# Nürnberger Strasse, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany in the 1910s

> A small Bavarian university and garrison town was becoming an industrial town, with war soon turning workshops, streets, and households toward the front.

- Place: Nürnberger Strasse, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany (49.591, 11.008)
- Years: 1910 to 1919
- Known then as: Erlangen
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/nurnberger-strasse-bavaria-germany/1910s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=N%C3%BCrnberger%20Strasse%2C%20Erlangen%2C%20Bavaria%2C%20Germany&at=49.5910,11.0078&year=1915

## Looking around

You stand on Nürnberger Straße, the road whose name points south toward Nuremberg. Around this part of Erlangen the town is no longer only the old baroque core: its population has just reached nearly 25,000[4], and building is pushing outward. To the east lie new streets and three-storey brick tenements[4] of the Zollhaus quarter, with shops or workshops in ground floors and rear buildings. Not far away, at Luitpoldstraße, rises the brick factory complex of Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall[5], maker of electro-medical apparatus. Further east are the artillery barracks[8], part of the garrison world. Pipes and wires are part of daily life now: almost all houses have municipal drinking water[2], and electric light reaches a small but growing number of customers[2]. The town still belongs to the Kingdom of Bavaria and the German Empire, but by 1914 war is about to reorder the street.

## Work: Mechanics and factory hands

The most telling workplace nearby was Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall[5], whose apparatus business had moved to the edge of town in 1893. Around the eastern expansion streets lived factory workers, foremen, mechanics, artisans, and small shopkeepers[4].

## Faith: Mostly Protestant town

The wider Erlangen district counted 16,693 Protestants and 7,720 Catholics in 1910[9]. A small Jewish community was present too, with 224 people in 1910[7].

## Law & power: Magistrate, king, empire

Local decisions mattered: the magistrate decided in 1910 to build a new gasworks[2]. Above it stood the Kingdom of Bavaria and the German Empire, until revolution ended both in 1918.

## In the air: Social democracy nearby

In the Zollhaus quarter east of the old town, politics leaned working-class: it was socially democratic in character[4] and organized socially through many taverns[4].

## What people feared: War reaches the workshop

After 1914, danger was not abstract: at RGS, many workers were called to the front[5]. The factory itself was pulled into the war economy as increasing capacity went to war production[5].

## Home & table: Tenements and services

Nearby working households often lived in three-storey brick tenements[4]. By this decade many homes had modern services: almost all houses had drinking-water connections[2], though not every home had electricity.

## Money: A growing town economy

Erlangen’s growth came from industrialization and the garrison: the population had roughly doubled by 1910[4]. War disrupted ordinary business when RGS lost markets[5] and reoriented production.

## Roads & news: Rail, telephone, papers

News and strangers arrived by rail, including the Seku secondary railway[4] around the south of town. Faster messages existed but were limited: the telephone network was used mostly by businesses and public institutions[2].

## Year by year

- **1910** (here): Erlangen reached just under 25,000 inhabitants after decades of industrial and garrison growth.[4]
- **1910** (here): The magistrate decided to build a new gasworks for the growing town.[2]
- **1911** (nearby): Plans were being discussed for a direct electric tram or rapid connection between Nuremberg and Erlangen.[6]
- **1913** (here): The RGS factory complex was enlarged or altered with buildings dated 1911/13 and an upper storey added in 1913.[3]
- **1914** (the country): The First World War began, taking workers and soldiers from Erlangen into military service.[5]
- **1916** (here): Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall took over the troubled Veifa-Werke during the war economy.[5]
- **1918** (the country): The November Revolution ended the Bavarian monarchy and the German Empire.
- **1919** (here): Erlangen acquired the Werker hydroelectric power plant, bringing three-phase current to the town for the first time.[2]

## What the sources say

- Nürnberger Straße was the Erlangen street running toward Nuremberg; the map point 49.591, 11.008 places you on its southern inner-city stretch. (inferred)
- Erlangen's population roughly doubled between 1871 and 1910, reaching just under 25,000 people in 1910. (from the sources)[4]
- East of the old town, the Zollhaus quarter had mostly three-storey brick tenements by 1908, lived in by factory workers, foremen, mechanics, artisans, and small shopkeepers. (from the sources)[4]
- Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall, founded in Erlangen in 1886, moved into a new factory at the then edge of town in 1893. (from the sources)[5]
- Erlangen was a garrison town; the artillery barracks complex was planned from 1899, occupied from 1900, and expanded with buildings of the 1912 period. (from the sources)[8]
- By 1899 almost all Erlangen houses were connected to the municipal drinking-water supply. (from the sources)[2]
- Erlangen's municipal electric power station began operating in 1902 with a 2 x 220-volt direct-current system and 111 connected households. (from the sources)[2]
- In the 1910s Erlangen was in the Kingdom of Bavaria, one of the states of the German Empire until the November Revolution of 1918. (inferred)
- In 1910 the Erlangen magistrate decided to build an entirely new gasworks because demand had increased. (from the sources)[2]
- Erlangen's local telephone network had opened in 1891 with four subscribers, and in its early decades it was used mainly by businesses and public institutions. (from the sources)[2]
- The local sewerage system covering the whole town was built in 1882/83; until the mid-20th century Erlangen's wastewater still entered the Regnitz through the sewer system. (from the sources)[2]
- The town had been spared the great cholera epidemics of the 19th century, but typhoid cases had risen around 1860 before modern water and sewer works. (from the sources)[2]
- The RGS industrial complex on Luitpoldstraße included a four-storey brick head building from about 1892, a south wing from 1897, and administration or development buildings from 1909/11 and 1911/13. (from the sources)[3]
- During the First World War, Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall lost markets, saw many workers called to the front, and devoted increasing capacity to war production. (from the sources)[5]
- In 1916 Reiniger, Gebbert & Schall took over the financially troubled Veifa-Werke during the war. (from the sources)[5]
- A Jewish religious community existed in Erlangen; its size fell from 224 people in 1910 to 130 in 1933. (from the sources)[7]
- In 1910 the district of Erlangen had 24,877 inhabitants, of whom 16,693 were Protestant and 7,720 Catholic. (from the sources)[9]
- The eastern Zollhaus quarter was described as socially democratic in character and had meeting places in its many taverns. (from the sources)[4]
- The Erlangen–Gräfenberg secondary railway, known locally as the Seku, was built in 1886 and curved around the south of town to the Zollhaus station. (from the sources)[4]
- Plans to connect Nuremberg and Erlangen by an electric tram or rapid line existed by 1911, but no such line was running through Erlangen in the 1910s. (from the sources)[6]
- No online source opened here gives a house-by-house description of Nürnberger Straße at the exact map point in the 1910s. (not known)
- Erlangen address books survive online for the period 1751 to 1990, but the indexed pages were not directly accessible in this session. (from the sources)[1]

## Sources

1. Erlanger Adressbücher sind online einsehbar. Stadt Erlangen, 2022. https://erlangen.de/aktuelles/adressbuecher
2. Municipal utilities. Stadtmuseum Erlangen. https://stadtmuseum-erlangen.de/de/english/d.-industry/d.11-municipal-utilities
3. Stadtarchiv. Tag des offenen Denkmals, 2026. https://www.tag-des-offenen-denkmals.de/denkmal/cmbj82enf001rle042dh8jul5
4. Zwischen Bürgertum und kleinen Leuten. Nordbayern, 2012. https://www.nordbayern.de/erlangen/zwischen-burgertum-und-kleinen-leuten-1.2173683
5. Siemens Healthineers - Unsere Firmengeschichte. Siemens Healthineers MedMuseum, 2023. https://www.medmuseum.siemens-healthineers.com/museumsgeschichten/firmengeschichte
6. Stadtbahn in Erlangen - ein alter Hut. MarktSpiegel, 2014. https://www.marktspiegel.de/erlangen/c-lokales/stadtbahn-in-erlangen-ein-alter-hut_a6690
7. Erlangen (Gemeinde) - Jüdisches Leben in Bayern. Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte. https://hdbg.eu/juedisches_leben/gemeinde/erlangen/234
8. Liste der Baudenkmäler in Erlangen/A. Wiki.li. https://de.wiki.li/Liste_der_Baudenkm%C3%A4ler_in_Erlangen/A
9. Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte Bayern, Kreis Erlangen. Verwaltungsgeschichte.de. https://www.eirenicon.com/rademacher/www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/bay_erlangen.html

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Nürnberger Strasse, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany in the 1910s", https://yorehistory.com/place/nurnberger-strasse-bavaria-germany/1910s