Full text: Cost of living in German towns

MÜLHAUSEN. 
361 
maisons ouvrières save in name, for their owners belonged to a different class 
altogether, and they altered and remodelled their houses to their liking. None 
the less, the Cité, both old and new, plays a very important part in the social 
life of Mülhausen, and is in many respects one of the bright spots in the 
housing arrangements of the working-classes. A large number of the dwellings 
belong to their occupiers, and where bought long ago the owners find 
themselves in possession of property which has increased 30 and even 
50 per cent, in value. For example, small houses which were sold by the 
Society at a cost price of from £150 to £180 are now worth £250, and even 
more. To rent such houses costs from 25s. to 28s. a month. At the present 
time the Cité houses number between 1,200 and 1,300, and their 2,500 
tenements accommodate some 13,000 people. To the institutions of the Cité 
belong a people’s kitchen and a bakehouse, where food is sold at very low 
prices, a washhouse and bathing establishment, a library, and a creche for the 
infants of working-class homes. 
This is not the only experiment in industrial dwellings—though it is the 
oldest and largest—which has been made at Mülhausen. Several other societies 
are endeavouring by practical efforts to raise the housing standard of the town 
and to educate the working-classes to the appreciation of comfortable and 
commodious homes. A notable work is that of the “ Union Home.” In 
1901, M. balance gave to this society the sum of £4,000, afterwards increased 
to £5,600, as the nucleus of a fund for the erection of improved dwellings on 
the flat system for people of small means. The houses are of three stories and 
the tenements of two sizes—two rooms and a kitchen and three rooms and a 
kitchen, with cellaring. The entire floor space is about 480 square feet in the 
two-room tenements and 650 square feet in those of three rooms, and the height 
of the rooms is 9 feet. Each tenement has an ample corridor, in one corner 
of which is the water-closet, and the general arrangements are admirable. The 
building itself is substantially and attractively executed, and the entire cost of a 
double house containing 12 tenements of two rooms and kitchen, and two 
single houses each containing six tenements of three rooms and kitchen 
(making 24 tenements altogether) has been £5,600, the smaller tenements 
costing £223 each and the larger £242 on an average. The rents are fixed at 
13a. 6d. per month for two-room tenements on the ground floor and 14a. 6d. 
above, and for three-room tenements 17a. 3d. and 19a. 3d. respectively. 
The “ Union Home” has also erected (1905-6) a number of tenements of 
two, three, and four rooms with kitchen in buildings consisting of four stories 
and attic. The kitchens are of large size, and correspond to the English 
working-class kitchen of the better class which is used as a living room. 
The general dimensions of the rooms are as follows :— 
A.—Tenements of two rooms and kitche7i. 
(1) 15 X 13 X 10 feet ; (2) 13 x 10 x 10 feet ; kitchen 14 x 10 x 10 feet. 
B.—Tenements of three rooms and kitchen. 
(1) 17 x 14 x 10 feet; (2) 14 x 12 x 10 feet; (3) 15 x 10 x 10 feet; 
kitchen 14 x 11 x 10 feet. 
C . — Tenements of four rooms and kitchen. 
(1 and 2) 14 x 12 x 9 feet; (3) 14 x 11 x 9 feet ; (4) 11 x 11 x 
9 feet ; kitchen 11 x 11 x 9 feet. 
The water-closets are in the corridors, and each tenant has part of the attic 
and cellarage. The rents are 20s. per month for two rooms and kitchen, 26s. for 
three rooms and kitchen, and 32s. for four rooms and kitchen. A few tenements 
of one room and a kitchen are let at 12s. per month. The society has 44 of 
these dwellings (viz., 27 of two rooms and kitchen, seven of three rooms and 
kitchen, three of four rooms and kitchen, five of one room and kitchen, and 
two of two rooms with shop), and does not sell to the occupiers. 
To the best of the model working-class dwellings in Mülhausen belongs a 
series just built by the municipality. They are built detached, each block 
surrounded by a considerable piece of land, and the style of architecture sug 
gests rather a small suburban villa than a workman’s dwelling. Most of the 
dwellings consist of three rooms and a kitchen, with a portion of the attic and 
the use of a common drying-ground, and the rents for such accommodation 
2 z 
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