A Research On German Municipal Reform During The Period Of Industrialization(1830-1910)

Since the 1830 s,the economic structure of Germany has gradually changed from being dominated by agriculture to being dominated by industry.With the development of industrialization and urbanization,the scale of cities has been expanding and the population of cities has increased suddenly.However,a series of social problems have also arisen,which led to the results that the old municipal system and municipal facilities are facing severe challenges.Germany is an earlier country that carries out the municipal reform compared with the other developed countries of Europe and America.This paper intends to analyze German municipal reform from the following perspectives: the promotion factors of the municipal reform,the transformation of the municipal system,the improvement of the municipal facilities,the impact of the reform and so on.The paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter briefly describes the purpose and significance of the research and domestic and foreign research trends.The second chapter analyzes the background of German municipal reform in the early 19 th century from the four aspects of the autonomy traditions of medieval German cities,the decline of cities between the 17 th and 18 th centuries,Napoleon's rule and Stein's reform and the social problems arising from the development of industrialization and urbanization.The third chapter discusses the reform of the German municipal administration system in detail,which is divided into three sections.The first section introduces the distribution of power between states and cities and their respective rights and responsibilities.The second section explains distribution of city's internal administrative power among parliaments,the executive committees and mayors.The third section discusses the reform of the electoral system in Germany in the 19 th century from four perspectives of the right to vote,the "three-tier" electoral system,the qualifications of electors and the privileges of homeowners and the electoral process.The fourth section analyzes the social problems arising from the process of industrialization and urbanization and the reform measures taken by cities in the field of public utilities and public facilities from the three aspects: the housing problem,intellectual life and public health.The fifth chapter summarizes the main characteristics of German municipal reform in the 19 th century its impact in the process of urban development.In the process of transformation from traditional to modern,the urban structure,government functions,municipal management system,supervision mechanism and other aspects of German cities all show distinctive characteristics.At present,China's urbanization is in an accelerated stage of development,thus the study of German municipal reform can also provide valuable experience for China's urban development.