CHAPTER I.

MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS.

Rapid development of Berlin—Its present importance—Constitution of the Corporation — Offices of Ober Bürgermeister, Bürgermeister, Magistrate, and Town Councillor-Functions of the Magistracy and Town Council-Paid and unpaid magistrates-Administrative departments and committees-Corporation supervision in all institutions affecting public wellbeing - City finance-Annual charges-Local ratesMethods of raising rates-Annual departmental reportsBerlin municipal Brown-book.

THE chief city of the German empire is now within easy reach of any part of Great Britain. By the Queenborough - Flushing route, the traveller covers the distance from London in twenty-four hours, while from Edinburgh or Dublin he may do so within thirty-six hours. He may, this morning, be filling his mind with the historic associations of Holyrood

4

CAPITAL OF THE HOHENZOLLERNS.

or College Green, and to-morrow night be strolling by Frederick the Great's statue in Unter den Linden. And, however uninviting Berlin may have been twenty years ago, before the extraordinary development which, in all departments of its civic administration, it has made within that period, it may be safely said that there is now no city in Europe which presents so many interesting features to the student of municipal government. It has not, indeed, the historic interest of the old free towns of Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, or Frankfort; still less can it in this respect compare with the more ancient cities beyond the Rhine and the Alps. Long before it played any part in the life of the German people, small towns like Wittenberg, Erfurt, and Eisenach were shaping the destinies of the nation. But Berlin had the distinction of being made the capital of the Hohenzollerns; it has followed their fortunes and shared their fame. Through many vicissitudes the little double town of Berlin-Kölln struggled to establish itself on the sluggish Spree. Its far-sighted traders saw that, though their town was placed in

the midst of an arid plain, their river afforded them a highway to the fruitful valleys of the Elbe and the Oder and would enable them to join the commerce of Poland and Eastern Europe with that of the Baltic and the Northern Sea. At the close of the Thirty Years' War the town did not number more than 6000 inhabitants, but from that time it grew in size and importance. It was, however, only in the time of Frederick the Great that Berlin became one of the foremost capitals of Europe. At the death of Frederick, in 1786, the population of the city was 145,000, while at the beginning of the present century it was 172,000. Since 1800 its growth has been marvellously rapid. At the present time the population is no less than 1,635,000. Berlin has become the greatest manufacturing and industrial centre on the Continent. The trade carried on its river and canals is greater even than the trade of the Rhine, its money and grain markets are among the greatest in Europe. No city in the eastern hemisphere has within so short a period made such wonderful extension; it is only among the cities of the New World that

6

IMPROVEMENT AND REFORM.

a parallel can be found. At the present moment a project is under serious consideration, and it appears to meet with favour, to extend the boundaries of the city to a radius of nearly ten miles from the present centre, the point at which the Friedrich Strasse intersects the Unter den Linden. If this were done, the population would number three millions, and Berlin would stand second only to London among the capitals of the world. As things are, the population is increasing at the rate of nearly forty thousand a-year.

Since the war with France the whole municipal organisation has undergone such a revision as the enormous growth of the city called for. With admirable thoroughness the work of improvement and reform has been carried on in every department. It is the object of the present study to Ishow to what attainments these reforms have reached. It may be hoped that, if the narrative affords some examples that may be worthy of imitation by municipalities in this country, town councillors and others concerned in various branches of local government may not be above learning what may prove useful in their own