84 APPENDIX. * 



so that, as each renter of an apartment pays not only for the rooms 

 occupied, but also for the common stairways and halls in proportion 

 to his rent, he should pay for the benefits given him by the city in the 

 same proportion. This rent-tax has been the subject of very violent 

 attack by Socialists, whether democrats or statesmen. Bismarck said 

 in 1881 that it was " the most oppressive tax, growing in burden as it 

 decreased in amount, in fact, one of the worst that could be invented," 

 and when a year or more ago the city proposed to the Government to 

 make certain exemptions from the tax, the petition was refused on the 

 ground that it should be discarded altogether. This, however, was 

 rejected last month by the decisive vote of eighty-four to twenty, for 

 our Berlin Burgomaster does not agree with von Helldorf, who says 

 of his party, the National Liberals: " We must go with the Chancel- 

 or though we do get a kick now and then." 



The present law taxes all dwellings 6| per cent, of the rental value. 

 A proposition is under consideration to reduce the tax to 3i per 

 cent, on rents below 300 marks and to 5 per cent, on rents below 600. 

 It has very small prospect of success, and would be merely a gift to 

 the present house-owners who bought and built in full knowledge of 

 the law. Rooms used solely for business purposes, the dwellings of 

 ambassadors, clergymen, high officials and teachers are exempt. The 

 tax was remitted also out of charity during the year on over 21,000 

 lodgings with an average rental of 141 marks. The tax yielded for the 

 past year about 13,000,000 marks. 



The rent-tax is not the only charge on real estate, though it is the 

 only one that is paid by the occupant. The owner pays a tax of one- 

 third the amount of the rent-tax, or 2 2-9 per cent of the rental value. 

 The amount realized is about 4,400,000 marks, so that the whole tax 

 on real property is somewhat over 17,500,000 marks. The owner has 

 also to pay small sums for the use of water and sewers, but this does 

 not appear in the Budget. 



To recover these taxes the owner looks to the rental, but yet rates 

 remain at a very reasonable figure. Some details may be not without 

 interest, and will invite comparisons, for Berlin is but little smaller 

 than New York, and is growing nearly as rapidly. There were in the 

 city on April 1, 1888, 344,941 dwellings leased, subject to tax, at an 

 average rental of 640 marks annually. City statistics show that about 

 two-thirds of these (222,915) rented at from 50 to 400 marks, or for 

 less than $100 a year; two-ninths (76 827) were valued at between 401 

 and 1,000 marks ; some 19,000 more were rated between 1,001 and 1,590 

 marks, and 10,000 others below 2,080 marks : so that more than nine- 

 teen-twentieths of the rents paid were less than $ 500. Eleven thou- 

 sand fell between this sum and 81,000, while in the whole city only 

 5,121 dwellings had a rental value of more than this, and of these but 



