MANNHEIM. 
339 
A typical house of modern character in a working-class district can best be 
described by a concrete example, and the one to which the following data refer 
is in the Rheinhäuserstrasse, just outside the Kaiserring, and on the outskirts 
of an important factory quarter. It is a house of four stories, with 
cellaring, of which each household has a separate portion, and an attic or loft 
for common use. The ground floor is divided into two tenements of one and 
three rooms respectively, with kitchens, and each of the upper floors into two 
tenements of two and three rooms with kitchens, the room lost in the basement 
being taken up by the main entrance. A passage leads from the street to an 
inner vestibule at the foot of the staircase, right and left of which are closed 
corridors belonging to the two tenements. Both below and above, the best 
rooms are at the front ; the kitchens are placed to the rear according to universal 
custom. The corridors are of unequal length, but the width is 3 feet 7 inches, 
and each gives access to every room in the tenement to which it belongs, as well 
as to the water-closet. The dimensions of the living and bedrooms on the 
basement are :—14 feet 11 inches by 12 feet 4 inches by 11 feet 8 inches ; 
14 feet 11 inches by 14 feet 8 inches by 11 feet 8 inches ; 14 feet 11 inches by 
10 feet 8 inches by 11 feet 8 inches ; and 15 feet 2 inches by 8 feet 7 inches by 
11 feet 8 inches ; while the kitchens measure 15 feet 2 inches by 8 feet 7 inches 
by 11 feet 8 inches, and 15 feet 1 inch by 8 feet 7 inches by 11 feet 8 inches 
respectively. The stories above follow an identical plan. Each of the 
tenements has two rooms to the front, while the kitchen, water-closets, and the 
extra room of the three-roomed tenements are behind, and each apartment opens 
upon the corridor. The rooms of a suite are not always intercommunicable 
and the kitchens are all isolated. The height of the second story is 11 feet, 
and of the third and fourth stories 10 feet 8 inches ; the superficial dimensions 
of the living and bedrooms are 14 feet 11 inches by 10 feet 8 inches, and 
those of the kitchens are 15 feet 2 inches by 8 feet 7 inches. 
Where attics exist they are commonly used for drying clothes. In the 
older parts of the town this convenience is often lacking, and its place is at 
times taken by the flat roofs of the lower buildings. A more general custom is 
to hang the clothes on long cords stretching from wall to wall above the court 
yard and movable by a simple pulley arrangement. 
It is a good feature of the newer houses that the “ open ” style of building 
(i.e., building in detached blocks of moderate size) is largely followed, 
this securing ample space both laterally and behind. The practice of 
erecting back houses quite detached, with separate entrances, instead of 
connected with the front buildings as in some towns, is a further guarantee of 
fresh air and abundant light. At Mannheim, too, the balcony is increasingly 
fostered, and hundreds of tenements of recent erection are supplied with this 
arrangement. 
Mannheim has an elaborate body of building regulations, the basis of which 
is the division of the municipal area into building zones, in each of which 
special conditions are imposed as to the character and height of houses that may 
be erected, the proportion of the building site that must be left free, and other 
points. The regulations as to the internal arrangements of dwelling houses 
are especially rigorous. The height of all stories, even (save in old houses) 
the attic story if used for habitation, must be at least 9 feet 9 inches. Only in 
exceptional cases may rooms used for living or sleeping purposes have an area 
less than 162 square leet, and kitchens less than 130 feet. In general a water- 
closet must be provided for each dwelling, though in old property one may serve 
for a whole story, to a maximum of five rooms. Every house must be cellared, 
or otherwise be protected against damp, and while in special cases living and 
bedrooms may be allowed in stories the floors of which lie below the level of 
the adjacent street, it is only on condition that there is cellaring below and an 
open space around the outer walls. It is hoped that by the enforcement of 
these regulations the future growth and expansion of the town, and especially 
of the undeveloped districts, will follow normal and healthy lines, for only 
deliberate departure from the principles laid down can open the way for the 
congestion which exists in the old municipal area, and which it is now beyond 
the power of building regulations to remove. 
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