KEEPING HOUSE IN BERLIN

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 129, 3 June 1922, Page 14

KEEPING HOUSE IN BERLIN

Berlin is i city of flat-housee; they are very high, the rooms very large, the staircases very wide and long, and everything is done to give an impression of grandeur. But to the .one who loves the little, simple homes of England, with their tiny gardens, the effect is depressing (writes an American woman in the London Daily Mail). ' . .

On account of- the bousing shortage^ flat-holders are obliged to let all their spare rooms. No foreigner is allowed to rent a whole flat, and no German is permitted to let all his flat. Hence your landlady lives with you. She makes you sign an agreement that the "apartment is in perfect condition,'' and then follows you about to see that you do not scratch the furniture or spill a drop of water on the floor. If you do, it goes down aa damages in the next month's hill. You pay her for eight coals per day for each stove, and when you discover that you are only getting five, you find, that she has forgotten her English and that your German is hopeless. She also makes the fire for, your bath, and you must t*ke it the instant the water is hot, or she will get there first!, innocently declaring that she thought you had hid your bath. The furniture is unsympathetio, the beds are strange,, the piercing cold strikes through oven the double windows from November to May. For »11 these comforts you may pay at- least 5000 or 6000 marks per month (£4 or JE4 16s 4d at present rate of exchange)..No leases are made, and your rent Is likely to be doubled at any time. There is only one way in which to get palatable food, and that ib to cook it oneself. The German's idea of a regular feast is raw fish, then raw meat, with potatoes smothered in greasy gravy, and a pickle for dessert. / Maids are practically slaves; if dissatisfied they must give a month's notice and report to tho polioe. They cannot get another posifion without • police permission.

„ Food prices are about the same «s in England; eggs seem to fluctuate with the mark, but the quality never vaiies— it is always bad. .., No German woman would thinly of marketing except between 6 and 7 p.m. All shops olpse from 12 noon to 3 p.m., so that the working man and his frau may eat and sloop.

1 Three or four enormous keys must be carried, for all doors hare' two or three locks. The entrance hall door is. locked at 8 o'clock, so that no one can call after that hour, and tho tenant cannot go in or out without keys. It is considered unnecessary for wives to carry keys. :