Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-06-17
The POOR OF BERLIN.
FRlGHTFUl CROWOING AMONG THE
GERMAN WORKING PEOPLE.


Distressing State of Things Beneath Q
Surface of Seeming Prosperity-Dwen-
ings of the Poor of Berlin-Troubles Of
Tenants and Landlords.
Since the bitter cry of outcast London
made SO much stir in 1883 1854 and "slum-
ming" became IA pastime of the gilded
youth of the West End. the idea has been
pretty generally accepted that the horrors
of London were unequaled in the civilized
world Yet DR. Miguel Oberburger-
meister. of Frankfort on the Main, asserts
land quotes authorities enough amply to
proveD that the housing OF the poor is
worse in Germany than in England and
adds: such holes As the 50 called clappers
of Berlin and its night lodgings are scarcely
TO De found in England to day, and 1t Is in
perfect harmony with this that we find in
London lower average of house rents
and a death rate of - per 1859, whereas
the death rate in Berlin is ~ per 1900"
Fancy 80 patients i'll with spotted fever
in one house, Yet such case actually
occurred in Berlin in No 81 Miller strasse
six years before my Sangulne guide
pointed out the advantages of the Berlin
poor in the dwelling question.
Moreover, in 1851, when the first sySte-
matte survey Of the housing of the poor in
Berlin was scientifically carried out, there
lived 290,OO0 human beings in dwellings
with hut one room each that could be
heated, and besides these there were 5000
others in dwellings with no opportunity
for heating whatsoever. In the nineteen
years that have interviewed the population
of Berlin has increased enormously and It
is probably safe 20 assume that to-day
these numbers are too small rather than
too large, while in 1875 1912 per cent of the
whole population lived in dwellings below
ground. in cellars,
STRIKING CONTRASTS OF LIFE.
In proportion TO the crying nature OF
these evils is the activity with which the
dwelling question has been studied for
nearly a generation. Since the year 1861
there have been minute registries of dwell
ings and their relation to population every
time the census has been taken, and the
results have. been deliberately worked up
by Neumann, Schwab and BOckh down to
1880. Moreover, this example has been fol
lowed by other cities and Hamburg, Dres-
den, Leipsic. Breslau, Konigsberg have all
followed Berlin in the publication of elab-
crate statistics of dwellings in relation to
population.
In Frankfort ont the Main the contrasts
of life present themselves to the American
traveller almost as strikingly as in London.
The superb beauty of the Opera, standing
alone in its splendor, the long avenue Of
villas where every third one seems To he
the home of a member of the ROthschild
family, the splendid shops As tasteful rs in
Paris all tell the traveller the story of this
nest of millionaires. Yet in this same city
the number of families living upon the
fourth and still higher floors almost
doubled from 1875 to 1880, rising in five
years from 649 to 1901, and this especial
deterioration in the dwelling arrangements
of the poor is said TO be but one of many
forms of deterioration which are manifest
ing themselves in the present architectu-
raj development of Frankfort on -the.Main
Thus 23.7 per cent. of all the dwellings in
Frankfort have either one room which can
be heated or none at all, and more than
5000 have no kitchen.
LANDLORDS AND TENANTS TROUBLES.
Oddly enough, the poorest and most un-
wholesome quarter of Frankfort, the
butchers quarter and the now isolated
JudengaSSe, Were formerly the seat of the
most prosperous and long lived class of
the whole population, the Jewish mer
chants, the butchers of the guild. etc But
of late years the standard of comfort has
SO risen, the requirements, modern con
venienCes, flowing water, parquetry floors,
high ceilings, etc, have grown SO far be
yond the substantial simplicity of Frank
fort Old Town that the prosperous families
of the middle class have moved out bodily
into the more modern, less closely built
portions and their abandoned dwellings,
wholly unfit for wOrkingmea's homes,
swarm with the poorest of the poor, who
pay rents for their single rooms ont of all
proportion to the accommodation fur
niShed.
Moreover, IL the tenant fails single
time perhaps for want of work, to pay
the rent on the specified day the landlord
may take possession of everything save
the clothing actually worn by the family
and may drive man and wife and children
out into the street. But the possessions
which he has appropriated he may not
SELL Now, a man whose tools have been
taken away from him naturally can not
readily find work, and a woman who has
no money with which to buy food and no
stove upon which TO cook can not feed the
children. So the whole party betake them
selves to the guardians of the poor. These
officials naturally find it cheaper to re-
lease the tools of the father and recover the
poor little possessions of the mother by
paying the rent than TO support an able
bodied family outright. So the landlord
who may himself he some tenants tenant
and have nothing TO do with the owner
ship of the property recovers his lost
rent, but the whole portion Of the popula-
ton which is subject to such outrageous
hardship becomes in the long run either
demoralized OF embittered.- .-Heidelburg
Cor. Philadelphia Times.