Cities in the Great Depression

Throughout the industrial world, cities were hit hard during the Great Depression, beginning in 1929 and lasting through most of the 1930s. Worst hit were port cities (as world trade fell) and cities that depended on heavy industry, such as steel and automobiles. Service-oriented cities were hurt less severely. Political centers such as Washington, London and Berlin flourished during the Great Depression, as the expanded role of government added many new jobs.

The worldwide Great Depression had a moderate impact on the French economy, which proved resilient. Conditions worsened in 1931 bringing hardships and a more somber mood. Unemployment rose, and hours of work were cut; however the price of food sharply declined, offsetting some of the hardship. The population of Paris declined slightly from its all-time peak of 2.9 million in 1921 to 2.8 million in 1936. The advertisements in the center lost as much as twenty percent of their population, while the outer neighborhoods, gained ten percent. The low birth rate of Parisians was compensated by a new wave of immigration from Russia, Poland, Germany, eastern and central Europe, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Political tensions mounted in Paris with strikes, demonstrations and confrontations between the Communists and Front popularize on the extreme left and the Action Française on the extreme right.

In Germany, the depression had reached its worst in 1932, with 6 million unemployed, spread throughout every city. From 1928 to 1932 unemployment in Berlin soared from 133,000 to 600,000. In Hamburg, a port city, the numbers went from 32,000 to 135,000. In Dortmund, in the Ruhr industrial region, it went from 12,000 to 65,000. Berlin verged on political chaos as Communist and Nazi paramilitary forces fought for control of the streets. Overall the Nazis were weakest in the largest cities, which were controlled by Socialist and Communist parties (and in Catholic areas, the Center party). After 1933, the Nazi government greatly expanded arms production, which reduced unemployment.

Berlin, and the other cultural centers, were especially hard-hit. The publicly subsidized city and state theaters that were the center of cultural life took heavy cuts. After 1933, the Nazis imposed a new, heavily subsidized cultural order that glorified Nazi ideals and ridiculed the artistic achievements of the Weimar era.

Although the impact of the Great Depression on Great Britain was less severe than elsewhere, the industrial cities of the Midlands, the North, and Scotland were very hard-hit.

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