Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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AACHEN. 47 local super-tax incomes between £33 and £45 are also liable, the tax being 135 per cent, of an assumed State tax of 4s. The effect of the super-tax is that small incomes would pay the following amounts for local purposes :— Amount of local surtax. 5s. 5d. 8s. Id. 12s. 2d. 16s. 2d. 21s. Id. 28s. 4d. 35s. Id. 41s. KM. Incomes. £33 to £45, inclusive £45 to £52 10s., inclusive £52 10s. to £60, inclusive £60 to £67 10s , inclusive £67 10s. to £75, inclusive £75 to £82 10s., inclusive £82 10s. to £90, inclusive £90 to £105, inclusive While the housing accommodation provided during the last 30 or 40 years is good, and increasingly so as it is of more recent origin, there is a vast amount of unequivocal “ slum ” property. The conditions in some of the older houses are extremely bad —dilapidated buildings, dark and fetid approaches, landings which barely allow of the doors turning on their hinges, small and low rooms, damp and rot in wall and wood, and a mass of poverty, dirt, and squalor beyond description. Many of the staircases are enveloped in pitch darkness, so that it is necessary to grope one’s way by the help of a rail, and others so steep that it is unsafe to descend them face forward. In such districts house regulations are of no avail, and it would be useless to attempt to enforce their provisions as to cleanliness and order, for dirt and grime seem to belong to the natural order of things. In normal houses, however, tolerable tidiness is preserved in the approaches, and in many cases, where children are not too numerous, the condition of things is beyond reproach. The rule is that stairs and landings must be brushed every day and washed twice a week (on Wednesday and Saturday), the tenants taking the duty in turn, and, where the landlord lives in the house or is represented by a good agent, the rule is faithfully observed. Several extracts from the report of the House Inspector for the year 1904 will give a fair indication of the prevalent deficiencies. “ During the year,” he writes, “ 114 properties, containing 174 inhabited houses (¿.<?., blocks) were inspected. These 174 houses contained 1,106 tenements, with 2,390 living and bedrooms, including kitchens (an average of 2T6 rooms per dwelling). 1,808 of these rooms were used as bedrooms, 1,752 by members of the tenants’ families, and 56 by lodgers or servants. Of the 2,390 rooms, 1,089 were used exclusively as bedrooms, 719 as kitchens and bedrooms, and 582 as living- rooms or kitchens. In these 2,390 rooms were 616 male and 623 female persons under 12 years, and 1,534 male and 1,540 female persons above 12 years, these all being members of the tenants’ families ; while in the 56 rooms occupied by lodgers and servants were 38 males and 11 females. Of the 1,107 inhabited dwellings inspected, 278 consisted of one room, 467 of two rooms, 190 of three rooms, 79 of four rooms, 15 of five rooms, and 31 of more than five rooms. There were 47 empty dwellings, containing together 78 rooms—viz., 24 of one room, 17 of two rooms, four of three rooms, and two of four rooms. Complaint was laid in respect of 64 alcove bedrooms, 11 bedrooms on account of overcrowding, 105 bedrooms on account of non-separation of sexes, 77 bedrooms where the floor was less than 10 inches above the earth level, 34 bedrooms on account of damp, three bedrooms on account of bad doors, 47 bedrooms whose windows were insufficient in size, 22 bedrooms with defective flooring, and 10 bedrooms which were simultaneously used as workshops. The following were also condemned:—16 buildings with defective stairs or balustrades, one building With defective roof, 23 dwellings in which the plaster on ceilings and walls wits defective, 35 properties with defective w.c. arrangements, two cellars and eio'ht attics on account of accumulations of filth, 27 buildings with defective chimneys, and three properties without proper water supply.” Unquestionably the most serious aspect of the housing question at Aachen is the smallness of the dwellings (two rooms, as has been shown, being the predominant size), for it is here that the children problem comes in. Large families are common among the working classes of Aachen, and under such circumstances the observance of hygienic and moral conditions of life is a matter

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