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Life in Wilhelmine Germany
Housing conditions were one indication of the huge differences in living
standards among Hamburg's inhabitants at this time. Magnificent villas
in Eppendorf and Winterhude housed the city’s wealthy upper middle
classes; unhygienic slums in the Altstadt and Neustadt housed the poor,
while some better paid workers inhabited relatively new tenement blocks.
New schools erected in many city quarters brought improved opportunities
for education – also for girls attending the first state-run Girls
High Schools in Hansastrasse and on Lerchenfeld. The foundation of public
libraries from 1899 to promote popular education was a progressive initiative
of the Patriotic Society.
The big city with its colorful mix of inhabitants and lively port activity
attracted painters like Emil Nolde and Max Liebermann. Inspired by the
French Impressionists, artists like Ernst Eitner, Arthur Illies and
Arthur Siebelist congregated and painted in the Hamburg Artists Club
founded in 1897.
Hamburg had numerous theaters, museums, a music hall which opened in
1908, and many other cultural attractions and diversions. "Hagenbecks
Tierpark," the zoo opened in neighboring Stellingen in 1907, drew
worldwide acclaim for the freedom it granted animals. Among the city’s
many sports clubs, SC Victoria, which won the north German soccer championships
in 1906 and 1907, was especially revered. Indoor swimming pools also
contributed to hygiene. After the first movie screenings in 1901 at
Knopf's Lichtspieltheater on Spielbudenplatz, a new leisure activity
spread fast – the cinema.
During World War I, the living conditions of most Hamburgers deteriorated
dramatically. Fathers and sons fought at the front, and in the city,
shortages caused support for the war to dwindle, as hunger spread, leading
to first public protests in 1916.
Hamburg in the 20th.century (1)
- Imperial Germany
and the Struggle for Voting Rights
- Life in Wilhelmine Germany
- The
Mobile City
- International
Port and Economic Center
- Revolution
in Hamburg
- Democracy
and its Enemies
- A
Decade of Economic Crisis
- Greater
Hamburg
- Life
Under the Swastika
- The
Abolition of Democracy
- Towards
a War Economy
- Persecution and resistance
in the National Socialist state
- Hamburg
at war
- Destruction
by Fire Storm
Hamburg in the 20th.century (2)
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