MANNHEIM. 
338 
containing one person and under per room, 55*98 per cent, lived in dwellings 
with a density of 1-2 persons per room, and 34*14 per c&nt. in dwellings with a 
density of over two persons per room. The greatest density fell to the Käferthal, 
Waldhof, and Neckarau area, for which the corresponding percentages were 
0, 46*73 and 53*27. On the whole 34 per cent, of the population of the town 
were found at the last census to be “ living amid conditions which, as to 
density, left much to he desired.” 
Naturally it is in the narrower streets of the original town of lettered 
“ squares,” each a huge mass of brick and mortar, its sides pierced at intervals 
by archways and corridors leading into more or less circumscribed and gloomy 
courtyards, that the. worst overcrowding exists. There has been an improve 
ment since 1900, yet the census of December, 1905, showed that four 
“squares” had more than 10 persons per are (119J square yards), and one 
had 12*8, equal to one person to every 12 and 9 square yards respectively. Yet 
Mannheim is not a town of old houses ; 100 or 150 years mean comparative 
antiquity. The “ square ” system of building inevitably led to houses being packed 
together without the possibility of due provision for air space either within or 
without. Each house belonging to the block had its courtyard, and at a time when 
building by-laws did not exist the size of this enclosure depended very much on 
the whim of the builder. Many of these courtyards are barely 12 feet square, 
yet from such a space the back rooms of six or eight dwellings have to obtain 
all the ventilation and light that reaches them. The position of things is made 
worse when the narrow limits of the courtyard have been encroached upon by 
irregular erections of an obstructive kind, and congestion is seen in its worst 
form when, as occasionally happens, the street or alley in front is as narrow 
and dark as the courtyard. The interior of these older buildings represents 
Mannheim’s housing arrangements at their worst. The approaches, from the 
street passage forward, are ill-lighted, the rooms are much behind modern 
requirements alike in structure and space, sometimes one bedroom is only 
reached through another, and the water-closet (or privy) accommodation is very 
inadequate. Fortunately, such houses are abnormal when compared with the 
number and quality of working-class houses in general, and gradually they are 
disappearing in face of the more stringent health regulations enforced by the 
authorities. Indeed, next to the energy shown by the Municipal Council and 
the police in combating insanitary conditions of life, the most hopeful feature of 
the housing question in Mannheim is the fact that the old town is slowly but 
surely being renewed ; no small amount of property that was built only thirty 
or forty years ago is giving place to houses modern in construction and hygienic 
in surroundings. 
There are few “ barrack ” houses (Mietkasernen) of the kind so often met 
with in large towns, but one of them, known as the “ Spinnerei,” is unique in 
its way. Here tenants of the poorer class are alone found—outdoor labourers 
and other people of small earnings who are not superior to the somewhat 
promiscuous conditions of life which close association in a “ barrack ” house 
entails. Many of the tenements are as squalid as their tenants are poor. 
Overcrowding is almost inevitable, and in a tenement of two dark rooms 
and a small kitchen a family of eight persons—husband and wife and six 
children—was found. Many of these tenements consist of a single room only, 
the rent of which varies from Qs. to 12s. a month according to its size and the 
character of the tenement ; the majority, however, have two rooms or two 
rooms and a small kitchen. 
1 In the newer parts of the town, housing conditions are for the most part 
satisfactory, so far as the structure and conveniences of tenements go, though 
even there disorderly households often make their homes and surroundings even 
as themselves. Thanks to the persistent endeavours of the Housing Com 
mittee and their inspectors, overcrowding tends to decrease, and many owners, 
under the pressure of admonition and warning, have converted small 
tenements of one and two rooms into tenements of a more commodious 
and wholesome kind. The transition has not been free from inconvenience and 
even hardship to the tenants, to whom larger dwellings mean higher rents, nor 
from loss to the landlords, yet it is generally admitted that the social life of the 
town has benefited from every standpoint.