2 - Paris, London, Berlin on the eve of the war

Summary

The object of this comparison of the three capital cities on the eve of the war is not to present a vast array of the available data on them. To do so would require a book in itself. Instead we offer some reflections which we hope will help to situate the historical issues governing this comparative study. Our aim is to identify the constituent elements of well-being (or ill-being) in the lives of the millions of inhabitants of these metropolitan centres on the eve of the war, and thereby to prepare the ground for later discussions of their adaptive capacity in wartime. In this area, methodological problems abound. Who could say in 1914 whether the rich or the poor were more adaptable, or better suited to face the challenge of war?

Population

Demographic growth

The definition of city limits is a difficult matter in each of the three cases in question. For purposes of comparison, we refer in each case to two urban entities. First there is the city core, defined in 1864 for Paris as the twenty arrondissements; for Berlin, as the ‘old Berlin’ of urban inner districts, prior to 1920; and in London from 1889, as the twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs. Secondly, there was a larger administrative entity, incorporating the urban core, but extending beyond it. This larger area had its own administrative identity: the Department of the Seine, for Paris; what became ‘Great Berlin’ in 1920; and ‘Greater London’.