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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

I ELBERFELD. 225 remains over. Other goods still made at home in Elberfeld are pattern cards, button stuffs, and especially silk ribbons. In some houses the ribbon frame is run by a small motor, driven by electricity or gas, and here and there a ribbon weaver keeps two or more frames, employing youths to assist him. In such cases the earnings are larger, yet the home ribbon weaving industry is likewise subject to the uncertainties of employment, and the general return for a complete year’s work hardly exceeds £l or 25s. a week. Housing and Rents. It is characteristic of Elberfeld that the working classes are scattered throughout the town to a far greater extent than in most German towns, and there are no districts (though many streets) of a purely working-class character. In some measure this diffusion of the industrial element of the population is due to the survival of a great many houses of the Berg type of architecture, already described. These houses are found in all save the newer parts of the town, and their decadent condition and the restricted character of their accommodation- low rooms, narrow staircases, and small courts—have caused them to be occupied by people of slender means. In addition to this, however, the conformation of the land has proved an insuperable obstacle to any deliberate laying out of the town on what may be termed class lines. Houses have been built as space has been found or made for them. Undesirable sites have naturally been allotted to the less discriminating class of tenants, with the result that, save in a few situations high up the valley sides, people of all conditions find themselves living in contiguity. Further, the very industrial character of Elberfeld has encouraged this mingling of the population. In describing the normal homes of the working classes, the old Berg dwellings may be disregarded. They are numerous still, yet they are gradually giving place to larger structures, especially in the busy parts of the town, where the value of living space advances every year and makes small houses an increasingly unremunerative form of investment. Hence they can hardly be regarded as typical from the modern housing standpoint, and for present purposes they may be passed over. Two genuine types remain, the house of the early modern period and the house of the present day. The former is found in all parts of the town, the latter for the most part in the outer districts. The early modern house, going back any period beyond the last 25 years, generally has three or four rooms downstairs, let as one dwelling if consisting of three only ; and in the upper stories—two or three as the case may be—four rooms, let as two dwellings. Sometimes, how ever, three rooms upstairs go together, and one is let to a widow or a married couple without children. The lower story is approached by a passage, at the end of which are the stairs leading to the higher stories, while right or left a door opens direct into the kitchen of the dwelling. \\ here four rooms below are divided into two tenements the passage runs between the two front rooms, and entrance is gained right and left at the foot of the stairs. Here the space occupied by the passage below allows either of the rooms above being larger or of a small room being added, making five rooms in all, which are let in two dwellings of three and two rooms respectively. As representing the later dwellings, which conform more faithfully to the municipal building regulations now in operation (see pp. 228, 229), two types may be taken—the house of four or five rooms below and five on each of the three upper stories, with the usual courtyard or open space behind, and the house of equal accommodation whose courtyard leads to a second block at Hie rear, known as the “ back house ” (“ Hinterhaus ”), similar in arrangement and number of rooms. Here the passage downstairs is in the centre, forming a division between the two tenements, which are entered on the right and left of the stairs. The rents of the tenements in the “ back house ” are always somewhat lower than those in the front block. It is characteristic of these houses that the rooms in the upper stories almost invariably open one into the other, so that a locked door is the only division between two tenements. The object is to facilitate the letting of the 2 F 29088

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation