Xll

be  described  as  the  common  type  of  housing  accommodation  for  all  classes  in
Germany,  and  it  is  a  characteristic  feature  of  German  towns  that,  whilst  there
are  purely  working-class  districts,  yet  the  working  classes  are  generally  scattered
throughout  the  whole  of  a  town,  occupying  either  the  upper  floors  of  houses  whose
lower  floors  may  be  occupied  by  middle-class  tenants,  or  else  housed  in  buildings
—the  "  back  houses”  (Hinterhäuser)  referred  to  below—which  lie  concealed
behind  the  better-class  houses  visible  from  the  street.  There  are  some  exceptions, ­
  but  as  a  general  rule  the  large  house  with  a  considerable  number  of
tenements  is  becoming  more  and  more  predominant.  Bremen  is  unique
amongst  the  large  towns  of  Germany  in  that  a  very  considerable  proportion  of
its  population  live  in  one-family  houses  ;  in  Remscheid  and  Solingen  houses  of
an  old  type  for  one  or  two  families,  and  in  Crefeld  two-family  houses,  originally
built  for  weavers,  are  still  important  ;  houses  of  a  similar  size  are  also  found
to  some  extent  in  a  number  of  other  towns  (as,  for  example,  in  Elberfeld,
Königshütte,  and  Munich),  but  almost  everywhere,  even  in  the  quite  small
towns,  they  are  giving  way  before  the  large  houses  with  many  tenements.
In  some  of  the  larger  towns  these  erections  often  resemble  large  barracks  built
round  small  paved  courtyards,  there  being  in  addition  to  the  block  fronting
upon  the  street  another  block  lying  behind  and  parallel  to  it  (Hinterhäuser  or
Hofhäuser),  and  not  infrequently  also  one  or  more  side  blocks  (Seitenhäuser  or
Flügelhäuser)  either  isolated  or  running  back  from  the  front  block  and  connecting ­
  it  with  the  one  at  the  rear.  The  rents  in  these  back  and  side  houses  are  as
a  rule  lower  than  those  paid  in  the  front  blocks.  In  the  more  modern  erections
there-are  many  variants  of  this  plan,  tending  on  the  whole  to  the  elimination  of
either  the  back  or  the  side  blocks,  or  of  both.
The  traditional  and  still  normal  working-class  dwelling  in  such  a  house
consists  of  three  rooms,  called  respectively  “  Stube,  Kammer,  Küche  ”  (livingroom,
  bedroom,  and  kitchen),  together  with  certain  appurtenances  such  as  a
share  of  the  cellar  for  the  storage  of  fuel,  &c.,  and  even  for  laundry  use,  and
the  use,  on  a  particular  day,  of  a  loft  for  drying  purposes.-  A  large  number  of  the
newer  tenements  have  at  the  front  or  (more  usually)  back  a  balcony  which  is  used
in  this  latter  way  also.  Two-roomed  tenements,  usually  with  appurtenances,  are
also  very  common,  and  these  two  types—with  the  three-roomed  tenement
predominant—may  be  taken  as  representing  the  prevalent  standard  of  workingclass
  housing  throughout  Germany.  Four-roomed  tenements  are  of  importance ­
  in  this  connexion  only  in  rare  cases,  the  chief  being  Leipzig,  where
the  general  level  of  housing  for  the  working-class  population  appears  to  be
higher  than  in  any  other  of  the  large  towns  investigated,  with  the  exception  of
Bremen.  Tenements  of  one  room,  though  fairly  frequent,  are  not  sufficiently
so  to  be  regarded  as  constituting  an  important  type,  whilst  working-class
dwellings  of  five  or  more  rooms  are  scarcely  to  be  found.  The  rooms  on  any
floor  of  a  tenement  house  are  frequently  so  arranged  that  any  combination  of
rooms  may  be  made  for  letting  purposes,  and  this  is  facilitated  where,  as  in  the
Rhineland-Westphalia  industrial  area,  in  most  parts  of  Northern  Germany
and  in  Mülhausen,  the  tenant  has  himself  to  provide  heating  and  cooking
stoves—the  open  fireplace  is  practically  unknown  in  Germany.  In  Saxony,
and  generally  in  South  Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  the  stoves  are  fixtures
supplied  by  the  landlord.
Of  each  of  these  general  types  there  are  naturally  many  variations  of
which  descriptions  will  be  found  in  the  separate  town  reports.  One  of  the  chief
difficulties  in  classification  is  caused  by  the  kitchen.  In  Stuttgart  a  so-called
“  kitchen  ”  is  always  additional  to  the  two  or  three  rooms  of  the  tenement  but
it  is  a  quite  small  place,  capable,  indeed,  of  use  for  culinary  purposes,  but  not
as  a  living-room.  The  same  is  true,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  in  other  towns
such  as  Aschaffenburg,  Hamburg,  Munich,  Nuremberg,  Brunswick,  Bochum  and
Mülhausen  ;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  kitchen  elsewhere  is  often  a  fairly  l ar p- e
room  and  used  as  a  living-room.  In  a  number  of  cases  the  practice  prevails  of
letting  an  attic  with  each  tenement.  This  applies  more  especially  to  Saxon  towns
and  in  Chemnitz  every  tenement  is  required  to  comprise  an  attic  capable  of  bein  j'
used  as  a  bedroom.  Only  where  attics  are  so  used  have  they  been  counted  as
rooms  when  a  “  two-roomed  ”  or  “  three-roomed  ”  tenement  is  spoken  of.
For  the  purpose  of  comparison,  therefore,  it  has  appeared  desirable  to  reckon
as  “  rooms  ”  all  kitchens  large  enough  to  be  used  to  any  extent  as  living-rooms