170
DANTZIG.
At that time the inhabited dwellings of Dantzig numbered 29,759, and they
were found to include-—
984 dwellings of 1 room without kitchen = 3*3 per cent.
13,118 „ „ 1 „ and „ = 44*0 „ „
290 ,, ,, 2 rooms without ,, = 1*0 ,, „
8,910 ,, ,, ,, ,, and ,, = 29'9 ,, ,,
making 14,102 dwellings, or 47*3 per cent of the whole consisting of one room
with or without a kitchen and 9,200, or 30'9 per cent, consisting of two rooms
with or without a kitchen, while only 21'7 per cent, of the dwellings were of
larger size. It was also found that 19,886 persons or about 14 per cent, of the
entire population were housed in dwellings regarded by the Local Authority as
“ overcrowded.”
That matters have improved somewhat since the year 1900 is generally
admitted, but the extent of the improvement cannot be measured until the
results of the housing Census of December, 1905, have been published. A
prominent member of the Town Council, Commerzienrat John Gibsone
(a Dantziger of Scots extraction), who has taken a leading part in the efforts to
improve the housing of the working classes in Dantzig, estimated in 1904 that
if dwellings consisting of a single room with or without a kitchen were no
longer to be allowed to house more than five persons, it would be necessary to
provide at least 1,150 rooms for the accommodation of 5,746 individuals then
living in overcrowded dwellings.
In this respect the worst conditions are to be found in the oldest and most
central part of the town, where the majority of the houses, dating from three
centuries ago, were originally built for and inhabited by well-to-do merchants
and other citizens. These houses are as a rule high gabled and narrow-fronted,
with seldom more than three windows (and sometimes only one window), on
each floor in front. What the house lacks in frontage is generally made up for
in the depth of the site, the whole of which, with the exception of a narrow
yard, which serves as an air shaft, is built upon. In such houses all the back
rooms are badly lighted and ventilated, and it is of these rooms that the present
working-class tenements are as a rule made up. The staircases are in many
cases spiral, and so dark that a rope has to be held during ascent and descent.
In a great many cases the plot contains a back house as well as a front house,
the two being separated by a court, to which access is obtained from the street
by descending some steps into a tunnel which passes beneath the ground floor
of the front house, and re-ascending on the other side. The back house is as a
rule of the hal f- ti m her work description of architecture, and less lofty than the
front houses (similar subterranean court entrances are to be found in the older
parts of Hamburg, e.g., in the Steinstrasse). This half-timberwork style of
architecture is indeed very prevalent in many parts of Dantzig, especially in the
neighbourhood of the fortifications, where, under the fortress regulations, all
buildings, in as far as they are allowed to be erected at all, must be of such a
nature that they can be quickly and easily demolished in the event of a siege.
It may be doubted whether the fact that very many working-class
families in Dantzig continue to live in the old City tenements is due to
lack of better dwellings. That many who still live in the old houses, do
so from choice, is quite certain. In several very defective tenements visited
in the Old Town the occupiers, when questioned as to why they did not
move into some of the modern, airy dwellings which were to be had for
about the same, or at a lower, rent within a mile of the town, replied that
it suited their convenience better to remain where they were. Some had
actually tried the new tenements, and had been glad to get back to the old
ones. One of the principal arguments adduced in favour of the old houses was
that they were warmer, which meant a saving of fuel. The newer houses which
have been built within a convenient distance of the town, are of flimsy
construction—again the effect of the fortress regulations—and are exposed to the
wind, whereas the old City houses, besides being more solidly built, are sheltered.
Doth considerations are very important in a climate so severe in the winter as
that of Dantzig. In one case the occupier—a trade union official—gave as his
reason for not living in the suburbs that the danger of being " knifed ” on the
way home at night would be a constant source of anxiety to his wife. In this
connection it may be mentioned that cases of “knifing” (“ Messerstecherei ”)
