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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STUTTGART. 475 But the three colonies are only one branch of the Association’s work. It maintains on business lines a model boarding house for single workmen (“Arbeiterheim”), of whom several hundreds are received during a year and lodged for an average period of eight months, though many of them have made the place their fixed home for years. As a rule two lodgers share a room, and the price of a bed is Is. 4d. and Is. 6d. per week. A People’s Kitchen—an eating-house at which cheap nutritious food is sold to the extent of 120,000 meals a year—a creche, at which from 45 to 60 infants are received daily, a public library, a playground, and a kindergarten for the special benefit of Ostheim householders, a nurse for women in childbirth, and the regular free distribution of milk throughout the year to needy families are among the Association’s other practical philanthropies, in support of which ample funds are always at disposal. A Building Society of the “ public utility ” type has also erected a large number of houses for working people in Cannstatt and Untertiirkheim. The rent of a two-room tenement with kitchen is about £10 16s. per annum (4s. 2d. per week) and of a three-room tenement with kitchen £15 5s. per annum (5s. 1 Od. per week), rents that are 15 and 20 per cent, below the general average of private dwellings. Retail Prices. Groceries and other Commodities. ‘ Stuttgart has not yet established covered markets on a large scale, though the municipality contemplates enterprise in this direction. The only public market building is small and was not erected for its present purpose. It is open for the sale of meat daily, though the butchers’ stalls are few. For other commodities the market days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The greater part of the trade in country produce is done in open spaces allotted to the market-women from the surrounding districts. The Wurtemberg grocer does a more general trade than the grocer of Bavaria, For example, it is almost always possible to obtain cheese and butter in grocers’ shops instead of having to buy them from special dealers. Milk is for the most part sold in dairies, small and large, but many milk carts carry on a street and house-to-house trade. The coffee most consumed costs from 11 d. to Is. Id. per lb. Coffee substitutes are sold in considerable quantity, but the glazed or sugared bean coffee which has a great vogue in some parts of North Germany does not appear to have commended itself to the Swabian. Like the South German generally, the Stuttgart working-man is no great consumer of butter, the price of which is almost stationary at about Is. 2d. per lb. He eats his brown or black bread dry, though with the addition of thin slices of sausage or cheese. Limburg, made in squares or blocks (whence the name “ Backstein ” or “brick” cheese), is the cheese mostly eaten; the consumption of Swiss cheese is comparatively small in working-class households. I here is no great market for margarine, and the best quality at 8^d. per lb., was, in October, 1905, the only one in demand. The staple bread is a mixture of rye and’wheat, which bakes both dark and lighter in colour, according to the quality of the flour, and is sold in long rounded loaves 2 and 5 lb. in weight. A 4-lb. loaf of such bread cost 5|d. The so-called “ black ” bread, mostly or altogether of rye, cost 4|d. per 4-lb. loaf. The best wheaten bread cost Q^d, per 4 lb., but it is seldom eaten by working people. The local Guild of Bakers fixes the price of bread in the retail trade according to the fluctuations in the price of corn, but the Co-operative Society bakes its own bread, and sells according to its own tariff. Wurtemberg is an important beer-producing country, but in the Stuttgart district two other drinks are very popular. One is the red and white wine, grown oc the surrounding hills and terraces, and the other is cider, produced from a somewhat deteriorated strain of apple. Cider may be regarded as the distinctive local beverage of the working classes, and in every cellar may be seen several barrels in store. Several hundred litres (100 litres being about 22 gallons) are a family’s average year’s supply—for the cider will keep that time if properly 3 0 2 29088

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