AACHEN. 
45 
of one room only, 41 ■ 7 per cent, of two rooms, a'nd 14*6 per cent, of three 
rooms ; the corresponding percentages for 1904, in respect of 1,107 tenements 
visited, were 27*3, 43*7, and 17 5. 
To say that the housing system assumes the dimensions and the 
importance of a social problem at Aachen is a statement which the 
foregoing figures alone would appear to justify, and a nearer acquaintance 
with the facts will confirm such a statement. Several circumstances have 
united to place Aachen at a disadvantage in the matter of its housing 
conditions. In the first place, it i§ a town of great age, and, like all old 
towns, it has developed slum districts so extensive as to be beyond the 
summary process of extinction. In the inner circle of the town, the district 
within the “ Gräben ” already alluded to, the houses are, for the most part, 
several centuries old, and the worst of these houses are behind the street front, 
down narrow passages and around ill-lighted and sometimes evil-smelling courts, 
one leading into another through a second corridor gloomier than the first. 
The buildings themselves are often dilapidated, and, from the hygienic 
standpoint, are dear, even at the low rents charged for them. The people who 
live in these houses, which are to be found by whole streets together, are people 
of small earnings, and to a large extent they include that residuum which 
in every large town gravitates naturally to the cheapest and lowest class of 
dwelling. 
Amongst the dwellings of even the poorer class of wage earners the most 
perfect order and neatness may often be observed ; yet, on the whole, Aachen 
does not represent the German home at its best. The people who have poor 
dwellings appear to be contented with them, and there is a certain absence of 
ambition to live as well as means might allow. They were born there, so they 
elect to live and die there, though roomier homes, healthier surroundings, and 
a more cheerful outlook are to be had in the newer parts of the town at little, if 
any, more cost. 
The prevailing type of house at Aachen is that known as the “ three- 
window house.” In the ground floor front are the entrance and two windows, 
lighting one or two rooms according to the width of the house, and on each 
of the stories above are three windows, two lighting a large room and the 
other serving for a small one. This is the traditional Aachen house, and 
the type is still followed to-day with such modifications as the modern building 
regulations prescribe. According to these regulations a house may not be built 
higher than the width of the street plus 9 feet 9 inches in the inner districts 
(i.e., within the old “Gräben,” denoting the boundaries of the old town), or 
the width of the streets in the outer districts, with a maximum of 65 feet in 
either case. Side-houses may not be higher than the width of the adjacent 
court plus 19 feet 6 inches. It is also ordered in the case of new houses that 
where more than three stories are built above the ground floor and where there 
are more than ten rooms on a floor the landings and stairs must be of stone or 
■cement. The general rule is three or four stories, with an attic in addition. 
Not uncommonly the roof of the building at the rear or side is flat and is 
used as a drying ground. I he average width of a single house, ¿.e., a 
house with passage and one adjacent suite of rooms on the ground floor, is 
22 feet 9 inches. As a rule the façades of the older working-class houses are 
very plain. On the other hand monotony is broken owing to the fact that the 
houses do not appear to have been built a street at a time but singly or several 
together, and each builder has followed his own ideas as to height, width, and 
other details. All houses are painted, and not always in the same shades or 
even the same colours, so that there is no trace of sameness. 
The structure of a typical “ three-window ” house may here be described. 
The house is entered right or left of the partition wall as the case may be. 
In the middle of the corridor is a door leading into the front room, and 
at the end are the stairs, with a second corridor leading to the courtyard. 
At the foot of the stairs a second door opens into the back room, which, 
with the front room, forms the parterre dwelling. The smallest room in 
a suite is invariably chosen as the kitchen, and the stove is portable and belongs 
to the tenant. Adjacent to the courtyard behind is the “ side house ’ ’ (Seitenbau ), 
which is a lower building whose downstairs rooms open into the courtyard, 
while the rooms upstairs are reached from the landings which serve for the