BERLIN AS A CITY BEAUTIFUL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10604, 5 November 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

BERLIN AS A CITY BEAUTIFUL.

iwi;,i ;<i 1. citv oE flats and apart+o On'lv very ricli people live m S, SfseS to ■ -fat S'S tu „ v: . Tlie change wrought in Beihn m l-fjk twenty years is remarkable. ioi a longtime the city, simply kept on growing, hut did not change its charac growing, a! id tenement houses were erected, hut differed only -in the cdor of the outer walls and the shape of the small balconies. - Until a short time ago even fiats ot Cl eSted k it arNWaflfrrtyj platform which was pulled up Hip wall in the daytime and let down in the evening, hanging on stout ropes at about halfthe height of the room. The servant girl had to use a stcp-la 'dor to reacli lier resting-place. Conditions in the tenement ■were far from good. Families with six br seven children living m one room and a kitchen were by no means exceptional, and frequentlj a } helped to pay the rent. Even m the better districts, especially m the n«Sborliood of the university it was common for families occupying three or -four "com flats ta use only one room and the kitchen and to rent the others. . . All this has been changed. Manj of the old houses still exist, of course, bu they -are ' disappearing rapidly.. New ; '■ laws have been passed providin D for a sufficient supply of light and airland limiting the number of lodgers accoidine to the size of the apartment, a few of the regulations governing the erection of tenements or.flathouses ma, be mentioned. •• • ' The building , must not- occupy moie than two-thirds of the plot : . t!us t ° secure plenty of light and air The - erection of rear Louses is permitted but "■ when it is considered that cnc-ilr.ru ot • the plot is reserved as. a, courtyard' aiitl that the Ordinary American narrow city - lot is unknown and that t.ie average • house lias a frontage of at least' 00it.,-. it will be seen, that there is very little ■objection against rear houses. lliese "modern tenement houses are, or course, most • numerous in the districts which have : been developed witlun recent Tears Many of them do not belong to the city of Berlin proper, hut form separate communities, in spite ot the fact tliat there is no outwardly visible : division. ■ . . ■ < ~ln 'Rixdorf, the largest village m Germanv and probably in the world, with 200,000 inhabitants, a flat of two , living rooms, • kitchen, .■ pantry, s_er- - vants'. chamber, and bathroom with..] ■ tub-and sliower-bath costs. from 40 to \ i-42. marks'a month, or about £'2. Such ] a'flat has a private hall and as a mat- s

ter of course xt balcony or open log- i gia : large enough for man and wife to take their meals in the open air.. Generally the two living rooms front on the street, but sometimes Jhe windows or one of them give "on'ihe courtyard. If this is the case tlifc tenant may use ; them at will in order to escape the suin •in', the "summer- or benefit by it in the ■■ winter. From-, the Tear windows the courtyard can be seen, a- square of - liberal dimensions, containing", grass plots and narrow strips of .flowers, Viwhile- the space reserved for walking S isi'cpvered with flags. Rixdorf is to all intents and purposes a part of Berlin, although it still " maintains independence in matters of " administration. The streets are much wider than in American cities, and all the houses have small gardens in front of "them. This is in fact required by the new building law for all streets laid out since it weiit- into force. Similar conditions prevail -in the East End, with the only difference that even wider streets are found, some of them, like the Warschauer and ' the Peters-

burger Strasse, being splendid avenues. Here the rents are about the same as in Rixdoff, but most of the fiats are larger, generally containing three Irving' rooms, kitchen, pantry, servants chamber, bath, private hall and balcony. The pantry is necessary because in spite of canned goods the German housewife would not dream of buying supplies for one meal or even for one day only, but still persists in. being always prepared for a siege. In the northern part a great many old tenements are still found. They were erected when this was the manufacturing district, but they are disappearing slowly. The great industrial establishments have moved farther north, and are now surrounded by modern tenement' houses that leave little to be desired. _ The workmen are far better housed than their fathers were. Here flats of two living rooms with kitchen, bath, balcony, etc. cost from 32s to 33s a month, and a flat of the same size and exactly as well appointed, but in the rear, may bs secured from 28s to 30s; and thes'e rear flats are by no means objectionable; for they front on the roomy courtyard with its flower beds, and behind the houses are small garden plots for all the tenants. The outlying districts in the western part of the city are a little more pretentious. They are mostly populated by Government officials with limited salaries. The erection of houses with more than foui' storeys is prohibited in this quarter, and a front garden at least six feet fn width is obligatory. The flats are more profusely decorated, and consequently command a higher price. An apartment of two living rooms, kitchen, bath,- servants' chamber, and balcony can be rented for £2 10s a month, while for the same price an additional living room can be had;if people will go only a little-far-ther out. In all these houses the rooms are large and airy and the cubby holes of the average low-priced flat are entirely unknown.

The difference in the prices of. larger flats used by the large middle-class is perhaps still more striking. An American who settled in Berlin lived in an apartment in one of the new quarters. He had six rooms,'.kitchen, servants' chamber, and two bathrooms.. • The, sizo"of the rooms niay bo : judged by the fact that twelve people were comfortably placed around . a table in the dining room and there was plenty of space left for the servants waiting on the guests. There was, of course, the inevitable balcony, and both the American and his wife quickly became used -to taking their breakfast in the open air. The flat had all the improvements New York is used to and a few more. There was-an electric vacuum cleaner, a safe inserted in the wall of the bedroom and connected with a burglar larm, an electric cloth brush. The flat was in the third storey, but had au automatic electric elevator ready for,use day and night. Landlords are not required to ■keep the halls "lighted all night, but the tenant entering the house after dark has only to insert a key into a little socket behind the door in order to light all the electric lamps in the hall and keep them burning until he lias reached the top storey.

• Another American had a, flat 111 thfe imuiediate/ueigliborhoodof the railway station ' with trams every ten minutes which: carried him, to the busie'entre in less than half an hour. Ho had five rooms and' all- improvements on the first floor of a'-four-storey singleflat house -and paid '£32 a-year. . ,r. 1 The visitor is struck not only by the low rents and the superior constructibn ;of tlie dwelling-Jhousesj but also by the efforts made to beautify the city. The .authorities do not wait to lay out t and grade the streets until a number of houses are built. The territory surrounding Berlin is already mapped out to meet the conditions that will probably arise ten or twenty years from now.

In making the maps great care is used to provide for beautiful effects, to construct a pretty Strassenbild, streetpicture, to use the technical expression. In the new districts rectangular street crossings are forbidden, and all

the streets cross each, other at sharp angles. In this way. stars are formed from time to time, the sharp corners are cut off, and wherever three or more streets come together a small flower garden or park is laid out. AU the streets have either gardens in front of the houses, and they are not the conventional grass plots with _ impossible cast iron urns, etc., but origiit little flower beds, or broad flower, beds in the middle, between the two roadways. Between the trees climbing plants are trained in graceful curves, the whole length' of the street thus forming an uninterrupted garland or green and bright colors. Add to this the gay flowers upon: every one of the innumerable balconies and it will be admitted that the Berliner who declares that it is a,pleasure to the eye to stroll through the streets of. his home city, and is horrified at the unrelieved piles of stone he encounters in New York, is not so very much to blame if he complains of a lack of culture in the United States. The municipal government of Berlin has a way of assuring the correct development of newly opened streets. This is especially employed when new streets arc cut through the old quarter in order to do away with rookeries and narrow alleys. The municipality acquires the corner lots and erects buildings in harmony with the character it considers fit for a new street or square. It calculates that the other property owners will follow suit when they build on their plots, and so far it has never- been disappointed'. As soon as the object is accomplished the city sells the buildings, and as a rule makes a handsome profit. Blank walls are absolutely forbidden because they disfigure; the Strassenbild. If the owner of a house does not want to cut windows into a wall visible from the street he must hide its ugliness in some other way. A large department store did not find it convenient to cut windows into a wall abutting on the l Leipziger Platz and was compelled 'to erect a wall in the Renaissance , style j with many little turrets and false windows at considerable expense. The firm employed one of the foremost architects of' Germany for this ; work and the result is,.eminently satisfactory.;, for the square" instead; of being spoiled by an enormous blank; wall of masonry is now more beautiful than-before. v

Ever anxious to improve conditions and to solve the problem how to house the people attracted by a large city tlie municipal government of Berlin offered a prize last year for the best plan for the proposed greater Berlin. This new city is destined to swallow up all the Vororte and cities and villages, which are, but for their administrative independence, as much a part of Berlin as the different communities composing London. The conditions of the competition required a street plan unifying the street systems of the several municipalities, changes necessary to provide for the ever growing traffic in the built up sections, the laying out of rapid transit routes from the centre of the city to all outlying sections, provisions for carrying the great railroads iiow terminating" at separate stations into the heart of Berlin', Jind connecting; them with each other, and many other tilings. - , -

The first prize was awarded to three* men, Architect Bruno, Mohring. Professor" Eudolf Eberstadt and Civil. Engineer Kichard Petersen, who, had worked conjointly. The architect Herman Jansen won the second prize. - It is expected that the plan finally adopted will contain the best elements of both solutions, but it is a noteworthy' fact that both propositions provide for large open spaces, not in the shape of squares or public parks widely apart but permeating the entire city, and thereby making utterly impossible the construction of solid blocks of tenement houses upon large areas unrelieved by breathing spaces.

A French writer predicts that in the course of 100 years very few persons will live in the cities.; Cities will be used only for business purposes.