CHEMNITZ.
143
The following Table shows the distribution of the population on December 1st,
1905, according to the number of rooms which constituted the dwelling :—
Number of Rooms.
Number of
Dwellings.
Number of Persons housed in such
dwellings.
Total.
Per cent, of
Population.
One room
Two rooms
Three „
Four
Five
and over
Total
3,024
23,472
17,281
8,849
8,671
61,297
4,224
83,123
71,349
38,291
42,160
17
34 8
29 9
160
17 6
239,147
1000
From the above it would appear that 66‘4 per cent, of the population are
housed in dwellings of three rooms or less. The actual situation is, however,
somewhat more favourable than this. A noteworthy and special feature in the
housing conditions of Chemnitz is that every tenement is required to include, as
part of its accommodation, a garret-room capable of being used as a bedroom,
and on the occasion of the housing census which yielded the returns on which
the above Table is based, it was found that 12,426 such rooms were being used
as bedrooms. Notwithstanding this, it is the custom in Chemnitz, when
speaking of the number of rooms of which a tenement consists, to ignore the
garret as a thing which is taken for granted. This custom has been followed
by the compilers of the table, with the result that what are there described as
tenements of two, three, and four rooms really represent tenements of three, four,
and live rooms respectively. The salient facts in the distribution of the
population of Chemnitz according to the size of the dwelling are therefore more
correctly stated by saying that 66'4 per cent, of the population are housed in
tenements of lour rooms or less, and that among these the greater proportion
are housed in three-roomed tenements.
Statistics of the rents and accommodation of every occupied tenement in
certain typical streets in a number of the principal working-class districts have
been furnished for the purposes of this enquiry by the Director of the Municipal
Statistical Office of Chemnitz, the total number of tenements covered being
3,954. Of these 866 had to be eliminated, either because they were untenanted,
or were combined with business premises, or because they were obviously not
working-class dwellings. The remaining 3,088 dwellings, occupied exclusively
by working-class families, consisted wholly of three-roomed and four-roomed
tenements—2,433 of the former and only 655 of the latter. From this it
appears safe to conclude that the great bulk of the working classes of Chemnitz
are housed in dwellings consisting of three rooms. And this, it may be added,
is also the minimum house-room permissible for a family undei the latest
municipal housing regulations (issued in 1906). As a rule the typical
working-class tenement of three rooms consists of two rooms below and
one room in the attics ; the exception being where all three rooms aie in the
attics. In addition each tenant has a railed-off portion of the cellar space allotted
to him, and has a right to the use of the loft (situated above the attics) for the
drying of washing on certain days. For laundry washing each tenement house
bas a washhouse, usually situated in die yard, but sometimes in the cellar space.
The rent charged for the accommodation just described \aries within wide
limits Of the 2,433 working-class tenements of three rooms for which rents
have been ascertained, 16 were let at as low a figure as &4 10s. or less per
annum (Is. 9d. or less per week), while 59 were fetching A9 _s. or more, «.e.,
3s. 6d. or more per week. The range within which the majority ol threeroomed
tenements fell ivas from &6 to &8 8s. per annum, or expressed in
weekly rents, from 2s. 4d. to 3s. 3d. Neither the very best nor the very worst
tenements fall within this range. The nature of the accommodation obtainable
at rents falling well within the two limits named may tie inferred from the
following examples of three-roomed tenements.
