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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CHEMNITZ. 143 The following Table shows the distribution of the population on December 1st, 1905, according to the number of rooms which constituted the dwelling :— Number of Rooms. Number of Dwellings. Number of Persons housed in such dwellings. Total. Per cent, of Population. One room Two rooms Three „ Four Five and over Total 3,024 23,472 17,281 8,849 8,671 61,297 4,224 83,123 71,349 38,291 42,160 17 34 8 29 9 160 17 6 239,147 1000 From the above it would appear that 66‘4 per cent, of the population are housed in dwellings of three rooms or less. The actual situation is, however, somewhat more favourable than this. A noteworthy and special feature in the housing conditions of Chemnitz is that every tenement is required to include, as part of its accommodation, a garret-room capable of being used as a bedroom, and on the occasion of the housing census which yielded the returns on which the above Table is based, it was found that 12,426 such rooms were being used as bedrooms. Notwithstanding this, it is the custom in Chemnitz, when speaking of the number of rooms of which a tenement consists, to ignore the garret as a thing which is taken for granted. This custom has been followed by the compilers of the table, with the result that what are there described as tenements of two, three, and four rooms really represent tenements of three, four, and live rooms respectively. The salient facts in the distribution of the population of Chemnitz according to the size of the dwelling are therefore more correctly stated by saying that 66'4 per cent, of the population are housed in tenements of lour rooms or less, and that among these the greater proportion are housed in three-roomed tenements. Statistics of the rents and accommodation of every occupied tenement in certain typical streets in a number of the principal working-class districts have been furnished for the purposes of this enquiry by the Director of the Municipal Statistical Office of Chemnitz, the total number of tenements covered being 3,954. Of these 866 had to be eliminated, either because they were untenanted, or were combined with business premises, or because they were obviously not working-class dwellings. The remaining 3,088 dwellings, occupied exclusively by working-class families, consisted wholly of three-roomed and four-roomed tenements—2,433 of the former and only 655 of the latter. From this it appears safe to conclude that the great bulk of the working classes of Chemnitz are housed in dwellings consisting of three rooms. And this, it may be added, is also the minimum house-room permissible for a family undei the latest municipal housing regulations (issued in 1906). As a rule the typical working-class tenement of three rooms consists of two rooms below and one room in the attics ; the exception being where all three rooms aie in the attics. In addition each tenant has a railed-off portion of the cellar space allotted to him, and has a right to the use of the loft (situated above the attics) for the drying of washing on certain days. For laundry washing each tenement house bas a washhouse, usually situated in die yard, but sometimes in the cellar space. The rent charged for the accommodation just described \aries within wide limits Of the 2,433 working-class tenements of three rooms for which rents have been ascertained, 16 were let at as low a figure as &4 10s. or less per annum (Is. 9d. or less per week), while 59 were fetching A9 _s. or more, «.e., 3s. 6d. or more per week. The range within which the majority ol three- roomed tenements fell ivas from &6 to &8 8s. per annum, or expressed in weekly rents, from 2s. 4d. to 3s. 3d. Neither the very best nor the very worst tenements fall within this range. The nature of the accommodation obtainable at rents falling well within the two limits named may tie inferred from the following examples of three-roomed tenements.

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