32 
BERLIN. 
room) with kitchen, the rents of which range from 25s. to 29s. per month 
where both rooms are small, from 29-s. to 33s. where one room is large and the 
other small, and from 35s. to 39s. where both rooms are large. There are also 
six single-room dwellings let at 12s. per month and eight dwellings of three 
rooms and kitchen let at from 41s. to 45s. per month. It is claimed that the 
rents are 20 per cent, below those of similar dwellings in the immediate locality. 
Baths exist for the common use of the tenants free of charge ; there is a 
kindergarten in which children between the ages of three and six years are 
received from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and there are two playgrounds for the use of 
boys and girls. The buildings do not compare either in external appearance 
or in internal comfort with the houses of the Savings and Building Society, 
but they are intended for a different class of tenants and the rents charged 
are proportionately lower. 
The Patriotic ( Vaterländischer) Building Society has built two blocks of 
300 dwellings, but its work follows a political and confessional direction, and the 
tenants are not drawn from the working-class indiscriminately. 
Among other societies of the kind are the Berlin Co-operative Building 
Society, whose operations are confined to the suburbs. Formerly it built small 
houses and sold them to the tenants ; now small houses are no longer profitable, 
owing to the high price of land, and large buildings, of which it remains the 
owner, have now to be erected. The Social Democrats have also established a 
building society, bearing the name “ Paradise,” but its operations are limited. 
Another effort on the same lines is that of the " Great Berlin ” Tramway 
Company Employees’ Building Society, with a membership of 1,600 out of a 
total staff of 8,000. It is the object of the society to provide for its members, 
by purchase, lease, or erection, cheap and healthy dwellings in which the tenants 
shall enjoy a certain fixity of tenure. In order to acquire membership it is 
necessary to take a share of the value of £15, upon which interest of 4 per cent, 
is paid ; ten such shares can be taken if desired, and payment may be in instal 
ments. Most of the capital is provided by the Tramway Company at 3 per cent, 
interest. The usual Berlin “ barrack ” style of building has been chosen, five 
stories being usual, built round a rectangular courtyard, the appearance 
of which is brightened by shrubs and grass plots. At the end of 1905 five 
blocks had been built, containing 286 dwellings, two being of three rooms 
and kitchen, 120 of two rooms and kitchen, and 164 of one room and 
kitchen, each with cellar and attic ; no fewer than 171 dwellings had 
bathrooms adjacent to the kitchens. It is intended in course of time to build 
a house at every one of the Company’s 20 depots. 
Few employers have found it necessary to provide dwellings for their 
workpeople, and such enterprise is only found in several of the outside 
suburbs where large works have been established out of reach of suitable 
housing accommodation. Finally must be noticed the excellent provision made 
for their comrades on the road by the Social Democratic Trades Federation 
and the Hirsch Duncker Central Trade Union, both of which have commodious 
lodging houses in which a bed with coffee in the morning can be obtained for 
5d. or Qd. The Roman Catholic and Protestant Church organisations also 
make provision for travelling workpeople in “ homes ” and “ hospices ” 
conducted on a religious basis. * 
Retail Prices. 
Groceries and other Commodities. 
Berlin is provided with an excellent system of public market halls, 
conveniently distributed throughout the city. They are 14 in number and 
were built during the past 20 years at a cost of about £1,400 000 of which 
exactly halt represents the cost of the sites alone. How important a part the 
market halls ¡day in the commissariat arrangements of the community may lie 
judged from the fact that the goods received m the two central markets bv rail 
amounted in the year 1905-6 to nearly 100,000 tons, to which came large 
supplies by water. A considerable trade in meat is done in the public markets