A Study On The Housing Reform Movement During The Period Of German Empire

The German Empire from the middle of the 19 th century to the beginning of the20 th century was in a critical period of social transformation and innovation.During this period,traditional housing problems were gradually concentrated from the countryside to the cities due to industrialization and urbanization,and thus new housing problems were therefore formed,mainly in the form of poor living conditions,high rents,and health problems.This growing social problem soon attracted the attention of a series of housing reformers who began to explore various social housing construction activities and reform programs in an attempt to deal with the housing problem,and soon afterwards,a reform movement for the implementation of a national housing policy emerged.The main content of the article is divided into four chapters.The first chapter traces and explores the housing problems and housing reform movements in the German regions before the German Empire.Since 1840,with the industrialization of the German region,the resulting transformation of the industrial structure promoted internal migration in the German region.More and more Germans began to move to the cities to find jobs and settle down.Such large-scale population movements soon created an unstable housing supply in the cities,and a series of housing problems,mainly manifested by workers’ housing problems,began to emerge.Faced with this situation,early housing reformers represented by Victor Aimé Huber started to explore housing reform for the first time in Germany.They carried out early housing reform practices according to the concept of social conservatism by means of cooperative housing,company housing and building societies,thus opening the curtain of the German housing reform movement.The second chapter formally begins the discussion of the housing problem and the housing reform movement in the German Empire(1870-1890).On the one hand,this chapter provides a systematic analysis of the housing problem in the German cities at the height of urbanization in the context of the formation of large cities in the German Empire,including the trend of urban housing densification,the analysis of macro data on housing supply in large cities,the issues of urban land and rents,and the living condition of lower class affected by the housing problem.On the other hand,the housing reform movement took a new turn during this period,led by the Association for Social Policy,and a large number of reformers began to call for opposition to the principles of economic liberalism that prevailed at this time and advocate of new state involvement in the housing sector.In the same time,social hygiene,as a new science,gradually joined the housing reform movement,and with the participation of health organizations led by the Public Health Care Association,public gradually increased their knowledge of housing hygiene.Shortly afterwards a series of hygienic housing concepts further influenced urban planning and housing design,and were promoted by government agencies in the end.In addition,with the publication of Engels’ Zur Wohnungsfrage,the early Social Democratic Party,as a representative of the socialist side,began to explore the issue of housing.However,due to the struggle of dogmatic and revisionist forces within the party at the time,the Social Democratic Party was failed to make a major contribution to the housing reform.The third chapter continues the chronological study of the post-1890 housing reform movement,the gradual governmental housing interventions,and the tortuous housing legislation movement.A series of reform movements,such as the German Land Reformers’ Union,the Garden City Movement,and others,took the land issue as their starting point and carried out their own reform attempts and practices.Also during this period,the previous social housing activities were given an unprecedented opportunity to develop,and social housing,represented by cooperative housing,entered a period of prosperity.In addition,the municipal,state,and imperial governments also started to promote housing construction and improvement through housing promotion policies and housing inspection systems.However,it was also during this period that the housing legislation movement,which sought to establish a unified national housing policy,went through a very tortuous and unsatisfactory course.While housing legislation was initially promoted by the housing reform forces,led by the Social Policy Association and the Housing Reform Association,and began to receive practical support in the Reichstag,but motions to introduce housing legislation were repeatedly and strongly opposed by the Prussian and other federal governments,and ultimately failed to proceed.The fourth chapter deals with the improvement of the housing situation in the German Empire and the historical significance of the housing reform movement.To the improvement of the housing situation in the imperial period,although the housing problem as a structural problem was far from being solved during this time,the housing situation has still improved to some extent by the efforts of the society and the government.In many cities,housing conditions were improved,and the number of night-lodgers who were once homeless was decreasing.In terms of the historical significance of the German housing reform movement as a whole,both the social housing legacy of the imperial period,the housing innovations originated from the housing reform,and the previous exploration of housing policy have benefited subsequent generations.In general,the housing reform movement in the German Empire was ultimately an unfinished task due to the failure to establish a uniform housing policy.Since then,followed the path of housing reform initiated during the German Reich,the search for housing solutions continued in the Weimar Republic,Nazi Germany,and the time of division,until today.