16

BERLIN.

cent,  of  the  average  daily  wages  of  all  workmenTup  to  500,  12^  per  cent,  from
501  to  1,000,  7^  per  cent,  from  1,001  to  2,000,  5  per  cent,  from  2,001  to  4,000,
and  2^  per  cent,  from  4,000  upwards.  How  far  the  several  scales  of  compensation ­
  correspond  actuarially  to  the  premiums  payable  will  only  be  learned  by
experience.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  it  rests  entirely  with  the  executive
of  each  insuring  society  to  determine  the  amount  that  should  be  granted  in
every  individual  case,  and  that  a  claim  to  compensation  cannot  be  enforced
at  law.

Housing  and  Rents.

Several  broad  generalisations  may  safely  be  passed  upon  the  housing
conditions  of  Berlin.  In  the  first  place,  Berlin  is  essentially  a  town  of  large
houses.  “  Barracks  ”  is  the  name  given  locally  to  the  oppressive  structures
which  rise  to  a  height  of  five  stories  in  every  part  of  the  town  and  stretch  far
behind  the  street  front,  around  and  alongside  of  narrow  courtyards  circumscribed
so  as  to  afford  merely  the  irreducible  minimum  of  light  and  air  which  the
sanitary  regulations  require.  Further,  the  tendency  is  for  the  working  classes
to  be  satisfied  with  diminishing  accommodation.  Yet,  while  their  dwellings
are  small  as  to  number  of  rooms,  a  certain  compensation  is  afforded  in  many
cases  by  the  relatively  large  cubical  contents  of  the  living  rooms  proper.
Finally,  for  this  limited  accommodation  a  high  price  has  to  be  paid.  All  these
characteristics  of  Berlin  dwellings  have  a  common  origin  in  the  fact  that  Berlin
is  distinctly  a  town  of  modern  growth,  the  rapidity  of  whose  expansion  has
given  rise  to  inflated  land  values,  which  in  their  turn  have  reacted  prejudicially
both  upon  housing  conditions  and  rents.
It  may  be  well  at  the  outset  to  illustrate  these  several  points  by  figures.
First  as  to  the  size  of  the  houses.  Of  every  1,000  dwelling-houses  (i.e.,  blocks)
enumerated  in  Berlin  and  25  immediate  suburbs,  in  December,  1900,  58  had  but
one  story,  94  had  2  stories,  92  had  3  stories,  215  had  4  stories,  466  had  5
stories,  71  had  6  stories,  and  4  had  7  stories.  In  Berlin  proper  539  houses  per
1,000  had  5  stories,  and  99  had  6  or  7  stories.  In  the  independent  suburb  of
Schöneberg  the  corresponding  figures  were  657  and  77.

From  the  ’sixties  onward  the  disappearance  of  one-story  houses  has  been
rapid.  Bei  ween  1864  and  1871,  just  before  the  great  boom,  the  decrease  was
8  per  cent.,  while  the  decrease  of  two  and  three-story  houses  was  41,  per  cent.
On  the  other  hand,  the  four-story  houses  increased  11  per  cent.,  and  the  fivestory
  houses  50  per  cent.  With  the  growth  of  the  houses  in  size  grew,  too,  the
number  of  the  basement  dwellings,  at  least  for  a  time,  until  new  byelaws  came
into  force  restricting  them.  In  1867  there  were  in  Berlin  14,292  such  dwellings,
in  1871  there  were  19,208,  or  one-ninth  of  the  whole.  In  1900  469,710  rented
dwellings  were  classified  as  to  position  as  follows  :—

Basement
Ground  floor
Entresol  (mezzanine)
1st  story
2nd  ,,  ...  ...
3rd  ,,  ...  •*-4
  th.  ,,  ...  ...
5th  ,,  ...  ...
In  different  stories
Totals

Front  Houses.
12,941
23,513
7,224
44,872
51,948
54,900
45,536
1,753
2,988

245,675

Rate
per  1,000
Dwellings.

27-6
50*1
15  3
955
110-6
116-9
96  9
3-7
6-4

Back  Houses.

5230

11,147
36,500
6,302
39,203
42,156
44,273
41,337
2,179
938

224,035

Rate
per  1,000
Dwellings.

23  7
77-7
13-5
83  5
89  7
94  3
88-0
4-6
2-0

Totals.

477-0

24,088
60,013
13,526
84,075
94,104
99,173
86,873
3,932
3,926

469,710