Every city in Europe (that wasn't completely bombed) has a an "old town" or "old city center" where all the tourists stay. The tourists stay there, because the old part is the only part that's considered pretty. It's usually a relatively small part of the city where most buildings are in the same old consistent style with generally lots of details on buildings.
Then there's the rest of the city with post-war/modern absolutely soulless ugly buildings that have been optimized to be built as fast as possible, as cheap as possible and as large as allowed. Just plain depressing minimalist squares with no details. Esthetics are not a relevant part of modern building (engineering) goals in Europe now it seems. To me it is close to "Soviet building style". The only modern exception I can think of in the entire world would be Singapore.
Seeing that German village from the flying train I can't help but think that quality of public life was better than it is now in Europe. I'm referring to: way way way less traffic, almost no combustion engine driven traffic, cleaner air and water (possibly?), larger homes, no AirBNB in the city centers, all buildings look as new, all buildings look super well maintained, tons of space for traffic, green/trees everywhere and most importantly: addictive/toxic constant distractions such as smartphones had yet to be invented. Look at all those people walking around and DOING things without staring at screens! wow! And kids still played outside? woah
Conclusion: definitely not all aspects of life improved with time.
PS: yes, I realize some aspects of life back then where way worse than they are now for the average person.
Are the buildings well-maintained or are they just relatively new in the 1902 footage? There's less traffic, but obviously you're seeing one of the smallest slivers of the German population in 1902. What did the rest of Germany live like? Also, what conditions would they experience in the 20s that would lead the events of the 30s and 40s? It's doubtful that in the time of horse manure and industries dumping waste into rivers with no regulations whatsoever that the water was cleaner.
I'll say that it does seem to be a quaint city avenue in 1902. Very walkable and enjoyable. They probably enjoyed a stronger sense of community back then. I do think as a side effect of our insular, climate-controlled buildings and cars and smart phone doom-scrolling, we probably feel less connected to community and nature.
The thing that struck me was the lack of traffic jams on the section over the street, compared to today's Wuppertal.
What happened to all the traffic? Okay, that's easy: population increased.
But before I accept that as an answer, I want to know how a city with population low enough to have essenstially no traffic managed to have enough ability to construct and run such a difficult traffic project? Whereas today, given a town with the same size and amount of trafic as 1902 Wuppertal, the towns I know tend to close bus lines instead of maintaining regular ones.
I have a sad hunch this has something to do with cars and no one caring, but can't really come up with anything real.
The population hasn't grown that much, Wuppertal has a bit over 350k inhabitants now, Barmen and Elberfeld (which became Wuppertal in 1929) had a combined population of slightly under 300k in 1900.
The traffic jams are mostly the result of lifestyle choices.
It's less about the number of people and more about the percentage of them that can afford a vehicle. Horses are expensive (lots of upkeep). Cars are expensive too, but not as expensive as a pair of horses. Society is today quite a lot wealthier than it was a hundred years ago partly because cars are so inexpensive, but it does mean that the roads are more crowded.
Now that I think about it, I don't quite remember the number of pedestrians on the streets this century. I think it is slightly higher now compared to then, but the total number of people outside is definitely higher.
Reading the sibling comment, with constant population, this probably boils down to lifestyle choices. Do people live farther away from workplaces now? Are businesses more centralized/spread out? What would have to change to recover the lost freedom from traffic while keeping the population content?
Yah well. For one, that is no village, but a long agglomeration of several towns along the valley where the Wupper river happens to flow through. Elberfeld, Barmen, Vohwinkel, ... nowadays Wuppertal. Get it? Valley of the Wupper. That was one of many industrial cores, hubs, clustered there. Solingen may ring a bell for its steel, knives, scissors, chains, maybe? Right next to it. I can tell you from personal experience about 70 to 90 years later, that it looked rather ugly, because of all the soot and acid in the air. Like the whole region called Ruhrpott/Ruhrgebiet (Though technically Wuppertal is Bergisches Land). When I visited my relatives going from Bonn am Rhein to Hagen in Westfalen by train, looking out of the open window, I had a black face. That was even more extreme towards Hagen because of Hasper Hütte, of which I witnessed the last operations at a very young age. Everything there was dirty because of heavy industry.
Every city in Europe (that wasn't completely bombed) has a an "old town" or "old city center" where all the tourists stay. The tourists stay there, because the old part is the only part that's considered pretty. It's usually a relatively small part of the city where most buildings are in the same old consistent style with generally lots of details on buildings.
Then there's the rest of the city with post-war/modern absolutely soulless ugly buildings that have been optimized to be built as fast as possible, as cheap as possible and as large as allowed. Just plain depressing minimalist squares with no details. Esthetics are not a relevant part of modern building (engineering) goals in Europe now it seems. To me it is close to "Soviet building style". The only modern exception I can think of in the entire world would be Singapore.
Seeing that German village from the flying train I can't help but think that quality of public life was better than it is now in Europe. I'm referring to: way way way less traffic, almost no combustion engine driven traffic, cleaner air and water (possibly?), larger homes, no AirBNB in the city centers, all buildings look as new, all buildings look super well maintained, tons of space for traffic, green/trees everywhere and most importantly: addictive/toxic constant distractions such as smartphones had yet to be invented. Look at all those people walking around and DOING things without staring at screens! wow! And kids still played outside? woah
Conclusion: definitely not all aspects of life improved with time.
PS: yes, I realize some aspects of life back then where way worse than they are now for the average person.