106 
BREMEN. 
Thus, while the rents of £10 and under formed 34*6 per cent, of the whole 
in Bremen and 41’8 per cent, in Vegesack, they only formed 16*4 per cent, of 
the whole in Bremerhaven ; and while the rents of from £10 to £20 were 
39*0 per cent, of the whole in Bremen and 27*3 per cent, in Vegesack, they 
were 45*9 per cent, of the whole in Bremerhaven. The principal reason for 
the higher rents in the comparatively small town of Bremerhaven, whose 
population in 1905 was 22,920, is to be found in the high cost of land caused 
by the limited area of this portion of the State of Bremen. Not only is 
Bremerhaven bounded on the west by the river Weser and on the north by the 
river Geeste, but to the east and south it is hemmed in by Prussian territory, so 
that expansion is virtually impossible. On the other hand, the conditions 
which circumscribe the growth of Bremerhaven do not apply to Geestemünde 
nor yet to Lehe, which lies also in Prussia north of the Geeste. Hence it 
comes about that Bremerhaven workpeople live largely in Prussian territory. 
Printed rent contracts are usual, even in the case of small dwellings, and 
tenancy is either monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly, rent being paid in advance 
only in the case of monthly tenants. 
A considerable percentage of the working-class households of Bremen 
increase their incomes by letting a bedroom or the share of a room to lodgers, 
and the presence of a large number of unmarried men in the shipbuilding yards 
and engineering works enables this to be readily done. The extent to which 
the taking of lodgers is conditioned by monetary considerations is illustrated by 
the fact that while the proportion of Bremen households with lodgers or foster 
children was in 1900 24T per cent, in the town generally, in three districts 
largely inhabited by the working classes and persons of small means the per 
centage was 45 - 0. It has been found that lodgers are taken most in dwellings 
with a rent of from 4s. to 5s. 9cl. per week—in other words in four-room dwellings 
—also that families with few children take lodgers far more rarely than those 
with many. The usual charge for lodging alone is from Is. Gd. to 2s. per week, 
for lodging with coffee and roll for breakfast from 2s. to 2s. Gd., and for lodging 
and full board 10s. per week. There are no special lodging-house regulations, 
but the police have power to step in where unhygienic conditions are known to 
•exist and to require their abatement. 
The rent paid by the Bremen working classes is estimated to form about 
20 per cent, of the income of the head of the family, or 15 per cent, of the total 
family income. This estimate is based on an investigation into the housing 
conditions and the earnings of 889 families made by a special Municipal 
Housing Commission in 1904. A classification of these 889 returns gave the 
following result :— 
Number of cases. 
Ratio of rent to Income. 
Income Groups. 
£20 and under 
Over £20 up to £25 
£25 
£30 
£35 
£40 
£45 
£50 
£60 
£75 
£100 
£30 
£35 
£40 
£45 
£50 
£60 
£75 
£100 
Total ... 
(«) Counting 
income of head 
of family only. 
25 
17 
15 
14 
37 
44 
67 
89 
33 
6 
2 
349 
(&) Counting 
entire family 
income, 
including sub 
sidiary earnings. 
40 
23 
38 
29 
59 
90 
123 
198 
150 
86 
53 
(a) Counting 
income of head 
of family only. 
889 
58-4 
304 
21-7 
215 
20-4 
208 
19-6 
18-2 
17-0 
12-6 
10-6 
20 7 
(&) Counting 
entire family 
income, 
including sub 
sidiary earnings. 
35-6 
29-4 
23-8 
235 
18- 9 
19- 5 
183 
15-8 
142 
12-2 
9-4 
15-4