Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1838857176

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-229226

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Thomson's manual of Pacific Northwest finance

Place of publication:: Seattle

Publisher:: Thomson's Statistical Service

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: XXX, 487 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Section I. Government bonds

Collection:: Economics Books

KÖNIGSHÜTTE. 297 From the above it would appear that except for eggs and potatoes, the supplies of which are affected by seasonal causes, the retail prices were the same at the two dates. With regard to some of the articles enumerated in the foregoing Table the following points may be noted. Sugar.—This article is almost invariably bought in the form of lumps, of irregular shape and size, such as might result from the breaking up of the loaf with a hammer. Sugar in the form of cubes or of granules is little used by the working classes. Bacon.—A great part of the bacon bought by workpeople consists of solid fat (speck), sold in slabs from three to four inches thick, cut from the back of a large and coarse breed of pig brought across the frontier from Russia. It is most frequently served in the popular Polish soup called Sur (Zur). This is made by mixing rye hour with sauer kraut water, allowing the mixture to ferment and then adding further water according to the quantity of soup required. This liquid, to which are added lumps of bacon fat, or else sausage, is eaten with potatoes and constitutes one of the most popular working-class dinners in Königshütte and throughout the Upper Silesian industrial district. Cheese.—This is little eaten except on Fridays and other Church days of abstinence from meat. The kinds eaten are the German product known as Harzkäse and the Austrian, known as Olmiitzer, both sold in small pats, the former at the rate of 3, and the latter at the rate of 6 for 10 pfennige (about 1 \d.). Samples of these cheeses weighed in the writer’s presence showed that if bought by weight they would cost 5\d. and 8§d. respectively per pound avoirdupois. Local taste requires that these cheeses should have reached a very high degree of " ripeness ” before being eaten. Potatoes.—These are usually bought by the centner of 110 lbs. and never in quantities of less than a reputed Viertel, which amounts to about 24^ lbs. English. Stocks are generally laid in in October, when they are cheapest. This would account for the differences in the prices shown in the Table for October, 1905, and August, 1906, respectively. Flour and Bread.—Flour is bought by the Viertel Centner, or quarter of a hundredweight at a time, and is chiefly used for making bread. According to the senior master of the Bakers’ Guild, about one-half of the population of Königshütte prepare their bread at home and get it baked in the bakery. The loaf most generally eaten contains about 90 per cent, of rye and 10 per cent, of wheat. Coal is bought by the ton, even by working-class families, the kind most generally consumed being that described as “ nuts.” There is also considerable demand for a quality described as Klein Kohlen (or small coal) which is sold at about 8a. per ton, and also for Staub Kohlen (or dust coal) at 3s. 6d. per ton. It has to be remembered, however, that most of the working-class families in Königshütte pay nothing for their coal, as most of the workmen in the town are employed at the collieries and iron and steel works, which supply them with free coal in quantities amounting on the average to five tons per annum each. Meat. As regards the supply of meat, the position of Königshütte and the other towns of the Upper Silesian Black Country is exceptional among the industrial towns of Germany inasmuch as a large proportion of the staple flesh food consumed, viz., pork, is foreign produce ; for, in respect of this part of the German frontier, the provisions of the law prohibiting imports of foreign live stock are relaxed and a certain maximum weekly number of live pigs are allowed to be brought from over the Russian frontier by rail to the public slaughterhouses of each of seven of the Upper Silesian industrial towns. Königshütte requires, on an average, 600 pigs per week and is permitted to import up to 480 per week from Russia. The Russian pig, it may be observed, is about three times the size of the home-bred animal and yields a much larger proportion of fat. No other kind of live stock may be imported from Russia 29088 2 P

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