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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HAMBURG. 263 Of 4,207 rent returns collected from working-class districts for the purpose of this report 322 or 7*7 per cent, related to dwellings of one and two rooms, 2,159 or 51-3 per cent, to dwellings of three rooms, and 1,726 or 41 per cent, to dwellings of four rooms. Baths, and still more bathrooms, are seldom found in working-class dwellings, but as the need of these conveniences receives growing recognition from other classes of society, a corner of the corridor or kitchen is sometimes found for a galvanised-iron bath in the newer houses in working-class streets. While in 1885 only 6*66 per cent, of all dwellings had a bathroom of some sort, 8*96 per cent, in 1890, 10*78 in 1895, and 13 22 in 1900, the percentage of all new dwellings built between the years 1896 and 1900 having baths was 36*30, though that of new dwellings with two and three rooms and kitchen was 4*36. Only in the case of the newer houses can the sanitary arrangements be said to be satisfactory. The closets are now found within the dwellings, or at least upon the landing or stairs, much more generally than formerly, though many are still outside, and in the case of the old alleys and “ Passages " half a dozen households are commonly served by a single w.c. In new houses it is required that the w.c. shall communicate by a window direct with the open air, but a great many are only ventilated by means of a small pipe. Modern working-class tenements in Hamburg only differ in one essential, and that is the number of their rooms, viz., either two or three besides the kitchen. The two types may be illustrated by houses in the Brauerknechtgraben (situated in the Improvement Area), and Stuvkamp, Barmbeck, respectively. In the former house there are two tenements on each floor, and the entrance is in the middle of the building. Each tenement has an ample corridor, from which access is given to all the three rooms, no two rooms being inter- communicable. The “ best ” room and a bedroom lie to the front and the kitchen is at the back, its French window opening on to a balcony, while off one corner is a small pantry. The w.c., as in all modern dwellings, is in the corridor. The dimensions of the living and bed rooms are 16 feet 2 inches by 9 feet 5 inches and 13 feet by 9 feet 5 inches, and of the kitchen 12 feet 8 inches by 9 feet 5 inches. The four-room tenements in the typical Barmbeck house have the same accessories of corridor (in this case, 6 feet 7 inches long by 4 feet 2 inches wide), pantry, and w.c., but here each of the two tenements found on every floor has two rooms to the front. All the apartments are entered from the corridor direct, and, as before, no two are inter-communicable. The dimensions of the living and bed rooms are as follows :—(1) 17 feet 2 inches by 12 feet ; (2) 12 feet by 12 feet ; (3) 12 feet by 9 feet 9 inches, while the kitchen is 14 feet 7 inches by 6 feet 6 inches. A noteworthy development in block building has of late been devised in the form of the " Horseshoe ” type of architecture. Here there is no courtyard behind, but the portion of the building site which according to the bye-laws must remain unoccupied is placed in front in the shape of a rough rectangle open to the street and built round on three sides. As this space is generally planted, the effect is as advantageous to the appearance of the street as it is to the amenity and value of the contiguous tenements, for a larger number of rooms can be built with a front aspect and the gloom of the courtyard is avoided. The only serious disadvantage of the “ Horseshoe ” . plan of building is that when the open space is used as a garden the children of the house have to play in the street. Naturally it is only large blocks that can be built in this way. Housing conditions, and with them the rents, vary greatly in Hamburg. In general the highest rents, even for inferior dwellings, are in the Inner Town, yet it is found that competition is gradually forcing up rents in the newer districts, though for the present a certain over-production—the number of empty dwellings in 1906 was 10,340 or 4*7 per cent, of the whole—may be expected to keep this tendency in check. The following is a statement giving the predominant weekly rents for the older and newer portions of the town

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