Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/466

 448 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

dwellings, "breathing places," etc. The new annexations form models for the rebuilding of the old city, and also offer a sug- gestion for the relief of the congestion in the dwellings of the city center. The site of the old city walls becomes a park or a Ringstrasse, as the case may be, and diagonal or radial streets are often cut through. Countless old buildings in Coin have been replaced; Halle has razed a part of its second-hand-goods men's quarter ; and Hamburg has razed its dock laborer's district and laid it all out anew in good streets and building lots. These give merely an example of a type of activity found throughout Germany.

The housing question. A reference to some of the tables exhib- ited by various municipal bureaus of statistics (in another sec- tion) will help to show the skeptical ones that there is a housing question.

1. Undesirable conditions. A great many dwellings are located in cellars in Berlin, Hamburg, Altona, Posen, and Kiel. In spite of the absence of elevators, speaking-tubes, and such accommodations as make life in tall buildings possible, the tables show that numbers of fifth- 1 and sixth-story dwellings are to be found in Berlin, Breslau, Dresden, Schoneberg, and Rixdorf. On the other hand, very good conditions are found in Liibeck, where very few homes are higher than the third story, and where a rather large number of houses are occupied by single families a condition quite exceptional in Germany. Again, in Barmen 2 6.59 per cent, of the dwellings have no room which may be heated; whereas in Frankfurt a. M., Offenbach, and Wandsbeck, the percentage of such dwellings is negligible. In Chemnitz and Plauen we find the smallest number of heatable rooms to the dwelling; and in these same two cities there is a lack of kitchens, as less than half the homes have them !

2. Overcrowding. One-room dwellings with six persons are found in greatest numbers in Posen, Breslau, Altona, Magde- burg, Chemnitz, Berlin, etc., in this order. Six or more persons are found in great numbers of dwellings consisting of one room

1 Used as generally in America z. <?., first floor is ground floor. 2 The figures quoted here refer to the census of December I, 1900.