Untitled Page 163

At about 1600; By 1939 it was 1836. In 1944 the figure was about 2000, a moment note of growth as over the previous five year period. But this growth lasts in spite of the many men away for the war, included many new families who were bombed out of Stuttgart or other large cities. In 1946 this refugee problem leaped to still greater dimensions with the addition of 600 more people from eastern Europe or eastern Germany, virtually all without possissions of any kind. These were hard years for Beutelsbach as for all of Germany- a house commission was set up to allocate space, require people to give up rooms in their homes to the new arrivals. At the first stages, problems of food, clothing, cooking and heating, and bedding were dominant, but gradually as the economy recovered, attention could be shifted to other needs. Thus a land conversion and building program [?]

In the last few years a second environmental force has grown in importance- the rapid industrial expansion outward from Stuttgart. Crowded for space in Stuttgart itself companies seek space on the fringes of the densely populated area, where land is cheaper but labor still relatively abundant. Beutelsbach has felt this impact and presently has industry emplying 550 people and paying and important part of city taxes.

1. In recent years other factors have replaced the diminishing flow of refugees to keep Beutelsbach under steady pressure from people desiring homes lots of build on. Stuttgart is attempting to prevent the expansion [?] surrounding Weinberg property and therefore it's residents are turning to outlying districts; this commuting pattern is also occuring for Wablingen and Felbach. Each day 800 Beutelsbach residents have for jobs in other towns. From all these pressures the population of Beutelsbach has given from 2500 in 1945 to 3199 today and is expected to grow to 3500 in the next five to six years.

Of these 550 people 350 now live in Beutelsbach, and many of the remaining 300 would like to thus augmenting the pressure of population growth mention above.

A third force of increasing importance from the outside world is the influence of the mass media of communication. According to the mayor, virtually every family takes one newspaper-from Schoendorf, Waiblinger, Fellbach, or Stuttgart usually-and several take more than one. Virtually every family also has a good radio set and these are said to be left on most of the day. Probably more surprising is the fact that in the last 2 or 3 years television has come to the area; there are at present between 180 and 200 TV sets in Beutelbach homes.

The combined image which one obtains of the several environmental forces acting on Beutelsbach culture is one urbanization. The urban physical community-dense population, much industry-is steadily moving outward from Stuttgart to include surrounding villages. And with the physical community (and also through the communications media) must come the pressure of new values, new ideas upon the traditional culture. This development as a whole is much larger than the intent of this paper, but some of its effects are relevant to government activites and hence should be mentioned. One noticeable change is the belief particularly among younger elements that a factory job offers a better - easier, more leisurely, economically secure- way of life. This preference leads to an interesting compromise in the traditional man-to-land relationship- the "half-weingarteners". This man works in a factory or an office 45 hours a week, but (partly out of fear of inflation) also diversifies his income by maintaining a small amount of weinberg property, perhaps some fruit or grain land, and