144 CHEMNITZ
Example I.—The tenements visited were on the first, second and third floors
of a house of modern construction in the Freigutstrasse, in the Schlosschemnitz
quarter, one of the northern suburbs of Chemnitz. On each floor were four
tenements, two consisting of two rooms each at the back and two consisting of
three rooms each in the front of the house. Each tenement had in addition,
a bedroom in the attics. The landing at the top of the stone or concrete
stairs gave access to all four tenements through one or other of four closed
doors, of which there were two in front and one on either side of the visitor
arrived on the landing. Either of the side doors gave access to a large livingroom
and kitchen combined measuring 17 ft. by 13 ft. and well lighted by two
windows looking into the acre and a half or so of land enclosed by four streets,
of which the Freigutstrasse was one. This larger room admitted to an inner
room of the same length as the living-room, hut only 7 ft. 8 in. wide, and with
a single window looking into the same open space. This room was without
a stove and was the main family sleeping-room, usually containing two beds,
placed, not side by side (for the room was too narrow), but with the head of
the one touching the foot of the other. Both rooms had the regulation height
of 9 ft. 6 ins. The third room of each of these tenements was in the attics, and
was used as a bedroom, either for the children who had grown too old to occupy
the same room as the parents, or for lodgers. It was small—some 6 ft. 6 ins.
by 8 ft. 6 ins.—and, according to the housing regulations, had a height of not
less than 8 ft. 10 ins. The water supply was in the living-room. On each
floor, and situated on the landing at the back of the house, were two closets
(one for every two families), without flushing tanks and drained into cesspools.
The rent of these tenements was 156 marks per annum, or exactly
35. per week.
Example II.—These were tenements on the first, second, and third floors
of a house in the Sonnenstrasse, a typical working-class street in the Sonnenberg
quarter, to the east of the central part of the city. Each floor contained eight
rooms, occupied by four families. The rents of all four tenements were the
same—viz., 150 marks per annum, or 2s. 10¡ ¿ d. per week. Each consisted of a
good-sized double-windowed living-room (which also served as kitchen)
measuring some 16 ft by 13 ft., an adjoining single-windowed bedroom, which
was long and narrow, and the usual room in the attics. The height of the
rooms was about 11 ft. The attic rooms were, however, very small—not more
than about 6 ft. by 5 ft.—and therefore capable of holding little furniture
beyond a somewhat short bed.
For tenements of four rooms, as for those of three rooms, the rents vary
within wide limits. Among the 655 four-roomed working-class tenements of
which the rents were ascertained in the course of the investigation, the worst
fetched £10 5s., and the best £17 per annum. The bulk, however, fell within
the narrower range of £10 10s. to £12 per annum, or 4s. to 4s. 7d. per week.
In a number of four-roomed tenements visited by the writer, and of which
the rents (£11 14s. per annum, or 4s. 6d. per week) were within the
predominant range just stated, the accommodation was as follows.
Having entered by one of the doors facing him when he had arrived on
one of the upper landings, the visitor found himself in a little vestibule of
about 4J ft. by 5 ft. In front of him was the kitchen, long and narrow,
measuring, roughly, 13 ft. by 5 ft. The remaining two rooms could be entered
either from the kitchen or from the vestibule. One was the Gute Stube or
“ parlour,” used on ceremonial occasions, and beyond was the bedroom. All
rooms were well lighted, the " parlour ” by two windows and the bedroom and
kitchen each by one looking into the street. The “parlour” measured about
17 ft. by 13 ft., and the bedroom 17 ft. by 8 ft. All rooms were 9¿ ft. high.
The fourth room was in the attics and corresponded to that mentioned in the
description of the three-roomed tenements. What was there said as to the
cellar compartment, the use of the wash-house and the drying-loft, as well as
the closet accommodation, also applies here.
Stone or concrete staircases are universal in the tenement houses in
Chemnitz, and have been obligatory under the housing regulations since 1885.
The cesspool system is also universal, and, so far as working-class tenements
are concerned, the entire absence of flushing tanks in the closets is an unpleasant
