V 0 L U M E XXI 
February, 1912 
N UMBER 2 
A study decorated in lavender and brown. The furniture is of dull-finished oak in harmony with the tan wall edged by a lavender border. 
portieres are striped canvas with shirred ribbon trimming in lavender 
The 
Two Model German Houses and Their Furnishing 
BY Ev.\ Elise Vom Baur 
Photographs by Max Fischer 
T O the average mind the term “German household” is synony¬ 
mous with high-ceilinged rooms furnished with an over¬ 
abundance of stiff-backed plush chairs and sofas, white lace tidies 
and heavy, gilt-framed pictures. That conception, however, is no 
longer correct. It concerns a style that originated in the post- 
bellum days when the Prussian wanted to show that he hadn’t 
suffered from his conflict with the Frank by vaunting his wealth 
in the overloading and overdecorating of his house and his city. 
When peace was declared, the good Michel and his wife set about 
fixing up their homes. They did it with more thoroughness than 
good taste, as is attested by the rows after rows of solid brown- 
stone houses with huge, unsmiling windows and entrances 
planted straight in their middle, that line the streets where live 
the autocratic and the upper bourgeois subjects of the Kaiser. 
(II) 
