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CHEMNITZ.
In the Building Trades the conditions of labour are regulated by agreement
in the case of the joiners and painters only. In the case of the joiners, however,
it would seem that the conditions were not being rigidly observed. The agreement
in force in October, 1905, provided a 58 hour week with minimum hourly
rates of 4\8<f. for Bauanschläger (who fix doors, windows, &c., in buildings),
and 4'4c/. for Bautischler (who do the rougher kinds of work). Returns
obtained from leading employers in the building, trade, however, showed that
joiners were often paid at higher rates and worked longer hours than those
just mentioned, Thus, in the opinion of the President of the Builders’ Guild
(an association of master builders), the predominant rate of wages were 5*04d.
per hour and the most usual duration of the working week 64 hours, which
would represent a weekly rate of 26s. lid.
The remaining branches of the building trade call for no special comment
except that women are employed as labourers at such work as mortar carrying.
In the Printing and Allied Trades the wages and hours are regulated
by the agreement which applies to the whole of Germany, and follows the plan
of fixing minimum rates with an additional and variable percentage of these
rates in a scheduled list of towns. Under this agreement the time (as distinct
from piece) wages of compositors, machine-minders, and pressmen in Chemnitz
are those shown in the Table. They are minimum rates, and in the case of
hand-compositors on piece-work are often exceeded. In the case of machinecompositors,
however, the minimum rates are also those actually earned in the
time given ; since these men may not, under the terms of the agreement, be
employed on piece-work.
In the Brewing Trade conditions of labour are regulated by an agreement
concluded between the 10 large brewing concerns of Chemnhz on the one hand
and the men’s trade unions on the other. The hours of labour are fixed uniformly
at 10 per day, or 60 per week, for the trained brewers, the coopers and the labourers,
and at 12 per day, or 7 2 per week, for the enginemen and stokers. The rates of
wages vary with the size of the breweries, which are divided into three classes,
according to the quantity of malt used per annum. “ Small ” breweries are those
using less than 5,000 centners (or 4,911 cwt.) of malt in the year ; “medium”
breweries, those using 5,000 (or 4,911 cwt.) but less than 15,000 centners (or
14,7o2cwt.) ; and “ large” breweries those using 15,000 centners (or 14,732cwt.)
and upwards. Again, in any given brewery, the wages are graduated according
to length of service, and are the same for skilled brewers and coopers.
Housing and Rents.
Although factories are to be found in almost every direction in Chemnitz,,
there is a tendency for the working-classes to confine themselves to certain
quarters of the town, and more especially to the Northern and Eastern suburbs.
The most typical working-class districts are Schlosschemnitz and the Schillerplatzviertel
on the North, Sonnenberg on the East, and the Siidost vier tel on the
South-east of the older and central part of Chemnitz. The distance from the
outermost parts of any of these districts to the very heart of the city is not
much more than a mile, and can be covered in less than 10 minutes, at a cost of
a penny, by using one of the electric tramways. In all these districts the
general impression produced by the streets is one of monotonous regularity a
long perspective of somewhat dull-coloured, massive-looking, four-storeyed
houses. The streets intersect one another at intervals of 120 to 150 yards, so
that the unbroken line of houses, extending from one cross street to the next,
represents one side of a rectangular plot bounded by a similar row of houses on
each of its other sides and enclosing about an acre and a half of land. The
greater part of the space so enclosed is devoid of any building calculated to
prevent free access of light and air to the back rooms of the enclosing rows of
houses. Occasionally, it is true, one may find here some small factory, the
chimney of which is not visible from the street ; or room may have been found
for a further block of tenements constituting what is called a Hinterhaus or a
Seitenhaus, according as its façade is parallel with, or at right angles to, the
street which gives access to it. But such buildings are exceptional, and on the
whole, Chemnitz must be said to compare not unfavourably in this respect with
many other German cities.
