WAR-TIME GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1940, Page 7

WAR-TIME GERMANY

LITTLE DIFFERENCE MADE IN PEOPLE’S LIVES HARD WORK AND FRUGALITY. CONTRAST WITH OTHER COUNTRIES. The war—despite the reports of rationing and substitute products—is making surprisingly little difference in the living standards of the average German, writes Joseph C. Harsch, from Berlin, on November 28 to the "Christian Science Monitor.'’ The reason is that for several years Karl or Hans, and their families,-have been leading Spartan lives, investing by hard work and frugality in that promised future in which Germany, with wide new "living space," is pictured as achieving richness and prosperity, To this end Karl and Hans long since accepted, as the price of a better future, a standard of living which makes comforts and products advertised in. the average American magazine seem like an Arabian Nights dream. But the difference since the war is so relatively slight that it is accepted probably more easily than lesser privations would be in other countries where people have not been asked for years of sacrifice of the comforts of life to vision a greater and more powerful future. One steps into this atmosphere of frugal living quickly, and soon comes to find it seem relatively normal. It is only when an observer goes out to some less Spartan country that he suddenly becomes aware of the price the German is paying for his army and the expansionist policy of his Government. The three days the writer spent recently in Amsterdam seemed like a visit to fairykind, so extraordinary did it seem to wander through big stores packed with every conceivable article of material comfort, to see great mountains of food in the windows of the shops, to eat abundant meals, all purchasable without limit. MINIMUM OF COMFORTS. But here the absence of any such visible share in the abundant life brings awareness of the fact that Germany is living on a minimum of creature comforts. To Karl and Hans who never see Amsterdam the war means no serious or drastic new privation, but only moderate intensification of the process of getting along on as little clothing as essential, eating more frugally, and persuading his wife to be satisfied with five pairs of silk stockings yearly, and managing to keep clean on one cake of soap monthly. Some shifting is taking place since the war in the character of the average German citizen's spending. Less is going for clothes, and several customary former items of diet are now unprocurable. But. what is saved is being used to buy types of food not purchased before by a working ilyFor example, a factory worker who had never eaten a pheasant before bought one because no meat card is required for fowl. Another bought equally unfamiliar beef tongue, because that was the only meat available at the moment. But essentially a German is living today as he has for years, a life of frugal investment by privation in the promise of a better future. A TYPICAL CASE. What is this German standard • of living which Karl and Hans are paying for bright promises? Take Karl Vogel, for example. He is a skilled carpenter working in a big factory near Berlin. He receives 225 marks (nominally 90 dollars) monthly wages. i'1.42 dollars to £l.) The hours he works make his wages roughly a mark an hour. With this he supports himself and wife and three children.

Measuring what he purchases in the term of an hour's work produces the following result. The'first 100 hours of bis work week' goes to feeding his family. Then he works 40 hours to pay his rent. Then 30 hours for var-

ious household items, including electricity, gas. heating, and washing the clothes. The next 26 hours goes for taxes. Another 10 hours for car fare. This leaves 10 hours for entertainment anc. minor pleasures for the family. Thi‘ provides a family with a two-room and kitchen flat. There is no bath, central heating nor running water, But it is clean and tidy, with starched curtains and solid furniture. The food is mostly of bread, potatoes. and cabbage. The family saves up the meat cards for two good meal meals weekly. They have fish when buyable, but it is increasingly scarce except in expensive hotels, where, o: course, they never go. FEW VISITS TO MOVIES. Karl and wife never go to the movies, but sometimes send the children when the wife gels extra cleaning work at seven marks a week. Karl's friend. Hans Jedermann. earns 200 marks weekly to support his wife and one child. His taxes anc rent are a little higher, but food h less. His budget works out as follows: —Food, 80 marks; rent. 45; taxes and insurance. 30: clothes. 10: gas ana electricity. 10; housekeeping. 8; entertainment, 5; newspapers and radio. 4.40: healing. 4; contributions to the party and winter help. 3.60. These budgets show Karl and Hans working full time to house, feed, and clothe the family in frugal style. r l hey have no saving except what, they pay for unemployment insurance and oldage pensions. There is some compensation in the fact that a .cheap holiday is provided by the contribution to the 'Kraft Dutch Freudc" (strength through joy) fund, and every German worker is guaranteed a paid vacation. But the fact remains that a skilled American carpenter leads ti lite luxurious by comparison, with his bigger house, good plumbing, abundant food better clothes, ample movies, and probably a car.