BERLIN. 
27 
“deliberating upon the question of dwellings for families of small means,” but 
its functions have hitherto been of a nominal character. At the present time, 
however, the town contemplates the lease of public land to a “ public utility ” 
Building Society which desires to erect blocks of working-class dwellings. A 
“ family house ” for the reception of homeless people is maintained by the 
municipality, but those using it are expected to pay 6s. or 7s. per month, when 
possible, for the quarters allotted to them. About 50 families can be accommo 
dated, and the average size of the tenements is two rooms (one small) and a 
kitchen. 
One of the most progressive suburbs of Berlin is Rixdorf, which is more 
and more becoming the special home of the lower middle and working classes, 
a preference which it enjoys almost solely by reason of the lower rents at present 
prevalent. At the census of December 1st, 1900, Rixdorf had a population of 
90,422, but at the census of 1905 the number was 153,513, showing an increase 
oí 69*8 per cent., against an increase of 8*01 per cent, in Berlin. Rixdorf is a 
town of Bohemian origin, the first inhabitants of the village (Dorf) having 
been “ Herrenhuter ” or Moravians, who enjoyed the protection of Frederick the 
Great ; and a number of old-fashioned houses of one story or one story with 
attic in the Richardstrasse perpetuate the memory of the foreign colony. For 
the rest Rixdorf is entirely modern, and while its wide streets have been well 
built, and in many cases beautified by trees, the place has a distinctly working- 
class character. Here, as in Berlin, the large block system of building prevails, 
and houses of five and six stories are the rule. Houses containing 24 dwellings 
are not uncommon, and one property consists of a front building and five 
parallel buildings behind, with courts between entered from the side ; here 
live 135 households, representing a population of about 600. One or two 
living and bedrooms with kitchen form the normal accommodation of the 
working classes. Basement dwellings are comparatively rare. Rents are still 
moderate in Rixdorf as compared with Berlin, yet they are steadily increasing 
as population moves out of the city in this direction and the more eligible 
building ground is appropriated. 
Two other suburbs of Berlin, which are very notably undergoing trans 
formation under the pressure of industrial development, are Reinickendorf and 
Tegel. A few years ago they were mere villages ; to-day they are thriving 
towns, thanks to the removal thereto of various engineering works and factories 
from Berlin and the migration in their train of a large working-class population. 
In both places modern buildings are gradually taking the place of the small 
one-story, single-family houses which formerly predominated ; but these 
buildings are not so large as in Berlin, nor is the desire to economise space so 
evident as there. Tegel has a large hinterland of forest and open country ; 
but the commune of Reinickendorf, though it still possesses wide expanses 
of field and wood, will far more speedily be built in, and even now there are 
signs on every hand that the clutch of a great city is upon it. 
A large number of the resident workpeople are employed in Berlin and use 
the tramway at a cost of 7^6?. per week for six journeys each way. The 
authorities of both places are doing their best to ensure that expansion shall 
follow healthy lines as far as possible, and an effort is being made to check 
speculation by the recent introduction of a municipal tax on unearned 
increment. 
In a city so large as Berlin, where the population is so widely diffused, the 
rents habitual to each class of society must necessarily show a considerable 
range. Locality, character of street, style of building, and position of flat are 
all factors which make for diversity in the cost of housing, even for an equal 
number of rooms. In determining, for the purpose of this report, the predom 
inant size of dwelling used by the working classes and the predominant rents 
paid, about 10,0U0 small dwellings in essentially working-class districts of Berlin 
and the suburbs have been classified as to cost and number of rooms. The 
dwellings chosen as typical in accommodation were dwellings of two rooms 
and three rooms, the two rooms consisting of a heatable living and bedroom 
and a kitchen, and the three rooms consisting of two heatable rooms with a 
kitchen. The streets from which the Berlin dwellings were taken lie in the 
North and East. 
29088 
D 2