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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172 DANTZIG. A few details of the most noteworthy schemes for relieving the pressure of the housing difficulty in Dantzig are added in conclusion of this section. During the past thirty years the " Ahegg Workmen’s Dwellings Endow ment”—a fund which owes its existence to the benevolence of a Dantzig family —has provided the means whereby the pressure of the housing question has been relieved in various parts of the town. The fund was established for the purpose of " erecting healthy family dwellings for working men, small master- craftsmen, subordinate officials and people in a similar economic position, and enabling such persons to acquire their own houses,” and, originating in a gift of £3,000, it has increased by careful investment and by later benefactions to a capital of nearly £15,000. On the security of this capital and the property under its control the management of the Abegg Endowment borrows money from the State Insurance Authorities and private banks, and by the constant sale of the property it builds, the money at its disposal is kept remuneratively employed in increasing the number of small house-owners in Dantzig. A number of colonies and blocks of dwellings have been erected, consisting for the most part of single-family houses of the English pattern, though some are double houses, with one dwelling below and one above. The usual accommo dation of a single-family house consists of a living room and a kitchen below, and a large bedroom and an attic above, with cellar, yard and shed and a piece of garden ground ; each of the two tenements in a double-house has two rooms and a kitchen with cellar. The usual price of a small dwelling is about £160. Before a tenant can be regarded as a prospective owner he is expected to deposit £7 10s. In the next ten to fifteen years he pays lös. monthly, 13s. 4d. being for rent, and 2s. 8d. instalment of purchase-money ; at the end of this period the instalments at compound interest have accumulated to £30 and the house is then transferred to him with the guarantee of a loan on mortgage of £130 at 4 per cent, for at least ten years subject to regular repayments. A large dwelling costs about £300, and here the monthly payment until the formal transfer in 15 years’ time is 26s. 7d., of which 4s. 8d. are paid on account of purchase-money. Some hundreds of dwellings have passed into the hands of working people and small craftsmen owing to the operations of the Abegg Endowment to the benefit of the tenants’ pocket not less than their health, for the moderate repayments of purchase-money have often represented savings which might otherwise not have been made. Two defects of the earlier regulations have of late been remedied. One was the practice of speculative selling which had crept in amongst the owners, and which has now been prevented owing to the right of pre-emption reserved by the Abegg trustees. The other was the systematic letting of rooms to »lodgers, the result of which was to create the very evil of overcrowding which it was the purpose of the Endowment to combat ; this practice has also been checked. The houses are all substantially yet simply built of brick. The " Savings and Building Society of Dantzig ” has built a number of working-class houses each containing from eight to twelve dwellings which are let at from 10s. to 14s. monthly to members only. The usual accommodation consists of a living room, a bedroom and a kitchen, with vestibule, cellar compartment and garden ground. Every member must subscribe to the capital of the society at least the value of one share, viz., £10, though he may take as many as three shares if so minded, and his liability extends to twice the amount of his shares. Retail Prices. I he conditions of the retail supply of household provisions in Dantzig present no features calling for special comment, unless it be the absence of complaints among the private shopkeepers of .competition from working-class co-operative stores, the one co-operative distributive society in the town being so small as to be negligiole. (It has only 400 members, whose aggregate purchases, in 1905, amounted to scarcely £1,000.) A municipal market hall built at a cost of £25,000 was opened in 1896, and affords accommodation for about 962 stalls for the retail sale _of fish, fowl, greengroceries, butter, eggs, cheese and bread, ft is largely used by workpeople, though it does not appear that the prices

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