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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BREMEN. yet if the houses here stand thick on the ground they seldom rise beyond a single story. Everywhere the streets are clean and wholesome, though the irregular setts with which they are paved make rough going in most parts. Perhaps no German town bears so close a resemblance to an English town in its general housing arrangements as Bremen, for the one-family house is here predominant. Of late years houses intended for two and three families have, it is true, become common, yet at the last census (December, 1905), the average number of households per inhabited building was only 1*78, a lower figure than is recorded by any other large German town. The terraces of houses—each with a small garden in front—in which the middle classes live, and the rows of one or two story cottages occupied and often owned by working people, are equally characteristic of the town, and give to an English visitor home suggestions which he will probably derive nowhere else in Germany. Thanks to its situation, to good administration, and possibly also to its housing conditions, Bremen has a favourable health record. Its death rate in 1905 was 16 5 per 1,000 of the population. The death rate from pulmonary consumption in 1905 was 1*8 per 1,000 of the population, and the rate of mortality from tuberculosis in general was 2*5 per 1,000. The rate of infant mortality in 1905 was 179 per 1,000 births. Like most German towns Bremen has a declining birth-rate ; the rate in 1905 was 29*8 per 1,000 of the population against 31*1 in 1901. The following Table gives the birth and death-rates and the infantile mortality for a series of years :— Year. Birth-rate per 1,000 of Population. Death-rate per 1,000 of Population. Infantile Mortality per 1,000 Births. 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 311 309 30-9 30*8 29*8 17*6 16 5 16-3 16 9 16*5 158 144 160 170 179 It may be noted that the Bremen Association for Combating Consumption has established a day sanatorium upon a rural estate in the neighbourhood, and it is specially open to members of the General Local Sick Fund. The patients attend at 9 a.m. and remain at the sanatorium until 7.0 p.m., when they are sent back to Bremen by tramway at the expense of the Sick Fund. Systematic endeavours are also being made to diminish infant mortality by an “ Association for the Protection of Mothers and Children,” which takes care of mothers during confinement, and maintains a home and " kitchens ” for children. Among other notable institutions existing for the special benefit of the working-classes is the Legal Advice Agency conducted by the Citizens’ Association. In 1905 this agency gave advice and information on 10,166 subjects to 9,227 inquirers. During the same year the Social Democratic Workmen’s Secretariate gave advice and information on 13,000 subjects to 10,046 applicants. In general the working classes appear to enjoy a favourable standard of life. The one-family house system gives the workman a convenient back yard with outbuildings, which he can use for pigs or fowls, and in this way the household diet is often made more substantial at little extra cost. One working man visited by the investigator, a carpenter, who lived in his own cottage and had a stye at the back, said that his three pigs cost £13 when fed up, and when killed he had 616 lb. of meat, which he used at home. At the current price of pork and bacon this meat was worth 10<A per lb. and it had cost less than half that sum to produce. So, too, for the same practical reason, the workman is often an allotment gardener. Outside the town many acres of land have been parcelled up for use in this way. Sunday is the chief gardening day of the week, but employers sometimes complain that the men work in their allotments early in the morning and tire themselves before arriving at the factory. The Bremen w orkman lives well and saves if he can,” is the verdict passed upon the providence of the wage-earner. However he may live, the workman certainly saves, and this characteristic is particularly exemplified by the large number of working class house owners, a phase of Bremen life to which reference is made in the account of housing conditions. In addition a considerable amount of money is deposited in the two Savings Banks.

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