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.

472 STUTTGART. It was found that the ratio of rent to wages was as follows in the wages- groups named :— Number of workpeople. 162 177 336 176 155 36 18 2 Average yearly wages. £ S. 40 10 52 10 60 0 67 10 75 0 82 10 90 0 97 10 Average yearly rent. £ S. 11 15 14 8 15 7 15 17 16 17 15 18 18 3 19 10 Percentage of wages expended in rent. 29 0 27 4 25 6 23 5 22 5 19- 3 20- 2 20-0 A similar investigation made in 1903 by the local Association of Brewers, and referring to 162 households, showed that the highest percentage of income expended on rent occurred in the case of incomes of 24s. weekly, viz., 27 9 per cent. ; then followed incomes of 25s. to 25s. 6<i., 26*9 per cent. ; incomes of 22s. to 23s. 6<i., 26 5 per cent. ; 26s. to 26s. 6d., 24*7 per cent. ; 27s. to 28s., 24'1 per cent. ; 16s. 6d. to 19s. and 29s. to 30s., both 23*5 per cent. ; 20s. to 21s., 23*1 per cent. ; and the lowest percentage fell to incomes of 32s. to 36s., viz., 21*8 per cent. In individual cases it was found that as much as 35 and 36 per cent, of the income had to be paid for dwellings of three rooms. The majority of brewers paid from 5s. 5d. to 7s. 8d. per week in rent. By way of further comparison may be cited the results of an investigation made into the earnings and rents of gold and silver workers by the German Association of Metalworkers, and published in 1905. Of 73 married men who made returns in Stuttgart, five paid rents up to £7 10s. ; seven between £7 10s. and £10 ; nine between £10 and £12 10s. ; 15 between £12 10s. and £15 ; 12 between £15 and £l 7 10s. ; 12 between £17 10s. and £20 ; and 13 over £20 ; but all those who paid less than £10 lived outside the town. The average expenditure on rent was £16 5s., or 6s. 3d. per week, equivalent to 28*2 per cent, of the income of the workmen concerned. The report adds : “ Thus Stuttgart stands at the head of all the towns investigated in the matter of rent, but only in the thirteenth place in the average of yearly earnings.” These average earnings were £57 11s., or 22s. Id. weekly, though a third of the men earned from £65 to £90. The usual payment by lodgers in working-class households is 12s. to 15s. a month for a room alone, or 6s. to 10s. where two persons share a room ; breakfast coffee is reckoned extra and the lodgers take their other meals outside. It is evident that where the third room is let to a single lodger it is virtually at cost price, the householder being quite satisfied if by this means the high rent of a three-roomed dwelling can be brought within the compass of his earnings. The professional lodging-house keeper only makes her appearance where single men are housed wholesale, and rent not a room but a bed each per week or month, paying for food according to a fixed tariff. Many such lodging- houses exist in Stuttgart, as a rule in mean streets. Their arrangements are of the most primitive kind ; the bedrooms have no furniture save the rude wooden beds themselves, of which four or six will be crowded into a space only large enough for two or three ; one room is reserved for meals, which the lodgers eat at a plain deal table, seated on stools ; and here the furniture of the house is exhausted. The price of such a lodging is Is. 6d. per week ; for morning coffee 1 \d. is paid, for a large roll of bread \d., for dinner 6c/., and for supper of bread and sausage 4d., while the landlady of the house, who needs to be a woman of character as well as resource, supplies beer at any time and in any quantity at 1 ^d. for a large glass. Rents are usually paid monthly, though sometimes quarterly, and the local custom is three months’ tenancy with similar notice on either side. The term days are January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st, but most removals are at the end of April and October ; in many cases there is a tacit under standing that there shall be no change of tenancy during winter, and it is not

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation