20
BERLIN.
to the foregoing rules, is less than 80 square metres (96 square yards) the chief
court may be reduced to 60 square metres (72 square yards), with 6 metres
(19J square feet) from wall to wall, provided the remaining space is used for
an inner court or light shaft (Lichthof) with an area of at least 10 square metres
(12 square yards), and a distance from wall to wall of at least 2 metres
(6J feet) ; where the area to be left open is less than 60 metres (72 square
yards) the chief court may be restricted accordingly, yet only to a minimum of
40 square metres (48 square yards), with 6 metres (19| feet) from wall to wall.
Should the portion of a building plot lying beyond the first division line (to a
depth of 6 metres, or 19^ feet) have an area of less than 50 square metres
(60 square yards), no chief court is necessary, provided all rooms receive light
and air immediately from the street, and an inner court of at least 25 square
metres (30 square yards) in extent and 4 metres (13 feet) from wall to wall be
constructed. Should a building plot not exceed 6 metres (19^ feet) in depth
no court of any kind is necessary.
As to the height of front houses, it is prescribed that the front walls must
always be 12 metres (39 feet) high, but they may not exceed 22 metres
(72 feet). Within these limits variations are allowed, as, for example, that
buildings erected in the street may be as high as the street is wide, subject to
the maximum above stated. The general rule for the height of a back building
is that it may not exceed by more than 6 metres (19J feet) the extent of the
court before it, as measured from the boundary wall. As to stories, the
recognised division of a house is into basement, ground floor (Erdgeschoss),
first, second, and higher stories, and attic story. The maximum number of
stories permissible is five, and the floor of the highest story may not be more
than 18 metres (59 feet) above the level of the court. The average height
of the rooms must be at least 2*80 metres (9 feet 2 inches), and no floor
may be more than ^ metre (1 foot 8 inches) below the surrounding surface,
unless a light and ventilation area at least 1 metre (3 feet 3 inches) wide
runs along the outer wall, when a depth of 1 metre (3 feet 3 inches) may be
permitted.
Such are the main requirements of the byelaws, and, so far as new buildings
are concerned, they are carefully enforced. It may be noted, however, that
Berlin has not yet seen its way to adopt a system of house inspection. Where
there are complaints by the police, by sick fund controllers, by medical officers,
by poor law officials and visitors, or by tenants, the dwellings are visited and
reported on, and in this way many evils are abated in the course of a year, but
no systematic attempt is made to discover insanitary conditions, and so to
supersede unofficial informers. As an illustration of conflict between precept
and practice, it may be stated that an investigation, made in 1905, of several
thousand dwellings inhabited by members of the Berlin Local Sick Fund for
mercantile employees showed that 28*40 per cent, of the rooms in the case of
male members, and 26*87 per cent, in the case of female members, were below
the height stipulated by the building byelaws—viz., 2*80 metres (9 ft. 2 in.).
Of the basement dwellings, 37 per cent., and of the attic dwellings 50*53 per cent.,
were under 2*50 metres (8 feet 2 inches) high. Similarly, of 357 dwellings of
member of the Painters’ Sick Fund investigated, 24 per cent, were under the
regulation height.
One of the first things to strike a visitor to the working-class streets of
Berlin is the multiplicity of basement shops. Even in West-end districts it
is not uncommon for the basement rooms of a mansion, with garden in
front, to be occupied by a grocery or vegetable dealer ; but in the Industrial
quarters basement shops and workshops run along both sides of the street.
They are invariably kept by small tradespeople—food and fuel dealers shoemakers,
tinsmiths, and the like—who live on the premises, often in very
restricted quarters, defective in light and ventilation. Above the basement
lies the parterre or ground floor, raised a few steps above the street level.
In busy streets this, too, is generally given up to business premises though
at times to a restaurant or beerhouse, suited in style and charges to the
character of the lesident population. A common door gives access to the
flats, but where there is a back building, which is generally the case, entrance
is by a wide portal, with staircase on one side or both, beyond which lies the
courtyard.
