306
LEIPZIG.
4s. 7d. per day, or, say, 25s. to 27s. 6<i. per week of 60 hours. The third class,
comprising the general body of unskilled labourers, are paid from 3s. Id. to
4s. 2d. per day (21s. to 25s. per week of 60 hours) according to their service,
and the fourth class, that of the lamplighters, 2s. 5d. to 2s. 10J. per week day,
with 2s. Id. to 3s. for Sundays or holidays.
The Parks and Public Gardens Department of the municipality employs
on an average 270 workpeople (including 45 women) per week all the year
round, the average number from April to September being 318, and from
October to March, 222. The hours of labour are 10 in the spring and summer
and from 9 to 9^ in the autumn and winter months. Of the 225 men
employed in this branch, 176 are unskilled labourers, amongst whom the young
and able-bodied are paid from 18s. to 21s., and the old and less capable from
14s. to 16s. per week of 60 hours. Gardeners on weekly wage are paid
23s. to 25s.
The department concerned with the maintenance and cleaning of the streets
employs from 400 to 500 men, including 280 street-sweepers working 54 hours
per week, for which they are paid 19s. 6<A on the average ; the men in charge
of gangs, of whom there are some 50, receive 2s. per week more.
Compared with the other branches of the municipal service, the waterworks
and electric lighting station employ little labour. The wages of 11 labourers
returned as employed at the former in October, 1905, were 17s. 3d per week of
57 hours, while for August, 1906, 28 labourers were returned as earning
20s. 5d. per week of 60 hours. At the electric lighting station enginemen were
paid 30s. and stokers 27s. per week of 64 hours, while fitters and installators
were paid 28s. per week of 54 hours.
The electric tramway service of Leipzig is in the hands of private
companies.
Housing and Rents.
The housing conditions of the Leipzig working classes may be described as
favourable in comparison with those of other German towns of the same size.
The chief reason for this is to be found in the fact, already alluded to, that a
very large proportion of the land lying within the town precincts is, and has for
a long time been, owned by the municipality or administered by that body on
behalf of certain city endowments. This land, of which the greater part
remains open for the benefit of the community, is distributed over the entire
urban area in such a way that dwellers in all parts of the town have ready
access to some portion of it. It would in fact be difficult to find any street in
Leipzig from which it would be necessary to walk more than a mile in order to
reach one or other of the extensive recreation grounds at the disposal of the
inhabitants. Where the municipality has sold public land for the erection of
private houses—as it is constantly doing—it has been in a position to prescribe
conditions which have ensured free access of light and air to the streets and
dwellings erected on the new sites.
The following Table shows the number of dwellings of different sizes in
Leipzig on December 1st, 1905, and the distribution of the population among
those dwellings :—
Number of Rooms in
Tenement.
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten and over
Total
Number
of
Tenements.
Population housed in
such Tenements.
Total.
1,392
3,051
20,689
44,869
22,230
10,634
5,019
2,639
1,528
2,607
114,658
1,968
8,355
71,743
195,513
102,201
50,097
25,185
13,750
8,409
17,078
494,299
Per cent.
0- 4
1- 7
145
39-5
20 7
101
5-1
2- 8
1-7
3-5
100-0
