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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MANNHEIM. 338 containing one person and under per room, 55*98 per cent, lived in dwellings with a density of 1-2 persons per room, and 34*14 per c&nt. in dwellings with a density of over two persons per room. The greatest density fell to the Käferthal, Waldhof, and Neckarau area, for which the corresponding percentages were 0, 46*73 and 53*27. On the whole 34 per cent, of the population of the town were found at the last census to be “ living amid conditions which, as to density, left much to he desired.” Naturally it is in the narrower streets of the original town of lettered “ squares,” each a huge mass of brick and mortar, its sides pierced at intervals by archways and corridors leading into more or less circumscribed and gloomy courtyards, that the. worst overcrowding exists. There has been an improve ment since 1900, yet the census of December, 1905, showed that four “squares” had more than 10 persons per are (119J square yards), and one had 12*8, equal to one person to every 12 and 9 square yards respectively. Yet Mannheim is not a town of old houses ; 100 or 150 years mean comparative antiquity. The “ square ” system of building inevitably led to houses being packed together without the possibility of due provision for air space either within or without. Each house belonging to the block had its courtyard, and at a time when building by-laws did not exist the size of this enclosure depended very much on the whim of the builder. Many of these courtyards are barely 12 feet square, yet from such a space the back rooms of six or eight dwellings have to obtain all the ventilation and light that reaches them. The position of things is made worse when the narrow limits of the courtyard have been encroached upon by irregular erections of an obstructive kind, and congestion is seen in its worst form when, as occasionally happens, the street or alley in front is as narrow and dark as the courtyard. The interior of these older buildings represents Mannheim’s housing arrangements at their worst. The approaches, from the street passage forward, are ill-lighted, the rooms are much behind modern requirements alike in structure and space, sometimes one bedroom is only reached through another, and the water-closet (or privy) accommodation is very inadequate. Fortunately, such houses are abnormal when compared with the number and quality of working-class houses in general, and gradually they are disappearing in face of the more stringent health regulations enforced by the authorities. Indeed, next to the energy shown by the Municipal Council and the police in combating insanitary conditions of life, the most hopeful feature of the housing question in Mannheim is the fact that the old town is slowly but surely being renewed ; no small amount of property that was built only thirty or forty years ago is giving place to houses modern in construction and hygienic in surroundings. There are few “ barrack ” houses (Mietkasernen) of the kind so often met with in large towns, but one of them, known as the “ Spinnerei,” is unique in its way. Here tenants of the poorer class are alone found—outdoor labourers and other people of small earnings who are not superior to the somewhat promiscuous conditions of life which close association in a “ barrack ” house entails. Many of the tenements are as squalid as their tenants are poor. Overcrowding is almost inevitable, and in a tenement of two dark rooms and a small kitchen a family of eight persons—husband and wife and six children—was found. Many of these tenements consist of a single room only, the rent of which varies from Qs. to 12s. a month according to its size and the character of the tenement ; the majority, however, have two rooms or two rooms and a small kitchen. 1 In the newer parts of the town, housing conditions are for the most part satisfactory, so far as the structure and conveniences of tenements go, though even there disorderly households often make their homes and surroundings even as themselves. Thanks to the persistent endeavours of the Housing Com mittee and their inspectors, overcrowding tends to decrease, and many owners, under the pressure of admonition and warning, have converted small tenements of one and two rooms into tenements of a more commodious and wholesome kind. The transition has not been free from inconvenience and even hardship to the tenants, to whom larger dwellings mean higher rents, nor from loss to the landlords, yet it is generally admitted that the social life of the town has benefited from every standpoint.

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