472
STUTTGART.
It was found that the ratio of rent to wages was as follows in the wagesgroups
named :—
Number of
workpeople.
162
177
336
176
155
36
18
2
Average yearly
wages.
£ S.
40 10
52 10
60 0
67 10
75 0
82 10
90 0
97 10
Average yearly
rent.
£ S.
11 15
14 8
15 7
15 17
16 17
15 18
18 3
19 10
Percentage of wages
expended in rent.
29 0
27 4
25 6
23 5
22 5
19- 3
20- 2
20-0
A similar investigation made in 1903 by the local Association of Brewers,
and referring to 162 households, showed that the highest percentage of income
expended on rent occurred in the case of incomes of 24s. weekly, viz., 27 9 per
cent. ; then followed incomes of 25s. to 25s. 6<i., 26*9 per cent. ; incomes of 22s.
to 23s. 6<i., 26 5 per cent. ; 26s. to 26s. 6d., 24*7 per cent. ; 27s. to 28s., 24'1
per cent. ; 16s. 6d. to 19s. and 29s. to 30s., both 23*5 per cent. ; 20s. to 21s., 23*1
per cent. ; and the lowest percentage fell to incomes of 32s. to 36s., viz., 21*8
per cent. In individual cases it was found that as much as 35 and 36 per cent,
of the income had to be paid for dwellings of three rooms. The majority of
brewers paid from 5s. 5d. to 7s. 8d. per week in rent.
By way of further comparison may be cited the results of an investigation
made into the earnings and rents of gold and silver workers by the German
Association of Metalworkers, and published in 1905. Of 73 married men
who made returns in Stuttgart, five paid rents up to £7 10s. ; seven between
£7 10s. and £10 ; nine between £10 and £12 10s. ; 15 between £12 10s. and
£15 ; 12 between £15 and £l 7 10s. ; 12 between £17 10s. and £20 ; and
13 over £20 ; but all those who paid less than £10 lived outside the town.
The average expenditure on rent was £16 5s., or 6s. 3d. per week, equivalent
to 28*2 per cent, of the income of the workmen concerned. The report adds :
“ Thus Stuttgart stands at the head of all the towns investigated in the
matter of rent, but only in the thirteenth place in the average of yearly
earnings.” These average earnings were £57 11s., or 22s. Id. weekly, though
a third of the men earned from £65 to £90.
The usual payment by lodgers in working-class households is 12s. to 15s.
a month for a room alone, or 6s. to 10s. where two persons share a room ;
breakfast coffee is reckoned extra and the lodgers take their other meals outside.
It is evident that where the third room is let to a single lodger it is virtually at
cost price, the householder being quite satisfied if by this means the high rent
of a three-roomed dwelling can be brought within the compass of his earnings.
The professional lodging-house keeper only makes her appearance where single
men are housed wholesale, and rent not a room but a bed each per week or
month, paying for food according to a fixed tariff. Many such lodginghouses
exist in Stuttgart, as a rule in mean streets. Their arrangements are of the
most primitive kind ; the bedrooms have no furniture save the rude wooden beds
themselves, of which four or six will be crowded into a space only large enough
for two or three ; one room is reserved for meals, which the lodgers eat at a plain
deal table, seated on stools ; and here the furniture of the house is exhausted.
The price of such a lodging is Is. 6d. per week ; for morning coffee 1 \d. is paid,
for a large roll of bread \d., for dinner 6c/., and for supper of bread and sausage
4d., while the landlady of the house, who needs to be a woman of character as
well as resource, supplies beer at any time and in any quantity at 1 ^d. for a
large glass.
Rents are usually paid monthly, though sometimes quarterly, and the local
custom is three months’ tenancy with similar notice on either side. The term
days are January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st, but most removals
are at the end of April and October ; in many cases there is a tacit understanding
that there shall be no change of tenancy during winter, and it is not