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BERLIN.
Quarterly tenancy is the rule in Berlin ; but many landlords let their
dwellings only by the month. Most changes of tenancy occur at the April
term, though many also at October ; custom discourages removals in January
and July.
A printed contract regulates the relationship between landlord and tenant,
and this contract has in course of time developed into a long document of
many clauses and over 2,000 words, the reading, not to say the understanding,
of which would take far more time than working people are, as a rule, disposed
to spend on legal technicalities. In general the landlord does not regard
himself responsible for internal repairs of any kind, and, if he makes them,
it is during vacancies, when otherwise tenants might be difficult to obtain.
Where landlords definitely acknowledge liability of this kind, it is understood
that new wallpaper can only be expected every eight years, the repainting of the
floor every six years, and the repainting of doors and windows every ten years.
In some cases the tenant’s rent contract provides for special payments for
chimney sweeping, for the removal of refuse, for the lighting of the stairs and
landings, for the water, and even a small item for the use of the address board
in the main entrance, but as a rule these extras are grouped in a single sum,
which is fixed at 8 per cent, of the rent. A more particular charge is that for
the keeping clean of the stairs, landings, and approaches. This duty does not
devolve on the tenant in Berlin, but is undertaken by the landlord, who as a
rule engages some woman resident on the premises to do the work with other
odd jobs in return for a payment of from 10,9. to 2,5s. a month, according to the
size of the house, and the tenants are required to contribute Qd. a month extra
towards this expenditure. The removal of house refuse is entirely a landlord’s
affair, and it is done by a company, formed by the property owners for the
purpose. The refuse is deposited in large tin receptacles in the courtyards, and
thence is fetched by the scavengers daily.
As in other towns where working-class housing is dear the rent has often
to be met with the aid of lodgers. " A bedroom to let ” is a device very
commonly met with at the entrance of a Berlin working-class house ; sometimes
half-a-dozen such notices may be seen affixed to the door or its portals. At
the beginning of 1907 there were in the whole of Berlin 34,044 rooms let to
lodgers, the latter comprising 45,090 males and 9,218 females, an average of
1'6 persons per room. It is usual to let a bed and supply coffee and rolls or
coffee alone for breakfast, and the price is 10s. to 12s. per month where two
persons share a room. As the value of coffee and two rolls is estimated at
10 pfennige or \\d. per day, and the use of utensils, cleaning, and in some cases
simple washing are also included, it is clear that no large margin remains.
It is not, however, from the standpoint of profit that the householder
and his wife view the lodger ; they are satisfied if" his presence makes it easier
to meet the landlord’s quarterly call when it comes round. How unpopular and
yet how necessary is this plan of sub-letting is testified by Herr H. Freese who
says in the report on the earnings and house rents of his workpeople already
referred to :—" In part the decrease in lodgers (in 1903 as compared with 1892)
is clearly attributable to the growing indisposition to sub-let. I have often
neard workmen, who have been many years with me, say that they would count
themselves well-off if they could only come to the stage at which they would no
longer be compelled to take lodgers.’’ Nevertheless, Herr Freese’s investigation
showed that of the families enumerated, only 17*0 per cent, were able to rent
dwellings of two rooms and a kitchen without taking lodgers.
One result of the high rents which rule in Berlin is a gradual movement
of the population into the suburbs to the South, and in a less degree to the East
and North, where as yet rents are more moderate, and this exodus applies to
the working class quite as much as to the middle class. The working classes
prefer where possible to live in the suburbs, even when they are compelled
to work in Berlin. It is this steady movement outwards that accounts, even
more than the transference of industrial establishments, for the rapid expansion
!!\nT n !v 7e ur 3 °l R p d r rf ’o J IcketS a í, low rates are issued to workpeople
both by the Greater Berlin Tramway Company which maintains an elaborate
system ot communications throughout the whole area of Greater Berlin, and the
