MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY. 73 



for girls; all very largely attended, besides six State 

 schools, comprising four gymnasiums, one real-school 

 and one high-school for girls. Another important class 

 of schools, die Fortbildungsschulen, or supplementary 

 schools, was founded by the city to enable apprentices and 

 clerks to continue their studies. There are twelve schools 

 of this kind. There are also Sunday classes for young 

 people of both sexes, maintained chiefly by private sub- 

 scription. Every school building has a gymnasium, large 

 and well equipped, for athletic instruction ; and besides, 

 there is a Turn Halle, a great and model institution for 

 athletic training ;also something like ninety private schools, 

 that find it more and more difficult to compete with the 

 public schools, so excellent are the latter. These private 

 schools are also under the supervision of the public school 

 authorities, and must conform to public standards ; there 

 are also twenty- two public libraries, mostly in the charge 

 of the head masters, for sending out instructive books, 

 free of charge. 



The net debt of the city is but little over four million 

 dollars, a decrease of nearly two million since 1876. This 

 is a contrast to New York, whose net debt is over one hun- 

 dred million dollars, and Boston with a net debt of some- 

 thing like twenty-five million dollars. 



Owing to the excellent condition of the finances, Berlin 

 has founded a number of institutions of credit on the se- 

 curity of the wealth of the city. One is a municipal sav- 

 ings bank, with deposits now amounting to something 

 between twelve and thirteen million dollars, with thirty- 

 nine offices for receiving deposits in various parts of the 

 town. It pays an interest of three and one-third per cent. 

 There is also a municipal fire insurance office, in which 

 all the house-owners are obliged to insure. In 1882, the 

 value of buildings insured was over five hundred million 



