12 O 
BRESLAU. 
It should be observed, however, that the tenements referred to in the 
Report were in almost every case to be found in .the older parts of Breslau, 
either in what may be termed the “City” or in some of the older suburbs 
which are by now scarcely less central than the City. It was stated, 
moreover, that several of these defective tenements had been condemned and 
demolished since the issue of the report. The oldest and most central part of 
the town—the part bounded on the north by the river and on the other sides by 
the semicircle of promenades and lakes into which the ramparts and moats of 
former times have been converted—is being given over more and more to 
business and becoming less of a residential quarter. In 1871 there were still 
73,000 people living in this part of Breslau, and by 1905 the number had fallen 
to 53,000. Among these, as among the resident population of almost any part 
of the town, are comprised a certain proportion of working-class families, 
occupying either the basement or the top-floor tenements. The great 
bulk of the industrial working classes, however, live further out, and more 
especially in the north-western suburb known as the Nikolai Vorstadt, the only 
part of the urban area where factory chimneys are a prominent feature, and where 
any large proportion of the houses are found to be inhabited exclusively by 
working-class families. On the occasion of the Housing Census of 1900, the 
amount of overcrowding was found to be greatest in this part of Breslau, 10*3 
per cent, of all the dwellings and 17*5 per cent, of the population being 
described as coming within the definition of what, in German housing statistics, 
constitutes “overcrowding.” The term is held to apply whenever a dwelling 
comprising only one heatable room is inhabited by six or more persons, or when 
a dwelling comprising only two such rooms contains 10 or more persons. 
As the table given above shows, the working classes of Breslau live in 
tenements consisting of either two or three rooms, and more frequently in two 
rooms than in three. In the former case the larger room serves as general 
living-room and kitchen, and the other as bedroom. The three-roomed tenement 
consists either of a living-room, a kitchen and bedroom, or of a general living- 
room and kitchen combined, and two bedrooms. Where the tenement has a 
separate vestibule (as is the case in all but the very oldest houses), that space 
frequently contains the cooking-stove and*serves as the kitchen, being window 
less artificial light has to be used. This arrangement is to be found in about 
one of every three working-class tenements in Breslau. Every tenement has, in 
addition, a small attic compartment (used as a lumber room), a separate 
compartment in the cellar, and the use of the loft-space, immediately beneath 
the rafters, for drying laundry on certain days. 
The household water supply is rarely situated inside the tenement, and 
has to be fetched from taps fixed on the stair landings of the various floors. 
Gas is seldom supplied either for lighting or cooking, and the number of 
tenements having exclusive use of a closet is so small as to be negligible. On 
the other hand it may be noted that the dry-closet system, which constitutes an 
unpleasant feature in the working-class tenements of many German (and 
especially Saxon) towns, has been entirely superseded in Breslau by the 
modern arrangement with its flushing apparatus. 
Through the courtesy of the Chief Burgomaster it has been possible to 
ascertain in respect of 1,200 working-class tenements situated in various parts 
of Breslau the rents which were being paid in December, 1905, as returned by 
the occupiers on the Census Schedules. Of these 1,200 tenements, 865 consisted 
of two, and 335 of three rooms. Tenements with lodgers or sub-tenants were 
not included. From the data so obtained the predominant rents charged for 
tenements of two and three rooms were found to be as shown below. 
Predominant Rents of WorJcing-class Dwellings. 
Number of Rooms per Tenement. 
Predominant Weekly Rent. 
Two rooms . 
Three rooms 
3s. 3d. to 3s. 8d. 
3s. (jé¿. ,, 4:S, 7d. 
Rents in Berlin being taken as 100, the index number for Breslau is 56.