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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342 MANNHEIM. Of tlie 714 new dwellings provided in six working-class districts in 1905, 7'6 per cent, contained one room with kitchen, 44 6 per cent, two rooms with kitchen, 34 - 9 per cent, three rooms with kitchen, and 12 - 9 per cent, four rooms or more with kitchen. The tendency is more and more to erect houses as large as the building by-laws allow ; for these give the best return ; small houses do not pay save in the suburban districts, where land is less dear. The result of several investigations made between 1887 and 1889 into housing conditions in the older and industrial quarters of the town by the State District Administration (Bezirksamt), which exercises the police authority in Mannheim, was the introduction of a systematic and periodical inspection of dwellings. The organ of management is the Housing Committee, which is composed of permanent officials of the District Administration, the District Medical Officer of Health, members of the Municipal Executive, Poor-Law Doctors, Poor-Law Guardians, and others. The inspectors are known as " House Controllers/’ and they are trained men with all necessary technical knowledge of building, and thoroughly acquainted with the laws and local regulations bearing on housing and sanitation. The town is divided into districts, and for the good order of the houses in his district a "controller ” is responsible. Four grounds of complaint are recognised. (1) A dwelling is held to be “ crowded ” when it does not afford to every person inhabiting it, whether adult or child, a space of 686 cubic feet on the whole, and in bedrooms at least 343 cubic feet. (2) Rooms are held to be “unhealthy” which are damp, too low, un cellared, which lie below the level of the courtyard or the street, which have no direct light, which are not heatable., or are connected with buildings in which animals are kept or objectionable materials stored, which have no vertical windows or have a “ light surface ” less than one-tenth of the floor surface. Moreover, workrooms may not be used for sleeping purposes, and the absence of a water-closet to each story is also a ground of complaint. (3) Rooms are held to be “ unsafe ” when they lie above the attic story proper, when they are connected with industries liable to fire, and when the entrance is insufficient. (4) Finally, moral grounds of complaint are held to exist when the size and domestic arrangements of a dwelling do not admit of persons of different sex above 12 years of age sleeping in separate rooms, or when rooms approached through other bedrooms are let to lodgers or are allotted to servants. The regulations which underlie the system of house inspection are applied with varying degrees of stringency according to circumstances, but in general admonition and pressure go hand-in-hand. Thus where crowding is detected the householder receives a form to the following effect :— “The dwelling inhabited by you at the present time is too small for your family. We have therefore served upon the landlord the injunction that from (date) forward, it can only be inhabited by persons. For you a dwelling which meets the following minimum requirements is necessary in your own interest and in the interest of your family’s health, as well as for moral considerations,” (here follow the regulations as to dimensions of rooms, separation of the sexes, &c.). Only when warning is flatly disregarded are coercive measures taken, but reasonable allowance is always made for the pecuniary circumstances of families found to be living amid undesirable conditions. The municipality has not yet done much, nor as much as it intends, towards relieving the housing difficulty by the employment of public funds in the erection of cheap dwellings. Public help is offered, however, both to (1) societies and private persons desirous of erecting houses on “ public utility” lines, i.e., as a work of social benefit, the element of gain being entirely eliminated, and to (2) companies, private persons, &c., building for gain, subject to certain conditions. In the former case the town either leases land and fore goes the costs of street construction, but requires the payment of ground rent, while restricting the owners to such a return as merely covers interest, cost of repairs, rates and taxes ; or it leases land and constructs the streets and either reduces or cancels the ground rent, but in this case the town must sanction the rents and it reserves the right to acquire the property after 50 years at the original cost, less allowance for depreciation at the rate of per cent, per annum. The tenements here contemplated are tenements of two and three rooms with kitchen, and weekly or fortnightly tenancy is encouraged. Where, in the second

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