Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
He is a fortunate traveller who enters Berlin from the west, and
toward the end of his journey rolls along over the twelve or fifteen
miles of new streets, glides under the Brandenburger Tor, and finds
himself in Unter den Linden. The Kaiserdamm, Bismarck Strasse,
Berliner Strasse, Charlottenburgerchaussee, Unter den Linden, give the
most splendid street entrance into a city in the world. The pavement
is without a hole, without a crack, and as clear of rubbish of any
kind as a well-kept kitchen floor. The cleanliness is so noticeable
that one looks searchingly for even a scrap of paper, for some trace
of negligence, to modify this superiority over the streets of our
American cities. But there is no consolation; the superiority is so
incontestable that no comparison is possible. For the whole twelve or
fifteen miles the streets are lined with trees, or shrubs, or flowers,
with well-kept grass, and with separate roads on each side for
horsemen or foot-passengers. In the spring and summer the streets are
a veritable garden.
Broadway is 80 feet wide; Fifth Avenue is 100 feet wide; the Champs
Elysees is 233 feet wide; and Unter den Linden is 196 feet wide, and
has 70 feet of roadway.
For every square yard of wood pavement in Berlin there are 24 square
yards of asphalt and 37 square yards of stone. The total length of
streets cleaned in Berlin, which has an area of 25 square miles,
according to a report of some few years ago, was 316 miles; there are
700 streets and some 70 open places, and the area cleaned daily was
8,160,000 square yards. The cost of the care of the Berlin streets has
risen with the growth of the city from 1,670,847 marks, [1] in 1880,
to 6,068,557 marks, in 1910. The total cost of the street-cleaning in
New York, in 1907, was $9,758,922, and in Manhattan, The Bronx, and
Brooklyn 5,129 men were employed; while the working force in Berlin,
in 1911, was 2,150. It should be said also that in New York an
enormous amount of scavenging is paid for privately besides. In New
York the street-sweepers are paid $2.19 a day; in Berlin the foremen
receive 4.75 marks the first three years, and thereafter 5 marks; the
men 3.75 marks the first three years, then 4 marks, and after nine
years' service 4.50 marks. The boy assistants receive 2 marks, after two
years 2.25 marks, and after four years service 3 marks. The whole force
is paid every fourteen days. The street-cleaning department is divided
into thirty-three districts, these districts into four groups, each with
an inspector, and all under a head-inspector. Attached to each district
are depots with yards for storage of vehicles, apparatus, brooms,
shovels, uniforms, with machine shops, where on more than one occasion I
have seen enthusiastic workmen trying experiments with new machinery to
facilitate their work.
[1] The mark is equal to a little less than twenty-five cents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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