Probleme der Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1689561912

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-101785

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Below, Georg von http://d-nb.info/gnd/118658085

Title:: Probleme der Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Edition:: 2., photomechanisch gedr. und durch ein ausführliches Vorw. erg. Aufl

Place of publication:: Tübingen

Publisher:: Mohr

Year of publication:: 1926

Scope:: XXIV, 710 S

Digitisation:: 2020

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: VII. Die Entstehung des modernen Kapitalismus

Collection:: Economics Books

360 MÜLHAUSEN. month, to take effect from the 1st of the following month. Many landlords, however, let their houses on the understanding that the tenancy is terminable any day on either side : in such cases it is customary to display the intimation by placard at the main entrance : “ Here no notice is given.” The most interesting feature of the industrial housing arrangements of Mülhausen is the experiment which has been carried on for more than half a century by a society philanthropic in its ends yet thoroughly business-like in the means by which these ends have been attained, and whose outcome is seen in the quarters of the town known as the Old and New Cités. Visiting the houses which form this distinctly industrial colony, one is able to observe by concrete examples the entire evolution of the Mülhausen working-class dwelling. The “ Société Mülhousienne des Cités ouvrières ” (Mülhauser Arbeiter- Q uarti er - Cesel 1 schaff ) was founded in 1853, with the object of erecting small dwellings which might be sold to workingmen at cost price or be let to them at rents which should not exceed interest on capital and the cost of repairs. The earliest of the houses so built date from 1853 to 1857, and though they are in structural and sanitary arrangements out of date they continue to lodge willing occupiers, who are in many cases owners as well. The houses of the original type were built in rows and were one-family houses, with a living room and a kitchen downstairs and two small bedrooms upstairs, the living room having an area of about 132 square feet, the bedrooms being 97 square feet and 90 square feet respectively, and the kitchen 66 square feet. The structure of the house is the simplest possible—the outer door opening direct iflto the kitchen, the kitchen opening laterally into the living room, and ending in a short flight of stairs, at the head of which are two plain rooms, 9 feet high, one reached through the other. There is cellaring, but the building is not high enough to afford loft space. There are 220 houses of this class. The second type of house did not materially differ, and with modifications it continued to be erected until the middle of the ’eighties, by which time 650 more dwellings had been added to the Cité. The principal improvement was the increase in the size of the rooms, though their number remained as before—down stairs a living room and a kitchen, upstairs two bedrooms ; the area of the living room being 190 square feet and of the bedrooms about 190 and 90 square feet respectively, and the height of the rooms being 9 feet, as before. Like the houses of the first type these had small gardens to the front. The third type came in the years 1877 to 1887 and was a smaller structure. It was still a single-family house, but it had only one story, with cellaring, and contained two rooms and a kitchen. The kitchen was approached direct from the outer door and it opened in turn into the first room, which looked to the front, and gave entrance to a smaller room behind. Of this type 140 houses were built. A more important modification of the Cité design was marked by the next type, which was chiefly favoured between the years 1887 and 1893, and of which 200 houses were erected. Two single-family dwellings were now built together, in blocks of two stories and a cellar. Below were two rooms and a kitchen, and for the first time a corridor or vestibule was added, while above were a good bedroom and a store-room which could also on emergency be used for sleeping. It was a superior type of house in every respect and corresponded more faithfully with modern ideas of health and convenience. A later type, adopted in 1895, was a two-family house, built in couples like the last type, each of the two stories containing two rooms and a kitchen, while storage was provided both in the attic and the cellar. Here, again, the outer door opened into a vestibule, while all rooms were inter- communicable, their size being —kitchen 80 square feet, living and bedrooms each 150 square feet. All the later types have likewise gardens. Such was the original design of the Cité dwellings, as planned and first tenanted. In the main the general scheme remains unaltered, yet in course of time many of the older houses have undergone modification at the hands of successive owners. The benevolent design of the Société des Cités Ouvrières has one serious defect, in that no provision was made to prevent these working-class houses passing out of working-class occupation and possession. In the absence ot such a safeguard many of them were sold and re-sold, and ceased to be

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