86
BOCHUM.
Representing wages in Berlin by 100, the wages of skilled men in the
building, engineering and printing trades at Bochum would be represented by
83, 87 and 88 respectively, while the wages of labourers in both the building
and engineering trades would be 96.
Housing and Rents.
The dwellings of the working classes of Bochum must not be sought in
the busy centre of the town, for there dear land and high rents leave no room
for small tenements. Further away from the centre the pressure diminishes,
and shops below and two or three stories of dwellings above are the rule, the
highest rooms being occupied by artisans and working people. In the neighbourhood
of the iron works it often happens that the smaller officials and foremen
inhabit the dwellings immediately over the business premises on the ground
floor, and above them live the so-called " little people.” It is on the outskirts
of the town, however, that the working-classes are chiefly found. There whole
streets of large houses consist of labourers’ tenements, always excepting the
front premises on the ground-floor, which are used as shops, workshops, or
both combined. The style of building is not attractive. Brick with stucco
facing, painted, yet seldom relieved by any plastic ornament, represents the
working-class house at its best ; common brickwork in its rawest state is not
uncommon ; while in some districts blocks of brick and timber buildings of the
old “ peasant ” type still stand in isolated positions and And ready tenants in
people whose means do not allow them to be too discriminating in the matter of
house accommodation. In general, however, Bochum’s dwelling houses are
of modern erection, though they may not represent a very high standard of
excellence. A local peculiarity, which extends to the suburbs as well as to the
town, is the practice of laying the ground floor 3 feet or more above the street
level, the effect of which is to save excavation for the cellaring ; the feature is
chiefly characteristic of the older buildings, but it has not yet been abandoned
in the case cf new erections.
As a rule there are from five to seven rooms on a landing, and these rooms
are divided into two or three tenements according to the class of tenants for
whom they are intended. Five rooms are found to work out best, inasmuch as
they afford to two families the accommodation usually required by the workingclasses
in Bochum, viz., tenements of two and three rooms. It is not uncommon
for all the rooms on a landing to be inter-communicable, an arrangement which
further facilitates their apportionment as tenancies change ; invariably the rooms
in a single tenement are en suite. Tenements of a single room are very rare
and for practical purposes may be disregarded, while four rooms are seldom
rented by working people, save in the case of dwellings provided by their
employers and let at a reduced rent. Of 412 tenements in private ownership
whose rents were obtained by visitation or inquiry of their owners for the purpose
of this report 140 or 34 per cent, consisted of two rooms, 202 or 49 per cent, of
three rooms, and 61 or 14*8 per cent, of four rooms ; only 9 were tenements of
a single room, and these were for the most part sublet or occupied by poor
widows.
Kitchens are not let separately, save in large dwellings, and a workingclass
rent contract makes no mention of such a room, the usual specification being
“ — rooms with (or without) attic (Bodenzimmer), cellar, drying-loft (Trockenboden),
and wash-house,” though it is understood that where drying-lofts and
wash-houses exist small tenants have only a joint use of them. In practice the
same room is used as a kitchen by successive tenants, for the plainest apartment,,
and by preference one at the back of the house, is generally devoted to this
purpose, but in size it is hardly inferior to the other rooms, and where the
dwelling is small and the family large it is used as a living room, and even
as a bedroom as well.
In typical tenements of three rooms one room generally has separate ingress
from the landing, so that it may be let separately if desired, and this room is
often let to lodgers, who can come and go at will without trouble to the rest of
the household. Separate corridors or fore-spaces ( Vorpldtze) are not yet
universally regarded as essential. Often the dwelling is entered through the
kitchen direct from the landing j the most favourable arrangement is a corridor
for two adjacent dwellings. A variant upon the latter plan is a passage open
to the landing, from which the rooms are entered, though there seems no reason
