16 
BERLIN. 
cent, of the average daily wages of all workmenTup to 500, 12^ per cent, from 
501 to 1,000, 7^ per cent, from 1,001 to 2,000, 5 per cent, from 2,001 to 4,000, 
and 2^ per cent, from 4,000 upwards. How far the several scales of compensa 
tion correspond actuarially to the premiums payable will only be learned by 
experience. It is to be noted, however, that it rests entirely with the executive 
of each insuring society to determine the amount that should be granted in 
every individual case, and that a claim to compensation cannot be enforced 
at law. 
Housing and Rents. 
Several broad generalisations may safely be passed upon the housing 
conditions of Berlin. In the first place, Berlin is essentially a town of large 
houses. “ Barracks ” is the name given locally to the oppressive structures 
which rise to a height of five stories in every part of the town and stretch far 
behind the street front, around and alongside of narrow courtyards circumscribed 
so as to afford merely the irreducible minimum of light and air which the 
sanitary regulations require. Further, the tendency is for the working classes 
to be satisfied with diminishing accommodation. Yet, while their dwellings 
are small as to number of rooms, a certain compensation is afforded in many 
cases by the relatively large cubical contents of the living rooms proper. 
Finally, for this limited accommodation a high price has to be paid. All these 
characteristics of Berlin dwellings have a common origin in the fact that Berlin 
is distinctly a town of modern growth, the rapidity of whose expansion has 
given rise to inflated land values, which in their turn have reacted prejudicially 
both upon housing conditions and rents. 
It may be well at the outset to illustrate these several points by figures. 
First as to the size of the houses. Of every 1,000 dwelling-houses (i.e., blocks) 
enumerated in Berlin and 25 immediate suburbs, in December, 1900, 58 had but 
one story, 94 had 2 stories, 92 had 3 stories, 215 had 4 stories, 466 had 5 
stories, 71 had 6 stories, and 4 had 7 stories. In Berlin proper 539 houses per 
1,000 had 5 stories, and 99 had 6 or 7 stories. In the independent suburb of 
Schöneberg the corresponding figures were 657 and 77. 
From the ’sixties onward the disappearance of one-story houses has been 
rapid. Bei ween 1864 and 1871, just before the great boom, the decrease was 
8 per cent., while the decrease of two and three-story houses was 41, per cent. 
On the other hand, the four-story houses increased 11 per cent., and the five- 
story houses 50 per cent. With the growth of the houses in size grew, too, the 
number of the basement dwellings, at least for a time, until new byelaws came 
into force restricting them. In 1867 there were in Berlin 14,292 such dwellings, 
in 1871 there were 19,208, or one-ninth of the whole. In 1900 469,710 rented 
dwellings were classified as to position as follows :— 
Basement 
Ground floor 
Entresol (mezzanine) 
1st story 
2nd ,, ... ... 
3rd ,, ... •*- 
4 th. ,, ... ... 
5th ,, ... ... 
In different stories 
Totals 
Front Houses. 
12,941 
23,513 
7,224 
44,872 
51,948 
54,900 
45,536 
1,753 
2,988 
245,675 
Rate 
per 1,000 
Dwellings. 
27-6 
50*1 
15 3 
955 
110-6 
116-9 
96 9 
3-7 
6-4 
Back Houses. 
5230 
11,147 
36,500 
6,302 
39,203 
42,156 
44,273 
41,337 
2,179 
938 
224,035 
Rate 
per 1,000 
Dwellings. 
23 7 
77-7 
13-5 
83 5 
89 7 
94 3 
88-0 
4-6 
2-0 
Totals. 
477-0 
24,088 
60,013 
13,526 
84,075 
94,104 
99,173 
86,873 
3,932 
3,926 
469,710