BERLIN. 
17 
As to the size of dwellings, while the average number of living rooms was 
2*15 in 1890, it was 2'11 in 1895, and 2*07 in 1900, though including kitchens 
the corresponding figures were 3’05, 3*02 and 2*99. 
At the same time the number of persons per dwelling has gradually 
decreased since 1875, a circumstance to which, however, only a partial economic 
significance can be attached, for the birth-rate and the average size of families 
have also decreased in the meantime. While the average number of persons per 
dwelling was 4 40 in 1875 and 4*18 in 1890, it was 3'89 in 1900 and 3*77 in 1905. 
The number of persons per heatable room has decreased in a less degree, the 
average in 1890 being 1 *95, and in 1895 and 1900 1*88, or, reckoning kitchens, 
1'37 in 1890, 1-31 in 1895, and T30 in 1900. 
Classifying the small rented dwellings of Berlin, according to the division 
recognised by the municipal authorities, it is found that of an aggregate of 
470,977 dwellings in December, 1900, 356,781 fell into the following 
categories :— 
Dwellings consisting of 
Only kitchen 
One unbeatable room without kitchen 
One unbeatable room with kitchen 
Two unbeatable rooms without kitchen 
Two unbeatable rooms with kitchen 
One heatable room without kitchen 
One heatable room with kitchen ... 
One heatable and one unbeatable room without kitchen 
One heatable and one unbeatable room with kitchen ... 
Two heatable rooms without kitchen 
Two heatable rooms with kitchen 
Two heatable and one unbeatable room, without kitchen 
One heatable and two unbeatable rooms without kitchen 
Three unbeatable rooms without kitchen 
Three heatable rooms without kitchen ... 
Total of above types 
Other types 
Grand Total 
Number 
of 
Dwellings. 
4,086 
658 
1,392 
27 
272 
32,812 
170,182 
1,417 
24,267 
2,320 
118,562 
330 
84 
6 
366 
356,781 
114,196 
470,977 
Percentage of 
Total 
Dwellings. 
09 
0T 
03 
00 
00 
7-0 
36-1 
0-3 
5-2 
0-5 
252 
04 
o-o 
o-o 
0-1 
75-8 
24-2 
1000 
A few words of explanation seem necessary here as to the description of 
rooms as " heatable ” and " unbeatable," since it underlies the entire system of 
house enumeration in Berlin and many other German towns. When it is stated 
that the mode of heating is by stoves, whose flues pass into central chimneys 
which serve all the stories of a house, the terms “ heatable ” and “ unbeatable ” 
appear to explain themselves. As used for statistical purposes, however, they 
are very vague, and in the opinion of many German authorities artificial and 
misleading. The traditional and normal accommodation of working-class 
dwellings, and, indeed, of small dwellings generally, used to be " Stube, 
Kammer, Küche,” or " Living-room, bedroom, and kitchen,” the living-room 
having a stove and the bedroom being without. When rents were lower than 
now the “ Stube ” was used as a dayroom only, and corresponded to the down 
stairs living-room in an English working-man’s cottage. For a long time, how 
ever, the " Stube ” has had to serve as a bedroom as well, since a dwelling of 
two rooms, a kitchen and a room for all other purposes, has become the 
predominant working-class type in Berlin. The ‘‘Kammer ” in the old sense 
is gradually disappearing, though where it exists it is used as a second bedroom, 
even if without a window. In the light ot this traditional division of a 
dwelling, it is easy to see how the living-room or " Stube ” came to be regarded 
as the unit of accommodation and the anteroom or " Kammer ” was viewed as 
subsidiary. Hence it comes to pass that dwellings described as consisting of 
one or more " rooms ” and a kitchen may have these anterooms as well, and in 
better houses the anterooms are at times spacious, though they suffer from the 
defect that they cannot be heated, and sometimes are dark as well. 
29088 
c