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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144 CHEMNITZ Example I.—The tenements visited were on the first, second and third floors of a house of modern construction in the Freigutstrasse, in the Schlosschemnitz quarter, one of the northern suburbs of Chemnitz. On each floor were four tenements, two consisting of two rooms each at the back and two consisting of three rooms each in the front of the house. Each tenement had in addition, a bedroom in the attics. The landing at the top of the stone or concrete stairs gave access to all four tenements through one or other of four closed doors, of which there were two in front and one on either side of the visitor arrived on the landing. Either of the side doors gave access to a large living- room and kitchen combined measuring 17 ft. by 13 ft. and well lighted by two windows looking into the acre and a half or so of land enclosed by four streets, of which the Freigutstrasse was one. This larger room admitted to an inner room of the same length as the living-room, hut only 7 ft. 8 in. wide, and with a single window looking into the same open space. This room was without a stove and was the main family sleeping-room, usually containing two beds, placed, not side by side (for the room was too narrow), but with the head of the one touching the foot of the other. Both rooms had the regulation height of 9 ft. 6 ins. The third room of each of these tenements was in the attics, and was used as a bedroom, either for the children who had grown too old to occupy the same room as the parents, or for lodgers. It was small—some 6 ft. 6 ins. by 8 ft. 6 ins.—and, according to the housing regulations, had a height of not less than 8 ft. 10 ins. The water supply was in the living-room. On each floor, and situated on the landing at the back of the house, were two closets (one for every two families), without flushing tanks and drained into cess pools. The rent of these tenements was 156 marks per annum, or exactly 35. per week. Example II.—These were tenements on the first, second, and third floors of a house in the Sonnenstrasse, a typical working-class street in the Sonnenberg quarter, to the east of the central part of the city. Each floor contained eight rooms, occupied by four families. The rents of all four tenements were the same—viz., 150 marks per annum, or 2s. 10¡ ¿ d. per week. Each consisted of a good-sized double-windowed living-room (which also served as kitchen) measuring some 16 ft by 13 ft., an adjoining single-windowed bedroom, which was long and narrow, and the usual room in the attics. The height of the rooms was about 11 ft. The attic rooms were, however, very small—not more than about 6 ft. by 5 ft.—and therefore capable of holding little furniture beyond a somewhat short bed. For tenements of four rooms, as for those of three rooms, the rents vary within wide limits. Among the 655 four-roomed working-class tenements of which the rents were ascertained in the course of the investigation, the worst fetched £10 5s., and the best £17 per annum. The bulk, however, fell within the narrower range of £10 10s. to £12 per annum, or 4s. to 4s. 7d. per week. In a number of four-roomed tenements visited by the writer, and of which the rents (£11 14s. per annum, or 4s. 6d. per week) were within the predominant range just stated, the accommodation was as follows. Having entered by one of the doors facing him when he had arrived on one of the upper landings, the visitor found himself in a little vestibule of about 4J ft. by 5 ft. In front of him was the kitchen, long and narrow, measuring, roughly, 13 ft. by 5 ft. The remaining two rooms could be entered either from the kitchen or from the vestibule. One was the Gute Stube or “ parlour,” used on ceremonial occasions, and beyond was the bedroom. All rooms were well lighted, the " parlour ” by two windows and the bedroom and kitchen each by one looking into the street. The “parlour” measured about 17 ft. by 13 ft., and the bedroom 17 ft. by 8 ft. All rooms were 9¿ ft. high. The fourth room was in the attics and corresponded to that mentioned in the description of the three-roomed tenements. What was there said as to the cellar compartment, the use of the wash-house and the drying-loft, as well as the closet accommodation, also applies here. Stone or concrete staircases are universal in the tenement houses in Chemnitz, and have been obligatory under the housing regulations since 1885. The cesspool system is also universal, and, so far as working-class tenements are concerned, the entire absence of flushing tanks in the closets is an unpleasant

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