Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/630

 THE FIRST GERMAN MUNICIPAL EXPOSITION.

(DRESDEN, 1903.)

II.

The housing question (continued}. Dwellings erected by the municipality for people of small means not city employees are found in several cities. From the erection by the munici- pality of dwelling-houses for its own employees an activity sanctioned on economic, as well as social, grounds by many a private employer to the erection of dwelling-houses for the sanitary, social, and moral betterment of the conditions of its members, is not such a far cry. Gottingen, besides having voluntary citizen inspectors of poorer dwellings, has expended 41,000 marks in the erection of fourteen dwelling-houses, con- taining apartments which rent at 125-150 marks per annum. Stuttgart has erected dwelling-houses for workingmen at a cost of 450,000 marks, exclusive of the building lots. Frankfurt, Miinchen, and Wiesbaden have erected similar municipal dwelling-houses. Ulm 1 is the only German city with the exception of the Bavarian town of Lambrecht (3,600 inhabitants), which, to a certain extent has followed the example of Ulm which for a number of years has carried on the building of dwellings to sell to workingmen. The right of transfer of the property is limited by the municipality in order to exclude speculation. Ulm has worked out her solution of the housing problem only after long experience, and the results she has obtained are well worth study. The municipality undertook this activity, not because there was a crying need of dwellings, but in order to furnish to citizens of small means improved condi- tions and decreased prices.

In 1888 Ulm began by building a dwelling-house for city employees. This three-story tenement housed twenty-one fami-

1 OBERBURGERMEISTER WAGNER, Die Tatigkeit der Stadt Ulm auf dem Gebiete der Wohnungsfiirsorge fur Arbeiter und Bedienstete. Hduser zum Eigenerwerb, 1903.

612