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  accommodated, ­
  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  workingclass
  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  transformation ­
  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  predominant ­
  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