Bergwirtschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft

Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1773323105

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-155429

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Krahmann, Max http://d-nb.info/gnd/116375329

Title:: Bergwirtschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft

Place of publication:: Berlin-Grunewald

Publisher:: Vowinckel

Year of publication:: 1928

Scope:: VIII, 183 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

MANNHEIM. 339 A typical house of modern character in a working-class district can best be described by a concrete example, and the one to which the following data refer is in the Rheinhäuserstrasse, just outside the Kaiserring, and on the outskirts of an important factory quarter. It is a house of four stories, with cellaring, of which each household has a separate portion, and an attic or loft for common use. The ground floor is divided into two tenements of one and three rooms respectively, with kitchens, and each of the upper floors into two tenements of two and three rooms with kitchens, the room lost in the basement being taken up by the main entrance. A passage leads from the street to an inner vestibule at the foot of the staircase, right and left of which are closed corridors belonging to the two tenements. Both below and above, the best rooms are at the front ; the kitchens are placed to the rear according to universal custom. The corridors are of unequal length, but the width is 3 feet 7 inches, and each gives access to every room in the tenement to which it belongs, as well as to the water-closet. The dimensions of the living and bedrooms on the basement are :—14 feet 11 inches by 12 feet 4 inches by 11 feet 8 inches ; 14 feet 11 inches by 14 feet 8 inches by 11 feet 8 inches ; 14 feet 11 inches by 10 feet 8 inches by 11 feet 8 inches ; and 15 feet 2 inches by 8 feet 7 inches by 11 feet 8 inches ; while the kitchens measure 15 feet 2 inches by 8 feet 7 inches by 11 feet 8 inches, and 15 feet 1 inch by 8 feet 7 inches by 11 feet 8 inches respectively. The stories above follow an identical plan. Each of the tenements has two rooms to the front, while the kitchen, water-closets, and the extra room of the three-roomed tenements are behind, and each apartment opens upon the corridor. The rooms of a suite are not always intercommunicable and the kitchens are all isolated. The height of the second story is 11 feet, and of the third and fourth stories 10 feet 8 inches ; the superficial dimensions of the living and bedrooms are 14 feet 11 inches by 10 feet 8 inches, and those of the kitchens are 15 feet 2 inches by 8 feet 7 inches. Where attics exist they are commonly used for drying clothes. In the older parts of the town this convenience is often lacking, and its place is at times taken by the flat roofs of the lower buildings. A more general custom is to hang the clothes on long cords stretching from wall to wall above the court yard and movable by a simple pulley arrangement. It is a good feature of the newer houses that the “ open ” style of building (i.e., building in detached blocks of moderate size) is largely followed, this securing ample space both laterally and behind. The practice of erecting back houses quite detached, with separate entrances, instead of connected with the front buildings as in some towns, is a further guarantee of fresh air and abundant light. At Mannheim, too, the balcony is increasingly fostered, and hundreds of tenements of recent erection are supplied with this arrangement. Mannheim has an elaborate body of building regulations, the basis of which is the division of the municipal area into building zones, in each of which special conditions are imposed as to the character and height of houses that may be erected, the proportion of the building site that must be left free, and other points. The regulations as to the internal arrangements of dwelling houses are especially rigorous. The height of all stories, even (save in old houses) the attic story if used for habitation, must be at least 9 feet 9 inches. Only in exceptional cases may rooms used for living or sleeping purposes have an area less than 162 square leet, and kitchens less than 130 feet. In general a water- closet must be provided for each dwelling, though in old property one may serve for a whole story, to a maximum of five rooms. Every house must be cellared, or otherwise be protected against damp, and while in special cases living and bedrooms may be allowed in stories the floors of which lie below the level of the adjacent street, it is only on condition that there is cellaring below and an open space around the outer walls. It is hoped that by the enforcement of these regulations the future growth and expansion of the town, and especially of the undeveloped districts, will follow normal and healthy lines, for only deliberate departure from the principles laid down can open the way for the congestion which exists in the old municipal area, and which it is now beyond the power of building regulations to remove. 2 U 2 29088

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation