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.

BERLIN. 17 As to the size of dwellings, while the average number of living rooms was 2*15 in 1890, it was 2'11 in 1895, and 2*07 in 1900, though including kitchens the corresponding figures were 3’05, 3*02 and 2*99. At the same time the number of persons per dwelling has gradually decreased since 1875, a circumstance to which, however, only a partial economic significance can be attached, for the birth-rate and the average size of families have also decreased in the meantime. While the average number of persons per dwelling was 4 40 in 1875 and 4*18 in 1890, it was 3'89 in 1900 and 3*77 in 1905. The number of persons per heatable room has decreased in a less degree, the average in 1890 being 1 *95, and in 1895 and 1900 1*88, or, reckoning kitchens, 1'37 in 1890, 1-31 in 1895, and T30 in 1900. Classifying the small rented dwellings of Berlin, according to the division recognised by the municipal authorities, it is found that of an aggregate of 470,977 dwellings in December, 1900, 356,781 fell into the following categories :— Dwellings consisting of Only kitchen One unbeatable room without kitchen One unbeatable room with kitchen Two unbeatable rooms without kitchen Two unbeatable rooms with kitchen One heatable room without kitchen One heatable room with kitchen ... One heatable and one unbeatable room without kitchen One heatable and one unbeatable room with kitchen ... Two heatable rooms without kitchen Two heatable rooms with kitchen Two heatable and one unbeatable room, without kitchen One heatable and two unbeatable rooms without kitchen Three unbeatable rooms without kitchen Three heatable rooms without kitchen ... Total of above types Other types Grand Total Number of Dwellings. 4,086 658 1,392 27 272 32,812 170,182 1,417 24,267 2,320 118,562 330 84 6 366 356,781 114,196 470,977 Percentage of Total Dwellings. 09 0T 03 00 00 7-0 36-1 0-3 5-2 0-5 252 04 o-o o-o 0-1 75-8 24-2 1000 A few words of explanation seem necessary here as to the description of rooms as " heatable ” and " unbeatable," since it underlies the entire system of house enumeration in Berlin and many other German towns. When it is stated that the mode of heating is by stoves, whose flues pass into central chimneys which serve all the stories of a house, the terms “ heatable ” and “ unbeatable ” appear to explain themselves. As used for statistical purposes, however, they are very vague, and in the opinion of many German authorities artificial and misleading. The traditional and normal accommodation of working-class dwellings, and, indeed, of small dwellings generally, used to be " Stube, Kammer, Küche,” or " Living-room, bedroom, and kitchen,” the living-room having a stove and the bedroom being without. When rents were lower than now the “ Stube ” was used as a dayroom only, and corresponded to the down stairs living-room in an English working-man’s cottage. For a long time, how ever, the " Stube ” has had to serve as a bedroom as well, since a dwelling of two rooms, a kitchen and a room for all other purposes, has become the predominant working-class type in Berlin. The ‘‘Kammer ” in the old sense is gradually disappearing, though where it exists it is used as a second bedroom, even if without a window. In the light ot this traditional division of a dwelling, it is easy to see how the living-room or " Stube ” came to be regarded as the unit of accommodation and the anteroom or " Kammer ” was viewed as subsidiary. Hence it comes to pass that dwellings described as consisting of one or more " rooms ” and a kitchen may have these anterooms as well, and in better houses the anterooms are at times spacious, though they suffer from the defect that they cannot be heated, and sometimes are dark as well. 29088 c

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