Study On The German Urbanization During The Imperial Germany(1871-1910)

As the second country to achieve the urbanization after Britain, Germany urbanization synchronized roughly with its industrialization. With the rise of the industrial revolution in the 1830s and 1840s, its modern urbanization was also on the horizon. The last three decades of the nineteenth century saw the high-speed Germany industrialization. In the meantime, its urbanization was gaining momentum and German basically achieved urbanization with its rate of 60% in 1910. Urbanization during the German Empire is regarded as a typical case of the virtuous and interactive development of high-speed industrialization and urbanization. The systematic research into the urbanization of this time has important theoretical significance on revealing the pattern of urbanization and the study of positive interaction between industrialization and urbanization. Moreover, the research can not only enrich the content of Economic and Social History as well as Urban History, but also provide a useful reference for the urbanization of the new-coming countries. At present, foreign scholars, German scholars in particular, have performed a lot of research on urbanization during the German Empire, while domestic scholars remain at the initial stage of the study of this important academic issue and they have not attached enough importance to it neither on its depth nor its scope. It's necessary to do some deep and systematic research into Germany urbanization.When it comes to the research into urbanization during the German Empire, it's essential, firstly, to define the urbanization, and then to comb the present situation of the research of Germany urbanization. Urbanization is not only the product of a certain social and economic development, but also an inevitable outcome driven by industrial restructuring, regional transformation and population growth since the industrial revolution. Unlike the urban development at any time before, urbanization is referred to as the process of realizing the integration of city and countryside promoted in depth and scope by sharp changes in such aspects as size of population, space distribution, industrial structure and social way of life, gradually being dominant in social and economic activities, which leads to shifts in human mode of production as well as ways of living and human mode of inhabitation from countryside to cities. The fundamental theories of urbanization mainly involve regularity of development stages and two-way mutual promotion and progress between economic development and urbanization, and "Pull-Push theory" on the transfer of rural population to cities. The dissertation elaborates on the development of the research into Germany urbanization, systematically combs the outline of relevant research on Germany urbanization made by foreign scholars and focuses on the latest development of some projects related to urbanization in Germany.According to regularity of development stages by David Northam, the process of modern urbanization in Germany is supposed to fall into initial stage (also known as start-up stage), accelerating stage and maturity stage. At present, it's widely believed by historiography circle that the period of 1815—1840 is the preparation stage of modern urbanization in Germany and the period of 1840—1871 is its initial stage. In my opinion, Germany urbanization started in the 1840s and its curtain was raised with the rise of Germany industrialization in the 1830s and 1840s. The establishment of Deutscher Zollverein in 1834 not only boosted the development of goods and trade,which laid foundation for the unity of domestic market, but also facilitated the speedy development of Germany industrialization. With the expansion of market and development of industrialization in Germany, the gap between urban and rural areas in economic development was continuously widening, in the meantime, the urban population as well as the size and the number of cities persistently increasing. Imbalanced development of urbanization in various parts of Germany aggravated at the time. The urbanization development gap between the western part of Rhineland and Westfalen and the middle and eastern part was widening.Urbanization during the German Empire mainly includes urban population growth, changes in urban space structure, industrial transformation and the motive force of development..The growth of urban population at this time was due to three aspects:urban population growth by a natural process, immigrants and increased population as a result of the combination of the administrative divisions. Large cities were the fastest in population growth, the medium-sized cities next to them, small cities the slowest. Furthermore, the growth rate of population was not similar in different kinds of cities. Population increase was gaining momentum in the cities with heavy industry and machinery-producing industry as their leading industries and the diversified cities. The rate of population growth in the university and retirement cities and military garrison ones was obviously lower than the average level, while in commercial and trade cities that was close to average. According to regional distribution, urban population grew quickly in western areas and Brandenburg areas while growing slowly in the east of the Elbe River. In general, there was a change in urban population growth mode, from a natural process as the dominant factor to pure immigrants as the leading factor. Significant adjustments have been made in space distribution of cities, which present a regional distribution pattern characterized by clear regional differences, the center of development moving westward and "decentralized centralization". There was a tendency of division among industrial areas, commercial areas and residential areas in internal structure of cities.During the process of urbanization, industrial structure shifted from agriculture to industry as the leading industry of the entire national economy in Germany. Industrial restructuring was often reflected in the changes in output, employment, national income among various industrial sectors. Affected by the urban industrial transformation, occupational structure changed a lot. The employed population in non-agricultural industries played a dominant role. With the specialization of cities being evident, industrial cities, urban transportation hubs and comprehensive cities took shape. Location factors were important ones affecting the development of cities in this period. Driven by the rapid industrialization, intercourses between the growing cities were increasing. At the same time, Ruhr Metropolitan had emerged.Urbanization during the German Empire was characterized by prior increase in metropolises and imbalanced development in regions. The pace of development of cities with different leading industries varied greatly. Compared to other developed countries, large cities were low in urban primacy ratio and evenly distributed small and medium-sized cities were in large numbers. The rise of agricultural productivity provided a prerequisite for the transfer of surplus labour from rural areas. The rapid industrialization was the fundamental driving force of urbanization in Germany, which provided employment opportunities for the transfer of rural surplus labor. Increase in employed population inevitably led to urban expansion in size and eventually the development of urbanization. Institutional change provided institutional guarantee for the development of urbanization. It's stipulated in the Constitution of the German Empire (in German:Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches) issued after unification of Germany that people enjoyed rights of freedom of migration. Germany set up social security system in the 1880s, which created conditions for steady, sustainable and rapid urban development.To sum up, the dissertation elaborates on urbanization during the German Empire in such respects as urban population increase, space shift, industrial transformation and motive force of development. Urbanization at this time went hand in hand with industrialization and was characterized by imbalanced development in regions, prior development of large cities and low urban primacy ration.