The Thyssen companies in Hamborn had a major influence on the development of Hamborn's population from a rural community to a large town.
enlarge
To counter the lack of housing, which made it difficult to attract labor to the as yet underdeveloped western Ruhr area, in 1880 Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser for the first time sees the necessity to build housing. This starts on a large scale in 1895/96. By the end of 1913 Thyssen's mining operations own 8,750 housing units for their 15,500 employees and around 850 civil servants, providing homes to some 44,000 people.
The Emschergrund colony being built in Duisburg-Beeck for pit No. 4 at Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser, ca. 1911.
enlarge
This not only means that works housing is available for one in two Thyssen mine workers, but also that around 1/3 of the population of Hamborn can live in accommodation from Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser. August Thyssen also supports the development of a corresponding infrastructure.
In the last year before the First World War, the plants in [Duisburg-] Hamborn, Dinslaken (strip and tube rolling mill) and [Duisburg-]Meiderich (pig iron) employ almost 11,000 people, while a further 16,000 work in company-owned mines and coking plants.
