104
BREMEN.
tap serves many households. Here, too, the privy arrangements are very
defective, being found sometimes in the attic (on the pan system) and sometimes
in a boxed-off corner of the corridor. Typical measurements of “ Passage ”
house rooms are as follows :—Living-room, 9 feet 6 inches long, 11 feet wide,
9 feet high ; downstairs bedroom, 11 feet 6 inches by 8 feet 2 inches by 9 feet y
kitchen, 8 feet 2 inches by 6 feet 6 inches by 9 feet, the last measurements
applying likewise to “ middle ” bedrooms. The rents vary according to the size
and state of repair, but the majority range from os. to 8&. 9d. per week.
One consequence of the Bremen small house is the smallness of the rooms,
for the Bremen working class household holds firmly to the tradition that a
dwelling should consist of a living room, a kitchen, and bedrooms, and that
these rooms should not, save at need, be used promiscuously. Hence it is that
three and four-room dwellings predominate. While thus a number of rooms
is obtained at the expense of size, most housing reformers are agreed
that the bargain is a good one from the standpoint of health and morality.
Large rooms, such as are often seen in modern houses of the “barrack” type, are
never met with in Bremen. On the contrary, the living and bedrooms of
working-class dwellings closely resemble in size, as in arrangement, the same
rooms of an English urban cottage, though the Bremen kitchen, as a rule, falls
out of the comparison owing to its exceptional smallness. Of 3,983 rooms of all
kinds in small dwellings measured several years ago, 2'9 per cent, were found to
have an area of 4 square metres (1 square metre equals about 10J square feet)
or under ; 8*3 per cent, from 4 to 5 square metres ; 14"3 per cent, from 5 to 6
square metres ; 10*6 per cent, from 6 to 7 square metres ; 8’2 per cent, from
7 to 8 square metres ; 9"7 per cent, from 8 to 9 square metres ; 13"2 per cent,
from 9 to 10 square metres ; 16"6 per cent, from 10 to 12 square metres ; 13*0
per cent, from 12 to 15 square metres ; 17 per cent, from 15 to 20 square
metres ; and 1"5 per cent, from over 20 square metres. Applying the usual
German standard of 353 cubic feet space for each adult, and 17G^ cubic feet
for children under 14 years, it was found that 414 per cent, of the 1,954
bedrooms in these dwellings had less than this space per head, 23 6 per cent,
allowed from 35"31 to 52.97 cubic feet, 15"5 per cent, allowed from 52*97 to
70*63 cubic feet, and 19*5 per cent, allowed over 70*63 cubic ieet. In other
words, two-fifths of all the bedrooms were deficient in cubical capacity, and thus
were regarded as overcrowded.
Bremen has no formal system of house inspection, but care is taken that the
building regulations are observed in the case of all new erections, and where
possible of alterations. These regulations provide that in the newer portions of
the municipal area only from two-thirds to three-quarters of a site may be
covered with buildings, front gardens being first deducted. The height of a
building on the street level may in general not exceed 61 feet in the town, and
48 feet 9 inches in the rural area, but in any case the maximum is the width of
the street. The minimum height of rooms is 9 feet, except in the cellar story,
where a height of 8 feet 1¿ inches is allowed if the rooms are not used as family
dwellings and are not facing the courtyard.
Predominant Weekly Rents.
The following statement of the predominant rents of working-class dwellings
is based upon a classification of over 2,000 rents obtained from different portions
of areas right and left of the river :—
Number of Rooms per Tenement.
2 rooms and kitchen
3 „
Predominant Weekly Rent.
3s. 6c/. to 4s. 7d.
4s. Id. „ 5s. 5d.
Taking rents in Berlin as 100, the corresponding figure for Bremen is 52.
Four taxes fall on the working classes of Bremen (u) the income tax,
common to all German towns, and if occupiers (b) a special street lighting and
pavement rate, (c) a water rate, and (d) a sewerage rate, the last three %ates
being based on the rent. The income tax falls upon all incomes of £45 and
upwards (before 1905 the exemption limit was £30), and consists of a multiple,
fixed every year according to requirements, of a “ tax unit,” fixed by State law.
