Review of Nodoka Nagayama, Doitsu Jyūtaku Mondai no Shakai Keizaishi teki Kenkyū: Fukushi Kokka to Hieiri Jyūtaku Kensetsu (Study on the Socio-economic History of Housing Problems in Germany: Welfare State and Non-profit Housing)

Abstract

The aim of this book is to clarify the characteristics of German housing problems in the 1920s. In the introduction the author shows some fundamental viewpoints. Firstly, she points out that German housing problems in the 1920s should be divided into three components: (1) the deficiency of the housing for low-income classes including manual workers after 1850 (the old type); (2) the deficiency of housing for young couples after World War I (the new type); (3) the housing problem for large families and war victims (the specific type). Secondly, the author takes notice the non-profit (public utility) housing organizations that constructed small housing units and did not aim to make a profit. Thirdly, the author concentrates on researching the case of the city of Solingen where non-profit housing was built most actively among the cities in Germany at that period. Moreover the author stresses some characteristics of the German welfare state, namely: (1) cities were its driving forces; (2) the post-World War I demographic transformation of generations and household composition forced the formation of welfare state; (3) a wide range of social strata was its beneficiary.

This is a translation of a book review that originally appeared in Shakai Keizai Shigaku 80(3) (November 2014), pp. 146–148.