ABSTRACT
This chapter provides several insights into how German big cities responded to several decades of extraordinary social change. Few people seem able to remain indifferent to the subject of big cities and their problems. Fewer can agree about the cities' changing nature after the European industrial explosion of the middle 19th Century. Attitudes towards the rapid urban growth of metropolitan centers in the German Empire were no exception to this rule, although on balance the Second Reich's record during its existence was rather impressive. The primitive suburban cottages without indoor toilets, especially in the low-lying Isar Auen near the Isar River, became overcrowded and a health hazard. Modern zoning and urban planning practices were applied and the city began to cope with the problems of urban expansion by the replacement of hazardous and unhygienic housing. The great urban transformation was reflected also in its statistics of human failure and breakdown, and in government efforts to provide relief.
