of tub and shower baths. Over 600,000 persons use the various baths in a year, and though the charges made are very moderate, ijd. and 3d. for the working classes, the institution pays its way. Munich has also four open air river baths, and baths at 30 of the elementary schools. Mannheim has just built a swimming bath at a cost of 91,000, towards which the town contributed 60,000, while the balance was a benefaction ; it contains covered basins for both sexes, a series of special baths (steam, electricity, wave, etc.), and a wash-house. The municipal authorities take care to preserve the utmost cleanliness. Not only are all the appointments kept in perfect order and the water frequently renewed, but the rule of requiring bathers to cleanse themselves with soap and water before entering the bath is rigidly enforced. Many towns have gone beyond the standpoint of cleanliness in the provision of public baths, and have introduced medical baths of various kinds for the special benefit of insured persons. Open air, light, and air baths on a large scale have been insti- tuted for public use by the municipalities of Diisseldorf, Metz, and a dozen smaller towns. Almost invariably the public baths are carried on at a considerable money loss to the town, but this consideration does not count with authorities bent on promoting the public health by the adoption of every measure approved by science. PARKS, GARDENS, AND RECREATION AND SPORTS GROUNDS. One of the incidental results of the social welfare work done by the German towns is the increasing importance attached to parks and recreation grounds. The large towns in par- ticular nowadays spend lavishly in the provision of ample facilities for outdoor recreation. Berlin, Diisseldorf, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Munich, and Dresden are particularly well provided for in this respect. In some towns the rule is ob- served of setting aside a fixed proportion say 5 per cent. of the area of all new districts incorporated as park and recreation ground. In spite of their strongly developed industries many of the populous towns of Westphalia and the Rhineland have within their administrative areas a large reserve of green open spaces for example, Duisburg 12-4 per cent, of the total area, Barmen 12-5 per cent., and Mulheim 37-2 percent. Barmen has 20 square yards of green surface to every inhabi- tant, Diisseldorf 24, Duisburg 22, and Mulheim 268, land in private and State ownership being included. PUBLIC HEALTH 203 In recent years many towns have acquired adjacent forests and woodland and converted them into natural parks. This has been done already by Aix-la-Chapelle, Diisseldorf, Mann- heim, and other towns. The municipal authorities of Dresden are considering the possibility of forming a girdle of woodland around the town, and the Traffic and Town Planning Board for Greater Berlin contemplates a still more ambitious project on the same lines, involving the purchase from the State of some 25,000 acres of forest at a cost of several million pounds. While in the extent of their public parks, gardens, and recreation grounds the large German towns are on the whole still behind the same towns in Great Britain, they have a far greater extent of forest and woodland. A comparison based on returns received from seven German towns with a popula- tion varying from 155,300 to 431,900 (in the aggregate 1,981,500) and nine towns in Great Britain with a population from 165,300 to 1,015,200 (in the aggregate 4,026,300) shows that the former owned in 1912 parks, gardens, and recreation grounds in the ratio of one acre per 1000 inhabitants, and forest and woodland in the ratio of 8-5 acres per 1000 inhabi- tants, while the corresponding figures for the towns in this country were 1-8 acre and 0-2 acre per 1000 inhabitants. Gathering ground for purposes of water supply was not in- cluded. It is said that the first thing done by a German visitor on arrival in London is to go to Hyde Park in order to walk on grass. Most of the German parks are of the decorative order- made to be seen but not handled too closely and do not offer the facilities for free movement which the town dweller so sorely needs. Of late, however, more attention has been given to the provision of parks of a truly recreative character people's parks in the widest sense, offering to adults and children equally unrestricted opportunities for healthy exercise and sport walking, games, swimming and bathing, gym- nastics, etc., and where, above all, everybody may everywhere walk on the grass at will. The Treptow Park in Berlin is a park of this kind, and Hamburg, Diisseldorf, Cologne, and Liibeck are only a few of many other towns which have 204 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY departed from the conventional idea of the park as a sort of barred-and-bolted museum in green. At many of the modern recreation and sports fields there is provision for most of the games followed in their season by English youth of both sexes, including cricket and tennis in summer and football and hockey in winter. Above all, German town children are again being taught to play. Hitherto, owing to the exigent claims of school on the one hand, and the paucity of playgrounds on the other, the little folk who inhabit the barrack houses of the large towns, where even the dismal courtyards are forbidden to the noise of children at play, have been strangers to many of the pleasures of open-air life, and for them childhood has been robbed of much of its natural and rightful gaiety. Happily this wrong to childhood is being rapidly repaired. Berlin devotes 310 acres to playgrounds for children, 70 acres being grass, 25 acres gravelled ground, and 130 acres open spaces and squares reserved for this purpose. A recent enumeration showed that Breslau had 84 public playgrounds for children, Cologne 54, Hamburg 46, Erfurt 39, Mayence 43, Posen 42, Munich 34, Essen 30, Chemnitz 37, and Dresden 36, and that nearly all towns with 50,000 inhabitants had a larger or smaller number. At Frankfort-on-Main the experiment has recently been in- troduced of grouping four schools elementary schools for boys and girls, a higher grade school, and a Kindergarten round a large open grass playground which serves for all the children. The children's playgrounds usually take the form of por- tions of parks set aside for them, special recreation grounds or spaces, and the ordinary courts attached to schools ; but in addition some of the larger towns have playgrounds in the open country, which are, as a rule, resorted to during the holidays. The holiday games movement is a boon of untold value to the children of the working class in the large towns. The school authorities of Berlin, in conjunction with philan- thropic associations, provide over twenty playing-grounds to which the children are taken daily during the holidays. Some of these playing-grounds are situated outside the city boun- daries and in woodland. The day is passed in games out of PUBLIC HEALTH 205 doors, or, in the event of bad weather, in large tents ; and necessary meals are supplied at a nominal charge. From 1000 to 2500 children can be received at once at each of these resorts. Over a quarter of a million children used these rural play- grounds during the summer holidays of 1913, and 40 percent, of those who travelled thither by rail were given free tickets, the cost of which and of meals was defrayed by the city (to the extent of 3000) and the societies which co-operate in organising juvenile games. Children who because of age or other reasons cannot be sent so far away from home are received at play-centres in the city. A noteworthy variant upon the holiday playgrounds are the holiday walks which have been introduced by the school authorities in some towns in conjunction with the labour organisations. At Wiesbaden the parents are expected to pay 6d. a week per scholar towards the cost of fares and food ; the town makes a grant of 500 a year, and the remaining funds are supplied by private individuals. A work of equal importance, if more restricted in character, is done by the Country Holiday Associations (Vereine fur Fe rienkolonieri) , which, assisted liberally by the local authori- ties, have for many years taken the children of poor parents for a stay varying from four to six weeks to health and rural resorts during the summer months. The municipality of Ludwigshafen has bought a small forest estate, where in a suitable building the children of the poorer classes are lodged in turn for several weeks during the summer months. The " holiday colony " movement, as it is called, has succeeded so well that in some towns the same boon has been extended to children of middle-class families, from whom as a rule so much is expected by the local authorities, and for whom so little is done. MUNICIPAL CEMETERIES AND CREMATORIA. The provision of cemeteries becomes a communal duty only where existing churchyards are inadequate to the needs or prejudicial to the health of the community. In Prussia the obligation to provide burial-places rests in general with the parish churches. A special liability is sometimes thrown on the commune, how- 206 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY ever, owing to the illiberality of the ecclesiastical authorities. As a rule, the old town graveyards belong to the parish churches, and are administered by them. When a man with- draws from the State church, however, he forfeits his right to be interred in the graveyard serving his parish, and for such outsiders the local authorities are required to make provision. Nevertheless, in Berlin the old parish churches, on the ground of ancient custom, claim burial fees in respect of persons buried elsewhere than in the official graveyards of their parishes, and the claim appears to have a legal justification. Some of the modern cemeteries have been laid out as parks and gardens, entirely free from the depressing characteristics of the conventional burial ground. The park cemeteries of Hamburg, Kaiserslautern, Bremen, and Munich are unique in this respect, and have been copied on a smaller scale by many other towns. The Berlin Central Cemetery at Friedrichsfelde is also regarded as a model. The law does not contemplate that cemeteries shall be regarded as a source of profit, and in Prussia the fees for grave sites and other services rendered must be fixed so as to cover only the costs of providing and administering the cemeteries. Some towns follow the principle of graduating the charges according to the income of the deceased or the relatives, a test easy to apply, since all the necessary information is collected by the authorities for the purpose of the local income-tax assessment. Frankfort charges different fees for incomes above 300, incomes between 150 and 300, incomes between 75 and 150, incomes between 45 and 75, and incomes below 45. A grave space may cost as a rule any sum from 55. up to 305. or more, according to the town. Many towns, including Diisseldorf, Stuttgart, Frankfort- on-Main, Karlsruhe, Wiesbaden, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Magdeburg, and Strassburg, carry on the business of under- taking, from the laying out of the body to the interment ; and in some cases the use of the town's hearse is compulsory. Karlsruhe charges an inclusive sum for every service involved (including the coffin), viz., from 305. to 9 for adults and from 255. to 6 for juveniles. The cremation movement is making rapid progress. The PUBLIC HEALTH 207 first crematorium was established at Gotha in 1878, and owing to the hostility of the Governments, incited by the ecclesiastical authorities, twelve years passed before another was built. Nevertheless, there were 29 in Prussia in 1913, and n in the other States, nearly all owned by the communes ; in that year 10,168 cremations took place in all Germany. The cost of cremation alone varies from 205. upwards, with an addition for non-residents, and an extra charge is made for storing the ashes. Stuttgart is the only town in which cremation is free. CHAPTER IX TRADING ENTERPRISES The old German tradition The modern revival of municipal trading The system of concessions combined with royalties Scope of modern municipal enterprise Revenue and profits from trading enterprises Gas supply Electric light and power works Water supply Tram- ways and transport Docks and quays Furtherance of trade and industry Public abattoirs, market halls, and food supply Municipal savings banks Mortgage and rent-charge banks Insurance enterprises Miscellaneous trading enterprises The execution of public works : regie versus contract Municipal workpeople : conditions of employment. GERMANY has applied the principle of municipalisation to economic undertakings upon a far more extensive scale than any other country, and it has done this as the result not of any considered acceptance of economic theories, but of the force of tradition and still more of modern conditions. Yet so large a conquest of this domain of enterprise as has been effected would have been impossible but for the wideness and elasticity of the powers possessed by the municipal authorities. As we have seen, German legislation upon town government does not prescribe certain powers as competent to be employed and rule out all others that are not formally specified. What it says to the communal bodies in effect is : " Govern your towns well. How you do it is your own con- cern. Devise measures and exercise the powers that seem necessary, and if new powers not contemplated by existing law and custom are needed, take and use them." It is easy to see how this view facilitates public action, encourages experi- ment, stimulates ingenuity and inventiveness, and lifts local government to the level of constructive statesmanship. THE OLD GERMAN TRADITION. Readiness to engage in trading enterprises on a small scale was evidently character- istic of the old German towns. In the middle ages they 208 TRADING ENTERPRISES 209 frequently owned large tracts of forest and common lands. In the fourteenth century the governing council of Cologne built warehouses, mills of various kinds, a qlothworkers' hall, dyeworks, weaving sheds, and slaughter-houses. 1 Many towns still retain to-day warehouses which have been in their possession for centuries. Communal corn, wine, and fruit businesses, even inns and bathing establishments, were not uncommon in the distant past. Two centuries ago Berlin and its sister town Kolln followed dairy-farming among other communal enterprises, and carried on depots for the sale of farm produce in these towns and the neighbouring places. Survivals of the early tradition of collective enterprise remain still in the most unexpected places, as in the form of the communal bakeries carried on in many villages on the Rhine and elsewhere for the use of the settled families, which use the ovens in turn as determined by lot. As, however, the towns lost hi autonomy under the abso- lutistic regime, so the power and the disposition to engage in any activities outside the narrowest limits of civil adminis- tration became weakened, and for practical purposes the municipalisation movement belongs to quite modern times. Stein's Municipal Ordinance of 1808, devised though it was to revive communal life in Prussia, clearly did not contem- plate the development of activity on the economic side. Liberalistic ideas had gained the upper hand in Germany as in England, and the theory of municipal government had been reduced to its simplest terms. From that time until the middle of last century, and even later, little land was added to the public estates, and trading enterprise of every kind was at a discount. Like the State the communal authorities had fallen back on the dreary and sterile police conception of government ; deeming their purposes fulfilled when they had made provision for public security and had secured for private enterprise a fair field. The recognition of this limited view of the function of local government is seen in the origin of the first gas and water 1 H. Preuss, " Die Entwickclung des deutschen Stadtewesens." Vol. I, p. 85. 210 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY works. For these were established with no intention of gain, and hardly of ministering to the convenience of the public as something separate from its security. The governing con- sideration in the case of gas was the order and safety of the streets, hitherto insufficiently lighted with oil ; the domestic use of gas was encouraged much later, and even then mainly with a view to reducing the cost of public lighting. Similarly, the provision of a regular water supply was called for by way of protection against fire, in contending with which the well supplies proved inadequate, and for the better cleaning of the streets. It is significant also that gasworks, like tram- ways at a later date, were first introduced as private enter- prises in some towns by English companies ; only later, when they were proved to be remunerative, did the towns become eager to own and work them. Waterworks, on the other hand, offered less attraction to the private capitalist, and he was, as a rule, content to allow the commune to supply its needs at its own risk. Berlin and Hamburg were among the few important exceptions, and here again it was English capital which led the way. THE MODERN REVIVAL OF MUNICIPAL TRADING. The middle of last century saw a return to the old collectivist practice, and the movement grew so rapidly that long before the end of the century Communal Socialism may be said to have triumphed in civil life as completely as State Socialism has triumphed in political. For though in one sense this triumph merely represents the revival of an ancient principle, this principle is nowadays applied with a boldness and thorough- ness unknown in the past. " The question whether the com- munes should engage in trading enterprises," writes Dr. Leidig, " was answered in the affirmative in Germany centuries ago. Both the German peasant communities and the mediaeval towns promoted the economic interests of their inhabitants on a large scale, and amid changing times and needs it has so remained until to-day. In Germany the only question that can be discussed is not whether the communes shall so occupy themselves, but how far they should go, and what forms such enterprise should take." TRADING ENTERPRISES 211 Nevertheless, the communalisation movement takes even to-day three distinct directions. For practical purposes the old individualists are a negligible quantity, yet their lineal de- scendants still cling tenaciously to the doctrine that economic enterprise, and particularly enterprise which promises profit, is only proper for the individual, and not for the community. They would not altogether debar the communes from carrying on enterprises of the kind, but they would only allow them to step in when private capitalism is unwilling or unable to provide the public with the conveniences of which it stands in need. At the other extreme is the uncompromising party of militant Social Democracy strong in numbers and in the conviction that it alone holds the key to social progress which on principle advocates the socialisation of all enter- prises that impose no insuperable technical obstacles, whether the prospect of gain be large or small. Midway between these irreconcilable groups is a thoroughly practical party favourable to a progressive policy of com- munalisation and quite indifferent as to theories one way or the other, and its policy is the one which holds the field in all the most wide-awake towns of Germany. The spokesmen of this party contend that the extent to which the communes should carry on trading undertakings cannot be decided by appeal to abstract principles, and that the best test is the test of experience and results. They urge also that in these days of highly developed social organisations the convenience and welfare of large populations cannot be subordinated to the material interests of private individuals eager only for gain and often indifferent as to the manner of obtaining it. They admit that the most efficient of municipal administra- tions will at times commit errors of judgment and fail in their endeavours, but they claim that it is as unreasonable to expect perfect success of public enterprise as of private. From the financial standpoint they contend that municipal enterprises afford a convenient method of raising revenue, for if the profits from public trading are in effect taxation, it is taxation in a form that falls lightly upon the com- munity, and that leaves no sense of inequity, since the 212 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY inhabitants know that in return for the tax they enjoy material advantages. Furthermore, this party of sane communalisation can point convincingly to the fact that but for the willingness of the public authorities to step in and shoulder the burden many institutions of great public utility would never have come into existence at all. For example, many towns have dredged rivers, built docks, and otherwise developed their natural trading facilities on a scale beyond the power of private enterprise, and so gained new life, and safeguarded their industrial and commercial prosperity for all time. The growth of a town like Mannheim has been promoted and directed into progressive lines almost solely by the enterprise of the governing authority, which long ago had the foresight to buy land freely for extensions and for the accommodation of new industries. THE SYSTEM OF CONCESSIONS COMBINED WITH ROYALTIES. In the past, however, a small minority of towns among them Berlin and Hanover are specially noteworthy have favoured the French system of " concessions " in regard to such under- takings as tramways, gasworks, and electricity works, granting the concessionary companies the use of the streets in return for the payment of fixed royalties or otherwise a share in their profits. For this system certain practical advantages can, of course, be claimed. Under it a municipality is freed from the necessity of raising large amounts of capital for trading enter- prises and from the risks attending its investment therein ; it escapes the responsibilities and worries which are incidental to all large undertakings, successful or otherwise, and it reduces the sum of the labour force for whose employment and contentment it is responsible. From the public standpoint the principle of " concession " means that the concessionaries bear all the losses while the local authority shares in the profits, and there are instances of municipalities which, by acting on this principle, in Mill's words, " grow rich in their sleep." For example, Berlin in 1910 received royalties from electrical works in private hands to the amount of 314,180, Konigsberg received 29,650 from the same source, Schoneberg 18,900, TRADING ENTERPRISES 213 and Strassburg 18,860, while the royalties paid by tramway companies to 28 of the larger towns exceeded 400,000. From concessions of all kinds Berlin in that year derived a revenue of over 500,000. On the other hand, the granting of con- cessions in respect of valuable privileges, unless carefully guarded, may hand a town over, lock and stock, to the mercies which are not always tender of monopolists, without securing to it any equitable share in the exactions upon which the unrestrained monopolist so often waxes fat. To some extent, of course, a town may protect itself against undue exploitation by limiting its concessions to short periods, and by inserting into all agreements provisions securing to it a progressive share in profits, an equal voice in the deter- mination of trading conditions, rights of purchase, ultimate reversion of the property, and the like. Nevertheless, the con- cession system in its old form may be regarded as moribund, though it has received an unexpected stimulus in the form of " mixed undertakings "to be referred to later in which public authorities and private capitalists nowadays join for the promotion and supply of electric current for light and power. SCOPE OF MODERN MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISE. Allowing for local circumstances, the advantages, like the disadvantages, of public as compared with private enterprise are the same in all countries, and any theoretical consideration of that aspect of the question is superfluous. In general, however, it may be said that municipal enterprise is favoured where one or other of the following considerations carries special weight : (a) where the enterprise is concerned with the health, con- venience and safety of the community, as in the case of water- works, sewerage works, scavenging, etc. ; (b) where the com- mune is the largest consumer, as often in the case of light and power ; (c) where the enterprise involves the use of public property, as the tramways in relation to the streets ; (d) where important monopolies are at stake, as in the case of water and several of the utilities already named ; (e) where private capital is not attracted, as in the case of abattoirs and stock- yards ; (/) where the community can distribute more efficiently 214 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY than private individuals, as in the case of gas and electricity ; and (g) where uniformity of action is desirable, and conflict of authority should be prevented, a consideration which applies to most public enterprises. Behind nearly all these enter- prises, however, there is an equally powerful financial motive the desire to raise revenue freely in other ways than by direct taxation, and this motive, as we shall see, is strongly emphasised by the German Governments. The laws relating to municipal government and taxation do not attempt to define the directions in which local authori- ties may engage in trading undertakings, but jgive them a perfectly free hand, subject to some extent to control by the State supervisory authority. How wide is the scope of public enterprise in Germany at the present day may be shown by a return relating to 1279 Prussian towns of all sizes, prepared in 1906. It was found that the following undertakings were in public hands in these towns : 561 waterworks. 440 gasworks. 201 electricity works. 54 tramways. 426 abattoirs and stockyards (one for horses). 19 docks and quays. 38 market halls. 370 bathing establishments. 13 sea and therapeutic baths. 5 salt and mineral springs, i milk cure establishment. 10 warehouses and sale halls. i wine business. 42 stone and lime quarries, turbaries, and sand and gravel pits. 17 breweries. 104 inns and restaurants. Of these 1279 towns only 310 nearly all small places with less than 5000 inhabitants were without trading enterprises. 15 hydropathic establish- ments. 2 fruit preserving factories. 2 wine cellars. 2 refrigerating works. 1 timber warehouse. 2 mines. 2 bakeries. 4 factories. 45 brickworks. 23 mills. 2 lock-smitheries. 2 rope works. 2 dairies. 17 dancing halls. 1 6 ferries. 2 fishery enterprises, i livery station. TRADING ENTERPRISES 215 The variety of enterprises carried on by the communes would be further increased if the survey were to be extended to other States. While owning and working undertakings common to other places, some towns have enterprises peculiar to themselves. Munich, Frankfort-on-Main, Diisseldorf, and Magdeburg, for example, have wine business and restaurants. Dresden, Diisseldorf, and Neukolln (Rixdorf) have printing works. Nuremberg has an orchard, and also stone quarries, from which it paves the streets. Breslau, Hanover, Mayence, Worms, and a number of smaller towns own, and in some cases carry on, pharmacies. Cologne carries on a brewery and Leipzig a bakery to meet the needs of the assisted poor. The municipal newspaper, devoted to official reports and notices, has already been mentioned ; in two towns, however, Dresden and Elberfeld, the municipal daily newspaper has all the characteristics of a public journal. A number of towns, again, own theatres and concert halls. Some towns own so large an area of forest that they find it necessary to have a special department to manage this section of their estates, to sell timber, re-afforest as may be necessary, etc. The wide range of enterprises carried on by individual towns may be illustrated by the case of Mannheim, whose larger undertakings include gasworks, waterworks, tramways, abattoir and stockyard, docks and quays, a land trading department, river and other bathing establishments, theatre and concert hall, milk kiosks, and a large amount of house property. Some towns, in addition to having important commercial undertakings of their own, have large share interests in industrial, tramway, and power companies ; the municipality of Diisseldorf places at the disposal of the mayor and executive a special fund for participating in industrial undertakings. An interesting illustration of the readiness of German municipalities to give hostages to the future where there is a prospect of ultimate benefit is afforded by their present enter- prise in encouraging aeronautics and aviation. Enormous sums have been expended by the larger towns in particular in the provision of airship sheds, aerodromes, landing stages, etc. Brunswick, for example, has just agreed to provide a Frankfort Airship Company with a site for a landing place for its airships and also for an aerodrome, and to subsidise the company to the extent of from 1250 to 1600 a year, while the company undertakes in return to make Brunswick a place of call in journeys between Frankfort, Hamburg, Berlin, and Diisseldorf. In making grants and subsidies of this kind the towns act entirely on their own responsibility, and without seeking Government or other permission. They also invari- ably subsidise the local improvement and similar associations formed for the purpose of attracting visitors and ministering to their convenience. The "public utility" services are now largely owned and worked by the local authorities. A census taken in 1908 relating to 2309 urban districts showed that these services were so owned to the following extent : Towns with a population of Total No. of towns. No. of these towns which owned Water- works. Gas- works. Electri- city works. Tram- ways. Abat- toirs. Under 2 ooo 615 873 602 !34 44 4i 2O6 404 426 I2 3 4 1 38 19 1 80 333 112 . 32 33 22 154 112 62 30 33 M w K> M I I OO^J -O 3O 30 280 e 460 7C 030 Mannheim (217,700) .. 1, 080 16,800 27.930 2,870 48,680 Totals (pop. 2,122,400) Expend, per inhabitant 26,065 2-gd. 78.320 8- 9 d. 135.340 I5'3d. 19,205 2-2d. 258,930 29-3d. The aggregate expenditure thus shown, viz. 258,930, was equivalent to nearly 2s. 6d. a head of the combined population of over two millions. Figures relating to certain large towns of Great Britain, also for 1912, may be given for comparison : Towns and Population. () Libraries and Reading- rooms. <*) Art and Science. (c) Theatre and Music. M Miscellane- ous. M Total. Leeds (44 s 600) . . 12 QQ2 I 033 346 14 371 Cardiff (184,600) 7,7O6 7,7O6 Dundee (165,300) 6.SO6 6,so6 Birmingham (840,200) Glasgow (1,105,200) . . . Manchester (731,700). . Huddersfield (107,800) Newcastle (271,300) ... Leicester (227,200) .... Salford (231 400) 21,726 27,306 31.792 2,028 848 4,020 7 778 23,662 13.324 10,427 5.069 2,569 13.091 i 619 4.585 5.609 495 284 29,348 4,126 10 45.388 74.503 5L954 7.097 3.922 17.395 92Q7 Bradford (290,300) .... Bolton (180 900) 8,295 6 718 2,280 10,575 6718 Sheffield (454,600) Bristol (3 so 400) . . 9.720 8,674 4-183 I SOO 2,872 16,775 IO.I74 Total (pop. 5,595,500) . Expend, per inhabitant 156,109 6-7d. 78,757 3'4d- I 4- 1 9i o-6d. 33.484 i-5d- 282,541 12-id. 314 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The expenditure per head of the aggregate population of over 5| millions shown by these figures is is. It will be seen that the higher German expenditure was chiefly incurred on account of the theatre and upon science and art, while the English towns had a larger per capita expenditure upon libraries and reading-rooms. This larger expenditure appears to be explained by the multiplication of branch libraries and reading-rooms in these towns, their average number of libraries and branches being twelve, as compared with four in the German towns, and of reading-rooms eleven as compared with three. The public libraries in the English towns named had a total of 3,479,000 volumes, equivalent to 630 volumes for every thousand inhabitants ; while the libraries in the German towns had a total of 1,113,100 volumes, equivalent to 520 per thou- sand inhabitants. PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND READING-ROOMS. The efforts which are made on behalf of popular enlightenment are de- serving of all praise. No public body will freely spend money upon objects unappreciated by those for whom they are in- tended ; hence the fact that German municipalities do so much, at so large a cost, for the spread of enlightenment amongst the working classes is of itself proof of a genuine popular regard and demand for knowledge. Most towns have excellent public libraries and reading-rooms, often with branch institutions of both kinds in convenient centres, and if, as statisticians say, from 60 to 70 per cent, of the books lent out are novels, the remnant represents a very respectable margin of serious reading. Some towns, including Munich, Frankfort- on-Main, and Charlottenburg, have of late introduced a novel extension of the public library principle by lending out collec- tions of music in the ordinary way with books. In 1910, 329 German towns were known to have public libraries, and 168 to have reading-rooms. The principal municipal library of Berlin now contains 125,000 volumes, but affiliated to it and scattered about the city are 28 smaller libraries containing from 5000 to 15,000 volumes each, and connected with 14 of them are read- ing-rooms. One of the Berlin public reading-rooms is intended for children from six to thirteen years of age ; at fourteen they INTELLECTUAL LIFE 315 are allowed to use the reading-rooms for adults. In many other towns children are similarly provided for by societies subsidised by the local authorities. Many towns regularly arrange winter courses of popular lectures on scientific, literary, and historical subjects, and still more assist associations and institutions which in any way whatever aim at bringing knowledge of the kind within the reach of the working classes. In this work of popular en- lightenment as carried on in Prussia the State is not able to claim a very meritorious part, for its action has been directed for the most part towards preventing the working classes, if Socialist, from educating themselves in their own way and the municipal authorities from helping them to do so. Private associations, on the contraiy, have done much honourable work, and particularly the Humboldt Association, the German Society for Ethical Culture, the Gehe Foundation of Dresden, the Scientific Association, the Roman Catholic Borromeo Association, the Society for the Spread of Popular Education, the Comenius Society, and the University settlement and extension societies which exist in some of the larger towns. In their concern to advance the education of the working classes, to stimulate their interest in culture, and to refine their tastes and habits, the municipalities are simply carrying further endeavours which began with the workers themselves. Since the middle of last century working-men's educational associations have been common in German towns, and indeed it was to these associations that the modern pioneer of the German Socialist movement, Ferdinand Lassalle, addressed himself when he sought to gain the popular ear for his ambitious scheme of a Universal Working-men's Productive Association, which was to combine all working-people in a national move- ment for the purpose of supplanting private capitalism. The desire of the working classes for a larger share in the satisfac- tions of culture has never been overshadowed by their striving for a fuller part in the gains and benefits of material progress, but rather has deepened with the growth of their class soli- darity. The remarkable development of the trade union move- ment in Germany within the last decade impresses all observers, both at home and abroad, but the educational movement which is part of it, and is directed by the same men who are foremost in the work of labour organisation, is often ignored, though in some respects its significance is greater. 1 PRIMARY SCHOOLS. The name of the primary or elementary schools of Germany Gemeinde, or communal schools tells their origin. For centuries the communes have been responsible for the provision and maintenance of these schools. Liibeck had town schools as early as the middle of the four- teenth century, and at the Reformation the communes more and more assumed responsibility for popular education. Luther himself, in 1524, addressed a strong appeal to the senates of all towns in Germany to " establish and maintain Christian schools." As a rule, the towns encountered bitter ecclesiastical opposition in their claim to establish these schools, and often they won it only subject to the condition that the clergy should give the instruction. To-day, therefore, the communes are doing for elementary education on a larger scale just what they were accustomed to do in the days prior to the passing of education laws, and still the old conflict with the Church goes on. The elementary school system of nearly all the States rests on a distinctly "confessional" basis, i.e., the children attend schools intended for Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Jewish children respec- tively. Of about 6| million elementary school children in Prussia, only some 370,000 attend schools for mixed confes- sions, and in these they are instructed as far as possible on confessional lines. Moreover, the clergy have the right in some States to give religious instruction and to inspect the schools, or co-operate in that work, and throughout the country they occupy a prominent place on the administrative boards and committees. In no part of Germany is clerical influence in the primary schools so strong as in Bavaria, where the clergy almost monopolise the work of local inspection, and in some districts are able to determine the choice of teachers 1 The answer of a poor old farm labourer of Westphalia to the question (put to him by a friend of the writer in 1913), what would he do if he had unlimited leisure, " I would read myself full " (" Ich wiirde mich satt lesen "), is a touching expression of the craving for knowledge which is one of the most honourable traits of the German working class. INTELLECTUAL LIFE 317 and the character and methods of instruction, even to the choice of text-books. To state these facts, however, is not to imply that the local governments recognise the existing division of authority as expedient or tolerable ; for the schools of the people are the scene of quite as much conflict in Germany as elsewhere, the only difference being that, as in that country the interest and influence of the State are on the side of the Church, the struggle is unequal and the prospect of victory for the secular side at present hopeless. As a rule the State contents itself with laying down normal regulations in regard to buildings and their equipment, teach- ing staffs and their salaries, and the curriculum, and leaves the communes to do as much more as they like, while retaining the right to confirm certain appointments and to inspect all schools through its special officers. The local administration of the primary schools is vested in bodies more or less representative in character usually known in Prussia as School Deputations, in Saxony as School Committees, and in South Germany as School Commissions. These bodies are composed of members of the municipal executive and of the town council, representatives of the clergy, and^other co-opted citizens deemed to be specially fitted for the position, with one or more headmasters or other teachers of elementary schools, while the school inspector of the " circle " has a right to attend all meetings in his capacity as commissary of the supervisory authority, and the mayor of the town can also attend at his will and take the chair. Often, however, the chairman is a permanent municipal official known as the school councillor, who is responsible for the executive work. In the larger towns committees are often formed for groups of schools. For the consideration and determination of technical questions many towns have created special bodies known as School Boards (Amter], composed of municipal officials who are chosen as educational experts. In Hamburg these questions are referred to a school synod, of which all teachers on the establishment are members. One of the latest departures in education is the experimental school, the purpose of which is 3i8 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY to do for education what experimental farms and stations, for example, do for practical agriculture to test teaching methods and appliances on a small scale before they are introduced into regular use. The idea took root first at Munich in 1909, and it has since attracted attention in other parts of the country. Frankfort-on-Main and several other towns have school museums for the exhibition of school appliances, with libraries for teachers attached. For expositions of educational policy and internal adminis- tration the reader must be referred to special works, which are no longer rare. Nor is it possible to dwell upon the en- lightened policy of school building followed by all progressive towns. All that can be said on this subject is that in no department of administration is money spent on a more lavish scale than in the provision and equipment of schools, which are equally excellent whether intended for fee-paying middle- class scholars or the children of the people. Upon the portal of many of these fine buildings, as imposing without as they are attractive within, might well be written the words which Shakespeare puts in the mouth of Miranda : " There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple." Here it is only pertinent to call attention to distinctive features of the general organisation of the primary school system. Great changes have been wrought in recent years owing to the institution of a system of inspection and examina- tion by municipal school doctors. The old mechanical method of treating all children alike, whether normal or abnormal in physical and mental capacity, has been abandoned, and special schools for defective children are now common. Schools for stammerers, for the deaf and dumb, for children suffering from defective hearing, for cripples, and for the mentally deficient are found in all the large towns, and the results have proved successful beyond expectations. The Diisseldorf school authority several years ago began orthopcedic gymnastic courses for deformed children, and its example has since been followed in other towns. What is called " lip reading " instruction for deaf children, the object of which is to develop their observation and enable them to interpret lip movements in terms of sound, is also common. INTELLECTUAL LIFE 319 The School Deputation of Berlin instituted " auxiliary " schools for defective children of various kinds in 1910 and the number has since increased to twenty. If satisfactory pro- gress is made the children are sent back to the ordinary schools, otherwise they receive separate instruction through- out the school course. Where possible these auxiliary schools are carried on in the ordinary school buildings, and the teachers are chosen from amongst the permanent elementary teachers of both sexes who have been for some years in service and have shown special fitness for the work. Munich has twenty-six of these schools, and the children attending them are cared for out of school hours by a philanthropic society, which provides them with food, clothing, and medical attend- ance where needed, and after the school course is over endeavours to find them suitable employment if capable. Charlottenburg, Dortmund, Miilhausen, and Miinchen-Glad- bach have established municipal forest schools for physically defective children, and in other towns the local authorities subsidise schools of the kind. As a rule, the children remain at the schools from morning until evening, but in several cases they are boarded as well as taught. Among the miscellaneous activities of the school authorities, traceable to a wider conception of social obligation some of which are referred to in greater detail in the chapter dealing with the social welfare work of the municipal authorities may be mentioned the arrangements for feeding scholars, for organised games suitable to all seasons of the year, for country rambles, for holidays at the seaside and elsewhere, the school baths, the school libraries and museums, the concerts and theatrical performances arranged for scholars only, and the school gardens. Recently the school authorities of many towns have recognised the educational value of the " picture theatre " when properly conducted, and special exhibitions are often arranged for children of the higher forms, bearing as a rule on subjects of daily instruction. The local authorities also subsidise the day nurseries, afternoon work-and-play centres, and children's clubs which are carried on in the larger towns by philanthropic societies. School gardens have been common in Germany for half a 320 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY century ; Berlin has had them since 1875, Leipzig, Breslau, and Mannheim since 1888. The amount of land devoted to this purpose varies from an acre to over sixty acres at Magde- burg. School rambles in the company of teachers are an important feature of the summer term in all towns. The children of the elementary schools as a rule set out from a convenient point on the railway (nominal fares being charged for the purpose) and return home in the evening, but the rambles taken by boys and girls of the higher schools last several days or even a week, and often take them far afield. There is not so clear a class division between the primary and higher schools of Germany as that which exists in this country. In the rural districts especially it is still a common practice for the children of the lord of the manor, the State chief forester, and the local clergyman to pass several years in the elementary schools before going elsewhere. In Bavaria the children of all classes, whether high or low, are in theory obliged to attend the primary schools for the first three or four years, though it is not difficult to obtain exemption from the rule, and the children of well-to-do parents usually attend private schools or receive home teaching until they are able to enter the higher schools. In Berlin and other towns the education authority provides preparatory schools for those who can afford to pay. Although Germany is " a land of schools," education is no more free in that country than in this. Fees, often of large amount, are universal in the higher and middle schools, and Prussia is the only important State in which the primary schools are free. In Saxony fees of from 53. to 8s. yearly may still be charged in these schools, though in many towns free places are given liberally, and in Dresden fees are charged only in respect of the first two children in a family. In Bavaria the fees may not exceed 2s. zod. yearly, but in most towns no charge is made. In Baden so recent an education law as that of 1910 does not recognise the principle of free education, but only empowers the communes to relieve necessitous parents. Mannheim has two kinds of primary schools, " burgher " schools, in which fees of 28s. a year are charged, and free schools. School materials are charged for INTELLECTUAL LIFE 321 almost universally except in the case of persons with small incomes. SECONDARY SCHOOLS. The State is supposed to be re- sponsible for the provision and, so far as fees are inadequate, for the maintenance of the higher schools in general, but here, too, the local authorities have shown great enterprise, with the result of relieving the State of much necessary expenditure. This has been the case particularly in Prussia and Saxony. Thus Berlin has 29 municipal higher schools of different types, eight being lycees for girls ; Dresden has twelve, and Leipzig eleven. In Bavaria higher schools for boys are mostly estab- lished by the State, and those for girls by the local authorities. Of a total of 563 gymnasia in Germany in 1911, 331 were maintained by the State, 172 by the communes, and 22 by the State and communes jointly ; of a total of 223 real-gymnasia the State maintained 51, the communes 159, and the State and communes jointly n ; while of the middle and higher- grade schools of other types the great majority were main- tained by the communes. In Prussia two out of five of the gymnasia are municipal, while most of the other middle and higher-grade schools including the " burgher " schools are municipal. The middle schools (the " real " schools of various types), indeed, owe their existence largely to mu- nicipal initiative, and only tardily did the State agree to tolerate their competition with the old classical gymnasia. Nearly one-half of the higher schools for girls are municipal, and in many towns the local authorities subsidise private schools of this type. As a rule, the municipal higher schools are administered by a separate board or council consisting of members of the executive, town councillors, teachers, and other co-opted members, while the State higher schools in Prussia are administered by Provincial School Colleges, under the supervision of the Chief Presidents. In many towns a serious attempt is made by the school authorities to open wide the doors of the higher schools to talent wherever found. In Bavaria every capable elementary scholar is afforded an opportunity of passing the examination for admission to the higher schools. In Berlin and other towns Y 322 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY full or half exhibitions in the higher schools are systematically offered to elementary scholars who have given proof of capacity, diligence, and good behaviour. On the whole, however, the higher schools are principally used by the children of parents who are able to pay for the education given, and the fees are not in general low, though sometimes they are graduated according to income. Thus the fees charged in the higher boys' schools of Crefeld begin at 4 IDS. per annum in the case of parents in receipt of income not exceeding 75, and are 5 for incomes between 75 and 90, 5 los. for incomes between 90 and 120, 6 for incomes between 120 and 150, 6 IDS. for incomes between 150 and 180, and 7 for incomes in excess of 180. CONTINUATION AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. The towns have been equally enterprising in providing continuation and technical schools. The continuation school system is regulated by State law, and the individual legislatures may make the establishment of these schools obligatory on communes or permissive at will. In order, however, to meet the case of States in which Government initiative is lacking, the Imperial Industrial Code contains the provision that where continuation schools are not compulsory under State law communes may adopt by-laws in virtue of which schools may be established, with obligatory attendance, for male workpeople generally under 18 years and for female shop assistants and apprentices of the same age, and wherever these schools exist employers are required to afford their workers liable to attend the neces- sary time for so doing. Should the local authorities decline to establish continuation schools on the requisition of employers and workpeople the supervisory authorities may require them to do so. Attendance at continuation schools is obligatory by State law for boys in Bavaria, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, Baden, Hesse, and other smaller States, but in Prussia only in several of the provinces by law, though elsewhere a large and in- creasing number of communes have adopted by-laws for the purpose. The age up to which attendance is compulsory is fixed variously at 16, 17, and 18 years. As a rule the course of instruction lasts three or four years, with attendance for INTELLECTUAL LIFE 323 six or eight hours a week. In Bavaria the obligation to attend a continuation school for three years begins immediately a youth has completed his elementary school course, which normally lasts seven years ; where, however, an eighth year is taken, the continuation school course is only two years. As far as possible the continuation schools have to be held on week-days, but part of the instruction may be given on Sunday afternoons. The municipal continuation schools of Berlin provide special classes for forty occupational groups, including appren- tices and others engaged in the building, metal, clothing, and food trades, barbers, shop assistants, and unskilled labourers, and the aggregate attendance exceeds 36,000. In some towns, like Munich, workshops for practical training are attached to the continuation schools. Berlin, Munich, and Nuremberg have established continua- tion schools for shop-girls of certain classes. Three-quarters of the time allowed for instruction is given to subjects con- nected with their practical callings, and the rest to domestic economy. On the whole, however, little has been done for girls as yet, except in the large towns, and where continuation schools have been provided for them the instruction seldom goes far beyond matters intimately connected with house- keeping. " Housekeeping schools," with compulsory attend- ance, have for some years been successfully carried on in many of the larger towns in the Rhineland province, while Halle has a novel municipal continuation school for girls who have passed through the secondary schools. It is the object of the " Women's school," as it is called, to train girls for " their duties as women and mothers." The curriculum includes languages, civic science, hygiene, political economy, domestic economy, pedagogics, the history of art and culture, natural science, history, geography, and " social culture," and there are special classes for teachers of languages, gymnastics, housekeeping, needlework, librarians, kindergarten teachers, and apothecaries. According to the " Kommunales Jahrbuch " for 1913-14 there were in Germany at the end of 1912 about 4400 industrial and trade continuation schools of a more or less urban character, 324 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the great majority subject to compulsory attendance and frequented by about 630,000 scholars in the aggregate, while the rural continuation schools numbered 5200 (of which 1700 were compulsory) and had an aggregate attendance of 84,000. In addition there were 17,000 continuation schools of a general character working on the lines of the ordinary primary schools. The continuation schools are supplemented by trade, industrial, art, and general technical schools, one or more of which will be found in every town of even moderate size. Educational work of this kind the Governments endeavour to leave as far as possible to the local authorities, the various trade associations, and private effort, though in some States assistance in setting up technical schools is given from the public funds and in all the Governments are ready to afford advice and moral support. Naturally every town establishes the institutions most suited to the special requirements of its industries and trades, and no expense is spared in their equip- ment and in the provision of the best possible teaching staffs. The work done by the local authorities is largely supplemented by trade associations of various kinds and by the larger industrial firms, and any estimate of the extent and value of the continuation and technical schools of Germany which left out of account these private efforts would be very in- complete. Some towns go still further and maintain commercial colleges having the status of universities. Perhaps the best municipal institutions of the kind are those of Cologne, Frankfort-on-Main, Mannheim, and Munich. Diisseldorf, Cologne, and Dortmund have recently established municipal academies or colleges for the administrative and social sciences, intended specially for the training of officials for the State and communal service, and smaller institutions of the same kind, intended for minor officials, exist in other towns. Two attempts recently made by important cities to estab- lish universities free from State control, which deprives the great centres of culture in Germany of independence, are of special interest. The first was made by Frankfort-on-Main in 1911. This city had already an important Academy of Social INTELLECTUAL LIFE 325 and Commercial Science, several scientific research societies, and many clinics, and the proposal was made that all these agencies should be combined in a " free " university, which should serve as a practical protest against the prevalent con- ception of universities as State institutions, and should revive the earlier tradition of the German university as a self- governing corporation. For the first German universities were entirely free from State control ; they were self-governed, promulgated their own laws, chose their heads and teachers, and had their own courts. Although the whole of the neces- sary money was forthcoming from municipal and private sources, the Government promptly intervened with the warning that the projected university would have to comply with the official regulations applying to all existing institutions of the kind and would have to be regarded as a State institu- tion. This was not the Frankfort ideal, but there was no room for argument, and the university is to be established and conducted on the orthodox lines. The university will have five faculties : for law, medicine, natural science, history and philosophy, and social and economic sciences. In addition to incurring large financial liabilities the town undertakes to supply land free of cost for various university purposes and to grant the use of its library, hospitals, and chemical laboratory, while retaining the right to manage these institutions. The municipality will also have strong representation upon the governing body of the university. The other scheme originated in Hamburg. This City State has for many years maintained at its own charge a Colonial Institute for the training of men desirous of following an official or commercial career in tropical countries, and particu- larly the German oversea possessions. During 1912 and 1913 the city authorities endeavoured to combine this excellent college with the other local scientific institutions and make of them a university without theological and medical faculties, still keeping in view the special needs of colonial officials, pioneers, and farmers. An endowment fund of a million and a quarter pounds would have been necessary, and though the Senate was willing to vote the greater part of this sum the House of Burgesses declined, and the project fell to the ground. 326 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY MUNICIPAL EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION. In all the States the communes bear by far the greater part of the cost of primary education. In Prussia they are responsible for the building, equipment, and upkeep of the schools, as well as for a large part of the salaries of staffs, while the State con- tributes towards salaries and pensions and bears the cost of the training of teachers. Much more is done for the poor and rural districts than for the towns. A large part of the cost of the middle and higher schools is derived from fees, but here, too, the cost to the communes far exceeds that which falls to the State. Of a total expenditure of 33,491,800 on the elementary schools of Germany in 1911 the various States paid 10,690,900 or 32 per cent., and the communes bore nearly all the rest. As the elementary scholars of Germany in that year numbered 10,310,000 the State grants amounted to a little over i a head. 1 In Prussia the State paid 6,366,700 (30 per cent.) out of a total of 21,044,900 ; in Bavaria the State paid 1,123,900 (36 per cent.) out of a total of 3,099,500 ; in Saxony 711,900 (24 per cent.) out of a total of 2,996,300 ; in Wiirtemberg 404,800 (36 per cent.) out of a total of 1,123,500 ; and in Baden 278,100 (26 per cent.) out of a total of 1,080,700. On the other hand, of a total expenditure in 1911 of 10,386,300 on the middle and higher schools (the universities not included) the States paid 2,675,100 or 25-8 per cent., the communes 33oo,ooo or 31-8 per cent., and 3,998,100 or 38-5 per cent, was received from school fees. 2 These figures do not, of course, represent the entire expenditure of the States on education. In Prussia State grants are made proportionately to the financial capacity of the communes, a far larger subsidy relatively to local expenditure being given to the agricultural than to the industrial districts, inasmuch as grants are only made in respect of 25 teachers in any one commune. Thus, 1 In 19 1 1 the Parliamentary grant on account of the ordinary elementary schools of England and Wales amounted to nj million pounds, or about i 1 8s. per scholar, while the receipts from local rates in aid of these schools were 12^ millions, together 23! millions. The contribution of the State was 48 per cent, of the whole cost. The population of Germany was 65 J millions (estimated), and that of England and Wales 36 millions. 2 " Vierteljahreshefte zur Statistik des deutschen Reichs," 22 Jahrgang, 1913, Zweites Heft, p. 192. INTELLECTUAL LIFE 327 in 1911, 57 per cent, of the total cost of the primary schools in the Prussian province of East Prussia was defrayed by the State, 57 per cent, in the province of West Prussia, and 50 per cent, in the province of Pomerania, all these provinces being agricultural and poor, while in the industrial provinces of Westphalia and Rhineland the State bore only 20 and 19 per cent, respectively, and in Berlin less than 2 per cent. In illustration of the small assistance now given to the towns, it may be said that in 1912 Frankfort-on-Main received State grants in aid of education to the amount of 2d. a head of the population, while its own expenditure on that behalf was equal to i6s. per inhabitant. The education grant to Essen amounted to 7d. a head of the population, comparing with 175. spent by the town ; in the case of Cassel the corresponding figures were 5d. and 175., and in the case of Charlottenburg 2^d. and 2os. There is great disparity in the cost of elementary education in different towns. In the larger towns, where this cost forms from 50 to 75 per cent, of the total municipal expenditure on education, the usual outlay is from IDS. to 135. a head of the population, out of from 155. to 255. a head spent on schools of all kinds. The following figures show the cost of education in some of the larger towns in 1909, and hence understate the present outlay : Towns. Cost per elementary scholar. Cost per inhabitant. Per cent, of all cost falling to elementary schools. Elementary schools. All schools. Berlin L s - d - 692 5 7 10 727 4 19 6 5 M 2 3 18 9 3 M 344 <> 5 3 4 10 5 7 i 4 13 i 4 19 i 5 8 ii s. d. M 3 13 5 ii 8 12 5 12 5 II 2 8 10 ii 4 ii 6 9 10 12 3 12 4 6 8 10 I s. d. 20 o 20 4 2O 2 19 10 20 II 14 II 17 7 16 I 25 4 21 2 14 10 15 7 12 II 13 I 71-2 6 5 -8 57-9 62-5 59-2 75-o 50-6 70-4 45-4 46-6 83-0 79-0 5i-4 77'2 - Breslau Charlottenburg Cologne Cassel Chemnitz Dresden Hssen Frankfort-on-Main Hanover Munich Nuremberg Stuttgart Strassburg 328 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The steady increase of the municipal expenditure on educa- tion may be illustrated by the case of Berlin. In 1890 Berlin's primary schools cost the city 2 8s. per scholar, in 1900 3 $s., in 1910 5 los. 6d., but in 1912 6 8s., while during the same period the municipal subsidy required by the higher schools increased from 5 to 14 125. per scholar. THE DRAMA AND Music. The budgets of most large and many small German towns contain an item, greater or less according to local circumstances, which is intended to cover " provision for the intellectual life of the town." This item is independent of expenditure on schools, and if analysed will be found often to include the maintenance of or subsidies to municipal theatres, bands, and orchestras, as well as grants to dramatic and musical societies of a miscellaneous order. In this provision the theatre takes an altogether dominant position, and the fact is significant as reflecting the great importance which in Germany is attributed to the drama as an educational and elevating influence in the life of the com- munity. It may be that the practice of subsidising the theatre is not altogether independent of the fact that the repertory theatre is universal in Germany, except in the smallest of provincial towns, with the result that a far more intimate tie exists between the drama and the community than is possible in the case of travelling companies. The municipal theatre is no new institution in Germany. Some of the oldest town theatres are those of Metz (1751), Mannheim (1777), Ulm (1781), and Nuremberg (1831), and most of the municipal theatres in the large towns of Germany can boast of a distinguished past. For the origin of these theatres it is necessary to look to that historical " particularism " which, while it has been attended by many political disadvantages, has ever exercised a powerful influence on behalf of culture. From early times each Court protected learning and the arts, and the drama being, according to enlightened German ideas, one of the greatest of educational agencies, the Court Theatre, maintained and directed by the Sovereign, was set up in the State capital or " residence " as a matter of course. But all large towns were not INTELLECTUAL LIFE 329 " residences," and it was impossible that a prince should provide every populous place within his State with a theatre. Hence it was that in such non-" residence " towns the municipalities stepped in, determined to keep abreast with the capital at least in the enjoyment of the drama. Broadly speaking it is still the rule to-day in Germany that in capital towns the theatre is under royal, princely, or ducal patronage, while in other large towns the municipalities are its patrons. Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Dresden, Karlsruhe, Brunswick, Meiningen, and Weimar are towns of the first class ; while most other towns of any consequence fall into the second class. At Mannheim, the second capital of Baden, Court and municipal theatres exist side by side. In their support of the drama the German municipalities follow three methods. Either the town (a) owns a theatre and works it, or (b) owns a theatre and leases it, or (c) not owning a theatre, subsidises theatres in private hands, which are often entitled to describe themselves as municipal theatres. It is estimated that over fifty German towns own theatres outright, while four own two each ; thus the municipality of Charlottenburg, after building a theatre, has now built a costly opera house ; both are leased to companies. Of these towns thirty-two have over 80,000 inhabitants, and fifteen between 50,000 and 80,000 inhabitants. The list includes important places like Frankfort-on-Main, Leipzig, and Mann- heim, which own two theatres each ; Cologne, 1 Aix-la-Chapelle, Charlottenburg, Nuremberg, Diisseldorf, Bremen, Erfurt, Breslau, Halle, Magdeburg, and Strassburg, all of which have a population exceeding 150,000 ; but also minor towns such as Wiirzburg, with a population of 80,000, Freiburg-im- Breisgau (83,000), Frankfort-on-Oder (64,000), and Liegnitz (60,000) ; though several towns with a population not larger than 30,000 also own theatres, for example, Oppeln, Schweid- nitz, and Neisse. 1 A writer in the " Cologne Gazette " recently recalled the fact that at the beginning of the seventeenth century companies of English " strolling players " visited Cologne year after year, and stayed for a week or a fortnight at a time. The writer concludes that Shakespeare was first introduced to Cologne playgoers by John Spencer, who had been invited to Germany originally by the rulers of Brandenburg, and who first performed at Cologne in 1613. 330 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Of the towns which both own and work theatres the most notable are Mannheim (since 1839), Freiburg-in-Baden (since 1868), Strassburg (since 1886), Miilhausen, Kiel, Leipzig, Cologne, Dortmund, Colmar, and Konigshiitte. The usual practice, however, is to lease the theatre to an actor-manager ; though invariably on the subsidy principle. This principle is applied in two ways. Either the theatre is leased at a low or nominal rent and the lessee is left to make the most he can out of the enterprise, or a rent approximating to a commercial basis is fixed and the lessee is given an annual subsidy ; but variations of these two methods are common. Naturally, the liberality of the terms offered is governed by the extent and character of the population to be served. The cost to a town of its theatre depends largely upon which of these two methods of management is adopted. It is a general experience that, whatever be the result from the standpoint of art, the town which manages its own theatre incurs far more expense than is entailed by the practice of leasing on the basis of a subsidy. Leipzig took over its theatre in 1912, with the result that whereas the cost to the town in 1910 was 13,200, there was an increase of 23,000, due in part only to special expenditure, and the deficit which had to be met in 1913 was 45,000. In 1911 the expenditure exceeded the revenue by 25,030 at Mannheim, by 8600 at Strassburg, by 5580 at Miilhausen, and by 13,460 at Kiel (two theatres). At Freiburg, where the town theatre (which cost 200,000) was taken into municipal management because (in the words of the chief mayor) " the town council regarded it as its most proper duty to raise this educational institu- tion, like similar agencies for the elevation of the people, to a higher artistic standard," an outlay of no less than 16,000 a year is incurred, equal to nearly 43. a head of the population. By leasing their theatres the towns are able to limit their liabilities, and this most of them do, though on different methods. Thus Nuremberg places its theatre, which cost about 200,000, at the disposal of a lessee for a minimum rent of 1500 per annum, or 10 per cent, of the gross proceeds if this amount should be larger, and in addition it bears the cost of INTELLECTUAL LIFE 331 all important structural alterations, the cost of fire insurance and fire brigade service, and half the cost of the water supply ; moreover, it sets aside a considerable sum yearly for the im- provement of the decorations, furniture, fittings, and general conveniences of the theatre. This theatre, which was only completed in 1905, is one of the most attractive and best arranged in Germany, and took the place of a building which had stood for seventy years. The Erfurt municipal theatre is leased to a private entre- preneur for 650 per annum, on condition that the profits after payment of this rent are divided between the town and the lessee, the latter first taking 650 and one-third of the balance, while the whole of the remainder goes to the town. During the summer months, when the theatre is closed, the town pays to each member of the chorus who has no summer engagement a weekly retainer of 2 ios., and to each member of the orchestra half this amount. The municipality of Breslau pays a subsidy of 4500 to the theatre, imposing conditions in return, one of which requires the lessee to conclude written engagements with the members of his company. The municipal theatre of Bielefeld is leased to an entre- preneur rent free, subject to the condition that one-half of all profits above 1000 shall be paid to the town. Bremenhaven, a town of only 24,000 inhabitants, in build- ing a new theatre at a cost of over 50,000 in 1911, decided to carry it on upon the partnership principle. The theatre has been leased to a director who will manage it in the common interest. The director has to account to the town for all receipts, and after the payment of all expenses subject to the approval of the municipal executive, the town first receives from the profits the sum of 250, and the next 1000 is divided equally between the town and the lessee ; of the following 1500 the town receives one-third and the lessee two-thirds, and of later profits the town receives four-fifths and the lessee one-fifth. There are provisions in the contract to ensure that the theatre shall be conducted in the interest of art and education, for while the lessee has a right to fix the repertory he must submit weekly programmes in advance to the municipal 332 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY executive, which is entitled to object to the presentation of worthless works. In towns which are too small to support independent theatres the authorities often subsidise companies settled in adjacent places in return for periodical visits. A number of rural communes in Pomerania arrange every year for the formation and financing of a peripatetic company which visits each place in turn, and permanent dramatic companies are subsidised on the same terms in other districts. The most important of the travelling companies, however, is the Mark (Brandenburg) W andertheater , which in the course of a season visits, in two sections, as many as 130 different places in the eastern provinces of Prussia. There are also two travelling companies of the same kind in the west of Germany, one operating from Frankfort-on-Main and the other from Diisseldorf. All these companies are run by associations of a " public utility " character, working not for money but for the educational interests of the people, and their services are highly appreciated. In 1911 thirty of the larger towns owning theatres ex- pended 216,480 in subsidies directly and indirectly, 181,820 being on account of the theatres and 34,660 on account of the theatre orchestras ; while eleven large towns not owning theatres expended in subsidies 33,500, 27,100 being on, account of the theatres and 6400 on account of the orchestras. The total expenditure on the drama of these 41 towns was roughly a quarter of a million pounds, an average of over 6000 per town. Of subsidies, including in some cases special grants, paid to theatres belonging to the towns the highest in 1911 were 29,190, with 3810 for the orchestra, at Cologne ; 29,800 at Frankfort-on-Main; 19,090, with 7040 for the orchestra, at Diisseldorf; 25,030 at Mannheim; 16,060, with 4320 for the orchestra, at Leipzig; 16,320 and 2350 re- spectively at Dortmund ; 8600 and 7000 at Strassburg, 6910 and 3480 at Magdeburg, 11,890 and 2260 at Chem- nitz, and 14,280 at Nuremberg. In many cases the town, in addition to paying a money subsidy, bore the whole or part of the costs of lighting, water, heating, and cleaning the municipal theatre. Of the towns which subsidise private INTELLECTUAL LIFE 333 theatres Stuttgart expended in this way in 1911 7490, Hamburg 5290, Elberfeld 6890, Crefeld 3930, Cassel 3570, Munich 3070, and the other towns smaller sums. In addition, Stuttgart has just voted 60,000 towards the cost of building a new Court theatre, Cassel has voted 65,000 for the same purpose, and Stettin is building a concert hall at a cost of 50,000, towards which the town contributes 30,000, while the remainder is taken from a wealthy endowment for musical purposes. Thirty Bavarian towns, for the most part small, spend on an average over 800 a year on theatres, and in addition they incurred special expenditure for this purpose in the course of ten years to an average amount of 14,460. In most of these towns the theatres are public property. Important conditions are attached to the granting of municipal help to actor-managers in this way. In the main these conditions are intended to regulate charges, to secure fair treatment for members of the company and all employees, and to ensure the observance of a high standard alike in the choice of dramas and in their presentation. In many cases a minimum number of performances is stipulated, and in most towns a certain number of performances at popular prices have to be given for the benefit of the working classes and of children attending the elementary schools. The charge for admission to these popular performances varies from ijd. to 6d., and scholars are sometimes admitted free. The contract between the municipality of Bielefeld and the lessee of the town theatre stipulates for the presentation of dramas, operas, and operettas in specified number and sequence, and requires performances at low prices to be given on Saturdays for the special benefit of people with small incomes. The municipality of Hamburg assigns the sum of 250 a year towards the cost of dramatic performances for children in the senior classes of the primary schools, these performances being arranged by a committee of teachers. The tickets are sold to the children for 3d., or are distributed free according to circumstances. The town also pays 1500 a year towards the cost of popular performances on Sunday afternoons in May and September. The tickets for these 334 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY performances cost 6d. and 2|d. (for seats and standing places respectively), and are distributed by the trade unions and other associations in touch with the working classes. Several years ago the municipal school authorities of Mannheim tried the experiment of taking to a special performance at the town theatre all the elementary scholars of both sexes who had at Easter completed their school course. Schiller's " Wilhelm Tell " was given, and 1400 boys and girls were present in company with their form teachers. A nominal charge of about 2|d. was made, so that the town had a large deficit to make up, but it was so pleased with the result that this scholars' performance has been made an annual event. In some towns the municipal theatres are lent on easy terms to the trade councils and other working-class organisa- tions for performances at popular prices. It will hardly be understood in England that these performances are almost invariably confined to classical works (dramas of Goethe, Schiller, and Shakespeare are almost equally in favour) or modern plays of the highest standard. The price of admission is as low as 6d., and however these theatres may be attended at other times the popular performances are invariably crowded. During 1912 the Leipzig municipal theatre, under public management, gave 326 performances, comprising 95 dramas (31 at popular prices), 70 operas (8 at popular prices), 57 operettas (21 at popular prices) ; 98 performances were arranged by societies of different kinds, and six were for school children. It may be noted also that the municipality of Berlin has just agreed to advance 100,000 on first mort- gage to a company which is erecting a theatre for the people in one of the oldest and formerly most undesirable quarters of the city. The theatre, which will seat 2000 persons, will cost about 250,000, and the company undertakes to arrange at least ten day performances every year for the scholars attending the elementary schools, the price for admission not to exceed 7d. Similarly, in leasing to a company the opera house which it has just built, the municipality of Charlotten- burg has stipulated that the company shall give every year for the benefit of the elementary school children four free INTELLECTUAL LIFE 335 performances, and ten more at which the charges for admission shall range from 6d. to is. 3d. If the question be asked : Is the higher drama encouraged by the municipal theatre ? the answer must be an emphatic affirmative, though the reason for this is probably less municipal action than the high standard of education in Germany. Speaking generally, no theatres in Germany maintain the drama at a higher level than the municipal theatres in the large towns. The lower forms of the drama will find no home here, for public taste looks for the best that the stage can offer, and as the demand is, so is the supply. Many a provincial theatre of this kind presents more Shake- spearean plays in a week than the average English theatre outside London presents in a couple of years. A glance at the repertory of any of the municipal theatres which have been named is enough to convince one that an elevated aim is steadily kept in view. For example, in a recent year the two Mannheim municipal theatres presented 161 separate works, including 93 dramas, 62 operas and operettas, and six ballets, and of these works 442 repetitions were given in the aggregate, making for the year 604 performances, a number of which were at popular prices. The dramas given included 15 by Schiller, 10 by Shakespeare, three by Goethe, three by Lessing, five by Moli^re, four by Hans Sachs, four by Sheridan, n by Grillparzer, two each by Kleist and Hebbel, and several by Ibsen, while the operas included three by Beethoven, three by Cherubini, six by Mozart, three by Weber, and several by Wagner. Could an English provincial theatre could all English provincial theatres together show a record equal to this ? That plays of this kind are given is proof that the German public looks to the municipal theatre for the cultivation of the highest possible standard of dramatic taste and achievement. The figures given show that the patronage of the drama entails upon the towns no light burden, but it is a burden willingly borne. In all probability its weight will increase in the near future, for although the plan of leasing municipal theatres is still the rule, the opinion widely prevails that, by reason of the growing expense of maintaining the drama at 336 a high artistic level, the towns will be compelled more and more to take over and work their own theatres. Even this prospect appears to have no terror for communities whose civic life is never governed on the elevating principle of " keeping down the rates." 1 In addition to maintaining theatres or otherwise sub- sidising the drama many towns either maintain or liberally support orchestras on terms which secure their services for the public either gratuitously or at a nominal charge. In summer the concerts are usually given in the open air, and in the winter months in the public halls. Some towns even arrange for evening chamber concerts for the people. Berlin subsidises the Philharmonic Orchestra to the extent of 3000 a year, and in return the orchestra is bound to give 35 public concerts (two a week) for the charge of 3|d. between the beginning of June and the end of September, and in winter five similar concerts, with five afternoon free concerts for scholars. Nuremberg subsidises the Philharmonic Orchestra of that town to the extent of 600 a year, and in return offers to the public a series of thirty high-class concerts, indoor or outdoor according to the season, the former costing 4d. and the latter being free. Of 271 German communes with over 20,000 inhabitants 129 in 1911 expended in the aggregate 100,000 in the popularising of music, and seventy of these towns had their own orchestras. Among other municipal enterprises undertaken in the interest of popular entertain- ment may be named the cinematograph shows owned by many towns and also worked by the local authorities in several cases. 1 See Appendix VII, " Municipal Theatre Regulations," pp. 491-495. CHAPTER XIII MUNICIPAL FINANCE Sources of municipal revenue The budget Borrowing powers and loans Extent of communal indebtedness Improvement of municipal credit facilities Balance sheets of municipal authorities. OOURCES OF MUNICIPAL REVENUE. The principal sources w_3 of municipal revenue, stated in the order of priority recognised by the laws of most German States, are (a) the proceeds of communal land and properties other than trading enterprises and of invested funds (Kdmmereiver- mogen 1 ) ; (b) administrative and general fees and dues (including sewerage and scavenging dues) ; (c) contributions in the nature of special assessments levied in consideration of material advantages conferred upon individuals or classes of individuals ; (d) the profits of trading and other revenue-yielding under- takings, including the charges made in respect of undertakings and works which, while not regarded as profit-making enter- prises, are either required or expected to pay their way ; and (e) taxation, indirect and direct. To these may be added (/) certain Government grants-in- aid made in some of the States. Although the most important source of revenue, taxation (e) comes late in this enumeration, since the principle followed in the raising of revenue is that taxes have only to be levied if and to the extent that the commune cannot supply its financial needs in other approved ways. The forms of taxation usual in the towns and the yield of the local taxes, as also the 1 " Its position in the communal budget corresponds to that occupied by the domains in the State budget " (Reitzenstein in Schonberg's " Handbuch der politischen Oekonomie," iii. p. 607). 2 337 338 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY character and productivity of the trading and other revenue- yielding enterprises (d), are considered in detail in the special chapters devoted to these subjects. In all the States great emphasis is laid by the Governments on the importance of developing trading enterprises and of working them as profitably as possible. Thus the Ministerial rescript issued with the new communal taxation law of Saxony (which comes into force in 1915) urges the communes to raise all such revenue as may be feasible by their trading enterprises and to work no undertaking of public utility even water- works or baths at a loss, so as to keep the taxes within moderate limits. The dues and fees (b) are of many kinds and differ greatly in the various States. Most of the large towns charge the yearly costs of the sewerage system, of street scavenging, and of the removal of house refuse directly to the owners of the property concerned. In other towns these costs are charged to the land and building taxes, or part is defrayed in this way and part by special dues. In the case of sewerage dues the principle of assessment is either rental value, sale value, or the quantity of water passed into the sewers. In 1911, 75 towns with a population of 50,000 and upwards received in dues and charges on account of sewerage connections 1,333,480, on account of street scavenging 183,590, and house refuse removal 321,640, making a total of 1,838,710 received from property owners on account of these services. In addi- tion, fees of a miscellaneous kind were received to the amount of 47,560. The aggregate revenue of these towns from the sources named was equivalent to a sum of 2s. 8d. a head of their total population of fourteen millions. The communes are also empowered to charge fees for the use of institutions provided by the local authority for the common benefit, such as hospitals, bathing establishments, and certain of the schools for whose provision and main- tenance they are responsible, though elementary schools are, as a rule, exempted from fees. Among the miscellaneous dues and fees may be mentioned the pavement dues (a charge on horses and vehicles) levied in Bavarian towns, the bridge tolls still common in some MUNICIPAL FINANCE 339 parts of the country, fees charged in connection with building permits, the inspection of new buildings and the like, market tolls, fire brigade fees, and the fees for burgess or freemanship rights charged on a large scale in Bavaria and to a less extent in some other States. 1 The principle of making special assessments (c) on property which benefits owing to works carried out at the expense of the municipality is expressly recognised by the communal taxation laws of Prussia and other States. For example, it is a general rule that adjacent owners (Anlieger) are required to contribute towards the first cost of sewerage works, either in the form of a single payment or by instalments spread over a certain number of years. In addition, special assessments may be made in respect of properties the value of which is increased owing to public improvements. Works of the kind are clearances of old property, the laying out of public parks and recreation grounds, the opening up of new areas for building purposes, pavement works, and the like. Reference has been made to these contributions, the revenue from which is naturally of an occasional kind, in the chapter dealing with town planning. The State grants-in-aid (/) are no longer a very important source of revenue in the case of the large towns. Where given they are, as a rule, in respect of elementary education, poor relief, and road maintenance in the towns, as a rule, only in respect of the first two objects. The system of State subsidies to local authorities is, in fact, contrary to the theory of German national and local finance, and hence is but little developed in the German States. The last amendment of the local taxation system of Prussia (that of 1893) was intended to open up to the communes financial resources ample for existing purposes, yet capable of being developed according to need, and so to make them inde- pendent of State aid. The one important exception to this rule are the grants on behalf of education. Such other grants as are assigned to the local authorities are made to the pro- vincial and circle governments, mostly for their own use but partly for distribution to the communal authorities. 1 For fees charged, see pp. 62, 63. 340 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The Prussian State grants for certain special purposes, other than education, are as follows : (i) Under a law of April 30, 1873, towards the cost of provincial and circle government, the annual sum of 450,000. This grant is distributed to the extent of one-half in the ratio of area and to the extent of one- half in the ratio of civil population. (2) Under a law of July 8, 1875, towards the cost of provincial and circle government, the annual sum of 672,000, divisible on the same principles. This money has to be expended on main highways and town- ship roads, the institutional care of lunatics, and deaf, dumb, and blind persons, reclamation works, the promotion of education by means of libraries, museums, etc. (3) By the same law of July 8, 1875, the State transferred to the provinces and the municipalities of Berlin and Frankfort-on-Main the maintenance of a number of national highways for which it had hitherto been responsible, and made them a yearly grant of 950,000 to cover the costs entailed. (4) Under a law of June 2, 1902, a further yearly grant of 350,000 was made to the provincial authorities for apportionment amongst the circles and communes towards the cost of poor relief and roads. The money is distributed according to the financial necessities of the various local authorities. (5) There are in addition a number of small grants to individual municipal authorities in respect of the maintenance of maternity homes and training establishments. The sum of State grants (other than education grants) to local authorities in 1910 was 2,378,000, equivalent to is. 2d. per inhabitant on a population of 40,165,000. In the administrative year 1910-11, the Government grants in Prussia towards the maintenance of the elementary, middle, and higher schools amounted to 7,425,800, or 26-5 per cent, of a total expenditure on these schools of 27,997,000. The bulk of the balance was borne by the local authorities. The State's share in the case of elementary schools was 6,367,000, or 30 per cent, of the total cost ; in the case of the middle schools 41,800, or 3-3 per cent. ; and in the case of the higher schools 1,017,000, or 18 per cent. The rural communes receive far more assistance from the State in proportion to their expenditure than the towns. MUNICIPAL FINANCE 341 Prior to the passing of the Education Act of 1897 a commune received a State grant for every teacher. Since then communes or communal unions with more than 25 teacherships are sup- posed to be sufficiently well off to need no help, while to the necessitous communes the State makes a grant on a fixed scale towards the salaries of teachers, and bears the costs of their removal, and it contributes towards their retirement pensions and the pensions due to widows and orphans. The rule of ex- clusion is felt to be arbitrary and inequitable. The education burdens of the purely industrial towns with a predominance of working-class families, a high birth-rate, and a low level of in- come and therefore of taxing capacity, are often oppressively heavy, forming from one-third to one-half of the total expendi- ture. This fact explains the abnormally high local income tax payable in some of the Westphalian colliery and iron and steel centres. A slight relief is sometimes afforded to over-burdened Prussian communes by a provision in the Communal Taxation Law intended to meet the case of communes which count amongst their inhabitants the workpeople of large industrial undertakings outside their administrative and taxing areas. In order to recoup such communes for the extra expense caused by the presence in their midst of this industrial popula- tion education, poor relief, and police charges are specially mentioned the law entitles them to claim from the commune in which the undertaking is situated a contribution pro- portionate to this extra expenditure. A certain further relief to local taxation is afforded in virtue of the fact that the police service is claimed as a State service, for which reason the State bears part of the cost. It is im- possible, however, to say what proportion of the State's expenditure on account of police administration might be held to rank as a grant in aid to local authorities comparable with the Exchequer grants in this country. No comprehensive return of municipal revenue and ex- penditure exists of later date than that of 1907 relating to all German towns and rural communes with over 10,000 inhabi- tants and published by the Imperial Government in 1908. This return showed that 33-2 per cent, of the gross revenue 342 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY came from taxation, 25-9 per cent, from communal enterprises and undertakings of all kinds, 5-9 per cent, from the administra- tions of communal estates and investments, 5-1 per cent, from educational and art institutions, 3 per cent, was received on account of poor relief, the care of orphans, and the hospitals, 4-7 per cent, from the building administration (fees, etc.), and the remainder (22-2 per cent.) from the general, police, and other branches of the administration. 1 Of the gross expenditure 23 per cent, fell to the administra- tion of communal undertakings and enterprises, 17-4 per cent, to that of educational and art institutions, 14-3 per cent, to the administration of debts, n-8 per cent, to the general and police administration, 9-9 per cent, to the building adminis- tration, 7-6 per cent, to the administration of poor relief, the care of orphans, and hospitals, and the remainder (16-0 per cent.) to miscellaneous branches of administration. 2 It may be noted here that there is no limitation of the expenditure which may be incurred on special objects, as with us on account of higher education, libraries, etc., nor are general taxes falling on the whole community earmarked for special purposes and assessed separately, as in the case of the general district and borough rates in corporate towns, and the general district and poor rates in urban districts. On the other hand, as will be shown, expenditure specially benefiting certain sections of the community, i.e., the property owners or the trading classes, is charged to taxes falling only on those persons. THE BUDGET. Yearly budgets are usual, but the Prussian towns have the option of budgeting for one, two, or three 1 Of the total receipts of local authorities in England and Wales in the administrative year 1910-11, in amount ^131,074,000, ^21,165,000 or i6'i per cent, came from Exchequer grants, ^65,152,300 or 49*7 per cent, came from public rates, 32,947,600 or 25-2 per cent, from trading enterprises, and 11,809,300 or g'O per cent from other sources. 2 Of the total expenditure of local authorities in England and Wales in the administrative year 1910-11, 21-8 per cent, was on account of education, 9-6 per cent, on account of poor relief (exclusive of the cost of pauper lunatics in county and borough asylums), 3 per cent, on account of lunatics and lunatic asylums, and 1-4 per cent, on account of hospitals other than Poor Law infirmaries. The service of loans is included in the foregoing expenditure, but stated alone it formed 22-8 per cent, of all expenditure. MUNICIPAL FINANCE 343 years at once, and if a period longer than a year is chosen it may be for the entire administration or only for certain branches. In that country also the financial year is from April i to March 31, as is the case with Imperial and State administrations. The unrestricted control of the town council over the budget has already been explained in the chapter dealing with the constitution of this body and its position in the communal government. Once a year, before the introduction of the new budget, the executive is required to give a full account of its steward- ship in public meeting of the town council, and due notice of the meeting has to be published to the citizens. The estimates themselves must be published for a week, so as to give the public an opportunity of criticising and objecting to them, and only after the lapse of that time are they laid before the town council. A copy of the budget is also sent to the supervisory authority, but formal approval by this authority is not necessary except in so far as new taxes are proposed or old ones altered. Nevertheless, it is competent for the supervisory authority to object to proposed expenditure of an irregular kind or to require the inclusion of omitted items on account of services which the local authority is liable to provide ; in either event the latter may appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court. The communal budget distinguishes between ordinary and extraordinary revenue and expenditure, and each department of local government prepares its own estimates, which need to be independently approved first by the executive and then by the town council. Revenue and expenditure are shown separately in each case. Dr. E. Scholz illustrates the method of division usual in Prussia by the following heads of a typical budget : A. Ordinary part (Ordinarium}. I. Principal administration. 1. General administration. 2. Administration of estate. 3. Finance administration : (a) Debts. (b) Taxation and treasury. 344 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY 4. Police, Trade, and Traffic system. 5. Buildings : (a) Overground (Hochbau). (b) Underground (Tiefbau). 6,. Poor relief, charities, and hospitals. 7. Education and Culture : (a) Schools. (b) Churches. (c) Art and Science. (d) Furtherance of objects of public utility. 8. Grants for State purposes. 9. Surpluses and subsidies of special administrations. II. Special Administrations. 1. Equalisation budgets : (a) Abattoir and stockyard. (b) Pawnshop. (c) Inspection of Weights and Measures. (d) Savings bank. 2. Subsidy budgets. (e) Cemeteries. (/) Fire brigade, (g) Baths. (h) Destructors. 3. Surplus budgets. (i) Waterworks. (/) Gasworks. (k) Electricity works. (/) Tramways. B. Extraordinary Part (Extraordinarium). Such of the foregoing divisions as may be necessary. 1 There is no Government audit of local finance in Germany. The accounts of each communal administration are audited by officers of the administration under the direction of the town council and the executive. In Prussia a "revision" of the local treasury (i.e., of the actual funds in hand) is made by the executive every month, on fixed days, and the 1 " Die deutsche Stadt und ihre Verwaltung," Vol. I, pp. 58, 59. MUNICIPAL FINANCE 345 town council is informed beforehand so that it may depute members to be present ; and there is at least once a year a special surprise " revision " of which no notice is given, and at this either the chairman of the council or a member nominated by him must be present. A further means of controlling communal property is contained in the provision requiring the executive to keep and publish a register (Lagerbuch) of municipal estate, both personal and real. This register must be periodically revised and must be prepared in such a way as to offer to the citizens a clear presentation of the extent and character of the town's tangible assets. Nevertheless, town councils often complain that effectual control over financial matters is impossible under the present system. Sheaves of figures are thrown at them, and without outside expert assistance there is no hope of testing them satisfactorily. Hence the desirability of some arrangement for an independent audit by approved accountants is widely recognised. Many of the larger towns accordingly have their accounts audited by professional accountants in the same way as the large British corporations. In some parts of Saxony the entire body of town councillors are, in virtue of regulations issued by the supervisory authorities, made jointly responsible for all losses caused by the insufficient or culpable control of finance. BORROWING POWERS AND LOANS. As a rule, loans may only be contracted with the sanction of the State supervisory authority, and rules are laid down governing such sanction, e.g., in regard to the purpose, amount, and arrangements for repayment (sinking fund) ; but in the past these rules have seldom been applied very rigidly and many towns have unquestionably borrowed very prodigally and injudiciously. In Prussia the rule is that loans may be contracted only in respect of works of common benefit serving " not merely the present but the distant future," and not in respect of works which need to be renewed at short intervals ; the latter have to be covered by ordinary revenue, i.e., taxation. In the case of school buildings the communes are urged to create building funds of sufficient amount by the assignment thereto 346 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY of a yearly contribution. 1 Until such funds exist schools may be built in part out of borrowed money, but only on condition that the loans are paid back at a higher rate than in the case of other permanent works. The first paving of streets with a new material may be defrayed by loans, but the renewal and upkeep of such works must be defrayed out of ordinary revenue. Loans may also be contracted in respect of the building of theatres, concert halls, Town Hall restaurants, and the execution of other works of a kind which border on the definition of " luxuries," provided it can be shown that the expected revenue will sufficiently cover interest and repay- ment charges, or that such expenditure will not injure the financial credit of the commune or unduly burden the com- munity As to State sanction in general, the Municipal Ordinance for the eastern provinces of Prussia says that " the sanction of the Government is necessary to loans by which the commune will have to incur a debt or an existing debt will be increased." The same provision applies to some of the western provinces, and where the Municipal Ordinances do not require such permission it is stipulated in Ministerial Decrees. The Communal Ordinance of Bavaria empowers communes to conclude loans for the purpose of " repaying existing debts or of meeting unavoidable expenditure or such expenditure as will be for the permanent benefit of the commune when it cannot be met by other sources of revenue without over- burdening the inhabitants." Arrangements for repaying all loans must be made and submitted to the supervisory authori- ties for approval, and the sanction of these authorities is needed in the case of all loans which would in the current administra- tive year increase the existing indebtedness to the extent of 42 175. in communes with less than 2500 inhabitants, of 85 145. in communes with from 2500 to 5000 inhabitants, 428 us. in communes with from 5000 to 20,000 inhabitants, and 857 2s. in communes with over 20,000 inhabitants. In all cases the supervisory authorities can forbid the conclusion of a loan when the conditions above specified are not complied with. In general, loans are permissible on account 1 Ministerial Decree of June i, 1891. MUNICIPAL FINANCE 347 of works which pay for themselves and provide a sufficient revenue for redemption ; but loans on account of extraordinary outlay which does not recur or recurs only at long intervals yet the revenue from which is uncertain, are only allowed when these works are intended to meet special needs and the ordinary revenues are inadequate to meet the cost. Loans are in general discouraged in the case of school buildings, street improvements, and works of a similar recurrent kind, and, as in Prussia, the formation of special funds to meet needs of the kind is urged. In Saxony the supervisory authorities are given a general supervision over municipal borrowing with a view to pro- tecting the communes against undue indebtedness, and their formal approval is necessary in the case of all loans which would within any one year increase a commune's indebted- ness beyond 15 for every 1000 inhabitants ; but loans in- tended to be repaid within a year do not require sanction. Corresponding provisions exist in the other States. It may be added that loans are never contracted to cover deficiencies, and herein the communes are able to set the Empire a good example. 1 In so far as the communes require and are empowered to borrow, their needs are covered by long term loans, issued as a rule through banks in the form of bonds, by loans from statutory insurance organisations and the public savings banks, loans on mortgage from mortgage banks and other bodies, and loans from minor miscellaneous sources. All but a minute fraction of the communal borrowing hardly more than i per cent. consists of long period loans, mostly in the form either of ordinary scrip or bonds payable to bearer, both redeemable at a fixed date and ranking as trustee securi- ties. Short term loans are not usual. It is nowadays the common rule to invite tenders from banks generally or from a selected list of banks. Where the sum is large banks often form combinations (Konsortien) for the purpose of taking up loans jointly, and most im- portant municipal loans are now contracted in this way. 1 Alex. Pohlmann in " Gemeindeiinanzen," 2ter Band, iter Teil, p. 159 (Verein fur Sozialpolitik). 348 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The town accepts the most advantageous offer, and the banks or combinations issue the scrip to the public at a price agreed amongst themselves, first having the amount underwritten. A calculation made for the period 1897 to 1907 shows that the variation between the terms of accept- ance by the municipalities and the terms of issue to the public was from 0-12 to 3-25 per cent., but these extremes were probably both due to the special conditions of the money market ; and it is stated that the banks, as a rule, earn about | per cent, on the nominal value of the loans issued. 1 The old tender system, under which a town fixed a rate of issue to the banks and invited offers at this figure or the nearest to it, then accepting loans to the required amount on the most advantageous terms, is no longer followed, and there are also few open subscriptions nowadays. If a town wishes to issue a new loan it is to its interest to buy up the old scrip that may be on sale, so as to ensure an issue on favourable terms, and it may use the funds of the savings bank or charitable foundations under its management for this purpose. When bonds have to be repaid, a town will buy up its own scrip freely if it can be had under par, but here it has to contend with the banks, which are ever on the look out and are not slow to use effectual devices for keeping up the price. The rates of repayment vary in different States they are, for example, on the whole, higher in Prussia than elsewhere and still more according to the purposes for which the money is borrowed. Although in past times a rate as low as \ or even \ per cent, was common, loans are now seldom repaid on a lower scale than i| per cent, in Prussia, and this rate may rise to 10 per cent, in the case of works or improvements that need frequent renewal. In the case of trading enterprises it is sometimes stipulated that a part of the profits beyond a fixed amount shall be applied towards the more rapid repay- ment of the loan. Municipal loans are regularly quoted 2 or 3 per cent, below the price of State securities giving a corresponding interest. 1 Th. Kutzer, " Zur Organisation des Kredits der deutschen Stadte," in " Gemeindennanzen," 2ter Band, iter Teil, p. 194 (Verein fur Sozialpolitik) . MUNICIPAL FINANCE 349 Apart from the question of credit two circumstances at present specially affect the relative unpopularity of municipal securi- ties. One is the multiplicity of municipal loans on the market and the unsystematic manner in which they are issued, and the other is the uncertainty caused to bond holders under the arrangements for redemption on the principle of buying in bonds by lot. In order to meet the latter objection the municipalities of Wiesbaden and some other towns have of late adopted a new mode of redemption. The amount which would ordinarily be set aside yearly for this purpose is put to a special fund, which will be allowed to accumulate with a view to the repayment of the whole loan at once at the end of the prescribed period. This fund is invested in trustee securities and mortgages and is placed under the control of the State supervisory authority. It is said that a loan offered by Wiesbaden to the banks subject to these conditions was contracted on terms 2 per cent, more favourable than in the case of loans offered on the usual method of redemption, and that it is quoted higher by this amount than the other loans of the town bearing equal interest. With the idea of encouraging local investment in the town's loans many municipal authori- ties keep a register of municipal securities (Schuldbuch) in which holders of local bonds of all kinds may without charge register their securities, which they simultaneously deposit, so protecting themselves in the event of the loss either of the papers themselves or of the interest coupons. The town undertakes, as desired, to pay interest in cash at the municipal treasury or by post, to transfer it to the holder's banking or savings bank account, or even to credit it to him in part payment of his local taxes. Incidentally it also notifies bond holders of bonds drawn for redemption, and if desired re- invests in municipal securities the money thus liberated. EXTENT OF COMMUNAL INDEBTEDNESS. According to a statement published by the Imperial Government in 1908 in connection with its scheme of financial reform, the urban and rural communes of the Empire had in 1907 debts to the aggregate amount of 328,015,000, equal to 5 6s. a head of the entire population. 350 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The indebtedness in the aggregate and per head of the population in towns with from 10,000 inhabitants upwards was 255,715,000, made up as follows : Towns with a population of Total Indebtedness. Indebtedness per inhabitant. From 10 ooo to 25,000 Q^.icao ooo s. 7 6 25 ooo to 50 ooo 28 080 ooo IO 3 50 ooo to 100 ooo 36 630 ooo IT in 100 ooo to 200 ooo 46. dd 5. ooo IA 7 Over 200 ooo (excluding Berlin) 89 580 ooo 17 2 Berlin 21,450,000 IO IO ^255,715,000 Of this indebtedness 169,480,000 took the form of municipal obligations in bearer's name, 62,675,000 of loans for long periods, and 23,560,000 of mortgages, short term loans, balances of purchase money, etc. A classification of the total indebtedness in 1910 of 84 of the largest towns in Germany, with a population of 15! millions, showed totals of 22,129,000 for Berlin, 84,847,000 for ten other towns with a population above 300,000, 84,998,000 for 34 towns with a population from 100,000 to 300,000, and 35,250,000 for 39 towns with a population of from 50,000 to 100,000 ; the debts of these towns in the form of loans amounted to 21,406,000, 79,051,000, 80,409,000, and 34,190,000 respectively. The aggregate indebtedness of the 84 towns was 227,223,000 and that in the form of long term loans (excluding mortgages) 215,059,000. The indebtedness of Berlin was equal to 10 143. a head of the population, that of the other towns with a population exceeding 300,000 to 18 195., that of the towns with a population between 100,000 and 300,000 to 14 33., and that of the towns with a popula- tion between 50,000 and 100,000 to 13, while the average for all towns was 14 173. a head. Striking though these figures are, it would be easy to over- look their significance and to draw from them a wrong con- clusion. The great indebtedness of German towns simply MUNICIPAL FINANCE 351 means that these towns are engaged on a large scale in carry- ing on enterprises which require considerable capital outlay, and much of their borrowing is just as necessary and desirable as is the increase of capital in the case of private commercial undertakings which are expanding on healthy lines. This view was expressed by the chief mayor of one of the larger municipalities (Bielefeld) at a recent congress of municipal officials. "It is not surprising," he said, " that we should hear to-day of heavy municipal debts and of a certain financial stringency in many towns. A town which contracts no debts is asleep. When towns borrow money to-day it means that they are fulfilling tasks so great that a later generation must share in the burden, and the undertaking of these tasks is meritorious so long as the capacity of a community to bear the cost is duly kept in mind." On examination it will often be found that the major part of the loans of large towns has been contracted on account of trading enterprises of various kinds and other undertakings and works of a revenue-yielding character ; and particularly gasworks, electricity works, waterworks, tramways, docks and warehouses, market halls, baths, abattoirs and stock yards, and sewerage and drainage works. A classification of the loans of 74 of the largest towns at the end of 1910, in amount 194,668,000, given in the " Statistical Yearbook of German Towns " for 1913, shows that 99,157,000, or a little over one-half, had been incurred on account of such works in the following amounts : Sewerage (including pump- ing) works and sewage farms 19,400,000, waterworks 17,000,000, gasworks 15,548,000, tramway and light rail- ways 13,686,000, electricity works 12,576,000, docks and warehouses 9,173,000, abattoirs and stockyards 7,320,000, market halls 2,173,000, bathing establishments 1,014,000, and other works yielding profit or regular revenue 1,215,000. The proportion of such remunerative investments was largest in the case of Berlin, viz. 63 per cent. ; in the case of ten towns with a population of over 300,000 it was 49 per cent. ; in the case of 34 towns with a population between 100,000 and 300,000 it was 50-4 per cent. ; and in the case of 39 towns with from 50,000 to 100,000 it was 48-4 per cent. 352 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Returns supplied by German and British municipal authorities enable an interesting comparison to be made of the indebted- ness of some of the larger towns in the two countries and of the proportions in which this indebtedness is due to revenue- yielding enterprises. All the returns relate to the end of the year 1912 unless otherwise stated. MUNICIPAL LOANS AT END OF 1912. (i) GERMAN TOWNS. Towns. Total amount of loans. Amount of remunerative loans. Proportion represented by remunerative loans. Aix-la-Chapelle i I 922,000 i Q7O,IQ7 per cent. 50-0 Berlin (1910) 21 406 5OO 13 477 2OO 62-9 Charlottenburg 9,^46,274 2,772,712 29-7 Danzig I 699,320 SQ7,8^O 35' Diisseldorf 9,207,000 6,836,000 74-2 Essen 4,060, 5OO 1,075,300 25-0 Frankfort-on-Main l6,II2,5OO 12,250,000 76-0 Leipzig (1910) 8,064,500 4,246,400 52-7 Mannheim 4,108,700 2,214,800 54' Munich (1910) . . . r 3 706 ooo 6,124,600 44 '7 Nuremberg (1910) 5,698,200 2,585,800 45-4 TOTALS /95, 331. 494 /53, 150, 839 55-8 (2) TOWNS IN GREAT BRITAIN. Birmingham IQ 722 326 i 13 62O 24! per cent. 60-1 Bolton 5 535.236 2 657,805 48-0 Bradford 8 523 I 54 5 3II.OOO 62-3 Bristol 8 O55 6l3 6 374 8ll 79-1 Cardiff 3 873 O99 1,947,704 50-0 Dundee 2 7IO 421 1,838,236 67-9 Glasgow 14 ooo 289 8,675,195 62-0 Huddersfield 3 381 832 2 424 987 71-7 Leicester 4 865,336 3,034,415 62-4 Manchester 23 336 6ll II,IO8,226 47-6 Newcastle 3 2IO 034 1,431,751 44-6 Salford 3 234 345 I 418 383 43*9 . Sheffield 9 692,742 6,3^6.445 65-4 TOTALS ^110,141,038 /66,O79,799 60-0 MUNICIPAL FINANCE 353 Nevertheless, the feeling is prevalent that German towns have for some time been borrowing beyond the safer limits formerly observed. Each year new demands are made for new purposes, and every class of citizens presses its special claims upon the public funds, while there is a sort of con- spiracy of consent to ignore the fact that all expenditure, however laudable the object may be, is at the cost of the common purse. According to the Prussian Statistical Office the long term loans, mortgages, and other debts of the towns of Prussia increased during the five years between March 31, 1906, and March 31, 1911, from 140,727,000 to 212,867,000, or at the rate of 51 per cent., and those of the rural communes from 6,808,000 to 13,394,000, or at the rate of 96-7 per cent. The indebtedness per head of the population increased in the towns during this period from 8 8s. to 11 5s., an increase of 33-6 per cent. Not only in Parliament but in local government circles the opinion finds frequent expression that the present generation is carrying forward too large a portion of the responsibilities which it has incurred, and that sound finance and a due regard for the interests of the coming generation which will have its own special duties and obligations to meet require that local bodies should make a stronger endeavour to pay their way than they have done in the past. Considerations of prudence and self-interest point to the same conclusion. The great extent of municipal borrowing and the dearness of money have together had the effect of making it impossible for towns with even good credit to contract loans at a lower rate of interest than 4 per cent. Towns like Diisseldorf, Mannheim, Munich, Cologne, and Charlottenburg have recently had to borrow at this rate, which compares with habitual rates of 3^ and 3^ per cent, twenty or thirty years ago, while other large towns have had to pay as much as 4^ per cent., and in addition to issue at 5 per cent, or more under par. Owing to the fall in the market value of communal securities it is possible nowadays to obtain from 4 to 5 per cent, interest on bonds having behind them the credit of large and prosperous towns whose tangible assets alone are far in excess of their liabilities. 2 A 354 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY With the object of meeting extraordinary expenditure of a kind uncertain in date but certain of occurrence without resorting to loans, the formation of emergency and new build- ings funds has been recommended by the Governments, and in view of the severer conditions of amortisation now insisted on by the supervisory authorities this method has much to commend it. Diisseldorf has for some time set aside a yearly amount to meet the cost of new buildings, inasmuch as the supervisory authority now requires one-third of such cost to be raised otherwise than by loans, and Cologne and other towns do the same. The chief disadvantage of this method of meeting outlay is that it presumes a very accurate anticipation of coming needs and an exceptional spirit of sacrifice, for the average ratepayer is contented if he can meet the demands of the moment and is not disposed to provide for unforeseen and indefinite future needs. There is also a danger that the possession of such funds may prove a sore temptation to unnecessary or at least avoidable expenditure. A greater effect has been produced upon the local authorities, however, by the admonitions of the Governments and the drastic action of the supervisory authorities both in the matter of sanctioning loans and in fixing the conditions of repayment. During the last few years the Governments of the larger States, as the final authorities in matters of super- vision, have repeatedly endeavoured to call local authorities back to healthier financial policies and to encourage greater economy and a wiser husbanding of their reserve powers of taxation. Thus in 1907 the Prussian Ministers of Finance and of the Interior issued a joint rescript requiring communal authorities, both in town and country, to redeem their loans on a higher scale than heretofore ; the minimum rate was henceforth to be i| instead of i per cent, in general, while in the case of loans for street and similar works it was to be at least 2\ per cent., and in the case of sewerage works 2 per cent. The rescript approved of the action of those authorities which had established special funds for the purchase of land for public purposes, and in view of their encouraging experience recommended the same measure to other towns, since " the existence of such a fund, when sufficiently endowed and kept MUNICIPAL FINANCE 355 at a constant level, relieves the town of the necessity of resorting to loans whenever it requires land for a public under- taking." The rescript added that there would be no objection to establishing land-purchase funds by means of initial loans. Funds to meet special expenditure on school buildings, paving works, and other recurring outlay were also recom- mended. In 1910 the Ministers decided that loans might not be contracted for the purpose of liquidating deficits the disastrous policy pursued by the Imperial Government for some years but only for meeting extraordinary expenditure which could not be defrayed otherwise without inflicting excessive burdens on the taxpayers. In 1912 a further rescript was issued relating to towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants, directing that the supervisory authorities should in future exercise greater circumspection in the sanctioning of loans and should impose more stringent conditions in regard to their redemption. It was complained that local authorities had contracted the habit of beginning works in respect of which loans were needed before the loans had been sanctioned, employing, meantime, current revenue, floating debts, or other available money, with the result that the supervisory authorities were often compelled to give sanction against their better judgment and to that extent were deprived of their right to determine applications for power to borrow on their merits. Government Presidents and Landrats were enjoined to insist upon the presentation of plans for public works before the commencement of actual operations, so that they might be in a position to decide with freedom, and local authorities were warned that henceforth they would run a grave risk in beginning works without having loans at disposal. These several rescripts have had a salutary effect in steady- ing local authorities, yet the Prussian Minister of Finance had to lament in 1912 in his place in Parliament that " the increasing indebtedness of the communes calls for the Government's most serious attention." Undoubtedly the gravity of the question, from the Government's standpoint, has been increased by the unsatisfactory state of national finance. 356 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY IMPROVEMENT OF MUNICIPAL CREDIT FACILITIES. In general the municipalities are not satisfied with the existing arrangements for obtaining money, and various schemes have been put forward with a view to facilitating credit facilities and saving part of the profits that now go to the banks. Public banks have existed since 1848 in Breslau and Chemnitz as municipal institutions, both carried on profitably, but it is now proposed to establish a large central municipal bank to which all towns of a certain size should be affiliated. The project has been discussed by the German Municipal Congress more than once and in theory has been warmly approved. The idea is that such a bank should be established on the mutual principle, the associated communes supplying the requisite capital, and that all municipal borrowing and lend- ing and all transactions with the money market should be done through it. The bank would transact business for the savings banks, buying and selling securities for them, and receiving funds for investment either with communes or otherwise. One form of bond would be recognised, and for every loan advanced to a commune the bank would issue bonds to the same amount. Inasmuch as such an organisation would have behind it the credit of all the towns represented, it is contended that its stock would rank with the best State securities. It is significant that the idea of a central communal bank has been welcomed even more heartily by the rural communes and the provincial and " circle " authorities than the large towns, which on the whole are well able to look after themselves. Hence a rival project has been advocated in the special interest of these non-urban authorities, and a good deal of propagandism has been done on its behalf in Prussia. It is believed that a Communal Bank for this purpose could be started with a capital of 1,250,000, which should be sub- scribed by the towns, provinces, and " circles " interested in shares of a value of 50. The principal business of the bank would be the granting of loans to German communes, to which end communal bonds would be issued, the interest charged on the loans not to exceed that payable on the bonds plus a commission of from 0-5 to 0-7 per cent, to cover actual expenses. MUNICIPAL FINANCE 357 The bank would also negotiate mortgages, receive deposits, and transact other non-speculative business, besides acting as a central agency for the public savings banks. A large number of " circle " authorities are said to be in favour of the scheme, and there seems a likelihood that it will soon take practical shape. Meantime, many of the larger towns have associated experimentally for the establishment of a central credit agency (Geldvermittelungsstelle) for the negotiation of loans among themselves. It was begun at Diisseldorf in 1910, and after being removed to Cassel it has now followed its director, the chief mayor of Charlottenburg, to this town. Over fifty towns with a population exceeding 80,000 are affiliated to the bank and its transactions during the first three years repre- sented an actual money turn-over of nearly nine million pounds. Applications for short term loans were received to the aggregate amount of 10,700,000, and loans to the amount of 4,080,000 were negotiated. Offers to the amount of 5,625,000 were received and to the amount of 3,800,000 accepted, and duly placed. Long term loans to the amount f 6,750,000 were applied for and to the amount of 975,000 negotiated. It was possible as a rule to obtain and lend money for short terms on very easy terms, sometimes at i and ij per cent, below the Imperial Bank rate. The rules of the agency lay down the following purposes and procedure : 1. The object is the exchange of money between towns which have money at disposal and those which are in tem- porary need of money. 2. All German towns with a population exceeding 80,000 are entitled to join the agency. Admission takes effect by a declaration of membership by the administration of the town concerned. 3. The towns affiliated to the agency are required to give notice as promptly as possible when they wish to deposit or borrow money. The notification shall state (a) the amount of the sum to be borrowed or deposited, and (b) the period for which the money is desired or offered to the agency. In the event of an alteration in the amount of money to be deposited 358 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY or borrowed, in the period of deposit, or in other conditions, the agency shall be informed immediately ; and the same applies if a town withdraws an offer of or a request for money. In the interest of the efficiency of the agency it is desirable that the probable needs or funds at disposal particularly the results of periodical estimates made in regard thereto should be notified as soon as possible. 4. On the strength of the notifications received the agency undertakes to put the borrowing and lending towns in com- munication in the way that may seem to it most expedient. When this has been done the agency, as a rule, takes no further part in the transaction. The towns concerned are left to make their own arrangements. The agency shall be informed of every agreement arrived at, with the conditions of the same. 5. In all transactions between municipal administrations a strict observance of dates fixed is presumed, just as in Stock Exchange transactions. Money transactions between the towns are, as a rule, arranged by bills. 6. The agency charges no fees. Its expenses are covered by contributions from the towns affiliated, as fixed for the present at los. per annum, payable in the month of April. There is a similar communal credit agency in Saxony, with its seat at Dresden. BALANCE SHEETS OF MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES. A glance at the administrative reports of large German towns is sufficient to convince one that their governments spend money on the grand scale. Their ideas of local administration embracing so many spheres of activity which lie entirely outside the purview of municipal enterprise in this country, and their sources of revenue being so extensive, they spare no expense in making their towns attractive. Sometimes heavy expendi- ture is prompted by a mere spirit of ambition and rivalry, and the Governments are not slow to turn this weakness to good account. When State institutions needing costly build- ings need to be established the Ministry concerned has only to give the sign and there is keen competition for the honour of providing site, structure, and it may be an annual MUNICIPAL FINANCE 359 maintenance grant as well. Even in the choice of towns to be garrisons the State is able to transfer a considerable part of the cost upon the communities so favoured, and the provision of the necessary barracks is the least concession expected. From the presence of State institutions in their midst the towns derive a certain indirect advantage there are more officials to tax and more material wants to supply but in the main it is the cachet of official recognition that attracts. During the last decade in particular the expenditure upon general administration has shown an ominous increase, not merely absolutely but relatively to population. The reasons commonly advanced, in addition to the constant and in- evitable multiplication of municipal duties, a're the reduced purchasing power of money, repeated all-round increases in salaries and wages, and the growing tendency of the Govern- ments to impose on the local authorities new liabilities which belong properly to the State, a tendency well illustrated by the extended duties given to the communes under the amended Social Insurance Law. Unfortunately the financial resources of the municipalities have simultaneously been crippled in some of the States owing to new Imperial and State legislation depriving the local bodies of sources of indirect taxation formerly open to them. Thanks, however, to careful administration, to the elasticity of the system of local taxation, and not least to the fact that German mayors and municipal executives are not hampered by fear of burgesses whose only idea of local government is to spend as little as possible and keep down the rates, there are probably few German towns of consequence whose balance sheets do not show a substantial credit. For large as the liabilities of German towns are, this indebtedness is almost invariably a consequence of the fact, already noted, that the towns have borrowed capital in order to raise revenue inde- pendently of taxation by establishing and working trading enterprises. The illustrations of municipal balance sheets given below have not been specially selected and hence may be regarded as typical of German large towns generally. All are given, however, with the reservation that while in statements of this 360 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY kind it is safe to assume that the liabilities represent actual debts, there may not be the same certainty that all the assets represent actual and realisable values. Most of the figures have been supplied by the municipal authorities and refer to the end of the year 1912. It may be noted that the assets had in some cases been swelled by following the policy of executing public works in part out of revenue, and in others by judicious land investments, the value of which had in course of time greatly appreciated. Towns and population. Assets. Liabilities. Surplus. Surplus per in- habitant. Aix-la-Chapelle (158,800) Augsburg (102,500) .... Berlin (2 082,000) i 5,134,200 3,044,000 51,^85 ooo I I,922,OOO 1,829,000 26,850,000 i 3,212,200 1,215,000 24,^^^,000 I s- 20 5 10 17 12 7 Cassel (r'is ^oo) . 3 762 400 2 265,200 1,497,200 9 J 3 Charlottenburg (320,800) Chemnitz (287,800) .... Diisseldorf (390,000) . . . Erfurt (114,500) 11,876,400 6,215,800 13.517.5 2,039,000 9,346,300 4,109,800 9,915,800 I,48g,OOO 2,530,100 2,106,000 3,601,700 550,000 7 18 7 6 9 5 4 19 Essen (307,000) 7,714,100 4, 060, 500 3 653,600 ri 18 Frankfort-on-Main (431 9OO) . 27 42 S OOO 16 112 500 II 312 500 26 4 Konigsberg (246,000) . Mannheim (217,700) . Mayence (110,600) . . Nuremberg (333,100) Wiesbaden (109,000) . 4,410,000 9,152,900 3,881,000 IO,II5,OOO 4,744,000 3,334,000 4,108,700 2,105,000 5,856,000 3,010,000 1,076,000 5,044,200 1,776,000 4,259,000 i,734. 4 9 23 i 16 I 12 16 16 o TOTALS (pop. 5,367,000) 164,416,300 96,3i3. 8o 68,102,500 ^12 I 3 The same record of financial stability can be shown by smaller towns, with less resources at command. Thus Offen- bach, with a population of 75,600, had in 1910 assets of 2,180,000, of which lands represented 600,000 and profit- yielding undertakings 1,062,000, against liabilities of 1,492,000, showing a surplus of 688,000, or 9 2s. per inhabitant. The small town of Menden, with a population of 1 1, ooo, in 1909 owned lands and forest with a value of 95,000 and counting its public buildings and trading enterprises,, it had assets of 161,000, against liabilities of 74,000, show- ing a surplus of 87,000 or 7 i8s. per inhabitant. Its forest MUNICIPAL FINANCE 361 of 1660 acres is so well managed that it yields a net profit of over 1000 a year. The following returns supplied by the town clerks of large towns in Great Britain and relating to 1912 compare on the whole not unfavourably with the German balance sheets given above : Towns and population. Assets. Liabilities. Surplus. Surplus per in- habitant. Bradford (290 300) i M~if)A 5OO i 9 101 200 L 526^ 300 L s - 18 3 Bolton ( 1 80 900) 6 193 QOO 6.064,400 129,500 o 14 Cardift (184 600) 6 "*2Q 7OO 4.686,300 1.643.400 8 18 Glasgow (1,015,200) . . . Huddersfield (107,800) . . Leeds (445,600) 26,786,300 4,615,600 17 62^ 4OO 17,221,200 4,238,500 12,457,000 9,565,100 377,100 5,166,400 9 8 3 i II 12 Leicester (227 200) 8 422 800 4,866,500 ^.556,300 15 13 Manchester (731,700) . . . Newcastle (271,300) .... Salford (231,400) 34,402,400 7,119,200 5 518 500 24,836,600 4,058,200 3,567,300 9,565,800 3,061,000 1,951,200 13 * II 16 8 9 Sheffield (454 600) 12 846 800 10,352,000 2 4Q4,8OO 5 8 TOTALS (pop. 4,140,600) 144,223,100 101, 449,200 4 2 .773.900 1 7 CHAPTER XIV MUNICIPAL TAXATION, i. THE LOCAL INCOME TAX Local autonomy in taxation Variety and incidence of local taxes Indi- vidual basis of taxation Communal taxation in Prussia Principles governing the choice of taxes The local income tax Relief to small incomes Local income taxes in the other States. IN the later times of absolute sovereignty in Germany the ruler and his councillors determined the taxation of the towns, since they claimed to direct their government. Taxation was arbitrary and unequal, and as a rule was regulated less by what was done for the citizens than by their ability to pay or, it might be, to evade payment. The modern German idea of local government recognises the right of every citizen to share on equal terms in the benefits and conveniences pro- vided by the communal authority, together with an equal obligation to contribute according to ability, in taxation, 1 towards the expenditure thereby entailed ; if any section of the community enjoys special advantages it is expected, as a rule, to contribute in a corresponding degree. In general, assessment to local taxation may be said to follow the com- plementary principles of capacity and reciprocity. Before reference is made to the taxes by which the towns in particular supplement their revenue from other sources, it will be useful to indicate briefly some of the special principles and characteristics of the German system of municipal taxation. LOCAL AUTONOMY IN TAXATION. Perhaps the most note- worthy are the wide taxing powers conferred upon the towns. These amount to a limited autonomy. That is to say, subject 1 In writing and speaking of German local government it is necessary to accustom oneself to the words " tax " and " taxation." The English word " rate " and its derivatives have no meaning as applied to German conditions. 362 MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 363 to certain duly defined rights of control reserved to the State, in the persons of its commissaries or supervisory officials, each town chooses the taxes which seem best suited to its conditions, and even the measure in which every tax shall contribute towards the revenue. There are certain local taxes which are common to most of the communes of a State, since they are assigned to them by general laws ; yet the individual commune decides whether and to what extent it will levy even these taxes, and if it adopts them it may do so with its own modifica- tions within limits, alike as to the form of their assessment, their amount, and their incidence, so as to meet its special circumstances. Beyond these prescribed taxes, each commune determines its taxes quite independently. On the whole the widest taxing powers are enjoyed by municipal authorities in Saxony. Their large measure of liberty is reflected by the opening words of the Saxon Com- munal Taxation Law of July n, 1913, viz., " The communes are entitled to raise direct and indirect taxes and to adopt measures for their introduction and regulation." Independence within generous limits, however, is the rule in all the States. The towns have reached their present degree of autonomy in taxing powers by the same course of evolution that has led to their wide independence in administration generally. " First, a time of extreme freedom and independence was followed by a period of complete dependence upon the State, and only the last century has witnessed a steady increase of the self- government of the towns in this as in all other domains." 1 Further, apart from the statutory taxes referred to taxes which in most States go back to the beginnings of modern communal government local taxes are adopted not by virtue of special enactments or legislative procedure of any kind, but simply by the adoption of by-laws, which are almost as easy to put in force as the standing orders of an English town council. The power to introduce new taxes in this summary manner is not unlimited, yet the practical restrictions are not onerous. As much for the purpose of preventing undue demands upon the sources of State taxation, of securing a fair balance between different kinds of taxation, and of encouraging 1 Dr. E. Scholz. " Die deutschc Stadt und ihre Verwaltung," Vol. I, p. 54. 364 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY uniformity within adjacent districts, as for the purpose of reminding the communes whence their powers of self-govern- ment issued, it is required that all new taxes and alterations of existing ones shall be submitted to the State's commissaries for approval. The Communal Taxation Law of Prussia states : " The introduction of new and the alteration of exist- ing communal taxes can take place only in the form of Tax Ordinances, which require sanction." On the other hand, taxes can be repealed by mere resolution of the communal authority. The law, indeed, places upon the Ministers of Finance and the Interior the primary duty of granting or withholding sanction, but it empowers them to delegate this duty to the authorities charged with the supervision of local government. In Prussia it is discharged primarily by the District Committee in relation to towns and by the Circle Committee in relation to rural communes, with right of appeal to the Provincial Council or District Committee respectively. The Chief President of the province must also give his assent, and in case of refusal appeal may be made to the Ministers of Finance and the Interior. In the case of the communes forming Greater Berlin the direct assent of the Government must be obtained. Sanction once given may not be revoked. The fact that the communes are able to introduce taxes on their own initiative, and that all they have to do for the immediate enforcement of these taxes is to obtain the assent of an official who is hi continuous touch with their work, and often lives in the neighbourhood, makes the revision of their taxation systems easy and expeditious. A noteworthy illustration of rapid procedure in the introduction of a new tax occurred in 1909 at Schoneberg, near Berlin. The town council had decided upon the adoption of a tax on unearned increment hi land, and only the Order embodying it remained to be adopted, when it became known that a land develop- ment company was endeavouring to hurry through a large transaction with a view to escaping the new impost. There was a race between the municipality and the speculators, and the municipality won. On April 26 the municipal council adopted the Order, and the same day the executive gave its MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 365 assent. The following day the District Committee met and passed a resolution of approval. On the third day the project was laid before the Chief President of the province, who ratified it ; on the fourth day the Minister of the Interior, and on the fifth day the Minister of Finance, gave their assent, and on the evening of the last-named day the Order was promul- gated and entered into force. It is stated that this prompt action saved the municipal treasury some thousands of pounds in taxation. In Berlin a new tax upon sales of property was sanctioned by the municipal executive on March 4, 1910, and received the sanction of the Chief President the following day. At times, of course, there enters into the question of sanction an element of uncertainty which proves embarrassing. State officials lightly come and lightly go. The personal equation is naturally powerful, and taxes approved in One town are, for no obvious reason save difference of official view, refused in another. Moreover, in a given district a change of officials may lead to a sudden change of policy ; a tax the introduction of which has been encouraged under one Chief President may be condemned by his successor. On the whole, however, serious inconvenience of the kind is infrequent, though, inasmuch as the decision of a Chief President is practically final, it is not surprising that his right of veto is obnoxious to many communal authorities, accustomed to the exercise of large executive powers, and that the demand is made at times that the communes should be given an effective right of appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court, or else that the refusal of taxes should be made dependent on clearly defined general grounds, with which a communal authority might be able to reckon beforehand. It is significant, however, that no one appears to desire that legislation should specify the taxes which communes must introduce. It is also a fact that some of the towns which are most apt to complain of the alleged unnecessary checks upon their independence in matters of taxation an independence which, nevertheless, is greater than any other towns in the world enjoy have good cause to thank the provincial governors for their timely and successful efforts to equalise taxation and 366 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY to curb unfair rivalries and small jealousies as between adjacent communities. VARIETY AND INCIDENCE OF LOCAL TAXES. Again, the German communes adopt as wide a basis of taxation as possible; the local taxes are many, and they are so devised as to draw into the net every individual citizen from whom contribution to the common fund can be expected without harshness. The citizen may be taxed in one or in several ways, according to the sources of his income. Thus, while every person in receipt of income of a certain amount, variable according to the State, pays a local tax upon that income or a portion of it, the owner of real estate is in addition subject to taxation as such, and not merely incidentally as an occupier, as is the case in England. So, too, the business man is taxed specially in respect of his enterprise ; there are taxes intended to tap speculative profits on land, taxes on amusements, and a variety of indirect imposts. Two objects of taxation, however, are conspicuous in the Tax Ordinances of every commune real estate and income ; the gravamen may be real estate in one town, in another income, but it is safe to say that on the average of the towns as a whole, 80 per cent, of all local taxation properly so called 1 is derived from these two sources. INDIVIDUAL BASIS OF TAXATION. Another distinction of the German system of local taxation is that it knows nothing of the household basis of taxation as recognised in this country. Taxation there is individual, and its only condition is the receipt of income ; the only condition of exemption, such a paucity of income as would make taxation inequitable. The mere accident of how or where a man lives does not enter into the question. To that extent the German principle of local taxation is that which underlies the State income tax, both in that country and in this. There the analogy ends, however, for in Germany the idea is held that every citizen should bear some direct share, however little, in the costs of local as of general administration, and upon this principle the State and 1 Dues and charges for public services, like water and gas, fees for schools, etc., are here disregarded. MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 367 local income taxes are both based. The communal tax may only be 2s. or 45. a year, but its payment is a formal attestation of the fact that every citizen has a share in and a responsibility for the good government of his town or village, and a reminder that the true conception of citizenship implies the recognition of duties as well as rights, since the services done for society, and not the claims made upon it, are the cement that most truly and securely knits any community together. Hence a far larger proportion of a town's inhabitants is brought within the ambit of taxation than is the case in this country. As a rule, the separate assessments to the local income tax are equal to about one-third of the entire popula- tion, though where the exemption limit is low the ratio is higher. Inasmuch, however, as wives and children may in certain cases be assessed together with the head of the house- hold the proportion of the population directly taxed is still larger. In this country the ratio of separate assessments to population is in general about one to four, though this figure includes a certain amount of duplication. Because of the variety of sources from which local taxation is drawn in Germany, however, it is possible to graduate the burden according to ability to bear it. Probably of no tax in common adoption in German towns can it be fairly said that it presses with undue weight upon persons of limited means. The German system of local taxation is, of course, compli- cated, but that is because it is a system, and because it is the result of an endeavour to apportion taxation with some ap- proximation to equity. The English mind, ever disposed to confuse system with pedantry, cares more for results than the methods of attaining them, and places singular trust in what are known as simple, common-sense solutions. But the problems which are evolved by highly developed social organisations seldom admit of adjustment by simple measures, and the reformer who makes short cuts in the search for illusory common-sense solutions runs a risk of losing sight of one-half of the problem at issue, and, in legislating for the other half, of doing so partially and ill. No method of local taxation in the world is so simple as the English system of rating entirely on rental value, and none is 368 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY so unjust. German economists are in the habit of calling the English local rate a " rent tax," and the view is still widely prevalent abroad that this tax is paid by the owners. The rate is, of course, simply and solely an income tax, assessed on the crudest and clumsiest of all standards, for it is devised so as to fall with special weight upon householders with large families and small incomes. There is not a service or a con- venience for which the rate pays that is not enjoyed equally by the non-occupying inhabitants, yet they have these things free. Under this singular system of taxation, the wretched tenants of a tenement block in an East End slum may well pay together as much in local taxation as the wealthy occupants of a West End mansion. The rate is a progressive tax upon poverty, since the poorer the ratepayer the heavier he is taxed relatively to his income. It is consequently a tax upon living space, for its effect is to compel householders of limited means to content themselves with inadequate and inferior accom- modation. Incidentally it further operates to increase the value of property without contribution from the owners, and hence to require every local community to pay tribute upon its own improvements. As we shall see, German local taxation is so devised as to have precisely the opposite effect. The operation of this unsocial and undiscriminating tax is to some extent veiled by the system of compounding for rates, by which the owner of small dwellings makes himself responsible for the rates upon his property in consideration of these being reduced an arrangement adopted not, indeed, for the benefit of the tenants, but for the purpose of facilitating the collection of revenue, much of which would otherwise never pass beyond the stage of the demand note. No one has ever pretended, however, that the house-owner pays the rates himself, and their ultimate incidence is hardly a matter for uncertainty. What the rating system actually means to the pockets of the working classes can be best understood by considering the ratio of rate to rent in any industrial town. Equitable taxation is a science, and cannot be devised except by the application of scientific principles, but the working of the English rating system requires no more science than is necessary to the use of a ready-reckoner or the turning of a thumbscrew. MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 369 Minor taxes on the principle of the English rate upon rental value used to be common in Germany, but they were merely incidental, and took a quite insignificant place in the local plan of taxation, and they have now almost entirely dis- appeared. In Prussia the Communal Taxation Law of 1893 prohibited the introduction of new taxes of the kind, and made the continuance of existing ones subject to renewed State sanction, failing which they were to lapse in five years. Since that time the general recognition of the inequity of these imposts has led to their abandonment in all but a few towns, where they survive in a harmless form. COMMUNAL TAXATION IN PRUSSIA. In considering how towns tax themselves for common purposes, it will be con- venient to give special prominence to Prussia, since that State contains nearly two-thirds of the Empire's population, and that two -thirds of all German communes with a popula- tion exceeding 10,000 (388 out of 576) are in Prussia. It is the more permissible to centre attention upon the system of communal taxation prevalent in Prussia since, while every State has peculiarities of its own, the general lines are the same, and the principal difference is in the varying degree in which stress is laid on one or other of the two main sources of taxation, real estate (as in parts of Prussia) and income (as in Saxony). Moreover, the whole tendency of modern taxation laws and regulations in Germany is in the direction of uniformity and of assimilation to Prussian practice, a tendency well illustrated by the laws passed in Bavaria and Saxony so lately as in 1910 and 1913 respectively. The Prussian Municipal Ordinance of 1853 provided that, in so far as local taxes were necessary owing to the insufficiency of a town's revenues from other sources, they should consist in (a) percentage additions to the direct taxes levied by the State, and particularly the income tax, subject to the con- dition that the assent of the Government should be obtained to all additions to the income tax and to additions above 50 per cent, in the case of all other State taxes, and in (6) special direct and indirect taxes, all of which needed the Govern- ment's sanction. In the main, the communes at that time 2 B 370 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY raised their revenue by means of taxes of the first class, though various subsidiary taxes were introduced, such as duties on articles of consumption, particularly on corn and flour, and on animals slaughtered for food in the commune, rent and house taxes, taxes on luxuries (horses, crests, etc.), dog taxes, etc. Except that rent and house taxes and food duties have for the most part been abolished, the broad principles of local taxation continue as laid down sixty years ago. The latest statutory statement of these principles is contained in the Communal Taxation Act of July 14, 1893, which needs to be considered in conjunction with a law of the same date repealing certain direct State taxes, and with the Income Tax Act and the Trade Tax Act of June 24, 1891, which re- modelled the State taxes to which these laws refer. Before 1893 the communes had been allowed to supplement their other revenues by levying percentages of the four State taxes on income, land, buildings, and trade pursuits (including mining dues). Now the State handed over altogether to the communes the old land and building and trade taxes known as " real " taxes and gave them still the right to levy per- centages upon the income tax as before, while it continued to assess all four taxes on their behalf. With a view to com- pensating itself for the revenue thus renounced the State revised and increased the income tax and supplemented it by a differential tax on funded income. The amount which was ceded to the communes and which the State had to obtain in other ways was about 5,000,000, made up as follows : Land Tax, 1,995,000 ; Building Tax, 1,754,000 ; Trade Tax, 990,000 ; mining dues, 346,000 ; making a total of 5,085,000. It was essential from the standpoint of national revenue, however, that in assigning to the local authorities sources of taxation which had hitherto been reserved by the State for its own use, the State should determine the place which these taxes should in future occupy in relation to the income tax. The Prussian Treasury contended that inasmuch as it had voluntarily fallen back upon the income tax, local authorities must no longer look to this tax for revenue to the same extent MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 371 as before. Hence the new legislation proceeded from the following principles : (1) Direct local taxation was to be restricted as much as possible, and to this end communal enterprises were to be worked as remuneratively as might be ; the practice of im- posing dues for the use of communal services was to be developed ; special contributions were to be levied upon those persons who specially benefited by public works of various kinds ; and attention was to be given to suitable indirect taxes in so far as Imperial legislation permitted. (2) Such revenue as might be needed after these sources of taxation had been exhausted was to be obtained by " real " and income taxes duly proportioned, real estate and com- mercial undertakings being taxed more heavily for local pur- poses than hitherto, in view of the fact that the State no longer taxed them specially. While a local income tax might be levied, local supplements to the special tax on funded income were forbidden. The memorandum in which the Government of the day explained its proposals stated : " The real taxes should require from immovable property and commercial undertakings payments proportionate to the expenditure specially incurred for their benefit, on the principle of reciprocity, while the expenditure on behalf of general public purposes should be a charge on all inhabitants and should be borne by them in proportion to individual capacity in the form of taxation of income." (3) While the communal income tax was still to form a certain proportion of the State income tax and was not to be levied in any other way, the communes were to be allowed to develop the real estate and trade taxes on such new lines as local circumstances might suggest. " In this direction," said the same memorandum, " a new and fruitful field is opened up to local administrative activity. So long, however, as special taxes on real estate or trade undertakings are not introduced the ' real ' taxation of the communes must take the form of the land, building, and trade taxes as assessed by the State, even though it has renounced these taxes. The 372 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY gradual transition to another organisation of their systems of taxation will thus be made much easier for the communes." PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE CHOICE OF TAXES. The degree in which the expenditure of a commune is met by taxes of the kinds named is not supposed to be determined arbitrarily, but must pay due regard to the purposes served by such expenditure. The regulations and directions issued by the Government at various times mention as specially suitable to be charged to the income tax such expenditure as is incurred for the benefit of all inhabitants in common, and particularly on account of elementary schools, poor relief, public health and security, the general costs of administration, and the costs of the civil registry and burials. Expenditure which should be charged by preference to the real estate and trade taxes includes outlay upon purposes which specially benefit the property owning and trading classes, such as street and road construction, sewerage works, continuation schools, courts of industry and commerce, outlay incidental to the acquisition of public institutions (e.g. lunatic asylums) or of a garrison, and standing costs entailed thereby, with expenditure in the special interest of agriculture. As illustrations of expenditure suitable to be charged to the income, real estate, and trade taxes jointly, may be mentioned the cost of maintaining, cleaning, and lighting the streets, parks, bridges, and other public places, the upkeep of sewerage and water works, fire brigades, and higher schools, also taxation levied on the communes by the provinces and " circles." In budgeting yearly the communal authorities are expected to classify their estimated expenditure on these general principles and to regulate their taxes accordingly, but in charging ex- penditure to the several kinds of taxes the revenue received in respect of the institutions or works concerned is first deducted. Other rules of procedure are provided by the Communal Taxation Law itself. The law emphasises the distinction between the " real " taxes and the income tax, and this dis- tinction is important because of its bearing on the ratio in which communes may derive revenue from those two sources. Until the land and building and trade taxes exceed 100 per MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 373 cent, of the State assessment the income tax may, without any formality, be levied at any rate up to 100 per cent., or not at all. If more than 150 per cent, of the " real " taxes is levied, and the income tax rate has reached 150 per cent., 2 per cent, additional income tax may be levied for every i per cent, of " real " taxes. The maximum levy in the case of the real taxes, however, is fixed at 250 per cent, under ordinary circum- stances. In particular, the Government reserved the right to sanction or refuse at will permission to levy more than 100 per cent, of the State income tax by way of local supertax. This was done, first, in order to safeguard the income tax against undue local raiding ; yet also from apprehension that excessive taxation of income would lead to under-declaration. It was the more necessary that the Government should have a voice in fixing the amount of this tax since the legal pro- visions securing to house-owners at least one-half of the seats upon all town councils made it possible for this class of citizens to resist the taxation of real estate. Subject to these general conditions, the law empowers communes to raise direct and indirect taxes, as well as to require services in kind 1 in lieu thereof, in order to meet their ex- penditure. Such direct taxes are the income, land and build- ing, and trade taxes ; and the indirect taxes comprise con- sumption or excise taxes, taxes on the sale and transfer of real estate answering to the conveyance duty in this country unearned increment (called in Germany " increased value") taxes, taxes on amusements, concessions, dogs, etc. The power to levy taxes, however, may be exercised only to the extent that their other revenues, and particularly those from public property, fees, dues, contributions, etc., prove insufficient ; though this provision does not apply to 1 These " services in kind " (Naturaldienste) consist of the old " Hand- und Spanndienste," implying the obligation to perform night-watchman or messenger service, or place horses or oxen at the disposal of the commune, in lieu of paying money taxes, a substitution provided for in the early Town Ordinances, and still practised occasionally in poor rural districts. In the little town of Jesuborn, in the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, the night-watchmen not long ago (1910) applied for a small increase in wages. Instead of granting it, the communal council abolished the office of paid night- watchmen and resolved that each adult male citizen should undertake the duties in turn, parading the streets with a horn half the night through. The Government of the principality duly sanctioned this odd arrangement. 374 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY amusement and dog taxes, and similar taxes adopted owing to special reasons. Further, direct taxes may only be imposed when indirect taxes prove inadequate. The fees and dues implied here are chiefly payments made in respect of the " public utility" services and institutions provided by the com- mune, while the " contributions " contemplated are " better- ment " contributions towards the cost of public works and improvements, such as street extensions, paving, open spaces, public parks and gardens, etc., where these increase the value of adjoining property. As to the incidence of the taxes, it is required that the direct taxes shall be apportioned amongst all persons liable to taxation according to fixed and uniform principles. Where, however, institutions of special benefit to a portion of the communal district or a class of the citizens are provided, the commune may tax such district or class of citizens towards their cost in proportion to the benefit derived. The income tax may be replaced in part by " expenditure " taxes that is, taxes based on or measured by outgoings of various kinds but taxes of this order may not fall disproportionately on small relatively to larger incomes, and no new taxes on rents (Anglice, rates upon rental value) may be introduced. Indirect taxes may be levied within the limits laid down by Imperial legislation. The law forbids the introduction of new, or the increase of existing, entrance dues on meat, corn, flour, baked goods, potatoes, and fuel of all kinds, but allows dues on game and poultry. The Imperial Customs Law of December 25, 1902, however, provided for the abolition of all local taxes on corn, legumes, flour and other milled goods, baked goods, cattle, meat, meat preparations, and fat, as from April i, 1910, and these dues have now disappeared throughout Germany. Other indirect taxes which have been introduced in various communes are a wine duty (in wine-producing districts only), a beer duty, taxes on amusements, the sale of real estate, and concessions for licensed premises. Taxes on spirits, petroleum, fire insurance policies, auctions, pianos, cycles, equipages, horses, and the keeping of poultry have been proposed, but have been declared unpermissible. All new communal taxes, and alterations of existing ones, MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 375 in so far as they do not consist of percentage proportions of taxes assessed by the State (i.e., the income, land, building, and trade taxes), need to be introduced in the form of Tax Ordinances, and these ordinances, as has been explained, require the approval of the Ministers of Finance and the Interior or the supervisory authorities. Persons become liable to local income tax the moment they are assessed to the State tax ; in the case of other local taxes three months' grace is allowed. A commune may, however, for a period of three years at the most, exempt from income tax, or tax on a lower scale, foreigners and subjects of other federal States who reside therein without following an occupa- tion for gain. VARIATIONS IN OTHER STATES. The local taxation systems of the other States do not differ in fundamental principles. Thus in Bavaria the communes are entitled to levy supple- ments to the State taxes on land, buildings, trades, and income, but in a given commune these supplements must be uniform in rate and may not vary as in Prussia ; as between different communes uniformity is not necessary. In Saxony, where the communes have long enjoyed an exceptional degree of autonomy in taxation, local supplements to the State income and land taxes, and to the trade tax assessed but no longer levied by the State are allowed, though since the State renounced the trade tax most communes have followed its example. As in Prussia the communes may choose their own taxes within the limits laid down by legisla- tion. Thus in 1910 of the taxes other than the income and land taxes most commonly selected, the tax on the sale or exchange of real estate was levied in 2563 communes, the poll tax in 1613, the amusement tax hi 2342, the dog tax in 3126, the unearned increment tax hi 54, a " rent " tax in 22, and general consumption taxes in only five communes. On the whole Saxon towns rely principally upon the income tax and tax real estate very leniently. In sympathy with this tendency the new Communal Taxation Law (1913) allows communes to raise as much as 85 per cent, of the total amount of revenue to be derived from taxation by the local income tax. Where a local 376 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY income tax is not levied, at least 30 per cent, of the taxation must take the form of a land and building tax, and every com- mune which levies direct taxes at all must introduce this tax. In Saxony it is a peculiarity of local taxation that in most communes special taxes are levied for poor relief, schools, and church administration respectively ; though, as a rule, these taxes are collected with the general communal taxes and are then assigned to the purposes for which they are intended. The taxes earmarked for poor relief are those on the sale of real estate, on amusements, dogs, and nightingales, though the last-named tax is now almost extinct. In Wurtemberg local supplements may be levied to the State taxes on lands, buildings, trades, general income, interest on invested capital, and sales and transfers of real estate. The supplements to the last three taxes are limited, but there is no limit to the others except that the rate must be uniform for all. In all these States the subsidiary taxes and contributions are practically the same in character, though not in productive- ness, as in Prussia. In the following detailed explanation of the local taxes most commonly levied, Prussian communes have again been specially considered, but peculiarities of other States will be noted where of sufficient importance. The dues and fees leviable by the communes need not be further mentioned, inasmuch as they have been dealt with in the chapters on " Trading Enterprises " and " Finance," and, moreover, they are of the nature of special payments for special services and benefits rather than taxes, though re- garded as such by some German writers. THE LOCAL INCOME TAX. The local income tax in Prussia, as in the other German States, is levied in the form of a per- centage supplement to the State income tax. To the State tax all persons in receipt of income are liable, subject to the exemptions stated below, and its collection is regulated by a general law, passed in 1891, with amendments of 1893, 1906, and 1909, the main provisions of which are as follows : The tax is levied on all persons in receipt of income exceeding 45 a year, the exemption limit, but the incomes of husband and wife, and MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 377 of children under age living in the household (unless in the latter case derived from employment or bequest), are taken together in order to determine the rate of taxation which applies. The tax is now assessed as a rule by State officers, corresponding to our surveyors of inland revenue, appointed for urban and rural ' ' circles, ' ' assisted by civil assessors, also answering broadly to our local commissioners of inland revenue, an arrangement preferred to the old method of assessment by the Landrats. Appeal against an assessment is allowed. The law of 1891 relieved small incomes and taxed large incomes more highly than heretofore. Before that time incomes not exceeding 45 were exempt from taxation for national purposes, and those between 45 and 150 paid a tax of about 3 per cent. The new law continued the old limit of exemption, but graduated the rate of taxation from a mean of 0-62 per cent, on incomes from 45 to 75, to i^ per cent, on incomes from 75 to 150, 2 per cent, on incomes from 150 to 500, and 3 per cent, on incomes from 500 to 1525, the rate then rising gradually to 4 per cent, for incomes of 5000, while on incomes in excess of 5250 the increase was fixed at 10 (4 per cent.) for every additional 250 of income. The tax is graduated with great minuteness, the assessment rising first by income increments of 7 ios., then in succession by increments of 15, 25, 50, 75, 100, and finally 250. Somewhat higher rates apply to companies. Exemption from income tax is en joyed by certain persons, and deductions from income are allowed before the taxable amount is arrived at, as, for example, the sum of the direct communal taxes paid in respect of land, buildings, and commercial under- takings up to the amount of the State assessment only, statutory insurance contributions, life insurance premiums to the amount of 30, sickness, unemployment, and strike pay, interest on debts, etc. Further, persons with incomes not exceeding 325, who have children or others dependent on them, can claim to be assessed in an income class one, two, or three steps below that which would otherwise apply, according as they have two, three or four, and five or six such dependants respectively, and for every two additional dependants one further fall in the schedule of rates is allowed. Persons with incomes between 378 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY 325 and 475 are assessed one class lower than would other- wise apply if they have three children or dependants to main- tain, two classes lower if they have four or five dependants, and one further class lower for every two additional dependants. Above 475 no abatement of the kind is allowed. These abatements apply equally to the local supertax. Incomes under 150 are estimated by the taxing authority, but incomes above that amount have to be declared on the English prin- ciple. House-owners are required to report to the taxing authority all persons living in dwellings belonging to them, and employers must on demand report the earnings of persons in their employ with an income not exceeding 150. Upon the amount of State income tax depends the amount of communal income tax levied, since the latter is fixed always at a certain percentage of the former. Hence a " supple- ment " of 100 per cent, means that the citizen must pay exactly the same sum in local income tax which he pays in the same tax to the State. As has been explained, Prussian communes are allowed to levy up to 100 per cent, at their discretion, but they cannot go beyond this amount without the sanction of the State supervisory authority. PRINCIPLE OF ASSESSMENT. The principle of assessment to local income tax is that a person pays the tax in the com- mune of residence, and that all his income, whatever and wherever its source, is liable, subject to the condition that taxation in respect of real estate and commercial undertakings situated in a commune other than that of residence goes to that other commune. Should the owner of land, a house, a factory, or a shop remove from the commune in which it is situated into another place, the income which he derives from either of these sources will continue liable to taxation in the first commune, as before. On the other hand, if a professional man, an official, or an employee of any grade change his resi- dence, though not his place of occupation, the right to tax his income from such occupation is forfeited by the first commune in favour of his new place of abode. The State pays tax in respect of its income from railways and other trading enter- prises, domains, and forests, every enterprise being treated as MUNICIPAL TAXATIONLOCAL INCOME TAX 379 a separate unit for the purpose of taxation. There are special provisions to prevent the double taxation of individuals, and to provide for the division of taxation between different communes where undertakings operate in two or more communes. As a rule, the local taxes must be paid at a central office or branches, but in some towns they are still collected, though the fact that the taxes are mostly levied once a quarter makes the cost of collection disproportionately high. Cheques are accepted as in this country. The local authority collects the State tax with the supertax, charging a small commission for so doing. In some of the States, Crown and State officials, including military officers, clergymen, and teachers in public schools, and certain other persons with official status, have hitherto been exempted from local income tax or have been assessed on a lower scale than others in respect of official income and pensions. This privilege has been justified on the ground that officials are required constantly to change their place of residence, and that the great inequality of this taxation as between one town and another would expose them to unfair fluctuations of effective income. Thus an official might be living in a lightly taxed town one year, and the next year, without higher salary, he might be transferred to one in which the taxation was very onerous ; extremes in the local income tax of 100 and 300 per cent, of the State assessment are possible always. On the other hand, it is no less true that while an official may change one time from good to bad, the next removal may more than compensate, and the opponents of the privilege contend that in the long run his risks balance. On the whole public opinion would appear to recognise the existence in the case of officials of special circumstances which justify special treatment, and those who take this attitude, while still opposed to total exemption, agree that a limit might fairly be set to the scale of local income tax which should apply to officials, yet hold that the State should make up the deficiency. That the communes have an equal right to consideration is clearly incontestable. It is estimated that the privilege of officials costs Konigsberg 20,000 and Cassel over 10,000 a year in forfeited taxation. An extreme illustration of the injury suffered by towns from this cause is that of Rostock, a 380 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY town of 65,000 inhabitants, in Mecklenburg- Schwerin, where all the officials in the service of the Grand Duke, the judicial officials, the university staff, the pensioned military officers, and others are exempt from communal taxation, entailing upon the local treasury a loss of 6500 a year, which has to be made up by classes of the population less favourably situated. In Prussia, State and Court officials, elementary school teachers, and minor church employees appointed since March 31, 1909, have been liable to pay on their official income a local income tax not exceeding 125 per cent, of the State income tax, and on non-official income the full amount of the local tax, whatever the rate may be. Military persons still enjoy relief in respect of official income, and the clergy also enjoy their old immunity. Similarly the Communal Taxation Law of Saxony stipulates that the official incomes of Imperial, State, and communal officials appointed before 1909 shall only be taxed to the extent of four-fifths. The following table shows the rates of local income tax now payable by individuals on income in excess of 45 in Prussia where that tax is equal to the State tax : Local Tax at 100 per cent of State Tax. i s. d. Income i s- i s. Above 45 o to 52 10 inclusive 52 10 60 o 60 o 67 10 67 10 75 o 75 o 82 10 82 10 90 o 90 o 105 o 105 o 1 20 o I2O o 135 135 o 150 o 150 o 165 o 165 o 1 80 1 80 o 195 o 195 2IO o 2IO 225 o 225 o 250 o 250 o 275 o 2?5 o 300 o 300 o 325 o 325 o 350 o 350 o 375 375 o 400 400 o 425 o 425 o 45 o 450 o 475 o 475 o 525 o o 9 o 12 O 16 I I o I 6 o I ii o I 16 2 4 o 2 12 o 3 O 3 10 o 4 o 4 12 o 5 4 o 5 18 o 6 12 7 6 o 8 o 8 16 o 9 12 10 12 ii 12 o 12 12 13 16 o 15 O o MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 381 From 525 the schedule rises to 1525 by sums of 50, and the tax is increased by i los. for every additional 50, so that the tax on incomes from 1475 to 1525 is 45. The " steps " or stages are then : incomes of 1525 to 1600, 3 for each additional 75 of income ; 1600 to 3900, 4 for each additional 100 of income ; 3900 to 5000, 5 for each additional 100, so that a tax of 200 is reached for incomes from 5000 to 5250, after which there is an increase of 10 for every additional 250 of income. The rates for incomes of from 500 to 1000 in multiples of 100 are : L i s. d. 500 1500 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . ..1600 7OO .. .. .. .. .. .. . . 2 1 O O 800 . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 o o 900 . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 o o 1000 . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 o o As, however, a local supertax of only 100 percent, is rare in 1911 only 6 per cent, of the urban communes of Prussia levied so low a rate the foregoing figures afford no adequate idea of the actual taxation paid. Rates from 50 to 100 per cent, higher than the above may be regarded as normal in Prussian towns. A law of April i, 1909, introduced additions (intended to be temporary only) to the State tax on incomes from 60 upward, rising from 5 per cent., but these additions do not apply to the local percentages, which continue leviable on the normal rates. RELIEF TO SMALL INCOMES. Communes are given the option of exempting altogether from taxation for local purposes all incomes below 45 or any smaller sum, or of reducing the rate of taxation in respect of these incomes. One reason for taxing these smaller incomes is the fact that the right to take part in local elections is in Prussia, as in most other States, dependent upon the payment of taxes. To meet the cases where exemp- tion is not granted on incomes freed from the State tax, the law fixes fictitious (fingierte) tax rates of 2s. 4-8d. for incomes from 21 to 33, and 45. for incomes from 33 to 45. For local purposes, therefore, these sums would represent 100 per cent, of the State assessment. Incomes under 21 may 382 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY be taxed only to the extent of two-fifths, and to a maximum of is. 2-4d. Many towns exercise their full exemption powers, and tax only incomes in excess of 45, among them Berlin and the adjacent Communes, Cologne, Diisseldorf, Essen, Duisburg, Aix-la-Chapelle, and other towns in the industrial west. A larger number of towns exempt from taxation incomes below 33, and a still larger number begin to tax incomes at 21. Where the supertax is high it is common to apply a reduced rate to small incomes, and persons in receipt of poor relief must, in any event, be exempted from taxation. Thus in Frankfort-on-Main the tax upon incomes from 45 to 150 is 70 per cent, of the State income tax rate, on incomes from 150 to 300 it is 80 per cent., on incomes from 300 to 525, 90 per cent., and after 525 the full supertax rate, as varied from time to time, applies. On the other hand, Altona has been allowed to retain an old arrangement by which smaller incomes bear higher relative rates, the object being to discourage the immigration into the town of working-class population from Hamburg. LOCAL INCOME TAXES IN THE OTHER STATES. Local income taxes based on the State income tax tariffs are levied in the other States, but in most States the exemption limit for the State tax is lower than in Prussia. Thus in Bavaria the limit is nominally 30, though in reality 15, since every male Bavarian citizen has to pay a tax of is. in order to be qualified to vote in parliamentary elections ; in Saxony the limit is 20, in Wurtemberg and Hesse it is 25, but the Prussian limit of 45 applies in Baden and also in the City States of Hamburg and Bremen. On the other hand, lower rates of taxation are levied on small incomes in some States, which means that these incomes are proportionately relieved from taxation for local purposes. The following are the rates of State income tax on small incomes in Saxony : Above 20 to -25 30 j[35 35 40 4 /47 47 IDS. 55 s. d. 1 o 2 O 3 o 4 o 7 o IO O Above 55 to 62 IDS. 62 IDS. 70 95 95 s. d. 13 o 16 o 20 O 26 o 36 o MUNICIPAL TAXATION LOCAL INCOME TAX 383 The tax may also be levied on incomes between 10 and 20 except in the case of persons with dependants, but, on the other hand, relief may be afforded to small incomes either by exempting all incomes up to 20 inclusive or by reducing the rates of tax chargeable in the lower income classes. The rates of State income tax in Bavaria for incomes within the same range are as follows : Ab ove 15 t 30 35 .4 45 50 55 60 /6s s. d. O /^O , I O Ab Dve 70 t 75 80 ^5 90 95 100 *5 s. d. / , I o /8o . iso /4O . 2 O /8s . . 17 o /4S . 3 O /QO . .IQO /so . a. 6 /OS . , 21 O /SS . 6 o /IOO. . .230 /6o 7 6 /IOS . . . 25 6 /6s . O o /ISO. . . 28 O /70 . . II In the case of the Wiirtemberg State income tax the normal tax (i.e., 100 per cent.) is given below, as the actual rate levied for national purposes is determined by the Diet from year to year, and 105 per cent, of the normal tariff has been levied since 1909: s. d. 2 5 to 32 ios 2 32 ios. , 40 3 4 47 55 ios. 47ios 4 55 5 ooo, 575 ; above 40,000, 675 ; above 45,000, 800 ; above 50,000, 1000; above 55,000, 1100; and 100 more for every additional 5000 of turnover. The proceeds must be used in lessening the taxation of persons assessed in the lower classes of the trade tax schedule. In 1910 thirty-six of the larger Prussian towns raised a revenue of 169,600 by the stores tax ; of this amount 100,250 was raised in Berlin alone, 8600 in Charlottenburg, 5200 in Cologne, and 4450 in Saarbriicken. A variant of this tax, which is becoming common in Prussian towns, is a special tax on local branches of multiple businesses. The tax is assessed on the threefold basis of estimated profits, number of persons employed, and rental value of premises. The Government has so far insisted MUNICIPAL TAXATION TRADE & OTHER TAXES 409 that the proceeds of this tax shall not in any individual case exceed 2 per cent, of the annual profits of the branch business. In Bavaria the stores are specially taxed both for State and local purposes, the State making a levy of between \ and 3 per cent, of the turnover, and this levy being subject to a local supplement. In Saxony and Wiirtemberg the communes may levy a special tax on stores at their option ; in Wiirtem- berg the rate varies according to the amount of working capital employed. In some States the stores tax applies only to undertakings with a certain turnover in Prussia the tax begins with a turnover of 20,000, hi Wiirtemberg with one from 4000 to 10,000 according to the size of the town, in Baden with one of 10,000, and in Hesse with one varying from 4000 to 7500, but in Bavaria there is no limit of the kind. The towns may also levy special taxes on itinerant traders auctioneers and the like but the proceeds of such taxes are unimportant ; the total yield in 52 of the larger towns in 1910 was only 4500. CONSUMPTION TAXES (ENTRANCE DUES AND EXCISE DUTIES). Entrance dues (octroi) and excise duties have immemorially existed in German towns, particularly in the south and west. In Prussia the former have gradually ceased to be a large or general source of revenue, though some towns retain them to the present day. They are levied upon certain articles of food, on building materials, cattle, forage, fuel, etc. Excise duties are very common, and are usually charged on beer consumed, or take the form of charges in respect of licences for the sale of spirituous liquors. Saxony is virtually without these local consumption taxes with the exception of a tax on beer. When the present Communal Taxation Law for Prussia was passed in 1893, the Government made it clear that it was not indisposed towards consumption taxes altogether. While dues on some articles were expressly forbidden, dues on others were allowed and even recommended. " It cannot be the object of this measure," said the expose des motifs, " to regulate the levy of consumption taxes so generally and so positively as has been done by the Hessian Town Ordinance. On the 4io MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY other hand, it cannot be overlooked that the importance of indirect taxes for a communal budget has, in many cases, been unduly subordinated to direct taxes, and in the projected reorganisation of local taxation regard must be paid to the fact that the introduction of suitable indirect taxes is advis- able as a means of alleviating the excessive pressure of direct taxes." Among the articles upon which dues might not be newly introduced were meat, corn, flour, baked goods, potatoes, and fuel of all kinds. New dues on poultry and game might be introduced, and other food dues were made subject to the Imperial laws as passed from time to time. Hence a severe blow was administered to local finance in nearly all the States by the passing of the Customs Tariff Law of 1902, which enacted the abolition after April, 1910, of all octroi dues on corn, legumes, flour and other milled products, baked goods, eattle, meat, meat products, and fat. The exemption of these articles took away from many communes a large part of their revenue from entrance dues, while leaving them with almost the same costs of collection, which even before had often amounted in small towns to from one-fifth to one-fourth of the entire proceeds. The Prussian town of Breslau lost by the abolition of the octroi on meat 90,000, equal to 35. yd. a head of the population. In the south the loss was even more grievous. Over 1000 communes in Bavaria were affected, many to such an extent as to throw their finances temporarily into confusion ; the total loss of revenue was estimated at 200,000 a year. The thirty- two communes entitled to levy entrance dues in Alsace-Lorraine lost over 100,000 a year ; one commune lost all its revenue from these duties, and others from 10 per cent, to 60 per cent.; the loss for Strassburg alone was nearly 40,000 a year, and for Miilhausen 16,500. In the hope of curtailing their deficits some of the large towns in different States set up the plea that game, poultry, and fish were not " meat " in the received meaning of the word, and hence were not covered by the Imperial law. Wherever the matter went to the Courts, however, whether in Bavaria, Baden, or Wurtemberg, the contention of the communes was rejected. MUNICIPAL TAXATION TRADE & OTHER TAXES 411 The loss caused to the communes by the abolition of entrance dues on articles of food has been met in a variety of ways : in many towns by increasing the slaughter-house charges or the remaining entrance dues, e.g., those on building materials, furniture, etc., or by adding to the list of dutiable articles ; in others by increasing the income tax ; while in yet others it became a pretext for introducing amusement taxes. Never- theless, even now the communes of Alsace-Lorraine, owing to the French tradition, still derive a large part of their revenue from entrance dues of various kinds Miilhausen one-third, Strassburg nearly one-half, and Metz over two-thirds ; while in many Bavarian communes the proportion of revenue so raised still exceeds 10 per cent. In the larger Prussian towns, however, the consumption taxes only yield in general from i per cent, to 3 per cent, of the total revenue from taxation. It was a common experience that the abolition of the entrance dues did not usually or permanently lead to a corre- sponding reduction in the prices of the articles freed from taxation. Prior to the date fixed for their repeal the Bavarian Government, in a circular letter to the communal authorities, pointed out that it was the intention of the Imperial Govern- ment that the abolition of the octroi should be accompanied by a reduction in prices or an increase in weight (as in the case of bread), and it added : " It is desirable to direct public attention to this aspect of the question. If public opinion emphatically insists that the abolition of the duties shall bring advantage to the com- munity at large and not merely to the traders, a corresponding degree of success may be expected. It is in any case expedient that the State and communal authorities should support all endeavours to this end to the extent of their powers. Existing police regulations as to the weight of bread or meat will need to be altered where necessary." Many of the communal authorities acted as advised, and secured concessions in prices simultaneously with the repeal of the dues, but these, as a rule, proved only temporary. The Prussian communes are brought into intimate contact with the drink traffic, to use the convenient English phrase, in 412 several ways, viz. : (a) By the statutory right given to the local authority to be consulted before concessions or licences are granted ; (b) the right to tax such concessions ; and (c) the right to tax the beer consumed. In general, concessions to carry on inns and hotels, res- taurants, or the retail sale of brandy and spirit are granted by the State administrative authorities, conditionally upon proof of public need in places with a population under 15,000, and in other places if local by-laws are adopted for the purpose. Further, before any licence is granted the communal authority and the local police authority must be heard. By-laws intro- ducing the principle of licensing according to the requirements of the population have existed for many years in many of the large towns, and the result has, in general, been satisfactory ; the ratio of licensed houses to population has been reduced and the character of the houses is said to have improved. Power to levy a licence fee on the first granting of these concessions is given to towns and to rural circles by the Circle and Provincial Taxation Law of April 23, 1906. The maximum rates are fixed as follows : 1. Licence holders who are exempt from the payment of the trade tax on account of the smallness of their profits (75) or capital, 30 ; 2. Licence holders who are assessed in the fourth class for the purpose of that tax, 60 ; 3. Licence holders in the third class, 120 ; 4. Licence holders in the second class, 180 ; and 5. Licence holders in the first class, 250. The privilege of thus taxing concessions was originally intended to apply only to rural districts, but it was soon extended to the towns, which have made free use of it. Some towns differentiate the rates of taxation in accordance with the character of the licensed premises, and non-alcoholic restaurants are sometimes exempted from taxation. Where licences are transferred, a reduced fee, at times falling to one- sixth, is charged. The annual tax upon licensed premises takes the form either of a beer duty charged on all beer produced and consumed in MUNICIPAL TAXATION TRADE & OTHER TAXES 413 the commune, or imported therein, or of a supplement to the Imperial brewing duty. Where the former method is followed the Prussian Government has fixed the maximum duty at 65 pfennige per hectolitre (equivalent to about 35. per 100 gallons) for ordinary beer, and 30 pfennige per hectolitre (equivalent to about is. 4^d. per 100 gallons) for inferior and harvest beer, containing not more than if per cent, of alcohol. Many towns raise a large revenue by the beer duty, e.g., Munich 131,500, Nuremberg 26,700, Augsburg 25,500, Strassburg 47,600, Dresden 20,200, Stuttgart 22,000, as estimated in 1911 ; but the costs of controlling the beer consumed, especially that imported into the town, and of collecting the duty, is said to be heavy. Some towns raise large sums by similarly taxing wine and spirits. AMUSEMENT TAXES. Taxes on amusements are of com- paratively recent origin, but the communes have been quick to adopt them, and they are now becoming general in the towns, except in Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Hesse. The Prussian Communal Taxation Act of 1893 directed communes to this source of revenue in the provision : ' ' The taxation of amusements, including musical and dramatic recitals, and of the exhibitions of itinerant artists, is permitted to the com- munes." Although the law is silent on the point, the power so given is intended to extend only to amusements of a public character in which the element of gain is present ; in any case, harsh and arbitrary action is impossible owing to the necessity of obtaining sanction from the supervisory authority to taxes of this kind. The extent to which amusements are taxed differs greatly. In some places only public dances are taxed, but in general a very wide range of indoor and outdoor entertainment, provided admission be by payment, is covered by the tax, though amusements held for philanthropic purposes and public lectures of a purely scientific character are generally exempted. The tax first took the form of an addition to the price of tickets of admission, which was either paid with the price of the ticket or charged separately on entrance. Other forms have since been adopted, e.g., a lump sum payable 414 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY by the entrepreneur, either per performance or according to the size of room or the character of the entertainment. In Frankfort-on-Main the ticket tax for theatrical, music hall, and circus performances is o-6d. for tickets from 6-6d. to is. gd.; i-2d. for tickets from is. gd. to 33. ; 2*4d. from 35. to 45. 6d. ; 3-6d. from 43. 6d. to 6s.; and i-2d. extra for every further increase of is. in the price. Tickets at and below 6d. are not taxed. Schoneberg (Berlin) in 1913 introduced a tax upon indoor and outdoor amusements of many kinds on the following scale: On admission tickets from i-2d. to 6d., i pfennige (|d.) for every i-2d. charged ; on tickets costing 6d. to gd., i-2d. ; gd. to is., i-8d. ; is. to is. 6d., 2-40!. ; is. 6d. to 2s., 3d. ; 2s. to 2s. 6d., 3-6d. ; 2s. 6d. to 35., 4-8d. ; 35. to 35. 6d., 6d. ; and i-2d. for every increase of 6d. or less. Where a lump sum is paid the tax is proportionate to the number of seats, and is as follows : 100 seats and under, 73. ; 100 to 150 seats, los. ; 150 to 200, 155. ; 200 to 250, 253. ; 250 to 300, 305. ; 300 to 350, 353. ; 350 to 400, 405. ; 400 to 450, 455. ; 450 to 500, 6os. ; 500 to 550, 703. ; and 155. for every additional 50 seats. In Berlin the ticket tax on cinematograph shows begins with o-6d. on tickets of 3-6d., and is then i-2d. on tickets of 6d., i-8d. on those of gd., 3d. on those of is., and so on in the same proportion ; while lower rates apply to public dances. At Erfurt a special and very high tax was imposed in igi3 on cinematograph shows with the object of protecting the theatres, the patronage of which had seriously fallen off owing to their competition. While subject to the general amusement tax the cinematograph shows had paid some 350 in taxation, but the new tax is estimated to produce 1500. In Saxony the amusement tax commonly takes the form of a fixed charge, varying from is. to 2 los. for a performance, and is chiefly levied in the case of dances, concerts, and theatrical performances, and latterly cinematograph shows. Both in this country and in Bavaria the tax is called a " poor relief tax," since the proceeds are in part earmarked for the relief of the poor. The larger communes are finding the amusement tax a very satisfactory source of revenue. The revenue of Cologne from MUNICIPAL TAXATION TRADE & OTHER TAXES 415 this source in 1910 was 28,460, that of Munich 19,580, that of Diisseldorf 23,240, that of Breslau 19,680, that of Frank- fort-on-Main 15,080, that of Dresden 15,260, while seventy- one German towns with a population exceeding 50,000 raised by amusement taxes in that year no less than 335,640, equal to 7^d. a head of their aggregate population of 11,000,000. MISCELLANEOUS LOCAL TAXES. Of the remaining miscel- laneous taxes levied in various towns, the rent and house taxes and the dog tax are the most important. In Prussia, prior to the passing of the Communal Taxation Act of 1893, rent or occupiers' taxes corresponding broadly to the English " rate ' ' existed in Berlin, Halle, Danzig, and some other places. They were moderate in amount, and were entirely subsidiary to the main sources of taxation, viz., income, real estate, and trade. They have since been abolished in all the towns named save Danzig. There a tax payable by the occupier is levied on the use of inhabited premises of all kinds, factories and workshops, and even warehouses and cattle sheds, but buildings with a lower rental value than 25 are exempted. The tax is 2 \ per cent, of the rental value on property rented at between 25 and 50, and 3 per cent, when the rent exceeds 50. The tax is fixed once in each half-year for each building, and is collected in quarterly instalments in advance. The tax yielded in 1911 11,750, equal to about is. 5d. per inhabitant. Frankfort-on-Main levies a fixed " house tax " of 305. on houses not used for commercial purposes to counterbalance the trade tax. Bavaria has also a " house tax," which is independent of the building tax, and is, like the latter, paid by the owner. Out of Prussia the occupiers' tax is most common in Wiirtem- berg, but only as a minor source of revenue. The tax in Stuttgart falls upon all persons who have an independent dwelling, and also upon lodgers who have the sole use of rooms. Male householders pay 2s. a year and female householders is., and the municipality raised by this tax in 1912 7750. Bremen has a rent tax calculated at 7jd. per 5 for rents up to 10, gjd. per 5 for those between 10 and 15, is. ijd. per 5 for those between 15 and 20, is. 6d. per 5 for those 416 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY between 20 and 25, and is. per 5 for rents above 25. In Mecklenburg-Schwerin also the rent tax is common ; in some towns it forms a fixed percentage of rent, and in others it is progressive, but small rents (up to 2 los. a year) are commonly exempted. In most States baths and other health resorts are em- powered to levy a Kur-taxe on visitors and, usually at a reduced rate, on residents, the proceeds being expended on the development of the baths or on improvement works generally. A peculiarity of Saxon communal taxation is the poll tax, which in some places is levied on all persons 14 years old and upwards, in others on heads of households, while the amount is dependent upon various circumstances. The Communal Taxation Law of 1913, however, prohibits the introduction of new taxes of the kind and requires the abolition of existing ones by January i, 1918, at the latest. The dog tax is universal and everywhere yields a large revenue. In most States this tax is made over to the com- munes, and the rate varies in Prussia from los. to 2. Watch- dogs and draught dogs are often exempted. Hamburg has fourteen different rates determined by the size and purpose of the dogs, the number kept by the same owner, etc. In Bavaria the dog tax is a State tax, ranging from 95. to 155. according to the size of the communes, which receive one-half of the proceeds. In Wiirtemberg the dog tax is now made over entirely to the communes and may be as high as 2os. Taxes on cats are levied in some Saxon towns, and in 1912 the Prussian Government sanctioned such a tax in principle. Pavement and bridge tolls are still common in Bavarian towns, including Munich and Nuremberg. These tolls are usually levied on vehicles and on draught animals entering the town, the former being charged from id. to 6d. and the latter from |d. to 2d., and also on animals used by residents for commercial and other purposes, a common charge for these being 305. a year. Other local taxes and contributions are the taxes on auto- matic machines, horses, and passports, fees for freemanship, a tax on gas and electricity (in Stuttgart and other Wiirtemberg MUNICIPAL TAXATION TRADE & OTHER TAXES 417 towns), and hunting and fishing licences in some towns of Saxony and Alsace-Lorraine and elsewhere. Yet all these taxes are subsidiary to the main sources of revenue, which are everywhere the income tax, falling on the community generally, the real property taxes, and the trade taxes. CHURCH TAXES. Another class of taxes to which the inhabitants of German towns are liable, though altogether independent of communal taxation and affecting the municipal authorities only to the extent that in some towns they collect them with the local taxes, are the church taxes, corresponding to the old English church rates. Taxes for the support of their religious organisations and work are levied in Prussia and most other States by the churches recognised by law, viz., the Evangelical and Roman Catholic. The taxes are levied on residents only, and companies are exempted. In Prussia the tax forms a small percentage of the State income or land and building taxes, and may be levied on all incomes from 21 upwards ; but in some towns it is a fixed poll tax of is. In Berlin the Protestant Church levies the tax on incomes of 75 and upwards, and the Roman Catholic Church levies it on incomes of 60 and upwards. In the case of a mixed marriage, husband and wife are each relieved of one-half of the tax levied in support of their respective Churches. Members of the Nonconformist Churches, and others who have formally with- drawn from the State Evangelical Church, do not pay this tax. The tax is a reminder that the established Churches are not above using the secular arm for their own purposes, and is a source of much embitterment ; in the case of the working classes it is more responsible than any other cause for the continuous and widespread movement out of the Prussian State Church. Many thousands of persons secede every year in Berlin alone, and the reason assigned in most cases is a desire to escape the church tax. In Bavaria likewise both the State Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church levy a tax in the form of a percentage of the State income tax ; it is collected by the State inland revenue officers and handed to the Church authorities. In Wiirtemberg the ecclesiastical communes have the right 2E 4i& MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY to levy independently a certain percentage of all the State taxes (i.e., on income, trade, land and buildings) on all persons liable to these taxes. The rate varies from year to year. In Stuttgart 8| per cent, of the State taxes is levied by the Protestant and 8| per cent, by the Roman Catholic Church, except on persons who pay less than 155. in State taxes, who are exempted. The Jewish communities tax their adherents on the same method, or in the form of a small tax on funded income ; part of the proceeds is devoted to the general pur- pose of the Israelitish community throughout the State and part to the needs of the local synagogues. CHAPTER XVII MUNICIPAL TAXATION (continued}. IV. CORRELATION AND YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES Disparity in local taxation Relative yield of local taxes Taxation of real estate in Prussia Relative local taxation in Germany and England. IN an exposition whose primary purpose it is to show the German system of municipal government in operation, detailed criticism even of major questions will hardly be expected, yet it seems pertinent to call attention to draw- backs incidental to some of the methods of taxation reviewed in the preceding pages. DISPARITY IN LOCAL TAXATION. One obvious effect of the practice of levying the principal local taxes the income, land, building, and trade taxes in the form of variable percentages of rates or "norms " fixed by the State is that great disparity often exists as between different towns, even contiguous and similar in character of population and pursuit. This disparity is, of course, most glaring in a congeries of communities like Greater Berlin, where over fifty urban and rural communes, all in- dependent for purposes of administration and taxation, are able to adopt not only different measures of taxation but different taxes. In the rural communes surrounding the city the income tax rate (1911) ranges from 64 per cent, to 180 per cent, of the State tax, and only twenty of these districts levy the rate of 100 per cent., which is normal in the large towns of Greater Berlin. There is the same disparity in the rates of the land and building taxes. As calculated on the rental value, the rates vary from 156 per cent, of the State assess- ment in Schoneberg and 165 per cent, in Berlin to 210 per cent, in Neukolln, while the assessment on the basis of sale value 419 420 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY varies from i and 2 per 1000 for land built upon and land not built upon respectively in Nickolassee to 4 and 7 per 1000 respectively in Weissensee. So, again, while the trade tax is 165 per cent, of the State assessment in Berlin, in the sur- rounding districts it ranges from 200 to 300 per cent. The property sale and transfer tax is variously i| and 2 per cent, in contiguous communes, and there is the same diversity in the unearned increment tax. The most serious disparity is that in the income tax, how- ever, for in so far as local taxation is concerned this is the tax which chiefly determines the question whether a town is a cheap or a dear one to live in. Several years ago one of the villa colony suburbs of Berlin covered its expenditure with an income tax of 15 per cent, of the State assessment, with the result that a wealthy resident of Berlin, paying, for example, 250 in local income tax, had only to remove a few miles out in order to effect the substantial saving of 212 los. yearly. Even now one of the suburbs of Berlin is able to restrict its income tax to 50 per cent, and another to 60 per cent. Berlin has, in fact, suffered seriously in taxing resources owing to the migration of rich inhabitants to the suburbs, some of which offer, with equally or more amenable surroundings, lower rates of taxation. In 1909, 4 persons with incomes of from 975 to 1275 removed from Charlottenburg to Berlin and 39 from Berlin to Charlottenburg ; while of persons with incomes exceeding 2500, 3 changed Charlottenburg for Berlin and 28 changed Berlin for Charlottenburg. The migration of wealth to the villa suburbs is still more ominous. A large portion of these migrants come into Berlin daily for official, professional, and business purposes, and make full use of the manifold conveniences there offered ; but while they benefit freely by the city's expenditure they make no contribution to its revenue. Eventually, either through the operation of the statutory Joint Board for Traffic and Town Building formed for Greater Berlin in 1911, or under pressure of public opinion, it is probable that this entire area will become a unit, if not for taxation purposes altogether, at least for such objects of common interest as poor relief and education ; but in the meantime MUNICIPAL TAXATION YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES 421 Berlin's interest lies in agreement upon a policy of equal rates of taxation applicable to a wide area, a large part of which is equally eligible for residential purposes, and to this policy it is addressing itself. Accordingly, when in 1910 the municipal executive found it impossible to carry on the affairs of the city with the old income tax rate of 100 per cent., even with the help of a new tax on amusements, an arrangement was arrived at with several of the neighbouring towns for a simul- taneous uniform increase to no per cent., while the Chief President of the province, who acted the part of conciliator, undertook to bring pressure to bear upon the surrounding rural communes in the same sense. In the end the increase was staved off, but it can only be for a time. 1 It was not the first time or the first place in which the State supervisory authority had intervened in the interest of har- monious relationships between adjacent communes. Where the adjustment of local taxation is desirable in the case of poor communes of limited resources, another procedure has to be resorted to. Some of the rural communes of Rhine- land and Westphalia have been allowed in course of time to saddle themselves with local income taxes two, three, and four times as high as the State tax. Owing to this excessive taxation of income, the Ministers of the Interior and Finance called upon the District Presidents to investigate all cases of the kind in their districts with a view to a revision of the existing forms of taxation. The measures of relief adopted were (a) the extension of the system of dues, contributions, and indirect taxes (gas, water, and sewerage dues, dog, beer, amusement, land sale taxes, etc.) ; (b) the combination of unions for special purposes where legislation allowed of it ; and (c) the absorption of poor by wealthy communes. Another method of relieving poor and overburdened communes, which is advocated more and more by writers on self-government, is the formation by the State of an equalisation fund in their behalf derived from the proceeds of the income tax. The disparity is not in general so serious in the other States, especially where the local tax supplements may not exceed 1 Since this paragraph was written several towns in Greater Berlin have increased the local income tax to no per cent, of the State assessment. 422 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY a fixed figure. In Wiirtemberg, where no more than 50 per cent, of the State tax may be raised locally, all the towns with one exception levy the maximum rate. Lest the conclusion should be drawn, however, that the great inequalities in the local income tax rate which exist in practice are an argument against the tax in itself, it may be well to recall the fact that such inequality is due solely to the autonomy of the communes in local taxation. Every commune decides for itself the rate it will levy, and no commune is obliged to levy a higher rate than its neighbour. So far as the State's influence goes, it is all on the side of moderation and uniformity, since it insists that local supertaxes beyond 100 per cent, of the State tax shall receive the sanction of its officials, and that in all cases a proper balance shall be pre- served as between personal taxes and those on realty. As applied to this country, no objection to an income tax, at least as an auxiliary source of local revenue, based only on the danger of unequal rates, would hold good if it were limited to a low percentage of the State tax, which for this purpose would need to be extended in a revised form to a larger section of the population than now, and if rates were required to be uniform within wide areas, say, geographical counties, with or without an arrangement for earmarking the proceeds for application to certain objects which are more and more being recognised as matters of national rather than purely local concern, e.g., poor relief, education, road maintenance, etc. RELATIVE YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES. It remains to follow the communal taxes into actual operation, and to show the relation they bear to each other and to local finance generally. Throughout Germany except in Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine, where the trade taxes and the system of entrance and excise dues have been highly developed the income tax is still the backbone of local finance. The taxes upon real estate come next in importance, and present tendencies point to the likeli- hood of these taxes retaining their present prominence. At the same time it is recognised that the real estate taxes are not all in an equal degree reliable as sources of revenue. The taxes on the turnover of property and on unearned increment MUNICIPAL TAXATION YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES 423 are subject to sudden and unforeseen influences which dis- qualify them from ranking with the land and building taxes in the communal budget. The relative importance of the several groups of taxes will be seen from the following table, showing for 84 towns with a population exceeding 50,000 the proportions in which local taxation was divided in 1910 and 1911 between five groups of taxes, viz., real estate, trade, income, consumption, and miscellaneous taxes. In this classification the real estate taxes comprise the land and building taxes and the taxes on the sale of land and on unearned increment (" increased value ") ; the trade taxes comprise the general tax on com- mercial and industrial undertakings, the special tax on stores, and the special tax on licensed premises and concessions for the same ; with the income tax are grouped the capital rent tax (15 towns), poll, rent, or occupiers' taxes (two towns), and citizenship dues (two towns) ; while the group of miscel- laneous taxes includes the amusement and dog taxes, pave- ment tolls (six towns), and certain minor taxes. The figures are given separately for (a) towns with 200,000 inhabitants and over ; (b) towns with from 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants ; and (c) towns with from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. The figures for 1910 represent actual revenue and those for 1911 budgeted revenue : Population in 1910. () 21 towns (8,928,200). < 24 towns (3.423,000). w 39 towns (2,679,400). All the 84 towns (15,030,600). Real estate taxes IQIO o/ /o 31-3 12-4 51-9 1-8 2-6 IMI i % 29-6 13-2 52-3 2-0 2-9 I9IO o/ /o 29-6 12-7 50-7 4'7 2-2 I9II o/ /o 28-7 12-6 SI'S 5'i 2-1 1910 o/ /o 26-6 14-6 50-5 6-3 2*1 I9II o/ /o 25-7 14-8 50-9 6-6 2-O 1910 o/ /o 30-2 12-8 51-4 3'l 2-4 1911 / /o 28-8 13-3 51-9 3-4 2-6 Trade Income ,, Consumption , Miscellaneous It will be seen that the mean figures for 1911 for all these towns together were 28-8 per cent, of taxation from real estate, 13-3 per cent, from trade, and 51-9 per cent, from income taxes. Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck are excluded from the fore- going calculations as being City States. If to the taxes 424 properly so called be added the dues levied on property owners in respect of sewerage connections, street scavenging, and house refuse removal, where the cost of these services is not charged to the house and building taxes (since in German towns these services are paid for by the adjacent owners), the distribution of taxation in these towns fell in that year as follows : Real estate taxes, 33-1 per cent. ; income taxes, 48-8 per cent.; and trade taxes, 12-5 per cent.; the remaining 5-6 per cent, being accounted for by consumption, amusement, and miscellaneous taxes. These figures relate to the larger towns, yet they may be accepted as representative of the towns as a whole. An enumeration made by the Imperial Government in 1907, relating to all communes with over 10,000 inhabitants, showed that of a total revenue from local taxes of all kinds of 33,190,000, 49-6 per cent, was derived from income taxes, 26-9 per cent, from land and other real estate taxes, 12-7 per cent, from trade taxes, 5-9 per cent, from consumption taxes, 1-7 per cent, from luxury taxes, and 3-2 per cent, from other taxes. The taxation per head of the aggregate population of these 84 towns was as follows in the two years named : 1910 1911 s. d. a. d. Real estate taxes ". 1 1 5 J 1 1 2 Trade 4 Income ,, ..................... 19 7 Consumption ,, ..................... i -2 Miscellaneous ., n 5 2 20 ij I 3l ill TOTAL 38 of . . 38 8f In addition the dues levied on property owners on account of sewerage connections, street scavenging, and house refuse removal amounted in each year to 2s. 5d. a head of the popula- tion, making the taxes falling on real estate 135. iod. a head in 1910 and 135. 7d. in 1911. The correlation of local taxation may be shown in a still more concrete manner by the following comparative figures relating to 1910 for the more important towns of the principal States. In the cases of Danzig and Stuttgart the "house" or "rent" tax paid by occupiers is classed with the income taxes, MUNICIPAL TAXATION YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES 425 while in the cases of Augsburg, Munich, and Nuremberg the real estate taxes include the proceeds of pavement dues. PERCENTAGE OF TAXATION FALLING TO DIFFERENT TAXES IN THE LARGER TOWNS Towns. Total taxation per head. Real estate taxes. Trade taxes. Income taxes. Luxury and expendi- ture taxes. Con. sump- tion taxes. Prussia Aix-la-Chapeile s. d. 1 1 3 o/ /o 23-4 o/ /o I 3*4 o/ /o 57'2 o/ /o 2-4 o/ /o 3-6 Altona 4O 8 ^O-4 5'4 33'3 I-Q Barmen A2 2 23-1 I2'S 6i-s 2-1 0-8 Berlin 41 IO 36'Q M-c 46-8 I-O 0-8 Breslau ^8 7 3I-I IO-6 *>4'2 2-7 1-4 Cassel 33 2 28-Q II'O S^'O 2-O 4-2 Charlottenburg 43'4 5-Q 4Q'S I'2 Cologne 42 8 28-3 I3'S ^j'4 3-6 1-2 Crefeld 36 10 23-2 I4'5 S7'O V4 1-9 Danzig 31 s 33*7 8-q S^'7 2-8 0-9 Dortmund 42 1 32-3 I2-I c^-o 2-6 Dusseldorf 40 6 3I'O 9'2 M-< 4-2 I-I Duisburg 3K A 23-8 16-6 56-1 2-O I'5 Elberfeld 47 O 21'^ 12-2 61-5 3-1 I'7 Essen 44 4 2Q'I I3'5 S^*4 2-8 1-2 Frankiort-on-Main 5Q 6 27'4 IO-3 6O-O 2-O 0-3 Hanover 34 O -3 0*7 I I-Q 4Q-6 2'9 2-4 Kiel 38 5 37-2 Q-8 4Q-O 4-O Konigsberg 38 I 37*1 Q-6 4Q*o 2'7 I'3 Magdeburg 38 I 27-1 10-6 57-8 2*9 1-6 Schoneberg 43 2 4 8-Q s-o 44*4 1*7 Stettin 34 7 32-8 IO-O S4*4 1-8 I-O Wiesbaden .MI ; 1V^ 7-3 48-2 I -9 7-3 MEAN OF RATES ^2'S 10-8 52'7 2-5 *'5 Bavaria Augsburg 25 IO IO-7 26-6 4V7 I3'7 Ludwigshafen 33 4 2 VQ 47'6 24'S 0-5 3'S Munich 3O 1 1 aO'O 23-8 5O-2 2'I 7-O Nuremberg 2O 4 3O-Q 34'5 26-Q 1-4 6-3 MEAN OF RATES 25-6 33'I 31-8 1-8 7-6 Saxony Chemnitz 32 4 22'3 o-i 74'I 1-6 I*Q Dresden 32 II I2-I O-I 80- 1 2'6 5-1 Leipzig . 37 IO 24-6 O-2 73'3 1-9 Plauen 25 Q 5-6 O-OI 88-s 2-4 -^ Zwickau 21 I 6-0 00-8 3-2 MEAN OF RATES I2'Q Ia 81-4 2-1 2-1 426 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY PERCENTAGE OF TAXATION FALLING TO DIFFERENT TAXES IN THE LARGER TOWNS continued Towns. Total taxation per head. Reaf estate taxes. Trade taxes. Income taxes. Luxury and expendi- ture taxes. Con- sump- tion taxes. Wiirtemberg Stuttgart s. d. 4A IO o/ /o 2V2 o/ /o Q2'I O/ /o 3S-6 O/ /o 1-2 o/ /O V9 Baden . . Heidelberg 37 I ^8-0 II-6 .iii-Q I'O 4 -c i Karlsruhe TI 8 36'^ 16-8 42-O I-I 3-8 Mannheim 4.0 o 3VO 2Q'2 M'O O'S V3 MEAN OF RATES ^8 19-2 4O-3 O-Q Q-Q Other States Mayence (Hesse) ^ 8 20- $ IVI s6-o o-s 7*9 Metz (Alsace-Lorraine) Miilhausen (Alsace-Lorraine) 38 4 4.2 Q 18-2 2'5 24-8 27-8 21'4 2-5 2 .2 67-2 ^"^^ Rostock (Mecklenburg- Schweri n} Strassburg (Alsace-Lorraine) 28 o ae I 41-9 H-7 1-7 18-0 54'7 17-6 1-7 1-6 48-1 MEAN OF RATES ig-I I2'4 a^-i; 1*7 ^1'^ TAXATION OF REAL ESTATE IN PRUSSIA. It has been pointed out that one principal object professed by the Prussian Government in passing the Communal Taxation Law of 1893 was to relieve personalty at the expense of realty, and this object has been attained. The extent to which the burden of local taxation has been shifted from personal (income) taxes to real estate and in a less degree trade taxes may be illustrated by the following table showing for a number of Prussian towns the comparative percentages of local taxation which fell at different periods during the past twenty years to various classes of taxes. No account is taken in these figures of the dues levied on property owners on account of sewerage con- nections, scavenging, and house refuse removal. MUNICIPAL TAXATION YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES 427 TAXATION OF REAL ESTATE AT VARIOUS PERIODS Towns. Real estate taxes. Trade taxes. Income taxes. Consump- tion taxes. Miscellane- ous taxes. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. ( 1894-5 55'4 42-3 2-4 Altona J 1902-3 58-2 4'5 2-2 ( 1910 59-4 5'4 33-3 1-9 ( 1894-5 13-8 53'3 32-3 0-6 Cassel ; 1902-3 27-5 9-7 4y 20-9 i-o I 1910 28-9 II-O 53-9 4-2 2-0 ( 1894-5 "'3 3'5 80-3 2'5 2-4 Cologne J 1902-3 29-6 15-7 49-0 3-3 2-4 | 1910 28-3 13-5 53'4 1-2 3-6 (1894-5 3'9 8-5 86-2 1-4 Crefeld J 1902-3 21-2 14-2 60-4 1-6 2-6 (1910 23-2 M'5 57' 1-9 3-4 ! i 894-5 12-9 6-2 74-7 4-2 2-1 1902-3 28-7 9'7 56-8 2-7 2-1 1910 31-0 9-2 54'5 4-2 I-I ( 1894-5 2-2 1-8 92-1 0-9 Elberfeld i 1902-3 27-4 10-5 57-5 2-4 2-2 ( 1910 21-5 12-2 61-5 1-7 3-6 ii 894-5 8-1 6-9 80-4 3'4 i-i Essen J 1902-3 20-7 I2-I 63-6 2-1 x '4 [1910 29-1 13-5 53'4 1-2 2-8 F Irf * I * 894-5 6-8 90-4 2-8 on-Main 1 IQIO 25-8 27-4 8-2 10-3 63-6 60-0 0-4 0-3 2-0 2-0 (1894-5 19-6 72-9 6-3 1-3 Hanover 4 1902-3 35-1 10-4 49-6 3'9 i-i (1910 33-2 n-9 49-6 2-4 2-9 Of late years a slight reaction in favour of real estate, at least to the extent of not increasing its relative burdens, appears to have set in here and there, and even amongst practical municipal administrators there are those who believe that the taxation of realty has gone as far as is consistent with equity and safety. One of these, now the chief mayor of Charlottenburg, writes : "It may, in general, be affirmed that the effects of the law (of 1893) have in practice fulfilled the expectations of the legislature. The tendency of the law, which aims at the development of fees, contributions, and indirect taxes, and at laying greater stress on the ' real ' taxes in comparison with the income tax, is primarily directed at the owners of property and in a secondary degree at the commercial classes. All contributions, most of the fees, and the most productive indirect taxes fall on them, and for the 428 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY most part sufficient regard is not paid to this undeniable fact in apportioning the revenue needs between the real taxes and the income tax. On the other hand, it must be remembered that in the last resort all the expenditure of a commune is more or less for the benefit of those who pay the ' real ' taxes, and that the domination guaranteed by statute to the house and land owners in the communal administration counter- balances the somewhat excessive disposition of recent legis- lation to overload the real taxes." 1 Since these words were written the relative taxation of real estate has remained on the whole stationary, though abso- lutely it has increased with the other forms of taxation. The proposal of the Prussian Government to amend the existing communal taxation legislation, however, has everywhere put the property owners and their powerful associations on the defensive, and it is hardly likely that the outcome of the measure now before the legislature will seriously affect the present incidence of local taxation. RELATIVE LOCAL TAXATION IN GERMANY AND ENGLAND. One of the questions that will before now have occurred to the reader will be : How does individual taxation in English and German towns compare ? Who pays more the " taxed " German citizen or the " rated " English citizen ? Statistical comparisons have always a fascinating interest for many minds, and the more difficult the comparison the greater usually is the fascination. If comparison of crude figures showing annual taxation per head of the population and nothing more would suffice, the matter would be easy enough, but an answer of that kind would be entirely misleading. The ques- tion is, in fact, complicated by a number of considerations, not all of which are apparent on the surface. It is obvious that any fair estimate of relative local taxa- tion would need to take account of the services purchased in the two countries by the taxation paid. Here difficulties of an almost insuperable kind at once present themselves, and principally the impossibility of finding a satisfactory 1 Dr. E. Scholz, " Die heutigen Gemeindebesteuerungsysteme in Preussen," in " Gemeinde-Finanzen," ister Band, pp. 300301 (Verein fur Sozialpolitik). MUNICIPAL TAXATION YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES 429 money equation for some services which may be similar in kind but not in extent and efficiency. For example, it would not be sufficient to say that in both of two towns compared certain public services are in municipal hands ; it would be necessary to know the relative prices paid for these services, e.g., water, light and power, means of communica- tion, education, etc., for in one town lower prices may be counterbalanced by higher taxation, or vice versd. As between German towns, for example, a substantial yearly saving may be effected in tramway transit where, as in Berlin, passengers are carried any distance for the uniform charge of ijd., as compared with towns in which the zone or sectional system of charges is in force. Similarly in regard to education : the primary schools are free in one town and not free or only partially free in another, while in the fees charged in the higher schools there is great diversity. In the case of the drama and music loving public also, it is important to know whether, owing to municipal ownership of theatres and concert halls or municipal subsidies to lessee- managers, the prices of admission are kept at a relatively low level. It is clear that what a household pays in taxes in aid of schools and theatres it may save many times over in a diminished budget for education and pleasure. If considerations like these are important in the case of German comparisons they are doubly important if com- parisons are instituted between German and English towns. To complicate matters still further, the system of Govern- ment grants-in-aid is much more developed in this country than in Germany, with the result that the English ratepayer bears a proportionately larger part of the cost of local adminis- tration in the form of national taxes. There can be little doubt that taxation for local purposes is higher in German towns than in English, but, on the other hand, German taxpayers unquestionably receive more for their money. The principal explanation of this fact is that the German citizen is willing that the municipality shall perform for him many services which in this country are left to private effort or are not performed at all. In proof of this it is only necessary to instance the larger expenditure of 430 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY German towns on higher education, on the furtherance of culture generally (including the drama), the hospital service, and the large range of activities which have been grouped under the name " Social Welfare." As an indication of the cost of local government, in so far as it can be measured by taxation, the following data are not without interest. The average amount of taxation raised in 1910 in 45 German towns with a population in excess of 100,000 (in the aggregate 12,351,200 inhabitants) was i 195. 4d. a head, to which must be added 2s. yd. a head of the population levied on property owners in the form of sewerage, scavenging, and house refuse removal charges, giving a total of 2 is. ud. The average amount of taxation raised in 39 towns with a popu- lation between 50,000 and 100,000 (in the aggregate 2,679,400) was i I2s. 6d. a head, increased by is. gd. on account of the sewerage, etc., charges, or together i 145. 3d. The taxation of all these 84 towns, with a population of 15,030,600, was i i8s. id. a head, increased by 2s. 5d. on account of the sewerage, etc., charges, giving a total of 2 os. 6d. It may be noted in passing that about one-half of this taxation was of a special kind, e.g., taxation of real estate, trading enterprises, amusements, etc. Taking only the taxes which fell upon the whole community, i.e., the income and consumption taxes, the average for all towns was just over i. On the other hand, the amount raised by rates in the administrative year 1911-12 in 40 towns in England and Wales with a population in excess of 100,000 (in the aggregate 9,122,200) was i 175. 3d. a head ; the amount raised in 48 towns with a population between 50,000 and 100,000 (in the aggregate 3,226,800) was i 145. lod. a head ; and the average for all these 88 towns (with a population of 12,349,000) was i i6s. 7d. a head. In Germany as in England there are expensive and less expensive towns, though it is probable that the extremes are far greater there than with us. The reason of this is the wide latitude allowed to the towns in determining the extent to which local needs shall be covered by the income tax, the source, as has been shown, of more than one-half of local taxation. Where the local supplement to the State income MUNICIPAL TAXATION YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES 431 tax does not exceed, or only slightly exceeds, the amount of that tax, a relatively low level of taxation may be said to exist. So Iowa rate of supertax as 100 per cent, is exceptional, however, and the mean of the rates levied in 1912 by 56 Prussian towns with a population exceeding 50,000 was 180 per cent. That rate would make incomes of the following amounts liable to the payments stated : Local income tax Income. at 180 per cent. i 100 200 300 400 5OO 6OO 7OO 800 9OO 1000 1500 2000 This table may usefully be supplemented by another showing the State income tax tariffs of all the four German Kingdoms for incomes from 100 upwards. The reader is reminded that in Wiirtemberg only 50 per cent, of the State levy can be raised for local purposes and that in the other States the normal rates levied in the towns range from 150 to 200 per cent, of the following amounts : i s. d. 2 15 9 8 5 7 3 2 9 10 I 7 -7 O O 26 16 37 16 43 4 O 48 12 O 54 O O 81 17 O O Income. Prussia.! Bavaria. Saxony. Wtirtemberg. i too i . I II i s. I ^ i i 16 i i i 2OO A 12 o 18 e A I 3OO . 7 6 7 ^ IO O 8 8 4OO . IO 12 IO IO Ms 12 14 SOO . . . IS O Mo 1714 17 IQ ooo 18 o I 7 IO 21 O 21 O 7OO . 21 O 21 O 2S O 26 7 8OO 2.A O 24 12 2O O 51 I QOO . 27 O 28 4 21 O ae 3 J OOO 30 o 31 16 ^7 O aq 6 i soo . 4S O 51 6 SO IO 60 o 2OOO 64 o 72 6 83 10 82 o 2 SOO . 84 o O4. 6 108 10 ios o 1000 . 104 o 117 6 1^1 IO 129 o I4S O 166 16 187 o 176 o SOOO . IQS O 222 6 247 O 22S O 1 Without the supplementary tax, rising from 5 to 25 per cent, in excess of these rates, levied for State purposes under the law of April, 1909. 432 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY With the foregoing tables before him the reader can make for himself comparisons of local taxation on the basis of any desired scale of income taxation in German towns or rental value taxation in English towns. Comparisons so made, however, will be subject to an important adjustment. For in addition to paying income tax persons carrying on com- mercial and industrial undertakings, e.g., factories, workshops, shops, banks, etc., pay a special tax assessed on their income from that source as calculated upon the method prescribed by law. Owners of real estate are further liable to a tax assessed on the rental or sale value of their property ; in most towns amusement taxes are levied ; and there are other minor taxes of general or partial incidence. The amount of this supple- mentary taxation differs greatly both as between States and towns, and no figures of value for comparative purposes can be given. In spite of the somewhat negative results to which all inquiries into comparative taxation must lead, two general statements may be made with safety. One is that local taxation is much heavier in Germany than in this country in the case of persons with large incomes (inasmuch as the income tax is progressive), the industrial and trading classes (owing to the double taxation of income from commercial enterprise), and owners of real estate (who are likewise assessed in two capacities). Of these three classes the industrialists and traders fare least favourably. Individuals, firms, and companies falling into this class pay two local taxes at least the income and trade taxes ; in . the case of companies the former tax is levied in Prussia at a higher rate than applies generally, while, if they happen to own the premises in which their business is carried on, they have to face a further tax on land and buildings. The consequence is that this class of taxpayers bears burdens of a weight unknown in this country. In general it may be said that their local taxes amount to between two and three times the amount of the State income tax. Thus, to cite actual cases, seven large Westphalian companies in the steel and colliery industries in a recent year paid State and municipal taxes of the following amounts respectively : 10,260 and MUNICIPAL TAXATION YIELD OF LOCAL TAXES 433 28,000 ; 2010 and 6750 ; 5700 and 13,170 ; 6220 and 12,880 ; 3450 and 9110 ; 2460 and 5180 ; and 1010 and 6750. Local taxes equal to 6 195., 5, 4 45., and 3 6s. a head of all workmen employed, and to from i|d. to 5d. per ton of the output, are paid by certain Westphalian colliery companies, and these taxes are increased to the extent of from 25 to 40 per cent, by the State income tax. Not long ago the Press organ of the Rhenish- Westphalian industry stated that " the factory chimney has to smoke two months in the year in order to pay the local taxes alone." In spite of their heavy burdens, however, these firms are still able, by reducing the technical costs of production to the lowest possible point, to compete successfully in foreign markets and to distribute high dividends. The other safe generalisation is that in German towns without an abnormally high rate of income tax persons in receipt of very small incomes are proportionately taxed more leniently than with us. Without giving the details of the calculations involved, it may be stated that while in 32 out of 56 Prussian towns with a population in excess of 50,000, for which data are available, incomes up to 33 a year and in 14 towns incomes up to 45 a year (both inclusive) were in 1911 exempted from any direct share in either local or national burdens, the mean rates of income tax, where levied, repre- sented the following annual calls upon small incomes : Incomes of Above 21 to ^33 33 to 45 ^45 to ^52 IDS. 52 i os. to 60 ^60 tO 67 105. 67 i os. to 75 75 tO ^82 IDS. 82 IDS. to 90 ^90 to Local income tax. i s. d. 4 5 8 9 10 10 16 2 i i I 7 8 10 i 17 10 2 6 10 2 15 10 If these amounts of taxation are compared with the rates on small occupiers in English towns of the same size, estimated, according to returns obtained from a number of such towns for the purposes of this book, at an average of 25 per cent, of the rent where the compounding system applies, it will be 2 F 434 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY found that English working-class householders are on the whole much worse off. For on the foregoing ratio the rates included in rents of 45., 55., 6s., and 75. 6d. a week, as the case may be, would amount to 2 izs., 3 55., 3 i8s., and 4 175. 6d. a year respectively. The inequity of the system of taxing on rental value hardly needs a severer condemnation than is contained in these figures. CHAPTER XVIII SURVEY AND COMPARISON Modern reform movements Constitution of local authorities Derivation of duties and powers Scope of administration Systems of local taxa- tion External supervision and control Concluding remarks. r I "*HE field of German municipal government having now A been surveyed, it will be useful to bring together some of the conclusions, and comparisons with English conditions, which our review seems to justify. The idea has largely prevailed in this country in the past, and possibly exists still, that here only is local government real as well as popular, liberal in substance as well as in spirit ; that here only are communities able to make their will prevail effectually within the entire province of organised civic life. How does this bold assumption square with the facts ? The answer to this question will enable us to do greater justice to the legislative genius and administrative capacity of another nation, and may not be entirely without profit to ourselves. Not until the municipal systems of the two countries are thus regarded side by side is it possible to appreciate fully how marked are their dissimilarities, how few and unimportant are the features they possess in common. Just as, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Stein, the Prussian statesman, with all his sympathy with England and his admiration for its political institutions, found little or nothing in our system of municipal government which he was willing to translate to the country of his adoption, so the great reform of the English corporations in 1835 showed no trace whatever of Prussian influence. 1 1 The principles underlying the municipal systems of the two countries decide this question. Professor Seeley points out, however, in his " Life and Times of Stein " (Vol. II, p. 229), that in the debates and blue-books in 435 436 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The remarks pertinent to this concluding chapter may be conveniently given under the five headings : constitution of local authorities, derivation of duties and powers, scope of administration, systems of local taxation, and methods of supervision and control, it being understood that now as hitherto comparison is made with the conditions applying to English boroughs and urban districts, as these correspond most nearly to German " towns." MODERN REFORM MOVEMENTS. One fact of special signifi- cance in the history of German municipal government cannot be too strongly emphasised at this point : the singular facility with which the system of Stein, introduced in Prussia over a century ago, has proved adaptable to the conditions of a period of unexampled change and expansion. Twice the Municipal Ordinance of 1808 has undergone revision the last time just sixty years ago yet in these revisions its basal principles were not departed from, and, remembering how Stein's ideas have influenced the municipal systems of the other States, it is literally true that German towns are to-day being governed, and governed with complete success, under laws devised to meet the conditions of an epoch when large communities did not exist, when local administration, fallen into disrepute and decay, had almost to be built up again from the ground, when one-half of the tasks which fall to the modern municipality were not so much as contemplated, when none of the great enterprises upon which the con- venience of local communities so largely depends and from which the local authorities draw so large a part of their revenue gas, water, and electricity works, tramway enter- prises, and the like existed ; when, in a word, the scope of which the history of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 is contained he found but one slight reference to Stein's reform, and that proceeding from a private member. He writes with delicate satire : "It has been sometimes hinted by German writers that the Municipal Corporations Act of our own Reform Ministry was borrowed from Stein's measure ; and assuredly it would have been no disgrace, but rather natural and praiseworthy, that our reformers should examine and profit by such a successful experiment tried in Prussia. Yet every Englishman feels instinctively convinced that our reformers did no such thing. What English statesman of that age would have dreamed of going to Prussia for lessons in self-government ? What English statesman of that age knew anything of Stein's legislation ?" SURVEY AND COMPARISON 437 local administration bore just such a relationship, in character and magnitude, to the great tasks that were coming, as the obligations of an absolute German prince of the eighteenth century bore to those of a constitutional Government of the twentieth. 1 It would be wrong to ignore the fact that reforms are desired and are necessary, yet the changes called for do not, as a rule, relate to organic matters, and some of them might be made at once in virtue of administrative action, or rather inaction. The principal claim of local authorities is that they shall be allowed to control in their own right, and not merely in the person of the mayor, the police arrangements in relation to such questions as public health, building regulations, traffic, and the like, with a view to ending the existing division of jurisdiction. A wider control over the administration of education which makes so large an inroad on local finance is also claimed, and the obligation to obtain the Government's consent in Prussia before the local income tax can be raised beyond the State income tax rates is felt to be a grievance. 2 Many towns also chafe against the legal obligation to seek Crown or other sanction to appointments of mayors and members of executives, and most towns would like to see the interference of the Government and its supervisory agents in general reduced to a minimum or abolished altogether. For it must be remembered that the conception of self- government held by German towns is far wider than that which appears to satisfy English municipal administrations, for the old idea of the town as an independent republic is still vigorous, and animates all endeavours for further liberty. The aims underlying these endeavours are the clear demarcation of the competence of local government and, most of all, absolute autonomy within that sphere. 1 " For the best and most useful parts of the Municipal Ordinance in its present form we must still go back to the original Ordinance of 1808," writes Dr. H. Preuss, and though these words refer to Prussia, they are equally applicable to the rest of the country. 1 A Government Bill for the amendment of the Prussian Communal Taxation Law now before the Prussian Diet (March, 1914) proposes to allow the communes to levy a local income tax up to 150 per cent, of the State tax without Government sanction. 438 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Yet even in regard to the matters in regard to which reform is desired, it must be understood that the need is more pressing in Prussia than in the rest of the country ; in some States police powers are already vested in the local authorities and appointments to the mayoralty and executive are subject to only formal confirmation, if to any at all. In general it may be stated with confidence that the oversight exercised by Government causes little inconvenience in practice and that in some of the States its influence upon the action of the local authorities is quite negligible. 1 CONSTITUTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES. It has been shown that in the constitution of the municipal authority the theory of the two countries and the practice built upon it are entirely different. While the English borough or urban district is governed on the unicameral principle by a body which unites deliberative with administrative legislative with executive- functions, in Germany the two sets of functions are kept separate and are assigned to different bodies. At the head of the English town or urban council is a mayor or chairman respectively, holding no special adminis- trative powers in virtue of his office, which is honorary, 3 though as the civic head of the town he is responsible for the general direction of local affairs, and in certain emergencies he may have to perform important functions in the name of the Crown. All the various departments of town govern- ment are nominally controlled by committees of voluntary workers, who may or may not have special knowledge of the duties they are elected to discharge, and who are responsible to the council for every single act they perform. In spite or because of the fact that the most attractive programme that can be placed before the ratepayers of an 1 This assertion is made on the strength of replies to questions on the subject issued for the purpose of this book to the chief mayors of important towns. The statements made were unequivocal. 2 Under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1882 (sect. 15 [4]) mayors " may receive such remuneration as the council think reasonable," but such payment is not regarded as payment for services rendered, and it has been held (in the case Attorney-General v. the Mayor of Cardiff) that the power to pay a salary must not be used in order to meet payments which would otherwise be illegal. SURVEY AND COMPARISON 439 average English town is one of a single clause a promise to keep down the rates at all costs the elections to the councils evoke much public spirit of a more or less indifferent moral value, and, as a rule, the towns probably secure as local adminis- trators men at least as good as they deserve. The chairmen and members of the various committees often bring to their work a capacity and skill which have won success and dis- tinction in their professional and commercial vocations, and in general they show a degree of devotion to civic service which seldom receives due public recognition ; yet the system affords no guarantee of technical knowledge and thorough oversight, and it is seldom possible for even the most ardent of these honorary servants to give to the work of his special department the close and detailed attention which it may or ought to need. The practical work of administration is done by able salaried officers, forming in the greater towns a large and powerful hierarchy, with the town clerk at the head, but each one of them is theoretically dependent upon the council or the several committees for direction in every matter, and he can only act independently within the limits expressly laid down for him. From first to last, therefore, the council as a whole is omni- potent in local government ; for good or ill, its will whether expressed directly or through the administrative committees must prevail ; and where public opinion is strong enough to award praise for success or blame for failure in administra- tion it is apportioned to the representative body and not to the officials who work behind the scenes. But because the independence and responsibility of the permanent officials are limited, and the constitution of the town councils continually changes, it is difficult to carry out, on any question whatever, large policies needing foresight and steady, continuous action, uninfluenced by the wavering favour of a fickle electorate. Such a system may be admirably suited to small and rudimentary organisations, but more and more it is proving inadequate to the government of modern municipalities, with their unlimited needs, far-reaching interests, and large and ever multiplying enterprises. 440 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY On the other hand, we have seen that the German municipal governments are organised on the bicameral principle. While the representative assembly, or lower house, is theoretically supreme in its general control over policy, and actually supreme in its control over finance, the collateral body is a permanent executive, composed sometimes altogether and always in part of salaried, professional officers, who are chosen as experts in their several capacities. Although elected by the town council, this executive, equally under the " magisterial " system of East Prussia and parts of South Germany, and the " mayoral " system of West Prussia and those districts which have been specially sub- jected to French influence, is for practical purposes independent and is at least as much so as the Government in relation to the British Parliament. At the head of this executive is the mayor, who is likewise a permanent official, chosen indeed at first for a limited period (twelve years) .but on re-election usually appointed for life. The operation of this system implies government by experts. It is a guarantee that every department of local administration is in the hands of men who are specialists in their own work. It is the business of these men to make administration efficient, without waiting for impetus from outside, and no weakness, ineptitude, or lack of public spirit on the part of the repre- sentative assembly, and no indifference or want of enlighten- ment on the part of the citizens, can exonerate them from this obligation as one inherent in their office. It is the right of the town council to debate to its heart's content and of the citizens to grumble, but upon the mayor and his colleagues rests the more important duty of showing their masters what ought to be done and of doing it. There is a growing belief on the part of municipal workers in this country who have seen the German system in practice that we shall before long be driven by the force of circum- stances to adopt some such arrangement as that of the permanent mayor and executive. The limits of municipal enterprise have of late years extended so widely and so rapidly that the system of honorary service already shows signs of breaking down. It cannot be expected that the busy SURVEY AND COMPARISON 441 professional and business men who fill our town councils can continue indefinitely adding one responsibility after another to their administrative work, as chairmen and members of com- mittees. At present they must give prodigally of their time on pain of a fatal sacrifice of efficiency, and the question has already arisen How soon will the point of exhaustion be reached ? If municipal enterprise and responsibilities con- tinue to grow, as they are bound to do, the alternatives on present lines are that the work must suffer or that it must be more and more handed over to the salaried officials, who, with their greater power, would still be without administrative responsibility. To these alternatives Germany adds a third choice the institution of executive bodies answering to its administrative magistracies, composed of proved experts, each one having charge of some special municipal task. It may be the com- mercial work of gas-making or tramway running, it may be the work of education or Poor Law administration, the control of municipal finance, the ordering of taxation, or the care of the municipal charities. Whatever the work is, the German citizen has the satisfaction of knowing that it is under the headship of some one individual who is responsible for its efficient oversight from beginning to end, who is a perfect master of every one of its details, and who knows more about it than anyone else. The institution which creates and the efficiency which justifies such a satisfaction are invaluable municipal assets. Whatever arguments may be advanced from the standpoint of expediency against the introduction of such a bureaucratic element into local government, they will derive little strength from the common objection that it is contrary to the principle of free self-government. Underlying much of the vague pre- judice against the German institutions of a paid mayor and executive, is the curious assumption that self-government which is not carried on directly by honorary service cannot be genuine. Such a theory, if tenable, would convict the most democratic systems of political government in existence. For we no longer pass our laws in assemblies of the people convened on hill-tops or in the market-place. On the contrary, 442 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANy without any suspicion that the democratic principle is being violated, we elect legislatures which, though possessing un- limited power, are nevertheless quite content to allow their wishes to be executed by paid Ministers and civil servants, over whose executive action they exercise only the most superficial and shadowy control and the nation at large none at all. But what, after all, is the essence of free self-government ? Not necessarily direct government by the people in all details, for such an arrangement is in practice impossible. The essential thing is that the will of the people shall be done, with its knowledge or at least with its acquiescence, that it shall be free to say how and by whom its will shall be executed, and hence to give or withhold administrative powers at its option. If these conditions are fulfilled all the essentials of " free " and " genuine " self-government exist, and a system of administration, whether national or local, established on these principles will be more rather than less efficient if it calls in the aid of experts who have made a life's study of the special work which they are required to do. DERIVATION OF DUTIES AND POWERS. Different alike in origin, character, and extent are the powers exercised by the local authorities of the two countries. The English system is self-government by statutory delegation, the German system might be called self-government by prescriptive right, modified by administrative sanction. The principal powers of English urban authorities are derived from general statutes of three kinds : (a) the Acts under which they are constituted, i.e., in the case of boroughs, their Charters and Local Acts and the Municipal Corporations Act of 1882, and in the case of unincorporated towns the Local Government Act of 1894 ; (b) Acts assigning to them special administrative duties, as in regard to public health (principally the Public Health Act, 1875), education, housing, etc. ; and (c) a series of permissive or adoptive Acts relating likewise to specific matters, e.g., public libraries, baths, housing, etc., which may be applied at their option. Any powers which a town wishes to exercise beyond those sanctioned by SURVEY AND COMPARISON 443 laws of these kinds must be acquired on their own initiative and at their own cost by Private Acts (application for which is subject to the assent of the ratepayers as ascertained by town's meeting or by general poll) applying only to the authorities seeking them, or as regards certain questions by Provisional Orders granted and by-laws sanctioned by Govern- ment Departments (i.e., the Local Government Board and the Board of Trade) after inquiry, and subject to Parliamentary approval. An English local authority can exercise no powers whatever without sanction so derived, in each case of a statutory or quasi-statutory character. In contrast to this rigid system of reglementation we see the local authorities in Germany possessed of autonomy to an extent unknown in this country. While our borough and urban councils can only exercise such powers as have been delegated to or conferred upon them, German town councils can do anything that seems necessary to the good government of their areas and populations, and acts and measures only become ultra vires when they are expressly forbidden or are in conflict with the general law. Certain general duties and powers are assigned to the councils by statute, but probably the greater part of the work done by German municipal bodies is of a permissive character, and is done either in virtue of local statutes or by-laws obtained expeditiously by administrative sanction (i.e., the approval of the supervisory authority, and without legislative procedure at any stage), or without outside sanction of any kind. It has been shown that no cost is incurred in obtaining these local by-laws though often conferring powers corresponding to those obtained by our local Acts of Parliament where long and tedious legal and legislative procedure, attended by the expenditure of thousands of pounds, may be necessary in this country. One effect of the English method of imposing duties upon local authorities from without is that independent initiative on a large scale is impossible. Perhaps its greatest con- demnation lies in the fact that it dooms to inaction the pro- gressive authorities which would be only too ready to act vigorously upon a multitude of questions if they were allowed, yet are bound hand and foot by the paralysing doctrine that 444 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY nothing can be done that is not expressly authorised by the law. If English local authorities have lagged behind those of Germany in such matters as town planning, Poor Law reform, the medical inspection of schools, and the feeding of necessitous children, it is not their fault, but the fault of the system under which they work. It is not complimentary to our national sense of capacity that our local education authorities could not institute a system of medical examination of children or even provide play-centres and other means of recreation for scholars during the holidays until special legislation had been passed to empower them so to do. 1 In these and other matters German local authorities could and did act on their own initiative, without the need of statutory powers, and hence they were able to anticipate us. SCOPE OF ADMINISTRATION. Most of the powers and functions exercised by the local authorities are naturally the same in both countries. There are, however, important exceptions to this rule. On the one hand, the English local authorities have full responsibility for a group of important duties, relating specially to public health, the regulation of buildings, traffic, etc., which in some German States are reserved to the province of the police authority, and hence of the central executive. The inconvenience of this arrange- ment is lessened, however, owing to the fact that the State usually delegates local police functions to the mayor personally. With this exception municipal jurisdiction in Germany covers the entire range of local affairs, where with us the Poor Law and to a large extent education are administered by different bodies. The result is that in all his civil relationships the German citizen has to do with one local authority. Perhaps the greatest correspondence is found in the domain of trading and other enterprises and undertakings carried on in the interest of public convenience and of revenue, though Germany has advanced much further in the direction of what is commonly known as municipal communism. In the larger towns gas and water are now almost generally owned 1 Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, operative from January i, 1908. SURVEY AND COMPARISON 445 by the municipalities; electric power and light works and tramways to a less though to a rapidly increasing extent; the stock markets and abattoirs are invariably in public hands ; the sea and river port towns generally have a large share in the local harbours and docks ; and other public enterprises common to most large towns are market halls, theatres and concert halls, land and mortgage banks, people's savings banks, and pawnshops. In Germany, however, private enterprise in some of these matters is subject to restrictions which often go a long way towards reconciling the municipal socialist to a tolerant policy of live-and-let-live. For example, where a local authority hands over valuable tramway, light, and power monopolies to private corporations it not only regulates the prices of supply and other conditions of working, but secures a substantial share of the profits. In several directions German local government exceeds the limits recognised in this country. This is particularly the case in regard to the planning of towns, public ownership of and trading in land, the " social welfare " work of the municipalities, and the general measures adopted by them for the promotion of culture outside the provision and support of schools. In regard to town development German towns are still at an advantage over our own, in spite of the reforms introduced by the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909 applying to Great Britain. One of the principal merits of the German system is that inasmuch as the local authority lays out the streets and determines the directions in which the towns shall extend, town building is not fortuitous but follows a regular scheme, often prepared a generation in advance, and in this way land speculation is to some extent checked. Yet the advantages of systematic growth would not be obtained, or obtained in the same degree, but for the bold policy of land purchase pursued by all progressive municipalities. It has been shown that many German towns own from one- third to two-thirds of their areas, and that few towns, large or small, are without a large reserve of land available in part .for building purposes. Often the estate held within the administrative district is supplemented by still larger 446 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY possessions on the periphery or in the immediate suburbs. As a consequence of their land policies it generally happens that when sites are needed for public buildings or works there is no necessity to buy from private owners at exorbitant panic prices. Further, a municipal authority is often able by its competition in the land market to use its influence in favour of healthy investment in place of blind speculation. It follows also that to the extent that municipalities own eligible land in and around their areas they share in the increased value caused by growth of population and public enterprise. The policy of landowning on a large scale more than any other cause has enabled German municipalities to lay out their towns on large lines and to provide for the needs of the remote future. We are beginning to copy German example in town plan- ning, but we are at a great disadvantage in so doing, for the mischief resulting from the past unsystematic and haphazard development of our urban areas is to a large extent irre- parable. Even so, we are running no risks of precipitate action. For under the Act of 1909, admirable as are its objects and great though its superiority to earlier housing legislation, local authorities are left in the old condition of dependence even on so immediate a matter as the planning of their areas. Town planning schemes can have effect only if approved by order of the Local Government Board, which has power to alter any scheme and can make its sanction conditional on such modifications and conditions as it may think fit to impose. Before the Local Government Board itself can approve a scheme, however, notice of its intention to do so must be published in the Gazette, and if any person or authority interested objects, the draft order must be laid before each House of Parliament for a period of not less than thirty days during the session of Parliament. If during this period either House presents an address to the King against the draft, or any part of it, the scheme will fall to the ground, though a new scheme may be prepared. And this piece of legislation otherwise so excellent in purpose belongs to a time when all political parties are agreed as to the necessity of a large devolution of Parliamentary powers. SURVEY AND COMPARISON 447 In the planning of their towns German local authorities need no special powers, except in the event of expropriation being necessary, and in some States even this extreme measure is expeditiously carried through without legislative procedure. For the rest, the local authority, in the exercise of its ordinary powers, fixes the building lines, constructs the streets at the expense of the adjacent owners, requires builders to erect their houses on the streets so prepared, and in some States pools awkwardly situated properties and redistributes the land amongst the several owners with a view to its more advantageous use from the standpoint of public convenience and interest. If any dispute arises between the authority and the property owners it is decided by the supervisory authority. No Ministry of State interferes from first to last, and if all the municipalities in a State were to prepare new " town plans " at once the legislature would never hear of it. In regard to land ownership in particular English legislation is curiously distrustful of local authorities. Normally municipal corporations may not purchase and hold, otherwise than for immediate use for the purpose for which it was purchased, more than five acres of land either within or without the borough, and a larger holding is only possible when special powers have been obtained, while they may not sell land without the sanction of the Local Government Board. 1 Further, land not used for the purpose for which its purchase was authorised must be sold unless the Local Government Board directs otherwise. On the other hand, there is no limit, save its financial resources, to the amount of land which a German town may own ; it may both buy and sell without permission, unless borrowing powers are necessary ; and the Governments have for years urged the towns to invest freely 1 While section 105 of the Municipal Corporations Act empowers a municipal corporation to acquire only five acres, the corporations have, of course, powers under other general Acts to acquire an unlimited amount of land so long as it is required for the purposes of the Acts in question. For example, under section 175 of the Public Health Act. 1875. they can purchase any lands within or without their district for the purposes of that Act. That section, however, contains a provision which seems to indicate the desire on the part of Parliament that Local Authorities shall not be large landowners, because it provides that any lands acquired under that Act and not required shall be sold unless the Local Government Board otherwise directs. 448 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY in the purchase of land and to retain as much as possible in their own possession. The activities of German towns in the domain of " social welfare " and in the advancement of culture, as described in previous chapters, if not foreign to the English conception of local government, are at least not contemplated by any existing powers. SYSTEMS OF LOCAL TAXATION. Divergencies even more fundamental differentiate the English rating system from the German system of local taxation and give to it a position well-nigh unique in singularity, and also in inequity. The English local authorities raise the principal part of their revenue in the form of rates assessed on what is approximately the rental value of the property within their administrative areas and payable entirely by the occupiers and not by the citizens as such. As with the administrative powers of local authorities in general, so with their taxing powers in particular, the law of rating is inflexible, and no local deviation from the principle of meeting public needs by a single tax on occupiers measured by rent is permissible. The local authorities are allowed to share in the proceeds of certain State taxes and duties, e.g., the estate duty, dog and gun licences, customs and excise duties, etc., but these revenues are in the nature of grants-in-aid or subventions. A method of taxation which is automatic and mechanical is either a masterpiece of constructive statesmanship or a masterpiece of ineptitude. No one has ever claimed that the English rating system is the former, and it is hardly surprising that no countries outside the British Empire 1 have paid it the flattery of imitation. Apart from injustices done to individuals and classes of individuals, some of its least defensible features are that (a) it is in effect a tax on living space, and in consequence sets a premium upon a low standard of housing ; (6) small incomes are taxed with undue severity and owing to the high ratio of rate to rent a dispro- portionate share of the cost of relieving poverty ultimately 1 The principle of local rating on rental value has been adopted in some of the Australian and South African colonies. SURVEY AND COMPARISON 449 falls on the poor themselves ; (c) the occupiers pay for a large amount of expenditure which directly increases the value of land, with the result of enhancing the cost of houses and rents ; and (d) the accident of their not being house- holders secures to a large section of the inhabitants exemption from direct local taxation, although it benefits by local expenditure with the taxed portion of the community. Such a privileged class of non-taxpayers is unknown elsewhere in Europe. In contrast to this mechanical system of local taxation, the German towns enjoy a very wide measure of autonomy. Certain taxes have statutory sanction, though their im- position is theoretically optional, but beyond these each local authority can adopt other taxes in accordance with its special conditions and needs. Moreover, new taxes can be introduced with singular facility. No special law or legal procedure of any kind is required ; all that is necessary is that the local authority shall prepare a scheme and obtain the approval of the State supervisory authorities. While the English rating system is based on no other principle save that of raising money with the least possible trouble, the German system is deliberately devised so as to give expression to two clear and complementary principles, viz., taxation according to ability and taxation according to reciprocal benefit. The application of these principles necessitates taxation in a variety of ways, and hence the English student may at first sight be disposed to regard the German system as excessively cumbrous. When its principles are understood, however, much of the apparent complexity disappears and the im- pression left is that of a system elaborate indeed and possibly costly to administer yet singularly well-balanced and equit- able. The backbone of German local finance is the income tax, levied in the form of a supplement to the State income tax, and falling lightly on small incomes but progressive up to a certain maximum rate. To this tax all persons, whether householders or not, in receipt of income above a specified minimum, are liable. In German towns more than one-third of the entire population pay this tax, while the proportion of 2G 450 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY residents of an English town who are assessed to rates, as occupiers, is barely a quarter. The local taxes next in im- portance are those on real estate, viz., the direct taxes on land and buildings and the indirect taxes on sales of property and on unearned increment. There are also taxes on commercial undertakings, luxury and amusement taxes, and sundry others. It has been shown that taking the mean rates of 84 of the larger towns of Germany, no less than 51-9 per cent, of all the revenue from taxation for local purposes is derived from income taxes and taxes allied to them (poll taxes and rent taxes), 28-8 per cent, from real estate taxes of various kinds, 13-3 per cent, from taxes on commercial undertakings, and 6 per cent, from consumption, amusement, and other minor taxes. Further, special contributions are levied on the owners where the value of their property is increased owing to public expenditure, and the owners almost invariably bear the costs of sewage removal, scavenging, and the removal of house refuse. Many as the local taxes are in Germany, they are not im- posed in an arbitrary manner. As regards the principal taxes, e.g., those on income, real estate, and commercial occupations, the general rule is followed of charging to them such expenditure as may fairly be regarded as incurred for the special advantage of those who pay these several taxes. For example, outlay upon the construction of streets, upon sewerage works, upon the acquisition of State and provincial institu- tions and garrisons (since all German towns are ambitious to have State institutions in their midst and to be garrison towns), and continuation schools is regarded as specially beneficial to property owners and the trading classes, and hence as proper to be charged to the real estate and trade taxes. On the other hand, expenditure on account of elementary schools, poor relief, public health, and security (i.e., police), and the general administration is regarded as for the benefit of the inhabitants in common and as proper to be covered by the local income tax, which falls upon every inhabitant, whether a householder or not, in receipt of income above a specified amount, variable according to the State, and again SURVEY AND COMPARISON 451 according to the towns within each State. Certain other expenditure is regarded as suitable to be charged to all these taxes jointly, e.g., expenditure on the maintenance, cleaning, and lighting of the streets and public places, the upkeep of sewerage works, fire brigades, and higher schools. That this method of apportioning expenditure on the principle of reciprocal benefit is perfectly practicable is proved by the fact that it is universally adopted ; and that the principle of taxing real estate in particular proportionately to the advantages conferred upon it by public expenditure is regarded as equitable by the property owners themselves may fairly be concluded from the facts that the town councils control the budget absolutely and must sanction every tax, and that in the larger States house-owners are by statute secured a representation upon the councils of at least one-half, while in practice their representation ranges from over one- half to as much as five-sixths. The growing expenditure incumbent on our local authori- ties, due not merely to the liabilities assumed by them volun- tarily in pursuance of progressive administration, but to the increasing obligations imposed upon them by Acts of Parliament, is bound before long to reach a point when house rent will cease to be regarded as a fair test and measure of ability to bear local burdens, and when other sources of taxation, falling upon sections of the population now exempted, will become necessary. Here German practice may afford us useful suggestions. Apart from the strength of tradition, the deep-rooted dislike of fundamental changes characteristic of English people in general, and the resistance to be expected from those who have a vested interest in the present system of charging the whole cost of local government to the occupiers an entire departure from and perversion of the principle of " rating " as originally introduced and understood the most obvious difficulty in the way of a fairer incidence of local taxation is the absence in this country of the institution of a local income tax. Nevertheless, even without such a tax much might be done to alleviate the inequities of the rating system, following the German principle of taxing for local 452 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY purposes according to benefit received. Thus expenditure deemed to be for the special advantage of real estate might be charged wholly or partly to the owners on the basis either of a rental or a sale value assessment of their properties. An incidental effect of such a measure would be that the cost of local government would henceforth be shared by part at least of the large class of non-occupying residents which in every town evades local taxation altogether, though enjoying on equal terms with householders the benefits of local expenditure. Only by the introduction of some form of local income tax, however, would it be possible to require this class of persons as a whole to bear its rightful share of the burden of local taxation. EXTERNAL SUPERVISION AND CONTROL. The differences in the external control exercised over local authorities in the two countries will be shown by comparison to relate rather to its form than its extent. Owing to the elaborate legal and administrative provision made for supervising the action of German town councils in various matters, it would be natural to assume that these bodies are in a quite special degree subject to Government interference and check. It is possible to over- look the fact that the control exercised by the central authority in the United Kingdom, particularly through the three Local Government Boards, is surprisingly thorough, and in some directions exceeds anything known in Germany. The theory of control from above in each country is that the State bears ultimate responsibility for the public welfare, and hence is entitled to satisfy itself that all the duties and functions which it delegates to local authorities are efficiently discharged. In this country supervision is further justified on the ground that as the State makes liberal grants in aid of local taxation for certain purposes it is both its right and its duty to see that the money so given is properly expended a reasonable claim, which must not, however, be allowed to obscure the fact that the strictest control is that exercised over a department of local government to the cost of which the State makes a comparatively small contribution, i.e., the administration of the Poor Law,, SURVEY AND COMPARISON 453 The fundamental difference between the two systems is that in this country supervision is centralised and is exercised directly and bureaucratically by the State through different Ministries, i.e., the Local Government Board in relation to local government generally, the Board of Trade in relation to electrical undertakings and tramways, the Home Office in relation to police matters, and the Board of Agriculture in relation to veterinary matters. In Germany, on the other hand, the central authority delegates the duty of supervision to local administrative officials and bodies, the former being part of the State bureau- cracy and the latter containing a lay and even a representative element. Advantages may no doubt be claimed for both systems ; ceteris paribus, the exercise of control from the centre may be assumed to ensure completer impartiality and a greater regard for general interests where these seem to conflict with local interests, while under the decentralised German system full weight can be given to local knowledge and circumstances, there is not the same disposition to subordinate common- sense considerations to a slavish regard for forms and pre- cedents, the official is balanced by the lay view, and pro- ceedings are in general marked by greater promptitude and expedition. The extent to which supervision is exercised by the State in this country differs greatly according to the standing of the local government authority ; it is greatest in the case of the urban and rural district councils and the boards of guardians, allied to them in constitution, and least in the case of the municipal corporations. In general the appointment and dismissal of medical officers, sanitary inspectors, and Poor Law officers must be approved by the Local Government Board in virtue of the fact that their salaries are partly paid by Government ; the appointment of public analysts must be approved by the same Board and that of chief constables by the Home Office. Except in the case of the police adminis- tration, public officers in Germany are appointed by the municipal authority without consultation with either Ministry or supervisory authority. 454 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY Further, in this country there is a large range of powers which can only be exercised by local authorities subject to the sanction of one of the central departments of State. Thus the Local Government Board must make all Provisional Orders and confirm all by-laws adopted by local authorities under the Public Health, Housing, and other Acts ; the Board of Trade does the same in relation to electrical and tramway undertakings ; and the Home Office must confirm by-laws relating to the police. The Local Government Board's sanction must be obtained before authorities can carry out town planning and housing schemes of any kind, and also water and sewerage schemes (a) if objection is taken to proposed sewerage works or water mains outside the authority's district ; (b) if objection is taken to the construction of a reservoir ; (c) if compulsory powers are required ; or (d) if a loan is required, which is almost invariably the case. Provisional Orders are required for water or sewerage schemes when compulsory powers are needed for the acquisition of lands. A borough council may neither promote nor oppose a Bill in Parliament without the Local Government Board's assent, and rural authorities may not even plant trees or erect monuments in their streets unless the Board first authorises them so to do. In Poor Law matters the Local Government Board exercises control in every direction, not merely imposing upon the local bodies the general policies they shall adopt, but laying down rules for their action in every detail of internal administration ; so that boards of guardians are in reality merely so many local committees through which the will of the central authority is enforced. In the administration of education the influence of the central authority in the person of the Board of Education is equally intimate and decisive. And all these forms of super- vision and control are enforced by means of inspectorates, covering the whole country, while in the background there is a coercive weapon for use against contumelious authorities in the form of the judicial mandamus, As to financial matters in particular the general rule applies that local authorities cannot borrow for any object whatever without direct sanction in each individual case, unless they have obtained special borrowing powers in virtue of local SURVEY AND COMPARISON 455 Acts of Parliament, which powers, again, must be specific as to purpose, though there is an exception in the case of loans obtained on security of lands, works, or other property ac- quired for the purpose of sewage disposal. If a local council needs money for permanent works, not only must it obtain the assent of the Local Government Board (or the Board of Trade if it is required for a tramway), but it must go through the elaborate form of a local inquiry held by the Board's officers. The assent of the Local Government Board must also be obtained to a loan required for an electrical under- taking, though the department to authorise such an under- taking, to approve the scheme, and to make the regulations is the Board of Trade. Moreover, the finance of urban and rural district councils and boards of guardians, and also the education accounts of borough councils which are the education authorities for their areas, are subject to audit by Government officials. In contrast to this highly centralised system of control over local authorities, the full range of which is not covered by the foregoing summary, Germany has instituted a system of control by district supervisory officers and bodies, the latter partly elected, forming part of the higher administrative organisation of the country, whose powers are limited to specific acts and departments of local government. Education is, for obvious reasons, as much controlled from the centre in Germany as in this country. Poor Law administration, on the other hand, is regarded as a local concern, and there is no outside interference even on large questions of policy. New powers can, as a rule, be acquired by the simple process of adopting by-laws which become operative directly the super- visory authority has signified approval, without appeal to Parliament or Ministry ; and with the assent of the Ministry of Finance new taxes can be introduced. While in this country the works which may be executed and (in the case of some local authorities) even the buildings which may be erected are specified in Acts of Parliament, and unless expressly authorised by private Acts must be sanctioned by the central authority in addition if loans are involved, German local authorities are, in general, free to undertake projects of any kind which 456 fall within the province of municipal government without any limitation, and it is only when loans have to be contracted in relation thereto that the question of sanction comes in, and then the assent of the local supervisory authority is sufficient. As a rule, appeal is allowed from the lower to the higher supervisory authorities, but in some matters final decision rests with one of the Ministries of State. The last measure of coercion open to the Government in the event of a local administration proving refractory is the dissolution of the town council and the transaction of its duties in commission pending the election of another body a measure seldom resorted to. There is no institution in Germany corresponding to the Government audit, and in regard to accounting the position of a municipal authority there corresponds closely to that of the English corporations, for while the accounts of the latter are audited by three auditors, one appointed by the mayor from amongst the members of the town council and the other two by the burgesses none of whom, however, need know anything about finance or accountancy those of German town councils are audited under the supervision of the per- manent mayor and the chairman of the council. Where the strict letter of the statute is observed, the two systems of audit are equally defective and unsatisfactory, and it is not surprising that the larger municipalities in both countries are more and more recognising the wisdom of having their accounts examined and certified by professional accountants. In Germany the public is protected to some extent owing to the obligation of every local council to supply to the super- visory authority a copy of its budget immediately on prepara- tion and before it has been discussed by the council, not in order that it may be sanctioned for that is unnecessary but that it may be scrutinised. That authority is thus able to call attention to any expenditure which it may be proposed to make improperly or to the absence of provision for expenditure which ought to be incurred. The English system of Local Government Board audit, where required by statute, leads at the most to the surcharge or disallowance of illegal expenditure after the event, though, numerous as are such surcharges and SURVEY AND COMPARISON 457 disallowances, the general practice of the Board amounts to no more than a pious protest, for in the great majority of cases appeals against the decision of the official auditors are gracefully allowed. It may be noted here that there is no provision in German legislation for limiting expenditure upon certain objects, as in this country to the proceeds of a certain rate unit, e.g., in the case of public libraries, higher education, etc. It is evident from what has been said that State super- vision is very real in both countries, yet on the whole active interference of the kind in Germany relates to minor matters ; when it comes to large measures and undertakings the German authorities enjoy a degree of independence which with us is unknown. Certainly bureaucratic Germany knows no such concretion of administrative power as our many-sided Local Government Board. When one remembers that this depart- ment possesses the right to direct, control, and override the action of local authorities at so many points, to give or with- hold assent not only to their acquisition of special powers but to their use of powers created by general statutes, to deter- mine whether they shall be allowed to borrow and what they shall borrow for, to surcharge expenditure which has not been objected to beforehand, to force upon them its imperatives by means of the deprivation of grants of public money due, and in the last resort by the process of mandamus, and, added to all this, to scrutinise their doings by means of its corps of inspectors and auditors, one may well wonder if anywhere else in the world bureaucracy exists in so powerful and so highly concentrated a form. CONCLUDING REMARKS. It is not necessary to carry comparison into minor details of local government, though in every direction interesting points of difference occur, and few of them are without some special significance. Nor are the comparisons which have been made intended to convey the idea that either system of administration in its entirety is the superior of the other, or to suggest the ex- pediency of wholesale imitation. The institutions of every country are the outcome of its peculiar conditions, they 458 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY follow certain more or less definite lines of development, and inevitably express with varying fidelity the traditions and mental habit of its people. Both in England and Germany the spirit and forms of local government have been largely determined by the course of their political history and the character of their political institutions. In both countries local government stands in intimate relationship to the central authority the State, but with the fundamental difference that in one country the State represents not merely in theory but in fact the nation's collective life and will, while in the other it incorporates even to-day a personal sovereignty, whose prerogatives have indeed been limited by national constitutions and legislatures, yet because of that very fact, have become within their constitutional limits more definite, more real, perhaps more enduring than before. German intellects have been sharpened and learned German books have been written by the hundred upon the subtle differences between State supremacy in a collective and a personal sense as applied to local administration. Such questions are irrelevant to an exposition which is not one of theories of jurisprudence but of practical questions, and they have been passed over. What is profoundly interesting and significant for us is the fact that there have sprung out of a soil apparently so little favourable to the growth of free and independent institutions systems of local government offering in some respects far larger opportunities for civic activity and ambition, and embracing a far wider range of duties and responsibilities, than can be claimed by the corresponding institutions in our own country. Happily for Germany, the authors of its systems of municipal administration did not limit their functions and powers by inflexible statutes, but, treating them as organic institutions, left them room for indefinite growth and development. We have built up our system of local government throughout upon the doctrine of delegation of legislative and Ministerial sanctions and to every type of local authority we have assigned fixed limits of action which it may not transgress. The elaborate provisions for keeping local authorities, even SURVEY AND COMPARISON 459 of the highest status, in perpetual tutelage are inspired by a profound spirit of distrust, a spirit singularly out of harmony with the prevailing tendencies in other spheres of govern- ment, yet so deeply rooted in tradition and custom that even to-day every new devolution or extension of administrative duties is accompanied by all the old harassing reservations, checks, and safeguards, devised for utterly different conditions. It is not the only department of our national life which is being governed by the traditions and spirit, the precedents and preconceptions, of times with which the present has little or nothing in common. Every age has its special tasks to perform, and their due discharge is a paramount duty to the future, which only thus can come into its certain heritage of responsibility untrammelled by arrears of neglected work and unencumbered by the debts of past inefficient steward- ship. Why, then, should the present at every turn be impeded by the dead hand of tradition, and be doomed to lethargy and inaction by a spurious veneration for forms and conventions which, though they have served their day, are now ineffectual and effete ? Sociologists, surveying their peculiar domain, agree that no tendency of present-day social movement is more persistent, more impressive, more distinctively "modern" than the pre- vailing eagerness for new powers of expansion the power to act freely, to attempt and achieve, the power to realise and develop personality, the power to translate into fact the seductive theory, the haunting vision, the impelling conviction. In every part of the social organism this instinct of self- expression may be seen attaining a new vigour and directing itself towards large, ambitious, and often daring ends in the hurly-burly of political rivalries, in the undisciplined struggles of industry and commerce, in the orderly advance of science, in the awakening of labour to a new consciousness and a vague yet intensely real craving for wider opportunities, a better chance, and a fuller life. It is inconceivable that our municipal organisations should be expected to remain outside this modern stream of development, indifferent to its profound significance, giving no clear response to the clamant challenge of a new age and a changed order. 460 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY It is for municipal workers in this country themselves to consider whether our existing system of local government, with its grudging recognition of responsibility, its jealous withholding of powers which elsewhere are exercised without permit or restriction, and its highly centralised system of supervision and reglementation, satisfies the aspirations of the present or is likely to meet the needs of the coming time. APPENDICES I. ORGANISATION FOR PURPOSES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY (TO CHAPTER l) (i) PRUSSIA IN stating the principles underlying organisation for local government in Germany it is only needful to refer at length to Prussia, since the corresponding organisations of the other larger States agree in broad outlines, in spite of much variety in nomenclature. The Kingdom of Prussia is organised for the purposes of local government, and also of State supervision, into provinces, Govern- ments (or Government Districts), circles (Kreise), and communes (both urban and rural) and manors ; while for certain police purposes rural communes and manors are formed into police districts (Amtsbezirke). These several divisions were introduced into some of the provinces at different times, and subject to various modifica- tions in matters of detail, but in main features the local govern- ment authorities are the same throughout the kingdom. The organisation of the provinces, districts, and circles of the six eastern provinces was from 1872 forward modified in the direction of greater decentralisation and the extension of the civil as dis- tinguished from the bureaucratic element in local administration. THE PROVINCE : THE CHIEF PRESIDENT. The administrative head of the province is the Chief President (Oberpresident) who is appointed by the Crown. Inasmuch as he is the highest repre- sentative of the Crown and the State within his administrative area, his nearest counterpart in this country might seem to be the Lord-Lieutenant of a county. The Prussian Chief President, however, combines with equal rank wider jurisdiction and greater authority than a Lord-Lieutenant. As an administrative official he has points of similarity to the prefect of a French Department not least in his identification with the Government and its policy but again with the difference that his powers and functions are wider and more responsible. He is the State in miniature in the civil life of the province ; he superintends matters and institutions 461 462 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY extending beyond the jurisdiction of a district " government " or relating to the entire province, he directs the affairs of the Pro- vincial Diet, and he exercises general control over all the " govern- ments " within the province, granting or withholding sanctions on the Executive's behalf where prescribed by law, and in many matters acting as a final court of appeal ; and he is responsible for certain military functions and in time of war or civil commotion exercises far-going prerogatives in this capacity. PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. The Chief President is assisted by the Provincial Council (Rat) and a number of auxiliary officials, who act on his directions. The council consists of the Chief President (or his deputy), acting as chairman, a higher administrative official accredited to his department (or a deputy), nominated by the Minister of the Interior, and five other members chosen by the Provincial Committee (Ausschuss) from amongst those residents of the province who are eligible to election to the Provincial Diet, each of these having also a deputy. The lay members of the council are as a rule appointed for six years. All ordinances issued by the Chief President need to be approved by the Council. PROVINCIAL DIET. The Provincial Assembly or Diet is con- stituted of deputies elected by the rural and urban circles, in the normal ratio of two per circle, with one more where the population reaches a certain number, varying from 40,000 to 80,000 according to the province, and then one further member for every additional 50,000 inhabitants. The deputies of the rural circles are chosen by the Circle Diets, and those of the urban circles by the executives and town councils in joint sitting, and election is for six years. The Provincial Diet is convened at least once in two years by the Chief President in the name of the Crown, and at such other times as business may require. The Diet elects its own chairman, but the Chief President has a right to be present at its meetings, which are public. Apart from the representatives sent by the towns the lay members of the Diet are for the most part large landowners. The Provincial Diet appoints (subject to approval by the Crown) a provincial director (Landeshauptmann or Landesdirektor) , whose duty it is to look after current business, but the executive organ is the Provincial Committee, consisting of a chairman and from seven to thirteen other members chosen by the Diet, either from its midst or from outside, with the director as an ex officio member. Committees may be appointed for the transaction of special business or the oversight of special institutions. Among the matters for which the Provincial Diets are respon- sible are education, roads, reclamation schemes, agricultural im- provements, institutions for lunatics, epileptics, and the blind, deaf and dumb, forced labour houses for convicted vagrants and LOCAL GOVERNMENT 463 certain other offenders, and the relief of poor persons without settlement. The Diet also controls the budget of the provincial administration and taxation for provincial purposes. The provinces are authorised to raise the necessary revenue, in so far as Govern- ment grants, the proceeds of provincial undertakings and institu- tions, and miscellaneous contributions and fees are inadequate, in the form of precepts on the communes leviable in respect of the direct taxes, viz., those on land, buildings, trading enterprises, and income, these taxes being collected by the communes on their behalf. DISTRICT GOVERNMENTS : THE DISTRICT PRESIDENT. The District Governments are organised for the purposes of the central executive, and are not corporate bodies, and at the head of each is the Government or District President. The " Government " is composed altogether of State officials, and at least one of its members must be qualified for the office of judge. The questions referred to the " Government " include State taxation, domains, forests, and primary education, but the President has independent jurisdiction in regard to some others. A " Government " is divided into two or more departments, each with a divisional director, and each section decides as a whole all the more important questions with which it has to deal, but the Government President exercises general supervision and has a suspensive veto. DISTRICT COMMITTEE. The " Government " shares power and responsibility with the District Committee (Bezirksausschuss) , which consists of the District President as chairman and six other members, of whom two (who must be qualified for the office of judge or for higher administrative rank respectively) are nominated for life by the Crown, while the other four (with four deputies) are chosen by the Provincial Committee for six years at once. Members of the Provincial Council may not simultaneously be members of the District Committee. This body exercises very important powers ; all police ordinances issued by the District President require its endorsement, it exercises supervision over the lower local government authorities, and it acts as a court of appeal as against the Circle Committees and also as a court of first instance for the hearing of administrative disputes. THE CIRCLES : THE LAN DRAT. The Circle as an administrative area corresponds broadly to the French arrondissement. Circles usually comprise a combination of urban and rural communes, with manors, but the larger towns are detached and form separate circles. The head of the Circle is the Landrat, who wields not only great administrative powers, but much political influence. He comes into contact with the communal authorities, other than those of the larger towns, more directly and more frequently than any other State administrative officials. Excluding the towns 464 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY which have been detached from his Circle in virtue of population, he exercises supervision over the communes and self-governing manors within that area, while the Government President is the higher instance in cases of reference and appeal. Only persons who possess the qualifications for the higher branches of the State administrative or the judicial service and have served for a pro- bationary period of four years in one of these services may hold the office. Although the Circle Diet pays his salary the Landrat is appointed by the Government and can be dismissed by it ; he is, in fact, expected to represent the Government's policy unwaveringly, even in political matters. THE CIRCLE DIET. This body consists of twenty-five members in Circles with a civil population not exceeding 25,000, with one member more for every 5000 additional inhabitants in Circles with a population between 25,000 and 100,000, and afterwards one more for every additional 10,000 inhabitants in Circles with a population exceeding 100,000. The members are chosen by a cumbrous method intended to secure equal representation of urban and rural districts and of large and small proprietors and business people respectively within the latter districts. Election is for six years. The Landrat acts as chairman. The Circle Diet represents the Circle organisation in corporate matters, discusses and decides on matters referred to it by the law or by Royal Ordinances, and in particular authorises all taxation necessary for the purposes of Circle government, and controls the budget and finance generally, including the contracting of loans. Special committees are appointed according to need. The Circle Diet usually issues an official gazette (Kreisblatt) in which all its orders, decisions, and announcements are published. Questions to which the Circle governments give special and increasing attention are the construction of main roads, light railways, and waterworks, the promotion of continuation and technical schools for rural communes, and the provision of libraries, hospitals, and sanatoria ; while in some districts rural housing schemes have been carried out by these bodies. The necessary revenues of the Circles are derived from Government grants, the proceeds of their trading undertakings and other institutions, fees, indirect taxes on transfers of property and land value increment, upon concessions in respect of the sale of alcoholic liquors, and dogs ; and when these resources are insufficient, from direct taxes, i.e., on land and buildings, trading enterprises, and income, these being collected by the communes together with their own taxes. THE CIRCLE COMMITTEE. The executive body is the Circle Committee, which consists of six members chosen by the Circle Diet for six years, with the Landrat as chairman exofficio. This Committee prepares and executes the resolutions of the Diet, manages the LOCAL GOVERNMENT 465 affairs of the Circle in accordance with the law and the Diet's decisions, appoints Circle officials, and exercises control over them. The Landrat convenes the meetings of the Committee, and directs the business delegated to it. Besides being an executive body the Circle Committee exercises supervision over the rural communal authorities and acts as an administrative court of first instance. It will be seen that in Provincial, District, and Circle administra- tions alike the State preserves a dominant position in virtue of the fact that a Government official is at the head and of the influence reserved to the bureaucratic element in the executive bodies. The special importance of the directing heads and executives of these three administrative divisions for the purposes of communal government lies in the fact that they act as the supervisory authori- ties in the name of the State ; their sanction is necessary to certain acts done or proposed to be done by the communal authorities, while the District and Circle Committees act as administrative courts of first instance in many matters, subject to a right of appeal to the higher instances. 1 RELATION OF TOWNS TO THE CIRCLES. Towns with a civil population varying from 25,000 to 40,000, according to the province, may claim to be detached for administrative purposes from the Circle to which they belong geographically and to be constituted independent Circles ; and the same privilege may be conferred on smaller towns by Royal Decree where special circumstances exist. A somewhat similar arrangement exists in Bavaria, where towns are described as " immediate " (unmittelbar} or " mediate " (mittel- bar) in relation to the " Districts." Withdrawal from a Circle is subject to financial adjustments, which in practice means that a town that wishes to go its own way has often to pay dearly in the first instance for its freedom. The desire of the towns to be emancipated from the Circles is natural, however, since while included they pay for meagre benefits received a disproportionately heavy amount of taxation as compared with the rural communes in the Circle. Not only so, but their influence in and upon the Circle Government is insignificant, while on the other hand they are subject to a large measure of control at the hands of the Provincial Council and the District Committee, whose constitution the Circle Diets are able indirectly to influence, for, as has been shown, while these bodies elect the Provincial Diet the latter in turn elects the Provincial Committee, and this nominates the honorary members of the Provincial Council and of the District Committee. 1 The question of Prussian administrative law. which lies beyond the scope of this book, is dealt with in Percy Ashley's " Local and Central Government" (in England, France, Prussia, and the United States), 1906. 2 H 466 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The effect of this population limit qualifying for detachment from a Circle is that a Circle may comprise, together with the distinctively rural communes, many towns, inasmuch as the urban status is to a large extent independent of the number of inhabitants. Although, therefore, the larger towns are, as a rule, detached from the Circles to which they belong geographically it would be in- correct to conclude that Circles other than the distinctively urban Circles (Stadtkreise) are strictly rural in character. At the census of 1910, of 1276 towns in Prussia only 99 formed independent (" Circle- free ") urban districts. These districts would correspond to the 43 " immediate towns " of Bavaria. A town which is excluded from the Circle passes from the juris- diction of the Landrat into that of the District President, while the functions of the Circle Diet and Committee in relation to communal matters are transferred to the municipal authorities, and the functions of the Circle Committee in relation to general adminis- tration to a special Town Committee consisting of the mayor (or a deputy) as chairman and four members of the municipal executive, chosen by the latter, but either the chairman or one of the other members must be qualified for judicial or higher administrative office. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS IN BERLIN. Special arrangements apply to Berlin, which for administrative purposes is detached from the province to which it belongs (Brandenburg). There the Chief President of the province of Brandenburg acts also as Chief President of Berlin, and exercises oversight over the communal government in place of the District President, while the place of the latter in many other matters is taken by a President of Police. Berlin has also its own District Committee, with a president nominated by the Crown, while the four elective members are chosen by the municipal executive and town council in joint sitting, though none of the members of these bodies may be appointed. This Committee acts as a court of reference in the case of certain administrative disputes. RURAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. It would be departing from the purpose of this book to digress further into a consideration of the system of local government in the rural communes. Two funda- mental characteristics, distinguishing the government of the urban from that of the rural communes, may be mentioned. One is that while the towns are usually governed by town council, executive, and mayor, the rural communes are governed by a representative council and a mayor or president, the latter alone exercising execu- tive powers. Furthermore, as the rural communes fall directly under the control of the Circle government and its head the Landrat, their independence is far less complete than that of the towns. With the rural communes may be ranked the manors (Gutsbezirke) LOCAL GOVERNMENT 467 common to Prussia, Bavaria, and other States. These are self- governed areas which were created out of the estates of the large proprietors when the peasants became the free owners of their farms and formed themselves into independent village communes. In these manors, which are specially numerous in the east of Prussia, and everywhere represent social conditions in a some- what primitive state of development, the large proprietors possess all the rights and are subject to the duties and liabilities of self- governing bodies. In Prussia, as in most other German States, their administration is regulated by special laws applying to them alone. (ii) THE OTHER STATES Bavaria has no provincial organisation, but is divided for pur- poses of administration into eight Circles, and these again are divided into administrative districts, over which are District Boards (Bezirksdmter). Each Circle forms a separate Government, of which the administrative organ is the Circle Council, while the administrative districts are similarly represented by District Councils. The District Councils are composed of large proprietors and delegates of the communes, with whom a State official confers in financial matters, while the Circle Councils consist of repre- sentatives of the District Councils, the larger towns, the large proprietors, the clergy, and the universities. Both councils elect executive committees of six members which direct their business. Saxony and Wiirtemberg are similarly divided into Government districts (called in Saxony Circles) corresponding broadly to the Prussian " Governments " in that they are State administrative divisions, while in Bavaria they are organised for purposes of self- government like the Prussian Circles. Between these higher districts and the communes come intermediate divisions as in Prussia, having their representative assemblies and executives. The system of Baden approximates to that of Bavaria, while the organisation of the grand duchy of Hesse adopts the Prussian divisions of Provinces and Circles, each with a State official as its administrative head, a Diet, and an executive committee. II. REGULATIONS OF MUNICIPAL LAND FUNDS (i) D USSELDORF A. T^ORMATION OF REAL ESTATE FUND. i. The lands and J7^ buildings set* forth in the register of October 3, 1901, the moneys at present remaining in the " Fund realised by the sale of real estate," in amount 7274, the mortgage claims credited to this fund, in amount 17,107, and such lands, buildings, sums of money, and claims as may in future be assigned by resolution of the Town Council or in virtue of these regulations shall form a separate and independently administered municipal fund, to be kept at the original amount, bearing the name " Real Estate Fund." 2. The current revenue of the Real Estate Fund, the receipts from the sale or leasing of properties assigned or falling to the Fund, the claims realised and other reversions, including any loans that may be assigned to the Fund for the purpose of carrying out the objects in view, may be used only in meeting the current expenditure of the Fund, in acquiring properties or rights in respect of the same, the erection of profitable buildings, the payment of interest, and the formation of sinking funds in respect of loans contracted, and in defraying the costs which have been incurred in acquiring any of the properties assigned to the Fund in accordance with Article i. 3. Properties which are exclusively intended to fulfil a definite municipal purpose shall not be acquired for the Real Estate Fund but for the said purpose. On the other hand, lands which are only in part intended for a definite purpose may be acquired for the Fund in the first instance. 4. Should properties assigned to the Real Estate Fund be applied later to municipal purposes the full value of the properties so used shall be paid to the Fund out of the votes assigned for the objects in view. Should the property, however, be used for any statutory object obligatory on the municipality, the compensation may be based on the value as set forth in the register of October 3, 1901, and in the case of properties acquired later may consist of the cost price increased by 3^ per cent, interest for every year which has expired since its purchase. 468 MUNICIPAL LAND FUNDS 469 5. Should the expenditure of the Fund in any year exceed the receipts the deficit shall be carried forward to the coming year. 6. The state of the Fund shall be shown every year in the form of a trading account and a balance sheet. The principles to be followed in preparing the latter shall be prescribed by the Deputa- tion administering the Fund. 7. The Real Estate Fund shall be so administered that the out- standing debt, in the form of the loans approved by the State supervisory authority, less the amount of outstanding claims, shall not at any time exceed i 55. a head of the population of Diissel- dorf at such time. In ascertaining the debt the value of the lands and buildings belonging to the Fund shall be disregarded. 8. The administration of the current business of the Fund and the preparation of proposals for submission to the Town Council shall rest with the " Deputation for the administration of the municipal real estate." B. REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE REAL ESTATE BELONGING TO THE MUNICIPALITY OF DUSSELDORF. 1. In the management of the municipal real estate (lands and buildings), in so far as the same is not used directly for the purposes of specific branches of the municipal administration, the Chief Mayor shall be assisted by a Deputation, formed in accordance with section 54 of the Rhenish Municipal Ordinance, bearing the name " Deputation for the administration of the municipal real estate." The Deputation shall exercise the rights vested in the Town Council under the Rhenish Municipal Ordinance, and in particular the right to empower the Chief Mayor to make pro posals to public authorities for the protection of the rights and interests of the town, to institute proceedings in the ordinary and administrative Courts, to appear against the same, to come to agreements in legal cases, and to renounce legal claims. 2. The Deputation shall be appointed by the Town Council and shall consist of six citizens entitled to vote in municipal elections, of whom four must be town councillors. The Chief Mayor shall decide whether and which technical officers of the municipality or other expert persons shall be summoned to the meetings of the Deputation. 3. The Deputation shall prepare proposals for (a) all purchases and sales of properties on behalf of the municipality, even when these properties are intended to fulfil or do actually fulfil the purposes of any branches of the municipal administration, but in the latter event the Committee in charge of the department con- cerned shall make recommendations to the Deputation ; (b) the erection of municipal dwellings ; (c) the letting and leasing of municipal properties, both built on and not built on, in so far as 470 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the yearly rent or interest exceeds 100, yet with the exception of the leasing of wharfage space and warehouse room at the docks. It shall, however, decide independently in regard to (a) the letting and leasing of municipal properties, both built on and not built on, where the yearly rent or interest does not exceed 100, with the exception of the letting and leasing of wharfage space and warehouse room at the docks ; and (b) the conditions upon which municipal properties shall be assigned to specific public purposes. (ii) MUNICH 1. The Committee shall bear the name " Committee for Municipal Traffic in Land." The members of the Committee and their deputies shall be elected by the Magistracy for the duration of an adminis-^ trative period and, in so far as they are not already bound to official secrecy by oath of office, they shall pledge their word of honour to observe secrecy regarding all the Committee's negotia- tions and announcements. They shall be bound by the instructions of the Magistracy. 2. It shall be the duty of the Committee to confer upon (a) all proposed purchases and sales of land of any considerable extent and of special importance which shall be referred to it by the Magistracy for this purpose ; (b) general questions of municipal land policy and matters appertaining thereto. It is entitled to make proposals to the Magistracy in regard to such questions and is bound to give opinions in regard to questions addressed to it by the Magistracy. The Committee shall examine all vouchers regarding the position of the land purchase fund and the street building fund, as well as the regular reports on municipal finance. The Committee shall decide regarding properties the purchase or sale of which is referred to it by the Town Council and Magis- tracy with full power to act. It shall in such cases execute the commission of the Town Council and Magistracy and give an account of its proceedings. In important cases falling within its competence the Committee can conclude provisional agreements in accordance with Article 181 of the Law regarding Fees. It is further authorised to make pro- posals to the Magistracy regarding the manner in which the municipal properties are being used, and in important cases regarding the letting or leasing of those properties, both built upon and not built upon. 3. The office of a member of the Committee is honorary ; but members receive repayment of actual outlay and, in the event of their having to travel or to undertake inspections, the prescribed allowances. MUNICIPAL LAND FUNDS 471 4. The Chief Mayor presides over the Committee and convenes the meetings, notifying the agenda. There shall be summoned to each meeting the four permanent legal reporters belonging to the Committee, as well as the ordinary members (not, however, their deputies) in such time that in the event of the inability of a member to attend it may be possible to invite a deputy. Should an ordinary member be prevented from attending his deputy shall be sum- moned. Deputies have the same rights as ordinary members of the Committee. Deputies to take the place of the legal members of the Committee shall be nominated by the Chief Mayor. 5. A quorum of the Committee shall exist when in addition to the reporter one legal member of the Magistracy, two civil members of the Magistracy, and three members of the Town Council are present, and decision shall be by simple majority of votes. 6. The Committee is empowered to take the opinion of experts or municipal officials and if necessary to summon the same to the meetings or to consider their written opinions. 7. The Committee shall keep a continuous record of the matters dealt with at its meetings, which record shall be certified by the acting chairman. The Committee may authorise a secretary, summoned to the meeting for the purpose, to make this record. (iii) CREFELD 1. A special account of the Land Fund shall be kept, and every year a report upon the Fund, containing a capital account, shall be issued. 2. Those municipal properties which are not intended for definite public purposes shall be transferred to the Fund. In future all properties to be acquired shall be paid for out of the moneys of the Fund, and, on the other hand, properties the use of which for a definite purpose is certain shall be paid for out of the credit specially provided therefore. 3. A register, with plans, shall be kept of the properties trans- ferred to the Fund, and it shall contain an exact drawing of every property not built upon. 4. Should any properties transferred to the Fund be wholly or partly used for definite public purposes, the values of the same shall be charged to the credit referred to in Article 2, and shall appear in the account of the Fund as receipts. The value of such a property shall consist of the purchase price with interest to the end of the month preceding its transfer to the Fund, less receipts derived from the use of the property. For every single property, therefore, a balance sheet shall be prepared at the end of the year, compound interest being reckoned. Interest shall throughout be reckoned at 4 per cent. In the case of buildings depreciation shall be deducted at a minimum rate of i per cent. 472 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY 5. The costs of acquiring properties shall be shown in the capital account, such costs including the purchase price, stamp duties, property transfer duty, and other costs, such as commission, in- curred in the transaction. 6. Interest in respect of the period between the date of purchase and the actual payment of the purchase money shall always be shown under the heading " interest " in the trading account. 7. The yearly statement shall show the total costs of acquiring a property. Where the payment of the purchase price is spread over two or more years, the total amount paid up to the end of the past year must be stated. On the completion of every transaction the total expenditure shall be shown, and balances remaining on mortgage loans shall be noted. III. BY-LAWS RELATING TO BETTERMENT CONTRIBUTIONS (TO CHAPTER VI) (i) KONIGSBERG IN virtue of section 9 of the Communal Taxation Law of July 14, 1893, and of the resolutions of the Town Council of April 5, 1910, and April 19, 1910, the following Local By-law is issued : 1. Towards the costs of the following works executed in the public interest special contributions shall be levied on those owners of property who enjoy economic advantages owing to the execution of the said works, viz. : (a) The widening of streets or portions of streets. (b) Clearances of property. (c) Open spaces. (d) Parks. (e) Bridges. (/) Street overhead ways or subways together with all the works belonging thereto (ramps, entrances, etc.). 2. The same provision shall apply equally to the first construc- tion of footways, by the laying down of kerbstones, tiles, artificial stone slabs, or other stone paving in place of inferior material. 3. There shall be no liability to further contribution under this by-law in so far as the costs have to be borne by adjacent owners in virtue of section 15 of the law of July 2, 1875, and the by-law issued under that law (i.e., the law relating to the repayment of the costs of street construction). 4. The contributions shall be proportioned according to the advantages which accrue to those liable owing to the execution of the works. The portion of the total cost to be covered by such contributions, the list of the owners to be assessed, and the amount of the contributions of those liable shall be fixed separately by resolution of the Town Council in every individual case, subject to the following conditions. 5. In the case of street widening works and clearances and the creation of open spaces and parks [section i (a) to (d)} liability to assessment may be cancelled if the land required for the works is given to the town free of cost. 473 474 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY If such land is made over to the town only partly free of cost or at a reduced price, the full value of the land shall be set against the total cost of the works, but the amount due from each of the persons interested in the transfer of the land to the town shall be reduced by the value of the land he has so made over to the town. 6. In the construction of footways (section 2) the contributions shall amount to one-half of the costs and shall be divided amongst the adjacent owners in proportion to the length of their respective street frontages. Towards the costs of constructing or renewing the approaches from the street channels over the footways to adjacent properties contributions shall be levied on the property owners interested to the extent of 90 per cent, of such costs. 7. Where the Town Council does not decide otherwise in in- dividual cases the contributions shall be paid : (a) In the cases specified in section I, as soon as new buildings are executed, or existing erections are rebuilt on the land liable, or the properties change hands, yet at the latest within two years after the costs have been apportioned ; (b) in the case specified in section 2, within four weeks of the apportionment being made. The municipal executive can defer payment or accept instalments on account in special cases provided adequate security is given. 8. For the rest the procedure prescribed in section 9 [(3) to (6)] of the Communal Taxation Law shall apply. 9. This local by-law shall come into force from the date of promulgation, but it shall also apply to all works the costs of which have not been fully and definitively met at the time of its coming into operation. (ii) POTSDAM 1. In respect of the following works required in the public interest, contributions shall be levied on the owners of property deriving special economic advantages therefrom, according to the measure of such advantages : (a) The widening of streets, squares, and any parts of the same, including works of the kind carried out on existing alignments. (b) The new pavement of streets and street corners with a specially costly material. (c) The construction, removal, raising or sinking of railway lines, stations, or other railway works, in so far as the foregoing are carried out either altogether by the town or with the aid of a municipal subsidy. 2. This by-law shall not relieve adjacent owners of any liability to costs leviable under existing by-laws in virtue of section 15 of the Alignment Law of July 2, 1875. BETTERMENT CONTRIBUTIONS 475 3. The following conditions shall apply to works connected with the widening of streets : (a) Contributions shall as a rule cover the costs which are in- curred by the commune in the acquisition of land ; (b) No liability to pay contributions shall exist if the whole of the land needed for such works is transferred to the commune free of cost by all the owners. (c) If only part of the land is transferred free of cost, the value of the land so given shall be taken into account in fixing the total cost of widening the street and the contributions shall be reduced accordingly, but such reduction shall be in favour of the properties from which the land needed for street purposes has been taken, even though the land was given by the previous owners. In fixing the value of the land given, the executive (Magistracy) shall have regard to the price of the land which had to be bought. 4. In the case of new paving works, contributions in respect of rammed asphalte shall, as a rule, only be levied to a maximum amount of 35. per square metre (io square feet) of asphalted surface. Where such new paving works are carried out in v\rtue of an agreement with the persons interested, those persons who have already made a payment towards the cost shall be exempt from further liability and the other interested parties shall be assessed to the amount of the average payment so made. Adjacent owners shall not be assessed to the cost of paving works in respect of more than one-half of the street, and if the street is wider than 26 metres (84^ feet) not more than 13 metres (42 J feet). 5. The liability to pay these contributions shall be a charge on the building plots, and that person shall be liable to pay it in the first instance who owns the land at the time the obligation arises. In the case of several owners all are jointly liable. 6. The contributions shall be paid within three months after the assessment has been made by the executive (Magistracy), but the executive is empowered to sanction postponement or to receive payment by instalments. 7. Such further provisions as may be necessary shall be decided by special resolution in every individual case. IV. TOWN PLANNING AND EXPROPRIATION LEGISLATION OF GERMANY (TO CHAPTER VI) '"T" V HE following notes summarise the existing German legis- JL lation on the subject of compulsory expropriation in the interest of public improvements and of Town Planning. No general law applicable to the whole Empire exists upon this subject. The question of expropriation is, indeed, dealt with in the Imperial constitution, but only in relation to the construction of railways which may be deemed to be necessary for national defence or in the interest of the whole Empire, and even here expropriation must be legalised by special statute in each individual case. Most of the federal States have Expropriation Acts, some of them going back to the first half of the nineteenth century. Two methods are followed : (a) either the principle of expropriation for reasons of public interest is laid down in general terms, without specialising permissible objects of expropriation ; or (6) the cases and the circumstances in which expropriation is permissible are particularised. The law of Baden of August 28, 1835, and the law of Prussia of June u, 1874, are illustrations of the first method ; the Bavarian law of November 17, 1837, i s an illustration of the second. In general, however, the application of expropriation in any given case is authorised by Royal Ordinance or Ministerial Decree and no special or local statute is necessary to put the law in operation. The State of Hamburg is, however, an exception to this rule. EXPROPRIATION UNDER THE BAVARIAN LAW. The cases in which expropriation is declared by the Bavarian law to be per- missible are : (a) the building of fortresses and other works for national defence, including military establishments of all kinds ; (b) the building and enlargement of churches, public schools, hospitals, and lunatic asylums ; (c) the laying out or extension of graveyards ; (d) the rectification and deepening of rivers and streams ; 476 TOWN PLANNING, ETC., LEGISLATION 477 (e) the construction of new, or the extension, curtailment, or levelling of existing State, Circle (Kreis), and District roads ; (/) the construction of public water conduits ; (g) the draining of noxious swamps in the neighbourhood of towns ; (h) protection against floods ; (') the construction of public canals, locks, and bridges ; (/) the construction of public docks or the extension of existing ones ; (k) the construction of railways ; (/) the construction of telegraphs for the State service ; (m) measures required by the public health and safety ; and () measures to protect against fire and other danger the State's artistic treasures and scientific collections. EXPROPRIATION UNDER THE HAMBURG LAW. In the case of Hamburg, the State (i.e., the Senate and House of Burgesses) is, by law of May 5, 1886, amended September 27, 1899, empowered to pass a decree of expropriation for the purpose of executing works of public interest, and particularly the building and rectifi- cation of streets and canals, the construction of public buildings, railways, docks, dykes, and river improvements, in return for full compensation both for value taken and loss inflicted. Whether the proposal to expropriate emanates from a State authority, from a commune, or from a private person, the decision as to its permissibility rests with the two Houses of Legislature. After a decree of expropriation has been passed, if no agreement has been arrived at as to the compensation to be paid, the matter is carried before an Assessment Commission consisting of one Judge as President, and two Assessors. Experts are heard and either party can appeal against the Court's first decision, but only to a second Court consisting this time of two Judges and three Assessors, none of whom can have taken part in the first proceedings. Resort to the ordinary Courts of Law is not allowed. EXPROPRIATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF TOWN PLANNING. During recent years a strong tendency to embody the principle of compulsory expropriation in State Building Acts, and through them in local statutes, has asserted itself in Germany, the object being to ensure the development and extension of towns on rational and healthy lines. Legislation of this kind, however, is not new in Germany. As early as 1845 the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen passed an Expropriation Law providing that " the compulsory cession of landed property can be required for the . . . advantageous exten- sion of towns and the necessary enlargement of villages, the con- struction of a straight or new street in towns, the laying out and extension of market places, churches, schools, hospitals, and other public buildings, and the re-erection of public or private buildings 478 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY that have been destroyed in so far as the general building plan shows an alteration of the earlier site to be necessary," etc. The modern State laws on Town Planning go beyond this, how- ever, for, as a rule, they provide for the compulsory laying together or " pooling " of areas of undeveloped urban land with a view to the re-distribution of this land amongst the various owners, in the old proportions either as to area or value, in such a way as will best promote the opening up of the ground, the laying out of public streets, roads, and spaces, and the advantageous use of building plots. These laws apply to large and small townships equally, whatever their form of local government, and not merely to such towns as would correspond to the large English municipalities. THE POOLING OF PROPERTIES UNDER THE LAW OF BADEN. The best known German law on the subject of Town Planning is the Township Street Law of Baden, dated July 6, 1896. As the title indicates, the law applies to township streets as distinguished from main highways. It provides (section 2) that " In order to the laying out of township streets plans shall be prepared in a form corresponding to the needs to be contemplated." Precautions are taken against dilatoriness on the part of towns in preparing such plans, and the Act (section 10) gives power to prohibit persons from building outside the area already enclosed by a town, and where Town Building Plans exist outside the area covered by these plans, if there should be reason to apprehend " obstacles in the way of the suitable continuation of the Town Building Plan." Further (section n) : " Where a Building Plan has been prepared but the suitable building of the land embraced by the plan would be obstructed by the position, form, or area of the properties a re- division of the properties for the purpose of securing more advantageous sites, either by pooling or the alteration of boundaries, may take place on the application to the Communal Council, even against the will of the owners, so far as such re-division is in the public interest, and the land necessary for the laying out of the streets has either been obtained for this purpose or will be obtained before the re-division is effected." The procedure prescribed is as follows : The whole of the proper- ties to be redistributed, including such public roads as will be superfluous, are pooled. Before the re-distribution takes place the land required for the new streets and places is set apart and appor- tioned to the commune. The rest of the area is divided amongst the various owners in the proportions in which they were originally interested. For every single piece of land which in point of size was suitable for building one or more building sites adjoining a street are to be returned to the owners, as far as practicable in the same situations as before. Properties so small that they would have to be exchanged for plots unsuited for building purposes may TOWN PLANNING, ETC., LEGISLATION 479 be thrown together to other properties belonging to the same owners, so as to make suitable building plots, and failing this they must be ceded in return for compensation to the commune, which will apportion them amongst the other owners. Unavoidable differences in value, both under and over the apportionment due, are to be rectified by money payments, the commune receiving the excess value from those owners who receive too much and paying the deficit to those who are allotted too little. The commune must also compensate the owners for the land which it takes for public streets and places over and above the amount of its own land which it pooled, and this compensation may take the form of land which the commune may own within the area pooled or which may fall to it by the re-division. So far as compensation is given in money the provisions of the Baden law of August 28, 1835, on compulsory expropriation shall apply. When a communal authority proposes to re-divide the properties within a given area it must prepare a plan showing the existing and the proposed apportionment of land, and opportunity must be given to all persons concerned to protect their interests. The pre- paratory work completed, the plan must be deposited with the District Board (Bezirksamt) with full details of the scheme pro- posed, and this Board refers the plan with all objections raised against it to the District Council, building operations being in the meantime prohibited within the scheduled area. Should the District Council be of opinion that the plan is not in the public interest, or that the objections raised against it are well-founded, it may reject it. Within a month the communal authority may appeal to the Ministry of the Interior against such decision, but should the Ministry endorse the opinion of the District Council its decision is final and the matter is determined. Should the District Council approve the plan it notifies the Ministry of the Interior to that effect, but this Ministry may still either approve or reject the plan, and in the latter case the communal authority may appeal to the full Ministry of State. A plan having been definitively approved, it rests with the communal authority to execute it, and while it must do this in the first instance at its own costs, it may later, with the consent of the Ministry of State, charge all its expenditure under a plan of pooling to the owners, proportionately to the benefit which they derive from the re- distribution of the properties. On the strength of this law the Municipal Council of Mannheim adopted, on March u, 1889, a series of " general principles relating to the return of the costs of street construction," as follows : " Besides the value of the land used for new or existing town streets yet unbuilt upon (which shall be the current value or original cost), the expenditure incurred in the first construction 480 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY of the streets in a manner corresponding to the needs of traffic, including the over-ground channels serving for the conveyance of water, shall be entirely refunded to the town by the adjacent owners, according to the length of their several frontages, as soon as they shall execute buildings upon their properties, and so far as owing to the existence of these buildings with their appur- tenances, such as courts, entrances, gardens, business and ware- house places, etc., the plots may be regarded as built upon. Nevertheless, the owners can only be required to bear the cost of street making to the extent of a width of 29^ feet on either side. " The owners of existing buildings adjoining such streets shall be required to refund a proportion of the costs referred to, such proportion to be fixed in each case by resolution of the Muni- cipal Council, when the streets offer them conspicuous advan- tage. " The costs of constructing all subterranean conduits of the town passing before the properties shall fall upon the munici- pality in so far as such works are executed by the municipality in the public interest." TOWN PLANNING UNDER THE LAW OF SAXONY. A similar Law exists in Saxony (July I, 1900). This Law provides for the issue of local statutes regulating buildings, the adoption of building plans for undeveloped areas, and the pooling of properties in different ownership, with a view to the more advantageous laying out of particular areas. These local statutes do not require the sanction of the national Parliament, but, after being elaborated by the communal authorities (whether urban or rural), only require the approval of the Minister of the Interior. In case of " urgent need " communal authorities may be required by the higher State administrative authorities to adopt local statutes or to amend existing statutes on the lines of the present law, and in default the Minister of the Interior may step in and act in their stead. Sections 15 and 16 set forth that where it is desired to open up for building purposes an area which is "in the main not built upon," a building plan taking the form of a local statute shall, as a rule, be adopted. Such plans shall regulate the building lines, the method of building, the situation, height, and purpose of the buildings to be permitted, the rectification of watercourses, the draining of the area planned, and the subways and overhead ways of streets. In the preparation of a building plan (section 18) due allowance is to be made for the requirements of the public traffic to be antici- pated, for the development of the town or district, the need for dwellings that is likely to arise, and the requirements of public TOWN PLANNING, ETC., LEGISLATION 481 health and safety, and the following, among other points, have to be borne in mind : (a) The width of the streets and footways must depend upon the needs of local traffic, and be graduated according as a street is intended to be a main street, a secondary street, or only a residential street. Streets with busy traffic must be at least 55^ feet wide. (b) Gradients must, as far as possible, be equalised ; steep gradients and straight building lines of excessive length must be avoided. (c) In fixing the direction of streets provision must be made for short and convenient connections between one street and another, and between these streets and the principal traffic centres. (d) Open spaces and planted areas should be provided, con- formable in size, position, and number to the needs of traffic and the public welfare. Sites for churches and schools, and for playgrounds and recreation grounds are to be provided in sufficient number. (e) In laying down rules as to the method of building to be allowed, and as to the permissibility of factories and industrial works, the past character of the town or district and the existing need should be considered. Should no objections be taken to a building plan which has been formulated it passes direct to the Minister of the Interior for sanction. The provisions (sections 54, etc.) as to the pooling of land and its subsequent redistribution are much the same as those in the law of Baden. This procedure may be set in operation by the Building Police Authority acting on a resolution of a Communal Council, or on application by more than one-half of the owners of the area affected, provided they also own more than half the land. The Act also provides (sections 68 to 71) : " Should the demoli- tion of buildings or groups of buildings be indispensable in the interest of traffic or of the public health, and should the building plan for an area whose buildings have been destroyed by fire, water, or other natural forces, be incapable of execution otherwise in such a way as to avert similar dangers, the Minister of the Interior may, on the application of the communal authority, confer powers of expropriation in respect of the entire area necessary to the advantageous carrying out of the undertaking. . . . Before the application is served on the Ministry of the Interior the Building Police Authority shall endeavour to effect an amicable agreement amongst the persons interested. " After the granting of the right of expropriation it shall be competent for the property owners under section 68 themselves 2 I 482 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY to execute the new buildings contemplated in the building or expropriation plan on their own property within a period to be fixed by the Minister of the Interior. On the expiration of this period those properties or portions of property which have not by that time been built upon according to plans are forthwith ex- propriated." TOWN PLANNING AT FRANKFORT. One of the best known local Acts dealing with town planning is that which was obtained by the town of Frankfort-on-Main in 1903. It provides for an extensive use of the power to pool and redistribute inconvenient building plots within scheduled areas. Before the law can be set in motion, it is required that the Municipal Executive shall prepare a complete plan of the properties to be pooled, together with a register of the owners, and both plan and register must be deposited for public inspection, objections being invited within a period of four weeks. These objections are, as far as possible, to be adjusted by friendly means, and the time of grace having expired, the pro- posal goes forward to the District Committee, which pronounces a definite decision, after hearing the Police Authority, on the ques- tion whether legal conditions and requirements have been complied with, and after considering unsettled objections. Properties can be pooled and redistributed on the application of the municipal authority, or of more than half the owners interested if these own more than half of the land concerned. The laying together and pooling of properties having been authorised, the Government President nominates a commission to carry out the measure, two of whose members shall represent the President, and shall be the chairman and vice-chairman of the commission respectively, while the other members shall include at least one building expert, one legal expert, one certificated surveyor, and a land valuer. Members of the Municipal Executive may not sit on the commission, but in the appointment of its members both the Executive and the property owners shall be heard. The costs incurred by the municipality under this procedure are to be apportioned amongst the several owners according to the advantage accruing to them if that method be practicable, or failing it, according to (a] the frontage, area, and position, or (b) the value of the properties allotted, but an owner has the option of paying interest on the capital sum of his share of costs at the rate of 3^ per cent, until his property is sold or built on. Should an owner be dissatisfied with compensation payable in money, he may go to law within two months of the laying together of the land, but the execution of the plan of redistribution is not delayed thereby. Should the costs of the municipality be increased owing to legal proceedings, the Municipal Executive may charge the excess to the owners. TOWN PLANNING, ETC., LEGISLATION 483 In its original form the Frankfort Local Act provided that where land was pooled and redistributed on the application of the owners 35 per cent, of the total surface might be allotted to street purposes and where compulsory procedure was adopted 30 per cent. This limitation was at once found untenable, and an amendment of 1907 increased the proportions to 40 and 35 per cent, respectively. STREET IMPROVEMENTS IN HAMBURG. The State of Hamburg, by a law of June 23, 1882, entitled the Building Police Law for the City of Hamburg, the Township of St. Paul's, and the Suburbs, assumed far-reaching powers in regard to street planning. It was stipulated that immediately on the publication of a resolution of the Senate and House of Burgesses signifying their intention to lay out a street, no land in the neighbourhood of that street might be built upon, and the town could claim the right to acquire a certain portion of such land for public purposes. In fixing the price the additional value to be expected from the construction of the street should not be considered. The law provided for the laying out into streets of eligible building areas in the outskirts, but stipulated that a building plan of this kind must join on to the principal traffic roads of the district, and must not create obstacles in the way of the opening out of main arteries which might in the future be necessary for the development of other outer districts. In such a building plan also provision should be made for a suffi- ciency of streets and open spaces. Permission is only given in exceptional cases to private persons to lay out streets within un- developed areas, and even then only on condition that such streets shall not stand in the way of the later development of the land on rational lines, and that the owners concerned give an undertaking to cede to the town such land as may be necessary for additional cross-streets and public places. WURTEMBERG MooELTowN PLANNING REGULATIONS. Reference may also be made to Article 16 in the series of Model Town Plan- ning Regulations drawn up by the Wiirtemberg Minister of the Interior, which runs : "If in crowded parts of a town the demolition of buildings appears desirable in the interest of traffic or the public welfare, compulsory expropriation shall be permissible on the application of the municipal authority in respect to the properties and the rights appertaining to them needed for the satisfactory execu- tion of the undertaking, according to the provisions of the law on compulsory expropriation of December 20, 1888. . . . The expropriating authority is the Ministry of the Interior." V. AGREEMENT FOR THE ERECTION AND SALE OF WORKING-CLASS DWELLINGS BY THE MUNICIPALITY OF JENA THE municipality of Jena began in 1912 to build on town land small dwellings for sale to working-people and others on the instalment principle as first adopted at Ulm in Wurtemberg. The special feature of its scheme is the reservation by the munici- pality of the right of ultimate repurchase. Six types of dwellings, each with a garden, are built, and the municipality retains a general supervision over the houses in virtue of its interest in the freehold. The following is the copy of the agreement concluded with purchasers : The following agreement has been concluded between the municipality of Jena, represented by the town council and the municipal executive, and . . . The municipality of Jena sells to ... the site indicated on the annexed plan at the price of 1-90 marks per square metre [ = is. 7d. per square yard], being . . . marks for the whole, subject to the following conditions : 1. The municipality of Jena shall build a workman's house, at the expense of the purchaser, on the land so sold according to plans approved by the Building Police. 2. The person ordering the house (the purchaser of the site) shall repay to the municipality of Jena the cost so incurred in building the house according to estimates prepared by the municipal board of works, as well as 2-60 marks per square metre [= 2s. 2d. per square yard] of the land sold by way of recompense for the cost of making the street. 3. A payment of 50 shall be made to the municipal treasury on account of the purchase price of the land, of the cost of building the house, and of the cost of street works prior to the judicial declaration of the sale. The balance shall bear interest at the rate of 3 1 per cent., and shall be repaid at the rate of one per cent, per annum. The purchaser may if he chooses make a larger payment on account than 50. 4. As security for the balance of the debt the purchaser shall give to the municipality of Jena a first mortgage on the property to the amount of 350, which shall be entered in the mortgage register. 484 WORKING-CLASS DWELLINGS 485 5. The interest and instalments in repayment of the debt shall be paid in quarterly amounts at the beginning of the quarter, and a debtor in arrear with such payments shall pay one per cent, additional for the preceding quarter, making 4^ per cent, interest instead of 3 4 per cent., but delay not exceeding one week following the date for payment shall not be counted so long as payment is made within the said week. In case of illness or other extra- ordinary circumstances payment may be temporarily postponed by the municipal executive. 6. The purchaser shall receive a debt repayment scale and an account book, from which he will be in a position to ascertain at any time the amount of his debt. 7. The municipality of Jena reserves the right to increase the rate of interest in case it should itself have to pay a higher rate of interest than 3^ per cent, on its loans for the building of workmen's dwellings. 8. As soon as one-half of the total debt for purchase money, costs of building, and costs of street works has been repaid, the municipality of Jena shall be entitled to require the repayment of the remaining moiety within a period of six months on giving notice to that effect. Should the owner of the property be com- pelled on this account to take a new mortgage to the amount of the remaining debt the municipality of Jena shall permit this to be done on condition of its mortgage being first cancelled. 9. In the event of the debt only amounting to 50 per cent, of the valuation placed on the property by the municipal board of works the debtor may suspend repayments. The municipality of Jena is entitled in this event to increase the rate of interest to the current market rate, to a maximum of 5 per cent. 10. The new building shall be given over to the purchaser when it is entirely completed, and if possible by ... but no claim for damages shall be made against the municipality of Jena in the event of delay occurring. The transfer shall be delayed until the purchaser has discharged the liabilities incurred by him up to the date of the transfer. 11. All costs incidental to purchase and transfer and all taxes incidental to the sale of real estate shall be paid by the purchaser. 12. The fencing in of the gardens attached to the houses shall be done at the expense of the new proprietors on the order of the municipality. 13. The parti-walls between double (semi-detached) houses shall be owned in common, and neither of the proprietors shall alter the same without the permission of his neighbour and the written consent of the municipal board of works. 14. The owner shall maintain the buildings upon the site in good condition, shall promptly and without objection make all necessary repairs and other works which may be deemed requisite 486 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY to the proper upkeep of the same, in accordance with the orders of the municipal government, to whose supervision the owner shall be subject. No important alteration to the building shall be under- taken nor may the building be pulled down without the permission of the municipal executive. The executive shall have the right to have the building inspected on its behalf at any time. 15. The municipality of Jena as the seller shall have a right of repurchase, in accordance with sections 497 of the Civil Code, in respect of the land and building, which right it may exercise : (a) after the expiration of one hundred years ; (b) as soon as the debtor or his heirs shall have been in arrear with one of the stipulated payments for a longer period than half a year without such delay having been sanctioned by the municipal executive ; (c) in case and as often as the owner or his legal successors (particularly the heirs) shall desire to sell the property within a period of one hundred years dating from thepresent. This shall also apply if joint heirs to whom the property has come by inheritance transfer the same either to one or several of their number ; (d) in case the owner of the dwelling-house, in spite of written warning on a single occasion, lets dwellings at rents in excess of the maximum fixed by the municipal executive ; (e) if the owner takes a further mortgage on the property with- out the consent of the municipal executive ; (/) if the owner fails to inhabit the house himself, in spite of being repeatedly called upon to do so ; (g) if the owner refuses to fulfil the conditions set forth in section 14 ; (h) if the owner intentionally or owing to gross negligence damages the house and reduces its value ; (*') if distraint is proposed in respect of the property, or pro- ceedings in bankruptcy are taken in respect of the owner ; (k) in the cases named in 18 and 19 below. The right of repurchase specified in cases (b) to (k) shall be claimed within six months of the circumstances establishing the right coming to light. The right of repurchase can be exercised in the cases (d) to (k) within one hundred years of to-day and not only within the period specified in section 503 of the Civil Code. The purchaser shall apply for the registration of the right of sale in the mortgage register. 16. The sum to be paid in the contingency of repurchase shall be fixed by a valuation committee in such manner that the exact price which was fixed for the land and building at the time of the erection of the house shall be taken as a basis ; but this original WORKING-CLASS DWELLINGS 487 price shall be increased by the amount by which the value of the building has been increased owing to improvements, in so far as this increased value is still in existence at the time of repurchase, while, on the other hand, there shall be deducted the sum by which the value of the property has been decreased by use. From the sum thus fixed as to be paid at repurchase shall be deducted the amount of the debt still due by the owner to the municipality of Jena, and the balance shall be paid by the munici- pality in cash at the completion of the transaction. 17. The valuation committee shall be composed of (a) an expert to be nominated by the municipal executive ; (6) an expert to be nominated by the owner, and (c) an arbitrator to be nominated by the supervisory judge of the District Court of Jena, who shall also act as chairman of the committee. Should the owner nominate no expert within the prescribed time the town council shall be entitled to nominate one in his stead. The municipal executive shall call upon the owner to appoint an expert for the day fixed for the valuation and to notify to it the appointment, giving the name and address of the expert, by the sixth day before the date fixed for the valuation at the latest. The summons shall contain the warning that in the event of an expert not being nominated or of failure to notify nomination within due time the valuation will nevertheless take place, another expert being nominated by the town council. The result of the valuation, whether it shall have been effected by the proper committee or without participation by an expert nominated by the owner, and hence with the aid of one appointed by the municipality in his stead, shall be binding both upon the municipality and the owner. The owner and the municipality of Jena waive the right of legal redress against the valuation and the repurchase sum fixed in accordance therewith, and in particular the right to resort to judicial proceedings, and agree to accept the result of the valuation as binding without protest. 18. The owner of the house shall not take in lodgers except with the sanction of the municipal executive. The keeping of lodgers of any kind in rooms which are not from the beginning intended for habitation is prohibited. Should the owner without permission take lodgers, or more lodgers than are allowed to him, or should he act in contravention of the last provision of the preceding paragraph, the municipal authority, after prior written warning on one occasion, shall be empowered to make use of its right of repurchase in accordance with the provisions of sections 15 to 17. 19. The use of the whole property, or of any parts thereof, for industrial purposes, whether by the owner himself so using his 4 88 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY property or by his letting the same or parts thereof for industrial purposes to third persons, shall only be permissible with the express sanction of the municipal executive and subject to conditions to be laid down by the same. The owner shall give an undertaking that neither he nor his legal successors shall carry on in his property an industry or trade with goods of any kind, nor let any portions of the same to third parties for this purpose. Should the owner be guilty of a breach of this undertaking the municipality shall be entitled to exercise the right of repurchase in accordance with the provisions contained in sections 15 to 17, which shall be extended to the foregoing case. Should the municipality not make use of this right it is pro- vided that the owner, in the event of failure to observe the con- ditions relating to the use made of workmen's dwellings set forth in the first paragraph of this section, shall be liable to pay a penalty of 100 to the municipal treasury ; but the town council reserves the right to reduce this penalty according to circumstances. The contractual penalty shall be secured by a bond for 100 in the form of a mortgage on the property ranking after the pur- chase and building money. 20. If the street and building alignments do not coincide the municipality of Jena reserves a right of repurchase within the meaning of section 497 of the Civil Code in respect of the land lying before the dwelling-house in so far as the municipality may have to re-acquire such land for the purpose of any widening of the street that may be necessary. It is provided that : (a) the land shall be repurchased at the price of 1-90 marks per square metre ; (b) in the event of such repurchase the owner shall not be able to require any compensation for any expenditure which he may have incurred in respect of the area so sold, but, on the other hand, he shall be entitled to remove any works which he may have carried out. 21. The municipality shall have the right in the event of the disposal of the property by the debtor or his heirs, either with or without payment, and also in the event of the occurrence of one of the cases (d) to (k) specified in section 15, to require the immediate payment in cash of the debt still due instead of the exercise of the right of repurchase. 22. No buildings shall be placed upon the land sold without the prior sanction of the municipal board of works. The keeping of pigs and cattle is forbidden. In the event of any infraction of the provisions of this section the legal consequences provided in paragraphs 3 and 4 of section 19 shall take effect. VI. RULES OF THE MUNICIPAL LEGAL ADVICE OFFICE AT NUREMBERG (TO CHAPTER XI) I. 'T^HE Legal Advice Office established by the municipality JL shall be under the supervision of the Magistracy (municipal executive), which shall assign to it a reporter and an adminis- trative committee. The Office shall be directed by a municipal officer appointed by the Magistracy and such assistants shall be allotted to him as may be necessary. 2. The Legal Advice Office shall on request give advice and information on all questions of public and civil law, and in par- ticular questions arising out of Sickness, Accident, Invalidity, and Old Age Insurance, the legislation relating to handicrafts and the protection of labour, the law of association and public meeting, the penal law, and in police, school, military, taxation, poor relief and settlement matters, etc. The Legal Advice Office shall serve simultaneously as a municipal agency for the settlement of private slander disputes. 3. Information shall be given without respect of person and gratuitously. It shall as a rule be given orally, but in exceptional cases it may be given in writing and in workmen's insurance matters documents may be prepared. 4. No information shall be given (a) in regard to matters which the applicant has placed in legal hands ; (b) in cases which relate to breach of morals or which give rise to the suspicion that the applicant desires to evade a legal or moral duty ; and (c) in matters regarding which complaint has been made against the municipality of Nuremberg or resolutions of the Magistracy. 5. The Legal Advice Office shall be open during the usual official hours. 6. The director of the Office is authorised in suitable cases to attempt a non-judicial mediation between contending parties. 7. An officer of the Legal Advice Office may not undertake to legally represent any party seeking advice. 8. The municipality of Nuremberg assumes liability for the 489 490 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY consequences of legal advice given only within the limits of the existing legal provisions. 9. For the administration of the Legal Advice Office a special committee shall be appointed consisting of the chief mayor of Nuremberg or his deputy, the reporter of the Magistracy, four members each of the Magistracy and the town council (one member of the Magistracy being nominated as warden), and the director of the Office. VII. MUNICIPAL THEATRE REGULATIONS OF HALLE (THE SUBSIDY SYSTEM) (TO CHAPTER XII) THE municipal theatre of Halle was built at a cost of 62,500, and has hitherto been leased to an actor-manager for 1750. The amount of the yearly subsidy, chiefly in the form of a reduced rent and of the performance of certain services (e.g., supply of light, power, and water, etc.) has been about 5000. The latest agree- ment with the lessee converts the rent into a nominal payment, fixes the subsidy at 3000, and gives the municipality a share in the profits. The conditions of the lease are as follows : 1. The municipality of Halle leases to the director ... (a) the theatre and store-rooms (with the exception of certain portions of the building and seats reserved for the Theatre Committee), and (b) the stage properties, consisting of wardrobe, with weapons and armour, decorations, stage furniture and requisites, and the theatre and concert library. 2. The municipality undertakes, at its own cost, responsibility for the maintenance of the building, the maintenance and increase of the stage properties, on which it shall incur expenditure to a maximum amount of 750 yearly, the electric lighting and all lights, and the supply of current to a maximum amount of 50,000 kilowatt-hours yearly free of cost ; the lessee paying for all current beyond that amount at the rate of 3d. per kilowatt-hour, for the emergency lights, fire brigade service at all performances, heating and ventilation, the supply of water, and the supply of the steam necessary for stage effects. 3. The municipality provides at its own cost the following personnel : the inspector of stage properties, the master mechanic, the book- keeper, the stage mechanic, three assistant mechanics, one fitter, and one boiler tenter, and five charwomen. The lessee shall provide the rest of the personnel at his own cost. The employees, with the exception of the book-keeper, shall comply with the orders of the lessee in accordance with service rules issued by the municipal executive. In the event of disputes between them and the lessee the Theatre Committee shall decide. It shall be the duty of the book-keeper to audit all books and accounts, and the lessee shall place before him all the documents necessary for this purpose. The lessee undertakes to exercise due supervision (or to co-operate in supervision) over the above-named employees in the theatre during performances and at other times on the request of the Theatre Com- mittee. 491 492 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY The lessee shall refund the costs incurred by the municipality by reason of special work, night work, and holiday work done by the municipal employees during performances and rehearsals. 4. The lessee shall pay a yearly rent of 5 on the first day of October. The municipality shall pay the lessee for every year of the contract a subsidy of ^3000. The lessee shall pay to the municipality one^half of the net profit beyond ^750 which he realises in each year of the con- tract, the municipal subsidy being reckoned to such profit, but of all net profit in excess of ^1250 he shall pay to the municipality two- thirds. One-half of the subsidy shall be paid on October i, and the rest at the close of the theatre season, but payments on account may be made at the discretion of the municipal executive. The lessee shall not be entitled to set up counter-claims against claims made by the municipality. 5. The lessee acknowledges that all the rooms and properties leased to him have been handed over in good condition. He shall properly 4nd carefully use them, shall prevent damage to and the wrongful use of them, and shall take the measures necessary to prevent their being injured by cold, sun, dust, moths, damp, etc., being responsible alike for his own negligence and that of his personnel. Losses and damages for which he may be found to be responsible shall be made good at his cost. Within 14 days after the expiration of every theatre season the Theatre Committee shall inspect the rooms and properties, the lessee being invited to be present, and a written report shall be made upon the defects for which the lessee or his personnel may be found to be responsible. Before new properties are acquired or repairs executed as a consequence, the Theatre Committee shall notify the lessee, stating the approximate cost, but the lessee shall not be entitled to object to the cost. No liability shall be incurred by the lessee in respect of the proper use of any objects covered by the lease. The lessee shall be entitled to compensation for repairs made by himself only in the event of the same having been promised by the municipal executive in writing. 6. The auditorium may only be occupied according to the division of seats prescribed by the lessors. The approaches to the seats may not be occupied by chairs or be used as standing space. 7. The lessee shall not undertake the management of another theatre, give performances elsewhere than in the municipal theatre, or be concerned in any way in other undertakings or performances of the kind, nor lend any properties leased to him, without the written consent of the municipal executive. 8. The theatre season shall last each year from September i to May 15. During the period May 16 to August 31 the municipality shall have free disposal of the properties leased, and in particular may execute structural alterations, repairs, and enlargements at its dis- cretion, but the lessee shall not thereby be inconvenienced in his preparations and rehearsals during the 14 days preceding the opening of the theatre season. The lessee shall give a performance on each evening during the theatre season unless the same is prohibited by legal or police regula- tions ; and he shall be entitled to give performances on the afternoons of Sundays and festivals. He may not, however, give performances MUNICIPAL THEATRE REGULATIONS 493 on weekday afternoons or Sunday mornings except with the written sanction of the municipal executive and on payment to the munici- pality of 3 153. for each such performance. The lessee shall not give or allow other people to give performances of any kind in the municipal theatre out of the season except with the written consent of the municipal executive. Should the lessee omit to give a performance on any evening on which he is liable so to do, without the express acquiescence of the municipal executive, he shall pay a fine of ^15. 9. The chief mayor, a member of the executive, a member of the Theatre Committee, the fire brigade superintendent, a delegate of the building police department, and such special representatives as the municipal authority may depute have the right to inspect all rooms of the theatre at all times, even during performances and rehearsals. The members of the Theatre Committee have the same right except during performances. 10. The lessee is required (a) to take steps to preserve order and to maintain good behaviour in the theatre ; (b) to prohibit persons whose presence is not needed for the carrying on and the supervision of the theatre particularly relatives of employees from remaining on the stage, the stage galleries, or within the wings and the dressing- rooms ; (c) to keep the iron door between the auditorium and the stage room closed during performances and intervals, and (d) to adopt all possible precautions against fire and to insure himself against personal liability and accidents. The receipts for premiums shall be produced for the inspection of the Theatre Committee. 11. The lessee shall not cede any rights under this agreement with- out the written permission of the municipal executive. 12. The lessee shall before the commencement of every season, and as early as possible, place before the Theatre Committee a list of the new and newly studied works which it is proposed to present, and shall further send in semi-monthly lists (a week in advance) of the pieces to be performed, with the pieces held in reserve, and also every Friday the programme for the following week. In the case of first performances and all performances of special importance the Theatre Committee shall have a preferential right to buy such seats as they desire. On being requested in writing the lessee shall attend meetings of the Theatre Committee and give such information as may be required. 13. In the month of June the lessee shall hand in to the municipal executive his complete budget for the coming year (September i to August 31). Each month he shall present a return, with vouchers, of all receipts and expenditure, and a register of subscribers or a list of alterations to the same. He shall further lay before the Theatre Committee, as soon as possible, and at the latest a fortnight before the commencement of the season, a list of the entire theatre personnel, with actual names and professional names, salaries, and addresses. This list shall be correctly kept at all times. The lessee shall keep an account in proper business form of all receipts and expenditure. The municipal executive, the Theatre Committee, and the agents of the same shall have the right to inspect the lessee's books and vouchers at all times, and the lessee shall give all required information. No charges shall be allowed on account of 494 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY the personal activity of the lessee and members of his family, as in the nature of salary for management. The lessee and the members of his family shall not appear on the stage of the municipal theatre, nor the lessee on any other stage, without the written consent of the municipal executive. Benefit performances are not allowed. 14. The lessee shall engage an efficient force of dramatic and operatic talent, including ballet and orchestra. Unless otherwise prescribed in this agreement, engagements shall be concluded for the period September i to May 15, and in the case of the opera personnel from September i to April 30. The lessee shall insert in the engagement contracts the following provision : " The municipality of Halle reserves the right to take the place of the director ... in the engagement contract should the agreement of lease between the municipality and the director . . . for any reason terminate before the expiration of such contract. The municipality shall then within a week state whether it wishes to make use of its right, and in default of such statement the right lapses. This right of the municipality is independent of the question whether the municipality decides to carry on the theatre itself or to transfer it to another lessee." The lessee shall supply to the Theatre Committee copies of all contracts concluded with the theatre personnel immediately after the conclusion of the same. In the case of leading artists it shall be stated at which theatres they have been engaged during recent years, and during the last preceding season. 15. The salary account for the drama and opera personnel (inclusive of chorus and ballet) and the two opera orchestra directors shall amount to at least ^1125 a month during the season and shall be so divided that about 325 a month shall be paid on account of dramas, ^475 on account of operas, and ^325 on account of choruses and ballet. Double honoraria, remuneration for overtime, for supernumeraries, chorus school, extra chorus, office, technical staff, visiting artists (" stars "), etc., may not be included in these estimates. The minimum monthly salary for men and women (including chorus) shall be 6, and in the case of the ballet 5. Rehearsals required before the season shall be paid for at the rate of half a day's salary for each day of rehearsal. The men 's and women's choruses shall each consist of at least 20 members engaged for the year, sustenance fees of ^3 a month being paid for the summer months when the theatre is closed. 1 6. [Relates to historical costumes supplied to personnel.] 17. The orchestra shall consist of at least a conductor and 52 instrumentalists, all engaged by the year. The lessee undertakes to pay the members of the orchestra minimum monthly salaries on the following scale [The rates range from ^15, paid to the conductor, down- wards to j 55.] 1 8. The lessee may not use the orchestra outside the municipal theatre except with the written permission of the municipal executive. The Theatre Committee reserves the right to determine at any time the maximum amount of service that may be required of individual instrumentalists. The lessee is required to give the members of the orchestra a summer holiday of at least two weeks without deduction of salary. MUNICIPAL THEATRE REGULATIONS 495 19. The lessee shall give at least four popular concerts yearly with the full orchestra, the charge of admission being a|d. with programme. The times and places of these concerts shall be sanctioned by the municipal executive. 20. The lessee shall during each theatre season give at least twelve popular performances at approximately equal intervals. The Theatre Committee may fix the days for these performances at the commence- ment of the season, and choose pieces for presentation out of the dramas, operas, and operettas to be given during the season. Every popular performance, with the name of the piece, shall be publicly announced by the lessee at least a week beforehand. 21. During the season at least 232 subscription performances shall be given. Subscription shall be for the entire season, and the con- ditions shall receive the written sanction of the municipal executive. 22. The box prices shall be as follows : [Operas and operettas, 43. lod. to 6d. ; all other performances, 33. 6d. to 5d. ; subscription prices, 23. 6d. to is. ; popular performances, yd. to 2d.] 23 and 24. [Relate to the obligation of the lessee to pay taxes in respect of the theatre, to adopt precautions in the interest of public safety, and to deposit security.] 25. On the expiration of the agreement the lessee shall deliver the properties leased in good condition, and shall replace all missing articles, in so far as their disappearance is not attributable to normal usage. 26. Should the lessee die before the expiration of the agreement, his heirs shall, on the demand of the municipal executive, carry out the agreement to the close of the current season, but the municipal execu- tive reserves the right to terminate the agreement without notice. VIIL MUNICIPAL REFORM PROGRAMMES (TO CHAPTER XVIII) IF the party of Social Democracy be disregarded, German municipal parties are not, as a rule, divided greatly by their programmes, and almost the only questions upon which acute political feeling can be said to exist are the questions of land taxation and the privileged position secured to the property owners on the town councils. Of various programmes of municipal policy in circulation possibly the one which has behind it the weightiest body of considered opinion is that put forward by the German Progressive People's Party (now the German People's Party) and it is reproduced below : 1. SELF-GOVERNMENT. The realisation of free self-govern- ment is one of the fundamental demands of the democracy. The right of the communes to self-government must be developed and be legally protected by independent administrative courts against attacks and tutelage by the State authorities. The supervisory rights of the State must be legally denned, circumscribed, and graded according to the size and character of the communes. The right of the communal assemblies, whether acting individually or in combination (as, for example, in municipal congresses) publicly to assert their opinions in relation to all questions affecting their interests shall not be curtailed. 2. REPRESENTATION. The representatives of the communes and the executive bodies shall be elected by universal, equal, direct, and secret franchise for definite periods on the principle of pro- portional representation. All privileges based on ownership of property shall be repealed. The right of the State to confirm representatives and officers of the commune shall be abolished. So long as the question of women's suffrage has not been settled by legislation the communes shall have the right to elect women in a deliberative capacity as members of administrative com- mittees, as, for example, the committees dealing with poor relief, education, and family care. The proceedings of the communal bodies shall in general be public and the cases in which publicity may be withheld shall be legally specified. 3. TAXATION. The revenue necessary for the communal budget shall in the main be derived from, " real" taxes (i.e., taxes on real 496 MUNICIPAL REFORM PROGRAMMES 497 estate and commercial undertakings), taxes on income and interest on capital, and probate duties. The income tax shall be pro- gressive, the smallest incomes being exempted and small incomes taxed only at low rates. The land tax shall be assessed not on the yield but on the sale value of the property, abatements being made in favour of small proprietors who derive their livelihood from the use of their property. Together with this tax there shall be levied taxes on the sale and transfer of property, a tax being levied on the purchase price and in addition upon any unearned increment realised by the sale of the property. Excise duties on necessary articles of food, fuel, and building materials may not be introduced even within the limits which Imperial legislation may in future allow, and where they exist an attempt shall be made to secure their repeal. 4. TRADING ENTERPRISES. Economic enterprises of a monopolist character, such as tramways, suburban railways, gasworks, elec- tricity works, water supply, refuse removal, and abattoirs, shall systematically be carried on by the commune. The management of such works, even when carried on with a view to profit and to the relief of local taxation, shall not be determined by purely fiscal considerations, but the public interests which the under- takings are intended to serve shall be considered. 5. EDUCATION. The communes shall take an active part, together with the State, in the work of popular education. The uncertain relationships between State and commune in this domain shall be clearly defined. The primary schools shall be organised as common schools for all classes ; special preparatory schools for the higher schools shall not be supported out of the communal funds. The church shall not have a right to co-operate in conjunction with the State in public education, and in any case the principles of the inter-confessional school and of secular instruction shall be applied throughout the entire educational system. In no case may com- pulsion to attend religious instruction be applied. State super- vision shall be exercised by teachers trained for the purpose. The maximum number of scholars in the various classes shall be fixed with due regard to considerations of health. Special classes shall be provided for defective children. Instruction in household manage- ment shall be given to girls. Obligatory continuation schools, with an adequate period of instruction, without Sunday and evening instruction, shall be provided for boys and girls. For scholars employed in industries, trade, and agriculture, continuation schools offering special training shall be provided. The State shall make contributions towards the support of the primary schools and particularly the continuation schools. School fees shall not be charged, and school materials shall be supplied free. The larger communes shall appoint school doctors, and the smaller 2 K 498 MUNICIPAL LIFE & GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY communes shall make provision for the periodical examination of the health of scholars. The communes shall also promote popular education by establishing or supporting public libraries, reading rooms, and lectures, and by making all educational institutions, and particularly the theatres, as accessible as possible to the masses of the people. 6. POOR RELIEF. The care of orphans and the poor must be based on individual treatment ; as far as possible the bodies necessary for this purpose shall be honorary, the co-operation of women being sought. Attention shall be given to the care of foster- children, and if necessary institutions for their reception shall be established. 7. LABOUR POLICY. The communes shall co-operate in the amelioration of the condition of the wage-earning classes, particu- larly by the establishment of labour boards, labour registries, managed jointly by employers and employed, and the promotion of unemployment insurance. In the giving of public contracts care shall be taken that the contractors maintain the wages rates and other conditions of labour usual in their trades. Where these are regulated by wages agreements between workmen and employers public works and other contracts shall only be given to employers who agree to observe the said agreements ; should such contracts contain a " strike " clause it shall only provide for an extension of time provided the contractor accepts the arbitration of the Indus- trial Court in its capacity as a Board of Conciliation, and this Court decides in his favour, or in the event of the workpeople refusing to carry the dispute to the said Industrial Court in its capacity as a Board of Conciliation. The communal undertakings shall be carried on as model institu- tions, particularly in regard to the following matters: The con- ditions of employment shall be laid down in general works regula- tions, workpeople's committees shall be set up, wages shall increase with the duration of service, the right to pensions shall be conceded, provision shall be made for widows and orphans, and holidays shall be granted without deduction of wages. An unconditional right of coalition shall be given to communal workpeople. 8. ENCOURAGEMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY. The economic life of the communes shall be promoted by attracting vigorous industries by the offer of special inducements (e.g., the offer of suitable land at low prices, and abatements of taxes or other charges) ; by the provision of motive power, special regard being paid to the needs of the small traders ; by the establishment and support of measures for the improvement of technical instruction ; by the regulation of contract arrangements, with a view to prevent- ing, as far as possible, arbitrary proceedings in the giving of public MUNICIPAL REFORM PROGRAMMES 499 works and favouritism towards individuals, and, on the other hand, to cutting out all underbidding arising from business ignorance, thoughtlessness, dishonesty, or the exploitation of employees and apprentices, and conversely to the encouragement of honourable and efficient trading ; and by the giving out of works of minor consequence according to rota. In rural communes, land improve- ments, particularly in the way of reclamation, drainage, and irrigation works, shall be supported. 9. HOUSING QUESTION. Housing boards shall be established, whose duty it shall be to inspect dwellings and carry on house registries in the interest of healthy and cheap housing. Suitable regulations shall be issued to prevent the building of unhealthy dwellings. Building enterprise shall be promoted, particularly as regards small dwellings, in so far as a social need exists, by the support of public utility building societies and by the leasing of town land in suitable cases. The communes shall be given a right of expropriation with a view to the opening up of eligible building land. Municipal estate shall be preserved, and additions shall be made to it where this can be done without increasing the price of land generally. 10. PUBLIC HEALTH. Due concern for the public health and the proper feeding of the population requires the adoption of the follow- ing measures: Adequate water supply and drainage with very moderate fees in respect of the same, proper street sanitation, the taking over of refuse removal by the larger communes, the provision for recreation grounds and gymnasiums, bathing establish- ments, public parks, shelters, and food depots, an efficient control of articles of food, the establishment and working by the communes of markets and abattoirs, the promotion of cheap food supplies, the combating of monopolies and rings in food, systematic inspection of dwellings, the promotion of cheap nursing for the sick and for women in child-birth independently of the Poor Law, the establish- ment or support of free cribs and homes for children, free maternity help, the establishment in the larger towns of milk depots for the supply of good milk for infants, the appointment of school doctors, the provision or support of holiday colonies for sick children, the establishment of municipal pharmacies in the larger towns, and the free disinfection of dwellings in the case of infectious diseases. The entire burial system shall be taken over by the communal authority. No fees shall be charged for mortuaries or interments. Crematoria shall be established by the communes. INDEX Abattoirs, public, 218, 243, 244. Absolute government, era of, 6-14. Adickes, Chief Mayor of Frankfort- on-Main (quoted), 127, 153, 387. Administrative powers of municipal authorities, 31-57, 81-122, 442- 448. Administrative areas, municipal, 156-160. Administrative Court, Prussian Supreme, 36, 41, 48. Administrative staffs, 113, 114. Advertising German towns, 35. Agrarian reforms of Stein and Hardenberg, 15. Aldermen or magistrates, 20, 22, 81-97, 43 8 -442. Alignment Law of 1875, Prussian, 45, 146-148, 151. Amusement taxes, local, 413-415. Apprentices, training of, 310, 322. Architecture, public, 311, 312. Art galleries, 312. Art and science, public expenditure on, 313. Assets of German and British muni- cipalities, 359-361. Autonomy in taxation, 43, 362-366, 449- Autonomy of towns in Middle Ages, 2-6. Balance sheets of German and British municipalities, 358-361. Barthold (quoted), 3 (note), 10 (note). Baths, public, 201, 202. Berlin, government of, 10-13, 117 119, 131, 145, 160, 466. Betterment contributions, 148-150, 400, 401, 473-475. Bill-posting pillars, municipal, 253, 254- Boldt, Dr. W. (quoted), 390. Borrowing powers, municipal, 345- 355. 456. Brand and Stein, 18. Budget, municipal, 85, 342-345, 456. Building laws and regulations, 45, 142-155, 164. Building societies, encouragement of, 176-180. Buildings, local taxes on, 42, 43, 148-150, 386-402, 426-428. Bureaucratic influence in local govern- ment, 50-57. 44-44 2 . 452-457- Burgess fees, 62, 63. Burgesses and burghers, the earlier, 20, 60 ; in modern times, 61-64. By-law powers, 38, 39, 443. Cemeteries, municipal, 205, 206. Chief Presidents of provinces, 51, 93, 119, 121, 364, 365, 461-466. Child-care movement and centres, 292-296. Church taxes, local, 417, 418. Circles and circle government, 119 122, 364, 463-466. Clauswitz, Dr. (quoted), 18. Commissions and Committees, muni- cipal, 107-113. Common Law, Prussian, 12, 44, 153. Comparison of German local taxes and British local rates, 428-434. Composition of town councils, 112, 438. 2 K 2 501 502 INDEX Concession system in regard to public utility enterprises, 212, 213; electric light, 226; tram- ways, 234-237 ; licensed premises, 411, 412. Consumption. See Tuberculosis. Consumption taxes, local, 409-413. Continuation schools, 322-324. Convalescent homes, 299, 300. Co-ordination of charities, 273. Correlation and proceeds of local taxes, 419-433. Cost of police administration, 47 ; of poor relief, 276, 277 ; of obtaining by-laws, 39 ; of obtaining Local Acts of Parliament in England, 39 (note), 443. Credit facilities, municipal, 356-358. Crefeld Municipal Land Fund, 471, 472. Crematoria, 53, 206, 207. Dahlmann, F. C. (quoted), 14. Deputations, municipal, 107-109. Disfigurement, protecting the streets against, 153, 154. Dispensaries for infants, 195, 287, 288 ; for consumptives, 296298 ; for dipsomaniacs, 280. Disqualification from membership of town councils, 61 ; of executives, 91. District Committee, 39, 46, 51, 93, 99, 119-122, 364, 365, 463-466. District (Government) President, 46, 5L 93. 99. 119-121, 463, 464, 466. District superintendents (Bezirks- vorsteher), 112. Docks and quays, 240-242. Drainage, 198-201. Drama, municipal support of the, 328-336. Diisseldorf, town planning scheme, 144; Municipal Land Fund, 468- 470. Educational movements, working- class, 315. Education, administration and cost of, 37, 48, 49, 316-328. Elberfeld poor relief system and its variations, 265-273. Elections to town councils, 73-76. Elector, the Great, 8, 10 (note). Electric light and power works, 226 229. Emperor Henry I., the " town builder," 2, 18. England, Stein and, 17, 19, 20, 435. Essen, housing policy of, 136, 137. Executive, municipal, 20-22, 26 ; functions and power, 94-97, 104 107, 440442. Expropriation, powers of, 150153, 169, 476-483 ; Empire, 150 ; Saxony, 150, 481 ; Baden, 150, 478-480 ; Prussia, 150-152 ; Bavaria, 150, 476, 477 ; Ham- burg, 151, 477, 483; Frankfort- on-Main, 152, 482. Families, influence of patrician, 5, 6. Federations of cities and towns in early times, 4, 5 ; in modern times, 115, 116. Finance, municipal, 85, 337-361. Food supply, municipal enterprise in, 245-247. Foods and drinks, regulation of, 197, 198, 244. Forest in municipal ownership, 130 132. Franchise, municipal, 20, 21, 24, 25, 59-70 ; disqualifications, 70. Frankfort-on-Main, power to pool building sites at, 152, 153, 482, 483- Free cities, 5. Freemanship fees, 62, 63. Frederick I. of Prussia, 9 ; Frederick William I., 9-11 ; Frederick II., 9 ; Frederick William III., 15-18 ; Frederick William IV., n (note). Freiburg, housing policy of, 174, 175. French municipal system, 13, 20-23. French Revolution, 13, 20, 21, (1830) 23, (1848) 25. Freund, Government Councillor (quoted), 170. INDEX 503 Frey, Police Director, and Stein, 12, 18, 19. Freytag, Gustav (quoted), 8. Gas supply, 224-226. Geusen, Herr (quoted), 171. Government Districts and Presidents, 4 6 . 5i. 93. 99. 119-121. 4 6 3. 44. 466. Government, scope of local, 31-57. Guardianship of illegitimate children, municipal, 290-292. Guilds, influence of trade and handi- craft, 5, 6, 20, 25. Halle municipal theatre regulations, 491-495. Handicraft guilds, influence of, 5, 6. Hanseatic League, 5. Hardenberg, 15, 16. Health administration, public, 189- 207. Honorary service in local govern- ment, 111-113. Hospital system, public, 193-195. House speculation, 165-167. House-owners, privilege of, 21, 25, 54. 71-73. 167, 428. Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909, 445, 446. Housing question in the towns, 161- 188. Housing schemes, municipal, 137- 142, 161-188. Humboldt, Wilhelm von, 24. Illegitimate children, mortality amongst, 290 ; municipal guar- dianship of, 290-292. Income taxes, local, 376-385, 419- 434. Incorporation movement and pro- cedure, 35, 157-160. Increased value taxation. See Un- earned increment taxation. Indirect (consumption) taxes, local, 409-413. Industry, furtherance of, 134, 135, 241-243. Infant mortality, crusade against, 286-289. Infectious disease, measures against, 196. 197- Insurance, assisted unemployment, 303-305- Insurance enterprises, municipal, 252, 253. Intellectual life, provision for, 311- 336. Isolation hospitals, 196. Jena, battle of, 12, 15. Jena, regulations for municipal house building and selling at, 484-488. Joachim I., Elector, 9. Joint Administrative Boards, 116- 119. July Revolution of 1830, 23. Juvenile care movement, 292296. Kant, 1 8. Kappelmann, H. (quoted), 37, 159 (note). Konigsberg by-law relative to better- ment contributions, 473, 474. Laboratories, municipal, 198. Labour houses for the workshy, 275, 276. Labour registries, 301-303. Landmann, Dr. (quoted), 168. Land-purchase policy, municipal, 123-140, 241, 445, 468-472. Landrat, 46, 120, 463-466. Land speculation, 140, 146, 147, 165-167, 397- Land taxation, 42, 43, 148-150, 386- 402. 426-428, 473-475- " Large " towns, 20, 31. Leagues of towns in Middle Ages, 4. 5- Legal advice agencies, 307, 308, 489, 490. Liabilities of municipalities, 349-352 ; German and British compared, 359-361. Libraries and reading-rooms, 314, 315. 504 INDEX Licensed premises, taxes on, 412. Lindemann, Dr. H. (quoted), 54 (note). Loans, municipal, 345-355, 456 ; for trading enterprises (German and British), 352. Local administration, principles of, 31-57; organisation of, 58-113, 461467. Local Government Act of 1894, 27, 442. Local Government Boards, British, 34, 35, 124, 262 (note), 443-448, 452-457- Local taxation, 37, 42, 43, 362-434, 448-452. Lodging-houses for single men, 300, 301. Luneville, Peace of, 14 (note). Magisterial and mayoral systems of executive compared, 104-107. Magistracy and magistrates (alder- men), 20, 22, 81-97, 438-442. Mannheim, municipal development policy of, 134-136, 142, 241 ; housing policy, 177, 178. Markets and market halls, 244. Marriage dowries for working-girls, 310. Maternity insurance, 288, 289. Mayor, position and powers, 98-107, 440. Meat supply, inspection of, 197 ; municipal enterprise, 246. " Medium " towns, 20, 31. Middle Ages, municipal government in, 1-6. Milk supply, inspection of, 198. Mortality rate, general, 189 ; infant, 266, 289 ; illegitimate infant, 290. Mortgage and rent-charge banks, 250-252. Most, Dr. O. (quoted), 29 (note), 170. Munich Municipal Land Committee, 470, 471. Municipal Corporations Acts, 27, 435, 436 (note), 447 (note). Municipal estate, extent of, 123-140. Municipal executive, 20-22, 26, 82, 86-97, 104-107, 440-442. Municipal finance, 85, 337-361. Municipal government in the Middle Ages, 1-6 ; under the absolu- tistic system, 6-12 ; at the begin- ning of the nineteenth century, 12 23 ; under Stein's Ordinance, 17- 26; at the present day, 29-122 and passim; in Prussia, 13-27, 31-58, 61-122, 369 ; in Bavaria, 23. 25, 27, 42, 48, 58, 61-64, 73-75. 86, 87, 91, 93, 98, 104, 369, 375. 382, 383, 392, 394, 408-411. 413-416 ; in Wurtemberg, 23, 25, 27,' 58, 61-64, 74 87, 92, 98, 376. 382, 383, 394, 400, 408-410 ; in Saxony, 25, 27, 48, 58, 62, 64, 67, 68, 71, 73. 74. 92, 98, 369, 375. 37 6 . 382, 392, 394, 408, 409, 414-416 ; in Baden, 27, 58, 61, 62, 73, 85, 88. 92, 394, 409, 413 ; in Alsace- Lorraine, 58, 62, 64, 73-75, 86, 384, 410, 411. Municipal hospitals, 193-195. Municipal land boards and funds, 133, 468-472. Municipal leagues and congresses, 115, 116. Municipal Ordinance of 1808, Stein's, i, 13-23, 44 ; revisions of, 23-26. Municipal taxation, 37, 42, 43, 85, 362-434, 448-452, 473-475- Municipal theatres, 328336, 491- 495- Municipal trading enterprises, 208 259. See " Trading enterprises." Municipal workpeople, 256-259. Music, municipal support of, 328- 336. Napoleon I., 2, 12-14, X 7, 23. Newspapers, municipal, no. Nuremberg, regulations of the muni- cipal legal advice office at, 489, 490. Nurses, public, 287, 297. Octroi dues, 409-411. INDEX 505 Officials, 113-115. Orphans, care of, 269, 272. Out-relief, 270, 271. Parks, public, 202-205. Pawnshops, municipal, 308, 309. Pension management for officials, 21. 103, 104. Pharmacies, municipal, 253. Planning of towns, 141-160, 445-447, 476-483. Playgrounds for children, 204, 205. Police powers reserved by the State, 22, 43-48, 437. Politics in town councils, pro- hibition of, 41. Poll taxes, 416. Pooling of properties for the purpose of town planning, 152, 153, 478- 483- Poor-law systems compared, German and English, 34, 261, 278. Poor man's lawyer, municipal, 307, 308, 489, 490. Poor relief, administration of, 34, 37, 122, 260-278. Population, ratio of municipal estate to, 125, 126 ; ratio of administra- tive areas to, 156, 157. Potsdam by-law relative to better- ment contributions, 474, 475. Powers of municipal authorities, administrative, 29-57, 81-122, 442-448. Preuss, Dr. H. (quoted), 2, 4, n, 93 (note), 163, 437 (note). Privilege of officials in relation to taxation, 379, 380. Profits from municipal estate, 132, 133 ; from trading enterprises, 217-224. Programme, municipal reform, 496- 499- Property owners, privilege of, 21, 25, 54. 71-73. 167, 428. Property (real) taxation, 42, 43, 148- 15. 386-402, 426-428, 473-475 ; property transfer taxation, 392- 394- Provincial Government, Diet, Coun- cil, 119-121, 364, 462-466. Prussia, municipal government in, 13-27. 31-57. 58, 61-122, 369-434- Prussian Common Law, 12, 44, 153. Public health administration, 189- 207. Public health authorities, Imperial, State, and municipal, 190-193. Public works, execution of, rtgie versus contract, 254-256. Rating system, British, 367-369, 415. 432, 448-452. Real estate, local taxation of, 42, 43, 148-150, 386-402, 426-428 ; land and building taxes, 387-392 ; tax on sale of property, 392-394 ; unearned increment tax, 394-399 ; " betterment " taxation, 148-150, 400, 401, 473-475- Recreation grounds, public, 202-205. Reform movements, modern, 436- 438, 496-499- Refuse removal, 200, 201. Relief works for the unemployed, 305- 3>7- Rent taxes, 369, 415, 416. Revenue from communal estate, 132-134. Ronne, L. von (quoted), 10 (note), 14. Salaries of mayors, 103. Sanitation (public). See Health. Savings banks, 247-250. Scavenging, 200. School dentists and dental clinics, 294. 295- School doctors and school hygiene, 34. 40, 293, 294. School for housewifery, 310. Schools for communal government, "5. 155- Schools, primary, 316-320, 326-328 ; higher, 321, 322 ; continuation, 322-324 ; technical, 324. Sch6n, Theodor, 17, 22. Seeley, J. R. (quoted), 10 (note), 13, 435 (note). 5<>6 INDEX Services in kind, 373. Sewerage, 197-201. Shelters for the homeless, 301. Site value taxation. See Land taxa- tion. Slaughter-houses, public, 218, 243, 244. Small houses, reaction in favour of, 169172. " Small " towns, 20, 30. Social welfare work, municipal, 279- 310. State influence in local government, 7-12, 22, 24, 43-55, 50-56, 452- 457- Statistical Offices, municipal, no. Status of towns, 29-31. Stein, Baron von, i, 2, 13-26, 29, 82, 435. 436. Stein's Municipal Ordinance, i, 15- 26, 29, 44, 436. Stores, local tax on, 408, 409. Streets, protection against disfigure- ment of, 153, 154. Stiibben, Dr. (quoted), 161, 170 (note). Supervision of local authorities, State, 50-56, 452-457, 465. Swabian League, 4. Swimming baths, public, 201, 202. Taxation, municipal, 37, 42, 43, 362- 434, 448-452 ; real estate taxes, 42, 43, 148-150, 386-402, 426-428, 437-475 ; income taxes, 376-385 419-434 ; trade taxes, 403-409 department stores taxes, 408, 409 amusement taxes, 413-415 licensed premises, 412 ; indirect (consumption) taxes, 374, 409- 415 ; church taxes, 417, 418 ; poll taxes, 416 ; rent taxes, 369, 415, 416 ; dog taxes, 416. Technical schools, 322-324. Theatre, municipal support of the, 328-336, 491-495. Thirty Years' War, 5, 7, 8. Three-class system of voting, 26, 64- 70. Tilsit, Peace of, 15, 16. Town councils, first institution, 4 ; constitution, 20, 24, 25, 58-80 ; powers and duties, 81 86 ; Labour representation, 70, 76-80 ; com- position, 112. Town halls, no, in. Town planning, 141-160, 445-447, 476483 ; legislation Prussia, 151, 152 ; Bavaria, 150, 476, 477 ; Baden, 150, 478-480; Saxony, 150, 481-483 ; Hamburg, 477, 483 ; Frankfort-on-Main, 152, 153, 482 ; Wiirtemberg, 483. Trade and handicraft guilds, influ- ence of, 5, 6, 20, 25. Trade and industry, furtherance of, 242, 243. Towns, rise in Middle Ages, 2-5 ; decay in era of absolutism, 6-12 ; influence of Thirty Years' War, 7, 8 ; federations and leagues, 4. 5- Trade taxes, local, 403-409. Trading enterprises, municipal the old German tradition, 208-210 ; the modern revival, 210-212 ; concessions and royalties, 212, 213 ; scope, 213-217 ; revenue and profits, 217-224; gas supply, 224- 226 ; electric light and power works, 226-229 ', water supply, 229-232 ; tramways and transport, 232-240 ; docks and quays, 240- 242 ; furtherance of trade and industry, 242, 243 ; public abat- toirs, market halls, and food supply, 243-247 ; municipal savings banks, 248-250 ; mort- gage and rent-charge banks, 250- 252 ; insurance enterprises, 252, 253 ; miscellaneous trading enter- prises, 253, 254 ; execution of public works, rigie versus contract, 254-256 ; municipal workpeople, conditions of employment, 256- 259- Tramways and transport, 232-240. Treitschke (quoted), 14 (note). INDEX 507 Tuberculosis, measures against, 197, 296-299. Ulm, housing policy of, 175, 176. Unearned increment taxation, 43, 364. 365. 394-399- Unemployment, measures against, 274. 275, 303-307- Vienna, Congress of, 23. Vogt, Professor (quoted), 171. Water supply, 229-232. Wolff, Dr. H. (quoted), 166. Women in local government, 113, 268, 269. Working classes, taxation of, 381- 384- Working-men on town councils, 70, 76-80. Workpeople, municipal, conditions of employment, 256-259. WILLIAM BKEHDON AND SON, LTD. PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH DATE DUE GAYUORD fED IN U.S.A.