282
KÖNIGSBERG.
front or at the back. Two of the tenements are in the front of the building,
and the third is at the back, all three consisting of a combined living and
bedroom and a kitchen. The dimensions of the rooms forming the two front
tenements are :—
Living and bedroom ... ... 15 feet by 13\ feet.
Kitchen ... ... ... ... 15 feet by 8 feet.
The first of these tenements is entered by either of two doors leading from the
corridor, one into each room. The second is entered by a door leading from the
corridor into the kitchen. The third tenement —the one at the back—is also
entered by a door leading from the corridor into the kitchen. The dimensions
of its rooms are
Living and bedroom ... ... 14^ feet by 13^ feet.
Kitchen ... ... ... ... 11| feet by 9 feet.
Every tenement has the exclusive use of one of a row of water-closets situated
in the corridor. In addition there is the usual cellar space and drying-loft
accommodation.
Among the three-roomed dwellings two kinds may be distinguished.
The first and most common kind consists of a room with a stove (the " best
room”), a stoveless bedroom, and a kitchen. The second type differs from the
first only in having a stove in the bedroom as well as in the " best room ” and
the kitchen. Among the 4,619 three-roomed buildings of which the rents were
ascertained 2,761 belonged to the first, and 1,858 to the second category. Of
the former, or more common, kind 1,277 or 46 per cent, were let at yearly
rents of from £ll to £13, which, expressed in weekly rents, would correspond
to a range of 4s. 3d. to 5s. 0d. The nature of the accommodation provided at
a rent falling within these limits will be seen from a consideration of the
arrangement and dimensions of the rooms on the first floor of one of a large
number of similar houses in the Grosse Sandgasse in the H aberberg quarter of
Königsberg.
The ten rooms on this floor constitute four tenements, viz., two of two
rooms each looking into a yard at the back, and two of three rooms each
looking into the street in front. Here we are concerned with the latter only.
Each of these contains a small vestibule, measuring 6J feet by 4J feet, the two
vestibules being situated one on each side of the landing. Having been
admitted by the tenant into the vestibule, the visitor is faced by a door leading
into the kitchen, while a second door at his side leads into the living room,
which communicates with the bedroom. The kitchen is not large, and its
possibilities in point of space have been sacrificed for the sake of the vestibule,
which is regarded as giving an air of refinement to the flat. The dimensions
of the rooms forming one of the tenements are somewhat smaller than those of
the rooms forming the other. The following are the dimensions of the rooms
of the larger tenement. The kitchen measures 13 feet by 6J feet, and the
living room, which is large, 17J feet by 12J feet, while the bedroom occupies a
space roughly corresponding to that of the kitchen and vestibule combined,
but somewhat wider at one end than at the other.
All three rooms have a height of 9 feet 4 inches, and are well lighied by
windows looking into the street, the living room having two windows, and
the kitchen and bedroom each one. Thus ample opportunities for ventilation
are provided, but in Königsberg, as in other parts of Germany, these opportunities
appear not to be greatly appreciated if one may judge by the small use
that is made of them. On the landing are four water-closets (with flushing
tanks), one for the separate use of each tenement. In addition there is the
usual provision of cellarage, and of facilities for the drying of laundry in the
loft. The rent of this tenement is 255 marks per annum, or 4s. 1 Id. per week.
Coming to what may be called the superior type of three-roomed tenement
—that which consists of two heatable rooms and a kitchen—one naturally
finds a somewhat higher range of rents. Thus of the 1,858 tenements of this
kind for which the rents were ascertained, 1,048, or 56 per cent., were let at
£12 to £15 15s. per annum (4s. Id. to 5s. 10d. per week). In point of
structure and size of rooms a tenement of this kind differs little, if at all, froiq
