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BERLIN.
But the hygienic disadvantages of the courtyard system are most serious,
and the chief are defective ventilation and an absence of direct sunlight. The
rooms which open upon the courtyard depend upon it for all the light and air they
receive ; and while the light is deficient the air is polluted. For the air supply of
the courtyard itself is derived from the street as a rule only through contaminated
channels—entrance halls and passages whose doors are only opened at
need—and within the courtyard no free movement of the air is possible. The
objections to the close courtyard are still greater when, as at times happens, a
portion of the back house round a courtyard is taken up by cattle and horse
stalls.
The courtyard system of building is unreservedly condemned by many
housing reformers and is probably defended by none. “ The system of courtyard
dwellings,” says Dr. R. Eberstadt, “ is both from the hygienic and social
standpoint equally injurious. The court is surrounded on four sides by walls
20 metres (65 feet) high, so that the air within is stagnant and never forms
currents ; no sufficient motion of the air is possible. During the warmer seasons
of the year this evil is increased by the close temperature and defective cooling
of the air. The extension of the courts by a few metres offers no remedy ;
a thorough renewal of the air can take place neither in the walled-in courts nor in
the adjacent dwellings. In-draught and through-draught are blocked in every
direction, and whether this immovable cube of air is a little larger or smaller
makes little difference to the faultiness of the whole arrangement.” Of
recent years an improvement has been introduced here and there in the form of
a garden or planted space instead of the ugly rectangle of plaster, in which
event the back house surrounding the court is known as a " garden house,” but
this applies only to buildings of a better type, and for the present the “ garden
house,” in Berlin at least, must be regarded as a luxury of the West-end.
Apart from these reservations as to back buildings and courtyards the
housing conditions in the newer districts would be very satisfactory were the
dwellings larger and the rents lower. Houses of the “ barrack ” type
seldom consist of less than five stories, and the art of compact building
is here exemplified as nowhere else, yet the general aspect of the dwellings,
both externally and internally, is pleasing. The structure itself is attractive, and
good workmanship has been put into it ; the staircases are light and airy, the
corridors spacious, the rooms high ; the walls have been papered or stencilled,
electric bells take the place of the old-fashioned knocker, and not infrequently
each dwelling has a small balcony before or behind. The tenants of such
dwellings have both cellars and lofts, and in some cases there is a washhouse for
common use. To the kitchen a small larder is sometimes attached ; the closet
stands in the corridor, but baths will be sought in vain. How little diffused
are even the more urgent conveniences of domestic life in Berlin may be judged
from the fact that not half of the dwellings enumerated in 1900 had separate
kitchens. Of every 1,000 dwellings only 107 at the front and 19 at the
back had larders, 77 at the front and 5 at the back had bathrooms, and 291
at the front and 150 at the back had independent closets. In the workingclass
districts baths were non-existent, and larders almost so.
The general arrangement of working-class dwellings of predominant types
and of different periods may be illustrated here by examples visited.
The first is a house in the Prenzlauerallee, in the north of the city
built in 1876. There are on each floor four dwellings, two on each side of
the landing, approached from a common corridor ; while an isolated room
is situated at the head of the stairs. Two of the tenements are of a single room
and kitchen, and two are of two rooms and a kitchen, and the odd room can be
let separately or be combined with one of the other tenements. The dimensions
of the rooms are :—Living and bedrooms 17 feet 7 inches by 13 feet 17 feet
7 inches by 7 feet 10 inches, and 20 feet 6 inches by 7 feet 10 inches • while
the kitchens measure 16 feet 3 inches by 6 feet 6 inches and 16 feet 3' inches
by 7 feet 2 inches. The height of the rooms is 10 feet 5 inches. Behind the
courtyard there are two dwellings of two rooms and a kitchen on each floor.
There are here no corridors, but the kitchen is entered direct from the landim/
