DÜSSELDORF.
213
a close courtyard. Some of these old houses are built in blocks round double
courtyards, the first courtyard leading into the second by a passage which
serves both as entrance and exit. The first courtyard may be 18 feet by 16 feet,
the second only 16 feet by 12 feet. Houses of this kind have little or no attractions
save the sentimental one of age and association, yet it is a fact that tenants
who might well afford newer and airier dwellings on the outskirts persist in living
in the close purlieus of the Alte Stadt for no other reason than that they were
born in the centre of Düsseldorf and are persuaded that nowhere else would a
house be home for them. Fortunately the Old Town quarter is gradually
becoming less congested. The decrease in its population shown by the census of
1905, as compared with that of 1900, was 1135 per cent.
The appended table of rents, based on an enumeration of 752 tenements
made for the purposes of this report, shows that for two rooms the most usual
rent is 4& to 5s. and for three rooms 5s. to 7s. per week. A single room maybe
had for 2s. 4d. per week. It is to be noted, however, that in these rents no
element of rates is included, since in Prussia the principal basis of local taxation
is income. On the other hand the owner pays the water-rent and the municipal
charges in respect of chimney sweeping and the removal of household refuse.
Number of Rooms per Tenement.
Two rooms...
Three rooms
Predominant Weekly Rent.
4s. to OS.
5s. 4d. to 7s.
It will be noticed that these rents are much higher than in most other towns
in Germany. Rent at Düsseldorf is higher than at any of the 33 towns
included in the present enquiry with the exception of Berlin and Stuttgart.
Representing the level of rent at Berlin by 100, the corresponding figure for
Düsseldorf is 79, as compared with 97 for Stuttgart, and 68 for Dortmund, the
next most highly rented town.
It may here be noted that the police regulations regarding dwellings prescribe
that bedrooms must provide at least 343 cubic feet of air space for every
person above the age of 10 years belonging to the household, and for every child
under 10 years at least 172 cubic feet, infants under one year being disregarded.
The bedrooms must also be so arranged that unmarried people above 14 years
of different sex may occupy separate apartments or divisions of the same, and a
separate room or division be provided for every married couple and their
children under 14 years. All bedrooms must have a lockable door and at least
one window looking outside, opening, and equal in size to one-twelfth of the
floor surface. Attic rooms are only permissible as bedrooms when their Avails
are either plastered or faced with wood.
A careful system of house inspection is carried on by the municipal
authority. The practical work lies in the hands of trained officials, who are
armed with ample authority, and the building and sanitary regulations aie
enforced with as much stringency as is compatible Avith the existence of
inherited difficulties which need patient treatment. .
It has been stated that the majority of working-class households in Düsseldorf
lÍA r e in tenements of two and three rooms, one of these being the kitchen, and
the fact may be noted that of 10,434 dwellings of all kinds erected in the town
during the years 1902-5 no fewer than 53 per cent, were of these two sizes :—
Year.
1902 ...
1903 ...
1904 ...
1905 ...
Total, 1902-5
Percentages
Number of Rooms.
38
26
30
28
122
12
336
537
590
734
2,197
211
488
794
997
1,062
3,341
394
669
651
618
32 0
2,332
22 3
320
338
260
271
1,189
11-4
130
134
115
109
8 and over
86
86
98
57
106
93
110
129
488 i 327
438
47 31
4-2
Total
Number of
Dwellings.
1,898
2,677
2,851
3,008
10,434
100-0
