The development of German housing from the Industrial Revolution to the Second World War

Until the Industrial Revolution, which began in earnest in the 1860s, German housing had been provided largely on a self-build basis by the predominantly rural population. The explosion of industrial population and output had huge repercussions on housing. There was a massive influx of rural people and large migrations from distant German enclaves such as Eastern Prussia, far inside Poland and the former Soviet Union, coupled with a rapidly rising birth-rate and spiralling death rate.