Xlll
and all attics large enough to be used as bedrooms ; and this has been done in
the tables of predominant rents given in this Report. The rents most usually
paid in each town for each kind of accommodation are set out in the separate
reports and also in Appendix II. (p. 496). From the data given in that
Appendix, which are based on rent quotations obtained in this Enquiry for over
107,000 working-class tenements, the following Table has been constructed to
show the predominant range of rents for tenements of various sizes in Germany '
as a whole, excluding Berlin ; it should be stated that the rents include the
charge for water, and in some causes small charges for chimney-sweeping and the
removal of refuse, but they do not include any element of local taxation, except,
of course, in so far as a landlord may have succeeded in shifting some part of
his burdens—e.g., that of the land tax—on to the tenant by means of an increase
in the rent charged. The tenant’s direct contributions to local taxation will be
discussed later.
Predominant Bents in Germany (excluding Berlin).
Number of Rooms
per Tenement.
Two rooms
Three rooms
Four rooms
No. of
Towns
to which
the figures
relate.
Predominant
Range of
Weekly Rents.
Number of Towns in which the Mean Rent is
Within the
limits of the
Predominant
Range.
s. d. s. d.
2 8to3 6
3 6,,4 9
4 3.,6 0
Below the
limits of the
Predominant
Range.
A hove the
limit of the
Predominant
Range.
It will be seen from this Table that the three-roomed tenement was found
to be an important type of working-class housing in every one of the towns
investigated, that two-roomed tenements were of importance in two-thirds of
the towns, and four-roomed tenements in rather less than one-half of the total
number. A comparison of the rents given in this Table with those prevalent
in Berlin for similar tenements of two or three rooms only—for working-class
dwellings of a larger size occur in Berlin only in insignificant numbers —
shows the extent to which rents in the capital exceed those charged elsewhere.
Comparison of Bents in Berlin and in other German Towns.
Berlin
Other German Towns
Predominant Range of Renta
For Two Rooms.
s. d. s. d.
5 0 to 6 0
2 8,,3 6
For Three Rooms.
d. s.
0 to 9
6 „ 4
;, while the mean rent for two rooms in Berlin is os. 6d., in the other
a whole it is only 3s. Id., and for three rooms in Berlin it is 8s. l^d.,
Thus,
towns as a
and elsewhere only 4s. 1 \d. It is noteworthy that Stuttgart is nearly as highly
rented as Berlin, the mean rents for two and three rooms in that town being
5s. 2d. and 8s. 1 \d. respectively.
It did not appear possible to use the predominant range of rents of workingclass
tenements in Berlin directly as the basis for a comparison of the rent levels
of the various towns, for rents of two-roomed and three-roomed tenements only
were obtained for that city, inasmuch as the rents of four-roomed tenements there
are beyond the means of the working-classes, whereas in several other towns fourroomed
tenements constitute an important type of working-class housing. I or
the reasons indicated in the Report on the towns of the United Kingdom (Cd.
3864 (1908) p. xiv.), a comparison based on the rents of tenements of one type
only—three-roomed in the present case—would be unsatisfactory, and accordingly
the following method was adopted. The means of the predominant rents for
each cîassTjf tenements in the whole of Germany, given in the above Table,
were taken as the base, and the ratios of the mean predominant rents in each
town to the mean predominant rents for all Germany were worked out ; the
