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62 
ASCHAFFENBURG. 
working-class houses of recent date there has been a decided advance both 
in comfort and appearance. The walls are no longer left lime-washed or 
roughly painted, but are neatly papered, and the floors are painted where 
formerly bare deal was thought good enough. 
The only part of Aschaffenburg which is entirely given up to the working 
classes is, as already stated, the recently incorporated suburb of Damm. Here a 
considerable part of the resident factory population lives alone in the neighbour 
hood of the principal paper mills which give them employment. The streets 
are plain and irregular ; many of the houses are one-family houses and the 
rest contain from two to four tenements, the usual size being either two or 
three rooms with a miniature kitchen. The rooms of a typical tenement in 
this quarter were found to have the following dimensions :—No. 1, 16 feet 
3 inches by 13 feet : No. 2, 15 feet by 9 feet 9 inches : No. 3 and kitchen, 
9 feet 9 inches square, the height of the lower rooms being 9 feet. The 
attics in these houses offer as a rule inferior accommodation. The building 
of the Damm quarter is of a very rough kind. No expense has been 
incurred for external ornamentation or internal finish ; the houses have been 
built for people of restricted means, and to the wants of such people they 
correspond. With the Damm colony may be classed a smaller group of 
working-class dwellings in the Fabrikstrasse (Factory Street), not far distant, 
which are built in pairs, divided by a space giving access to gardens or 
courtyards behind. These houses consist of two stories and an attic story, 
and most of the tenements have three rooms and a kitchen, one tenement 
to each floor. The general dimensions of the rooms are from 11 to 14 feet 
deep and 10 feet wide, with a height of 9 feet. The tenant of one such 
tenement was a labourer with 9 children and weekly earnings of 3s. 6d. per day 
in summer and 2s. 6(7. on on average in winter, though several members of the 
family supplemented his own income. His rent, 28s. 6(7. per month, represented 
about one-third of his unaided earnings. There were beds in every room. 
Houses are let by the month, and signed contracts of tenancy are rare in 
the case of working-class dwellings. It is the general rule for the water rate to 
be included in the rent. The municipal authorities undertake the duty of 
collecting domestic refuse, which is deposited at the street door at any hour of 
the day in pots, pans, dishes, and boxes, for any receptacle is allowed. 
Rents in Aschaffenburg are high. Taking the predominant rents in Berlin 
as 100, the index number for Aschaffenburg is 67, a figure exceeded by 
only three other of the towns investigated for the purpose of this report. 
There has for several years been a steady rise in the rents of dwellings of 
small and medium size in consequence of the development of industry and 
the growth of the town ; and there is no prospect of a decline, for there is no 
over-building and the demand for working-class houses always keeps well 
abreast of the supply. Taking the town as a whole working-class rents fall 
within the following range, but the lower figures represent the Damm district, 
which is still by far the cheapest part of the town :— 
Number of Rooms per Tenement. 
Predominant Weekly Rent. 
Two rooms with kitchen* 
Three rooms with kitchen* 
2s. 9d. to 4s. 2d. 
4s. 7d. to 5s. 9(7. 
* This is almost invariably too small for use as a living room. 
In Damm the best of a not very superior class of tenements of three rooms 
with kitchen can always be had for os. 9d. per week. Four-room tenements are 
abnormal for working-class families, and when tenanted seldom cost more 
than those of a room less, for they are taken because of special cheapness. It is 
noticeable that families with few children often have a preference, which takes 
the practical form of a reduction in the rent to the extent of several shillings a 
month. It is estimated that ten per cent, of the families rentin°' tenements of 
three and four rooms take one or two lodgers, who pay as a rule 15,?. per month, 
this sum including morning coffee.