60

ASCHAFFENBURG.

of  interest.  Several  firms  conduct  pension  funds  independently  of  the
insurance  law  for  the  benefit  of  old  workpeople.  After  25  years  of  service
employees  become  entitled  to  pensions  of  25s.  a  month,  and  after  30  years
of  service  to  30s.,  while  widows  also  receive  grants,  and  allowances  are  made
to  orphans  under  certain  conditions.  The  workpeople  pay  contributions  from
an  early  age,  and  the  employers  add  a  third  or  a  half  on  their  own  account.
One  firm  has  a  savings  and  loan  bank  which  all  workpeople  are  required  to  join.
The  weekly  deposit  is  30  pfennige  (3¿c?.),  which  is  deducted  from  the  wages,
and  the  firm  adds  two-thirds  of  this  amount  in  every  case.  Loans  may  be  contracted ­
  to  the  extent  of  the  deposit,  to  a  maximum  of  £5,  and  they  are  repayable ­
  at  from  Is.  to  4s.  per  week,  interest  of  3  per  cent,  being  charged.  At  some
factories,  canteens  are  kept,  at  which  wholesome  food  may  be  bought  at  cost  price,
or  where  food  brought  from  home  may  be  warmed  for  dinner.

Housing  and  Rents.

In  Aschaffenburg  proper,  disregarding  the  suburb  of  Damm,  there  is  no
distinctively  industrial  quarter.  There  are  districts  in  which  professional  and
commercial  families  specially  live,  but  the  working  classes  are  found  wherever
rents  are  within  their  means,  and  not  in  any  one  quarter.  Only  the  district
known  as  Damm,  which  is  now  incorporated  in  the  municipality  of
Aschaffenburg,  is  exclusively  industrial  in  character.
The  great  majority  of  working-class  households  live  in  tenements  or  onefamily
  houses  of  three  rooms  and  a  kitchen.  The  Aschaffenburg  kitchen  is
almost  invariably  very  small  and  incapable  of  use  either  as  a  living  or  a  bedroom. ­
  One-room  tenements  are  so  rare  as  to  be  of  no  account,  while  tenements
of  four  rooms  are  entirely  beyond  the  means  of  most  working  people.  Ho
classification  of  the  dwellings  of  the  tow»  exists,  but  of  the  1,002  tenements
contained  in  the  257  houses  built  during  the  years  1901  to  1905,  13'6  per  cent,
were  of  two  rooms  and  kitchen,  and  59'0  per  cent,  were  of  three  rooms  and
kitchen.  The  division  was  as  follows  :—

Year.

No  of
houses
built.

No.  of  Tenements.

Two  rooms
and
kitchen.

1901
1902
1903
1904
1905

24
39
65
44
85

Total  1901-5

257

14
17
31
19
56

Three  rooms
and
kitchen.

54
83
135
117
202

137

591

728  =.72*7  per  cent.

Four  rooms
and
kitchen.

Five  to  seven
rooms  and
kitchen.

12
20
54
30
60

176

6
15
34
19
24

98

274=27*3  per  cent.

Total.

86
135
254
185
342

1,002

These  figures,  of  course,  cover  dwellings  of  every  class.  More  definite
testimony  is  borne  to  the  predominant  size  of  working-class  dwellings  by  the
enumeration  of  the  rents  of  340  separate  tenements  made  for  the  purpose  of  this
report  and  determined  chiefly  by  visitation.  Only  one  of  these  tenements*  consisted ­
  of  a  single  room  ;  44,  or  12  9  per  cent.,  consisted  of  two  rooms  with
kitchen  ;  275,  or  80‘9  per  cent.,  of  three  rooms  with  kitchen,  and  20,  or  6"0  per
cent.,  of  four  rooms  with  kitchen.  There  are  no  basement  dwellings,  but  attic
dwellings  are  very  common.
An  ancient  town,  Aschaffenburg  has  its  full  portion  of  neglected,  dilapidated ­
  and  otherwise  out-of-date  property.  There  are  narrow  Gassen  or  alleys
m  which  the  sun  is  rarely  seen,  and  the  houses  are  rickety  without  and
decayed  within  ;  below,  two  contiguous  blocks  may  be  two  feet  apart,
and  above,  at  the  eaves,  they  may  touch,  apparently  depending  upon  each
other  for  support.  In  such  old  streets  the  houses  are  often  built  round
small  courtyards  not  more  than  12  feet  square.  They  make  picturesque