CROWDED BERLIN

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1930, Page 19

CROWDED BERLIN

HUNDREDS SEEKING HOMES

UEXTIN'G THE LAKDLOfiDS

: Now that the linal evacuation of the Bliiueland is in sight and preparations are afoot for a great celebration when the last French soldier leaves the third zone, residents of Berlin metropolis are beginning to ask: a "How about the o'CSeuation of the fourth zone, the zone in which we renters of furnished' flats have to live? When are the landlords and landladies quartered on us ever since the war going to ,pack up and leave us with a little privacy." One reason why l.'.erliners linvc sympathised with tli'eir fellow-countrymen in occupied territory is that almost every tenant of a furnished flat hero lias an "occupied /.one" in his home—a room -occupied by a landlord or landlady, who either' doesn't' want to live elsewhere or', fears tlie vralli oE the housing commission. . ■ , Strictly ypeaking, uo one lias v right to sublet a furnished flat in Berlin merely .for the., profit it brings.- If Herr Schmidt, paying 130 marks monthly for an unfurnished flat, puts furniture into it and sublets it for 400 marks, he is liable to be ousted by the housing commission unless he can show that the subtenants are merely sharing it with him. So the custom is to rent the landlord along witPthe flat, for better or worse Flats of 'this semi-private character, fairly well furnished, can be had for from £17 to £20 -monthly. Tenants who rebel at paying so much without getting ordinary privacy have the alternative of trying to -get a vacant flat ami furnishing it. This amounts to trying rather .' than to^gettiiig, for the housing commission has a list of .22(5,000 Germans waiting for vacant flats in Berlin. Nevertheless, by paying what is called an "nbstand," or' bonus, of between &o0 and £150 for a.vacant lease, it is sometimes possible by pulling wires to get a flat. : ~

Unfortunately, the , most, desirable flats usually are in a district where the housing commission is particularly strict, and the would-be tenant must produce proof that he has waited two years for a flat or has an invalid wife or. mother who will die if she has to stay where she is. The upshot of it. all is that people who cannot afford to pay "abstand," and many who could afford to but cannot get the necessary urgent permit from the housing commission, live in furnished flats with landlord or landlady sharing the kitchen and bathroom. But maybe in a year or two enough new apartment houses will have been built in Berlin to justify' a great evacuation of the "fourth zone." What a celebration there will bo then among the .tenants! Tlie IHiincland-Is-Free celebrations will seem like a gJooincsfc compared to it. For what is freedom, but a little privacy1?