HOW GERMANS KEEP WARM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 8, 21 March 1947, Page 2

HOW GERMANS KEEP WARM

COMMUNITY WARMING HALLS LACK OF ELECTRICITY AND COAL If any town in New Zealand were so badly off for coal and electricity that only the civic buildings could be kept warm with the rest paralysed under 30 defrees of frost, then it could be gathered what it is like to live in Hamberg or Berlin. The town’s population would be divided into groups. Each group would have electricity turned on for part of the day—for four or five, or fewer, hours according to the supplies of coal at the power station. Because there was no coal for private consumption, the groups without electricity would freeze, go to bed, or visit the “Warming Hall.” The mayor would be ejected from his chambers, the clerks would be packed off to shiver elsewhere, and every inch of space would be packed with people just sitting and getting warm. When it was their turn to have the electricity on, they would be expected to leave and go home ,to try and keep warm as individuals. The “Warmhallen” in German cities are not actually very warm. But 20,000 people in one small space generate a good deal of heat without artificial assistance. In one Berlin district, the Kreuzberg, there are 21 warming halls. These receive 54,000 guests each day. The temperature for most of January was 13 degrees lower than in Leningrad. The schools were all closed, but most of the factories. There was not much for Berliners to do but concentrate on getting warm. The community warming system reduced deaths directly at-, tributable to cold to only two or three a day.