BERLIN.
28
and all three apartments are in communication. The large rooms are 14 feet
8 inches by 10 feet 1 inch, the smaller 14 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 6 inches, and
the kitchens 14 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 2 inches.
The second house to be referred to lies in the Saarbriickerstrasse, built in
1882. It is a more elaborate structure, and upon each floor are six dwellings,
three consisting of one room and a kitchen, and three of two rooms and a kitchen.
The house is a double one, with two entrances, and all dwellings have separate
corridors save one, which is entered direct from the landing. In three
dwellings the rooms are communicable. The dimensions of the larger rooms
are 18 feet 10 inches by 13 feet 8 inches, and 13 feet by 12 feet 4 inches ; of
the smaller rooms 18 feet 10 inches by 8 feet 2 inches, 8 feet 10 inches by
7 feet 6 inches, 13 feet by 7 feet 10 inches, and 13 feet by 6 feet 10 inches ;
and of the kitchens 14 feet 4 inches by 8 feet 2 inches, 14 feet 4 inches by
7 feet 10 inches, and 14 feet 4 inches by 7 feet 6 inches. The height of the
rooms is 8 feet 2 inches.
The third house is a typical working-class house in the Strelitzerstrasse,
built in 1903, and so embodying the newer ideas of convenience. From the
landing access is afforded to three corridors, each leading to one dwelling only.
Two of the dwellings on each floor consist of two rooms and a kitchen, and the
other of one room and a kitchen ; and all alike have small larders off the kitchen
and w.c.’s on the corridor. The depth of the larger living rooms is 17 feet
11 inches, the width 13 feet, while two other rooms are 13 feet by 12 feet, and
17 feet 11 inches by 5 feet 2 inches ; all the kitchens measure 13 feet by 7 feet
10 inches.
A majority of the wage-earners of Berlin inhabit dwellings consisting of
only a living and bedroom (combined) and a kitchen, while a great many have
to be contented with a single room. Of 8,773 Berlin working-class dwellings
whose rents were classified for the purpose of this report, 58 per cent, consisted
of a room and kitchen, and 40 per cent, of two rooms and a kitchen.
A portion of the loft or a portion of the cellar for storage purposes often goes
with each dwelling, and the tenants of better houses may have both these
appurtenances. Speaking generally, it is in the back buildings, and not in
the dwellings that look on the street, that the working classes are found. The
only exception is in districts which are almost exclusively populated by the
workers.
While the working-class dwelling is thus small as to number of rooms, it
is necessary to point out that the Berlin living-room, on the whole, is a room of
relatively large superficial area, at least in the houses of modern erection. In
a two-window room a depth of from 14 feet 6 inches to 17 feet, with a breadth
of 14 feet to 15 feet, is common, while one-window rooms in the same house, with
an equal depth, may be from 9 feet toll feet 6 inches broad. The largest room
and the darkest in the dwelling, where it occurs, is that known as the “ Berlin
room.” This room is a local feature and is found alike in houses of the middle
and the working-class, though predominantly in the former. It is an incident and
almost a necessity of the courtyard system of building already referred to. As
the back rooms of the house are built around a rectangular space from which
the rooms derive their air and light, each of the extreme corners must either be
utilised as a dark closet or it must be thrown into the adjacent room looking on
to the courtyard. The latter alternative has been adopted by Berlin architects,
with the result that at each corner of the courtyard is a deep room lighted by a
single window which is generally in line with the wall, though occasionally it is
built transversely so as to receive more light. This is the “ Berlin room,” and
in middle-class households it is invariably used as the dining-room. The only
part of the room which is sufficiently lighted is the immediate neighbourhood
of the corner window ; the other end of the room is wrapped in perpetual
gloom.
Nevertheless, large as are many of the rooms in which the working classes
live, their size is no adequate compensation for their fewness, for there is little
or no advantage in having large and lofty rooms unless they can be ventilated,
and the effect of living in dwellings of a single room and a kitchen is that
proper ventilation is not possible ; the same rooms are used day and night, and
the air that is polluted during sleep cannot be renewed as in the case of dwellings
