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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BERLIN. 27 “deliberating upon the question of dwellings for families of small means,” but its functions have hitherto been of a nominal character. At the present time, however, the town contemplates the lease of public land to a “ public utility ” Building Society which desires to erect blocks of working-class dwellings. A “ family house ” for the reception of homeless people is maintained by the municipality, but those using it are expected to pay 6s. or 7s. per month, when possible, for the quarters allotted to them. About 50 families can be accommo dated, and the average size of the tenements is two rooms (one small) and a kitchen. One of the most progressive suburbs of Berlin is Rixdorf, which is more and more becoming the special home of the lower middle and working classes, a preference which it enjoys almost solely by reason of the lower rents at present prevalent. At the census of December 1st, 1900, Rixdorf had a population of 90,422, but at the census of 1905 the number was 153,513, showing an increase oí 69*8 per cent., against an increase of 8*01 per cent, in Berlin. Rixdorf is a town of Bohemian origin, the first inhabitants of the village (Dorf) having been “ Herrenhuter ” or Moravians, who enjoyed the protection of Frederick the Great ; and a number of old-fashioned houses of one story or one story with attic in the Richardstrasse perpetuate the memory of the foreign colony. For the rest Rixdorf is entirely modern, and while its wide streets have been well built, and in many cases beautified by trees, the place has a distinctly working- class character. Here, as in Berlin, the large block system of building prevails, and houses of five and six stories are the rule. Houses containing 24 dwellings are not uncommon, and one property consists of a front building and five parallel buildings behind, with courts between entered from the side ; here live 135 households, representing a population of about 600. One or two living and bedrooms with kitchen form the normal accommodation of the working classes. Basement dwellings are comparatively rare. Rents are still moderate in Rixdorf as compared with Berlin, yet they are steadily increasing as population moves out of the city in this direction and the more eligible building ground is appropriated. Two other suburbs of Berlin, which are very notably undergoing trans formation under the pressure of industrial development, are Reinickendorf and Tegel. A few years ago they were mere villages ; to-day they are thriving towns, thanks to the removal thereto of various engineering works and factories from Berlin and the migration in their train of a large working-class population. In both places modern buildings are gradually taking the place of the small one-story, single-family houses which formerly predominated ; but these buildings are not so large as in Berlin, nor is the desire to economise space so evident as there. Tegel has a large hinterland of forest and open country ; but the commune of Reinickendorf, though it still possesses wide expanses of field and wood, will far more speedily be built in, and even now there are signs on every hand that the clutch of a great city is upon it. A large number of the resident workpeople are employed in Berlin and use the tramway at a cost of 7^6?. per week for six journeys each way. The authorities of both places are doing their best to ensure that expansion shall follow healthy lines as far as possible, and an effort is being made to check speculation by the recent introduction of a municipal tax on unearned increment. In a city so large as Berlin, where the population is so widely diffused, the rents habitual to each class of society must necessarily show a considerable range. Locality, character of street, style of building, and position of flat are all factors which make for diversity in the cost of housing, even for an equal number of rooms. In determining, for the purpose of this report, the predom inant size of dwelling used by the working classes and the predominant rents paid, about 10,0U0 small dwellings in essentially working-class districts of Berlin and the suburbs have been classified as to cost and number of rooms. The dwellings chosen as typical in accommodation were dwellings of two rooms and three rooms, the two rooms consisting of a heatable living and bedroom and a kitchen, and the three rooms consisting of two heatable rooms with a kitchen. The streets from which the Berlin dwellings were taken lie in the North and East. 29088 D 2

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