MANNHEIM. 
337 
It is a sign of the times that the large breweries of Mannheim have 
recently abolished the cifstom of “ free beer,” with the full concurrence of their 
workpeople, and have substituted a money payment equal to the old beer 
allowance on wholesale terms. The time-honoured “ free drink ” (Freitrank) 
was in most cases equal to nearly 4h quarts a day, and the workmen exercised 
their rights to the full. Now 5&. It/, per week is added to the wages in lieu of 
this allowance, and in other cases a sum proportionate to the beer allowance 
surrendered. The men are, however, still able to buy beer for their own 
consumption, at the rate of commutation, four times a day. The Factory 
Inspectors point out that the first result of the change was a reduction of the 
workpeople’s beer consumption to between a third and a quarter of the former 
amount, and coincident with this greater moderation in drinking were noted 
increased application and industry, less abstention from work, and less sickness. 
“ Free beer” to an unlimited amount is nevertheless the rule at some of the local 
breweries, and the custom of living on the premises has not yet died out. 
Housing and Rents. 
The great majority of the working-class households of Mannheim live in 
dwellings of two and three rooms, these rooms consisting either of a living and 
bedroom and a kitchen or two living and bedrooms and a kitchen. Of 26,333 
rented dwellings not used for trade enumerated at the census of December, 
1905, 816 or 3T per cent, contained a habitable room without a kitchen, 
5,413 or 20’5 per cent, contained a room with a kitchen, 409 or T6 per cent, 
contained two rooms without a kitchen, 10,642 or 40'4 per cent, contained two 
rooms with a kitchen, and 4,856 or 18 4 per cent, contained three rooms with 
kitchen. Thus 22T per cent, of these dwellings contained two rooms of all 
kinds, and 65*6 per cent, contained one, two, or three rooms. The foregoing 
classification covers all rented dwellings, no portions of which are used for 
industrial purposes, but if the classification be confined to purely working-class 
districts the predominant type of house is seen still more clearly. Taking, 
for example, the districts of Schwetzingervorstadt and Neckarvorstadt in the 
old town, and the three incorporated suburbs which form New Mannheim 
(Käferthal, Waldhof, and Neckarau), it is found that the dwellings of two and 
three rooms—the kitchen being counted as a room—compose 75T per cent, of 
the whole, and if the dwellings of a single room be added, a total of 78*4 per 
cent, of " small ” dwellings is arrived at for these districts. 
The number of dwellings per building tends to increase in nearly every part 
of the town. For Mannheim as a whole it was 5'8 in 1905, against 5*5 in 1900, 
but in Schwetzingervorstadt it was 7*7 in 1905, against 7 2 in 1900 ; in 
Lindenhof 7'0 and 6'6 respectively, and in Waldhof 6'0 and 2 3. In almost 
all parts of the town are buildings containing over 25 households ; the 
maximum number being found in the new suburb of \\ aldhof. 
A considerable number of the tenements of two rooms and a kitchen are 
inhabited by households of the lower middle class ; working people oftener go 
below than above this accommodation, and when three living and bedrooms are 
rented it may as a rule be assumed that lodgers are taken. This paucity of 
rooms is, however, counterbalanced to some extent by the fact that the kitchen is 
almost invariably a fairly spacious apartment. All the rooms in a Mannheim 
tenement are heatable—nominally at least—and to that extent are convertible as 
to use. The kitchen itself not seldom serves as a bedroom as well ; the practice 
is discouraged, even forbidden, and carefully watched, yet the most careful 
scrutiny cannot prevent it, and where a household is pinched for space, to set up 
a bed in one corner of the kitchen is the first suggestion of necessity. Basement 
dwellings, however, are unknown in Mannheim, and the nearest approach are 
the half-basements attached to better-class houses for the porters’ families and to 
the public schools for the attendants. 
As the foregoing figures suggest, several districts of the enlarged municipal 
area are predominantly inhabited by the working classes, and it is noticeable 
that overcrowding has already made its appearance in these newer districts. 
Taking the average of the whole town, the number of inhabitants per room was, 
in 1905, 1-59, while 9*88 per cent, of the population lived in dwellings 
2 u 
29088