BRESLAU.

119

inîthe  remaining  8,971  the  occupiers  paid  no  rent  either  because  they  were  the
owners  or  in  consideration  of  some  service  rendered,  e.g.,  by  a  person  who  acts
as  general  caretaker  and  collector  of  rents  for  the  whole  of  the  tenements  in  a
large  building  and  discharges  the  duty  imposed  by  the  municipality  on  the
houseowner  of  cleansing  the  footpath  and  part  of  the  roadway  outside  the  house
every  day.
The  following  Table  gives  a  classification  of  the  92,157  rented  dwellings
according  to  their  size  (number  of  rooms),  and  shows  the  manner  in  which  the
population  was  distributed  among  the  tenements  of  different  size  :—

Number  of  Rooms  in
Tenement.

1  room
2  rooms
3  "
5  or  more  rooms

Number
of
Tenements.

6,206
41,707
21,106
11,331
8,807

92,157

Population  housed  in  each  class
of  Tenement.

Total.

14,318
169,016
89,649
48,760
45,503

367,216

Per  cent.

39
46-0
244
133
124

1000

From  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  practically  three-fourths  (74\3  per  cent.)
of  all  persons  who  rented  their  dwellings  occupied  three  rooms  or  less,  and  that
■close  upon  one-half  (49*9  per  cent.)  lived  in  two  rooms  or  less.
The  number  of  dwellings  consisting  of  a  whole  house  is  so  small  as  to  be
negligible.  Over  99  per  cent,  of  the  dwellings  enumerated  at  the  census  of
1900  were  situated  on  one  or  other  of  the  floors  of  a  tenement  house.  This  will
be  seen  from  the  following  statement  :—

Situation  of  Dwelling.

Proportion  of  all
Dwellings  so  Situated.

Cellar  (basement)
Ground  floor
1st  floor...
2nd  „  ...
3rd  „  ...
4th  „  ...
5th  „  (or  higher)
On  more  than  one  floor

Per  cent.
38
157
200
20  6
201
16  8
2*1
09

1000

The  few  dwellings  which  consist  of  the  whole  of  a  house  are  comprised
among  those  whose  position  is  described  as  u  on  more  than  one  floor,  a  group
which  represents  less  than  1  per  cent,  of  all  dwellings.
What  are  known  as  “  cellar  ”  or  basement  tenements  {Keller-Wohnungen)
are  to  be  seen  much  more  frequently  in  Breslau  than  in  the  cities  of  West
Germany.  Their  occupants  in  very  many  cases  carry  on  the  business  of  greengrocer ­
  and  huckster  in  the  room  which  is  entered  from  the  street  and  live  in
the  back  part  of  the  premises.  Nearly  15,000  persons  were  found  to  be
living  in  3,853  basement  tenements  at  the  end  of  the  year  1900.
How  far  matters  have  improved  since  the  year  1900  in  respect  of
■overcrowding  and  the  occupation  of  tenements  cannot  be  stated  in  figures
until  the  detailed  results  of  the  latest  housing  enumeration  (December,  1905)
have  been  published.  An  investigation  was,  however,  made  in  1905  by  the
Association  of  Local  Sick  Funds  (for  the  statutory  Insurance  of  Workpeople
against  Sickness)  into  the  housing  of  members  on  the  sick  list,  and  the
conclusion  arrived  at  was  that  matters  had  not  improved.  I  he  Report  speaks
of  damp  cellar  dwellings,  dark  and  windowless  rooms,  absence  of  ventilation  and
heating  arrangements,  of  beds  shared  by  sick  and  well,  and  of  overcrowding  of
an  aggravated  kind.