Standing in the main square before the town hall of Essen is a large
bronze monument, representing not a king, nor yet a hero, but a man
clad in a simple citizen's coat. His right hand rests on an anvil,
and his penetrating eyes are overhung by a thinker's brow. The granite
pedestal bears the name of "Alfred Krupp."
Long ago England knew the process of making cast steel, but she
carefully kept it a secret. In 1800 Friedrich Krupp, the father of
Alfred, began to experiment. He worked early and late. His friends
told him that he was wasting his time, but Friedrich worked on. After
eleven years he discovered the precious secret, and in 1818, on the
present site of the Essen works, he built eight furnaces, each with one
crucible. He employed only two laborers. And that was the beginning of
the great Krupp works at Essen.
[Illustration: _Bertha Krupp, Her Husband and Children._]
His son Alfred was born in 1812, just one year after the great
discovery was made, and in 1842 Alfred assumed entire charge of the
works. His father had been able to cast steel only in small masses.
In 1855 Alfred Krupp sent a block of steel weighing 4500 pounds to the
London Exhibition, and he was able to cast steel in one mass weighing
more than 100,000 pounds. Alfred Krupp died in 1887, and it was under
him that the Krupp works grew, to such enormous proportions.
[Illustration: _A Large Community House._]
Alfred Friedrich Krupp, the third in line, was born in 1854 and died
in 1902. He was known as the cannon king. When he died nearly all
his wealth went to his daughter Bertha. In 1906, at the age of twenty
years, Bertha Krupp was married to a plain German gentleman with only a
"von" to his name, Herr von Bohlen and Halbach. They have four children
living and one child dead, and they live very quietly at "Villa Hügel"
in Essen, a lovely villa built on the hills above the town. In 1900,
before his marriage, Herr von Bohlen was an attaché at the German
embassy at Washington. Bertha Krupp is the second richest person in the
German empire, running the Kaiser a close second, and when this war is
over her wealth may surpass his.
[Illustration: _Community Houses in Essen._]
Essen lies twenty-two miles north of Düsseldorf on the main railway
to Berlin. This is a very thickly populated district, and the center
of a network of railways which makes it accessible to the Westphalia
coal fields. It is a gloomy-looking town of gray slate roofs, only
brightened by emerald green shutters. The whole town depends on the
Krupp plant for their livelihood, except the store-keepers and a few
hundred men who manufacture woolen goods, cigars and dyes.
The present Krupp works cover over 150 acres, and the daily output
in time of peace is 1977 tons, and many times greater in time of
war. In 1907 they employed 64,354 workmen, and each year this number
had increased. They make all kinds of guns of all calibers--guns
for naval and coast defenses, siege guns, fortress guns, field guns,
armor shields and disappearing carriages for hoisting and transporting
machinery for ammunition. They produce crucible, Martin, puddled and
Bessemer steel, and also steel castings. They make ammunition with
fuses and bursting charges, armor piercing shells, explosive steel
shells, torpedo shells, cast iron shells, shrapnel, case shot and fuse
setters. Besides these warlike productions they make railway material,
engineering material, and sheet iron for motor cars.
[Illustration: _400 Damaged French and English Cannon Being Repaired at
the Krupp Factory._]
Plans have been made to erect a gigantic branch of the Krupp works
at Munich. These works will cover one hundred acres, and the city
of Munich recognizing this opportunity for further developments, has
provided enough ground for private industries that are bound to follow
Krupp.
[Illustration: _A View of the Mills._]
The house of Krupp has worked out an elaborate scheme for the benefit
of their workingmen. It is not a charity scheme, but a building scheme
for both workmen and employer. The scheme was carried out by Alfred
Friedrich Krupp. He built 5469 dwellings, well lighted houses, with as
much space between them as possible and each with a little garden. All
the houses have good water. Three thousand of the houses were built
within fifteen minutes' walk from the works. The men longest in the
firm's employ and with the largest families were given the selection of
the houses.
Policemen and teachers are eligible to become tenants of the dwellings.
The leases are very binding and forbid the carrying on of business
in the houses, sub-letting, quarreling with the neighbors, disorderly
noises, the building of additions, misuse of the drains, the keeping
of animals that are disturbing to the neighbors, smoking stove-pipes
without covers and the lighting of the fire with oil.
[Illustration: _Another View of the Krupp Works._]
The tenant on the first floor must clean the pavement every day before
nine A. M., except Sundays and holidays when it must be done on the
preceding day between three and four P. M. The rent of the houses runs
from $15 a year for two rooms, to $85 for five or six rooms with a
cellar.
The Essener Hof is a hotel run by the Krupps, and it is intended
for the guests of the Krupps who are doing business with the firm.
Then there is a boarding-house for bachelors and widowers. This
boarding-house was started in 1855 with two hundred men and now it has
over a thousand.
For the community of workers there are many stores, twenty-five grocery
stores, two slaughter-houses, a bakery, a flour mill, an ice plant, a
brush factory, two tailors, two shoemakers, a laundry, a hotel, eleven
restaurants, three cafés, nine beerhalls and two clubhouses.
[Illustration: _A Street in Essen at the Entrance of the Krupp Works._]
There is a whole staff of doctors to look after the workmen and
their families, and the strict medical treatment prevents contagious
diseases. The laws of the German empire require certain classes of
workmen to be insured against old age and broken-down constitutions.
This came through the efforts of Bismarck, and it applies to all
workmen with a salary not exceeding $500 a year. Alfred Krupp gave
$250,000 to the workmen, the interest of which is used as a fund to
encourage them to build their own houses and as a help for the needy.
It is loaned to the workmen at a very small rate of interest.
Besides these benefits he established private schools the purpose
of which is to qualify the children of the workmen to earn honest
profitable livings. A fee of five cents a month is charged to each
pupil, but if the child remains fifteen months, seventy-five cents is
placed in the savings bank to his credit.
Krupp realized that a contented body of workmen brings about better
results than unhappy ones, and he felt that his scheme was not only a
philanthropic one but also a good business investment.
In the war of 1870 Krupp guns were used, and in this present war they
have played a star role. The Kaiser sent his personal thanks to the
house of Krupp for all that they have done for Germany. Frau Bertha
is very proud of her works and also of the nickname of her howitzers:
"Busy Berthas."