CHAPTER XIV_Home Life in Germany

SERVANTS

The first thing that English people notice about German servants is,

that they are allowed to dress anyhow, and that the results are most

unpleasing. In Hamburg, the city that gives you ox-tail soup for

dinner and has sirloins of beef much like English sirloins, the maids

used to wear clean crackling, light print gowns with elbow sleeves.

This was their full dress in which they waited at table, and fresh

looking country girls from Holstein and thereabouts looked very well

in it. This costume is being superseded in Hamburg to-day by the

English livery of a black frock with a white cap and apron. But in

other German cities, in the ordinary middle-class household, the

servants wear what they choose on all occasions. In most places they

are as fond of plaids as their betters, and in a house where

everything else is methodical and well arranged, you will find the

dishes plumped on the table by a young woman wearing a tartan blouse

decidedly decolletée, and ornamented with a large cheap lace collar. I

have dined with people whose silver, glass, and food were all

luxurious; while the girl who waited on us wore a red and white

checked blouse, a plaid neck-tie with floating ends, and an enormous

brooch of sham diamonds. In South Germany the servants wear a great

deal of indigo blue: stuff skirts of plain blue woollen, with blouses

and aprons of blue cotton that has a small white pattern on it. Some

ladies keep smart white aprons to lend their servants on state

occasions, but the laciest apron will not do much for a girl in a

sloppy coloured blouse with a plaid neck-tie. But these same girls who

look such slovens usually have stores of tidy well-made body linen and

knitted stockings. In England a servant of the better class will not

be seen out of doors in her working-dress. "In London," says the

Idealist in her Memoirs, "no woman of the people, no servant-girl will

stir a step from the house without a hat on her head, and this is one

of the ugliest of English prejudices. While the clean white cap worn

by a French maid looks pretty and suitable, the Englishwoman's hat

which makes her "respectable" is odious, for it is usually dirty, out

of shape, and trimmed with faded flowers and ribbons." It gives me

pleasure to quote this criticism made by an observant German on our

English servants, partly because it is true, and it is good for us to

hear it, and partly because it encourages me to continue my criticism

of German as compared with English servants. For it ought to be

possible to criticise without giving offence. The Idealist has a very

poor opinion of English lodging-house bedrooms and lodging-house

keepers, and she states her opinion quite plainly, but I cannot

imagine that anyone in this country would be hurt by what she says. On

the contrary, it is amusing to find the ills from which most of us

have suffered at times recognised by the stranger within our gates.

None of us admire the battered tawdry finery we see in our streets

every day, and I cannot believe that German ladies admire the shocking

garments in which their servants will come to the door and wait at

table. But though these clothes are sloppy looking and unsuitable,

they are never ragged; and the girl who puts on an impossible tie and

blouse will also wear an impeccable long white apron with an

embroidered monogram you can see across the room. In most towns

servants go shopping or to market with a large basket and an umbrella.

They do not consider a hat or a stuff gown necessary, for they are not

in the least ashamed of being servants. Some years ago they made no

attempt to dress like ladies when they went out for themselves, and

even now what they do in this way is a trifle compared to the

extravagant get-up of an English cook or parlour-maid on a Sunday

afternoon. A German girl in service is always saving with might and

main to buy her _Aussteuer_, and as she gets very low wages it takes

her a long time. She needs about _£_30, so husbands are not expensive

in Germany in that class. German servants get less wages than ours,

and work longer hours. Speaking out of my own experience, I should say

that they were indefatigable, amiable, and inefficient. They will do

anything in the world for you, but they will not do their own work in

a methodical way. A lady whose uncle at one time occupied an important

diplomatic post in London, told me that her aunt was immensely

surprised to find that every one of her English servants knew his or

her work and did it without supervision, but that none of them would

do anything else. The German lady, not knowing English ways, used to

make the mistake at first of asking a servant to do what she wanted

done instead of what the servant had engaged to do; but she soon found

that the first housemaid would rather leave than fill a matchbox it

was the second housemaid's "place" to fill; and what surprised her

most was to find that her English friends sympathised with the

housemaids and not with her. "We believe in everyone minding his own

business," they said.

"We believe that it is the servant's business to do what his employer

wants," says the German.

"You must tell him what you want when you engage him," you say. "Then

he can take your place or leave it."

"But that is impossible ... _Unsinn_ ... _Quatsch_...." says the

German indignantly. "How can I tell what I shall want my servant to do

three months hence on a Monday morning. _Das hat keinen Zweck._"

"I know exactly what each one of my servants will do three months

hence on a Monday morning," you say. "It is quite easy. You plan it

all out...."

But you will never agree. The German has his or rather her own

methods, and you will always think her unmethodical but thrifty and

knowledgeable, and she will always think you extravagant and ignorant,

but "chic," and on these terms you may be quite good friends. In most

German households there is no such thing as the strict division of

labour insisted on here. Your cook will be delighted to make a blouse

for you, and your nurse will turn out the dining-room, and your

chambermaid will take the child for an airing. They are more human in

their relation to their employers. The English servant fixes a gulf

between herself and the most democratic mistress. The German servant

brings her intimate joys and sorrows to a good _Herrschaft_, and

expects their sympathy. When a girl has bad luck and engages with a

bad _Herrschaft_ she is worse off than in England, partly because when

German housekeeping is mean it sounds depths of meanness not unknown,

but extremely rare here; and also because a German servant is more in

the power of her employers and of the police than an English one.

Anyone who has read Klara Viebig's remarkable novel, _Das Tägliche

Brot_ (a story of servant life in Berlin) will remember the mistress

who kept every bit of dainty food under lock and key, and fed the

kitchen on soup-meat all the year round. The chambermaid gives way in

a moment of hunger and temptation, manages to get the key, and is

discovered by the worthless son of the house stealing cakes. He

threatens her with exposure if she will not listen to his love-making.

Even if there was no son and no love-making, a girl who once steals

cakes in Germany may go from place to place branded as a thief.

Because every servant has to have a _Dienstbuch_, which is under the

control of the police, and has to be shown to them whenever she leaves

her situation. There is no give and take of personal character in

Germany. Ladies do not see the last lady with whom a girl has lived.

They advertise or they go to a registry office where servants are

waiting to be engaged. In Berlin every third house seems to be a

registry office, and you hear as many complaints of the people who

keep them as you hear here. So the government has set up a large

Public Registry in Charlottenberg, where both sides can get what they

want without paying fees. But servants are not as scarce in Germany

yet as they are here and in America. German ladies tell you they are

scarce, but it is only true in comparison with a former state of

things. In comparison with London, servants are still plentiful in

Germany. When a lady finds a likely looking girl at an office, she

either engages her at once on the strength of the good character in

her _Dienstbuch_, or, if she is very particular, she takes her home

and discusses things with her there. The engagement is not completed

until the lady has filled in several forms for police inspection;

while the servant has to take her _Dienstbuch_ to the police station

both when she leaves and when she enters a situation. It is hardly

necessary to say that when a girl does anything seriously bad, and her

employers record it in the book, the book gets "lost." Then the police

interfere and make things extremely disagreeable for the girl. A

friend told me that in the confusion of a removal her own highly

valued servant lost her _Dienstbuch_, or rather my friend lost it, for

employers usually keep it while a girl is in their service; and though

she took the blame on herself, and explained that the book was lost,

the police were most offensive about it. In the end the book was

found, so I am not in a position to say what penalties my friend and

her maid would have incurred if they had never been able to produce

it. But Germans have often told me that servants as a class have real

good reason to complain of police insolence and brutality. Here is an

entry from a German servant's _Dienstbuch_, with nothing altered but

the names. On the first page you found the following particulars:--

GESINDE-DIENSTBUCH

Für Anna Schmidt.

Aus Rheinbeck.

Alt Geb. 20 Juni 1885.

Statur Schlank.

Augen Grau.

Nase } Gewöhnlich.

Mund }

Haare Dunkelblond.

Besondere Merkmale

_Official stamp._ (_Official signature of

Amtsvorsteher._)

Then came the record of her previous situations:--

Key:

A: NR.

B: NAME, STAND, UND WOHNUNG DER DIENERSCHAFT

C: INHABER IST ANGENOMMEN ALS

D: TAG DES DIENSTANTRITTS

E: TAG DES DIENSTAUSTRITTS

F: GRUND DES DIENSTAUSTRITTS UND DIENSTABSCHIEDS--ZEUGNISS

G: BEGLAUBIGUNG UND BEMERKUNG DER POLIZEI-BEHÖRDE

+--+------------+-------------+---------+--------+--------------+-----------

A | B | C | D | E | F | G

+--+------------+-------------+---------+--------+--------------+-----------

| | | | | gut |date, with

| | | | | |

+--+------------+-------------+---------+--------+--------------+-----------

It will be seen that the characters given tell nothing about a

servant's qualities and knowledge; while the vague complaint that Anna

Schmidt's behaviour no longer suited her mistress might mean anything

or nothing. In this case it meant that a son of the house had annoyed

the girl with his attentions, and she had in consequence treated him

with some brusquerie. But ten minutes' talk with a lady who knows the

best and the worst of a servant is worth any _Dienstbuch_ in Germany.

And when English servants write to the _Times_ and ask to have the

same system here, I always wonder how they would like their failings

sent with them from place to place in black and white; every fresh

start made difficult, and every bad trait recorded against them as

long as they earn their daily bread.

Wages are much lower in Germany than here. Some years ago you could

get a good cook for from £7 to £12, but those days are past. Now you

hear of a general servant getting from £10 to £12, and a good plain

cook from £15 upwards. These are servants who would get from £22 to

£30 in England, and more in America. But the wages of German servants

are supplemented at Christmas by a system of tips and presents that

has in course of time become extortionate. Germans groan under it, but

every nation knows how hard it is to depart from one of these

traditional indefinite customs. The system is hateful, because it is

neither one of free gift nor of business-like payment, but hovers

somewhere between and gives rise to much friction and discontent. In a

household account book that a friend allowed me to see I found the

following entry. "Christmas present for the servant. 30 marks in

money. Bed linen, 9.50. Pincushion, 1.5. Five small presents. In all

42 marks. _Was not contented._" This was a general servant in a

family of two occupying a good social position, but living as so many

Germans do on a small income. But then the servant's wages for doing

the work of a large well-furnished, well-kept flat was £14, and these

same friends told me that servants now expect to get a quarter of

their wages in money and presents at Christmas. A German servant gets

a great deal more help from her mistress, and is more directly under

her superintendence, than she would be in a household of the same

social standing in this country. I have heard an English lady say that

when she had asked people to dinner she made it a rule to go out all

day, because if she did not her servants worried her with questions

about extra silver and other tiresome details. All the notable

housewives in England will say that this lady was a "freak," and must

not be held up to the world as an English type. But I think there is

something of her spirit in many Englishwomen. They engage their

servants to do certain work, and hold them responsible. The German

holds herself responsible for every event and every corner in her

husband's house, and she never for a moment closes her eyes and lets

go the reins. The servants are used to working hand in hand with the

ladies of the household, and do not regard the kitchen as a department

belonging exclusively to themselves after an early hour in the

morning.

"Why did you leave your last place?" you say to an English cook

applying for yours.

"Because the lady was always in the kitchen," she replies quite

soberly and civilly. "I don't like to see ladies in my kitchen at all

hours of the day. It is impossible to get on with the work."

But in Germany the kitchen is not the cook's kitchen. It belongs to

the people who maintain it, and they enter it when they please. It is

always so spick and span that you sigh as you see it, because you

think of your own kitchen at home with its black pans and unpleasant

looking sink. _There are no black pans in a German kitchen_; you never

see any grease, and you never by any chance see a teacloth or a duster

with a hole in it. An English kitchen in a small household is

furnished with more regard to the comfort of the servants than a

German one, and with less concern for the work to be done there. We

supply comfortable chairs, a coloured table-cloth, oil-cloth, books,

hearth-rug, pictures, cushions, inkstand, and a roaring fire. The

German kitchen lacks all these things. It does not look as if the

women who live in it ever expected to pursue their own business, or

rest for an hour in an easy chair. But the shining brightness of it

rejoices you,--every vessel is of wood, earthenware, enamel, or highly

polished metal, and every one of them is scrupulously clean. The

groceries and pudding stuffs are kept in fascinating jars and barrels,

like those that come to children at Christmas in toy kitchens made in

Germany. The stove is a clean, low hot table at which you can stand

all day without getting black and greasy. In this sensible spotless

workshop a German servant expects to be busy from morning till night.

Neither for herself nor for her fellow-servants will she ever set a

table for a tidy kitchen meal. She eats anywhere and anywhen, as the

fancy takes her and the exigencies of the day permit. Her morning meal

will consist of coffee and rye bread without butter. In the middle of

the morning she will have a second breakfast, rye bread again with

cheese or sausage. In a liberal household she will dine as the family

dines; in a stingy one she will fare worse than they. In an

old-fashioned household her portion will be carved for her in the

dining-room, because the joint will not return to the kitchen when the

family has done with it, but be placed straightway in the

_Speiseschrank_ under lock and key. In the afternoon she will have

bread and coffee again, and for supper as a rule what the family has,

sausage or ham or some dish made with eggs. One friend who goes out so

much with her husband that they are rarely at home to supper, told me

that she made her servant a monthly allowance to buy what she liked

for supper. German servants are allowed coffee and either beer or

wine, but they are never given tea. Except for the scarcity of butter

in middle-class households, they live very well.

They go out on errands and to market a great deal, but they do not go

out as much for themselves as our servants do. A few hours every other

Sunday still contents them in most places. Their favourite amusement

is the cheap public ball, and the careful German householder is

actually in the habit of trusting the key of the flat to his

maid-of-all-work, and allowing her to return at any hour of the night

she pleases. This at any rate is the custom in Berlin and some other

large German towns, and the evil results of such a system are

manifold. Over and over again burglaries have been traced to it. One

beguiling man engages your maid to dance and sup with him, while his

confederate gets hold of her key and comfortably rifles your rooms. On

the girls themselves these entertainments are said to have the worst

possible influence, and most sensible Germans would put a stop to them

if they could.

You must not expect in Germany to have hot water brought to you at

regular intervals as you do in every orderly English household. The

Germans have a curious notion that English life is quite uniform, and

all English people exactly alike. One man, a notably wise man too,

said to me that if he knew one English family he knew ten thousand.

Another German told me that this account of German life would be

impossible to write, because one part of Germany differed from the

other part; but that a German could easily write the same kind of book

about England, because from Land's End to John o' Groats we were so

many peas in a pod. To us who live in England and know the differences

between the Cornish and the Yorkshire people, for instance, or the

Welsh and the East Anglians, this seems sheer nonsense. I have tried

to understand how Germans arrive at it, and I believe it is by way of

our cans of hot water brought at regular intervals every day in the

year in every British household. I remember that their machine-like

precision impressed M. Taine when he was in England, and certainly

miss them sadly while we are abroad. Gretchen brings you no hot water

unless you ask for it; but she will brush your clothes as a matter of

course, though she does all the work of the household. She will,

however, be hurt and surprised if you do not press a small coin into

her hand at the end of each week, and one or two big ones at parting.

One friend told me that when she stayed with her family at a German

hotel her German relatives told her she should give the chambermaid a

tip that was equal to 20 pf. for each pair of boots cleaned during

their stay. It seems an odd way of reckoning, because the chambermaid

does not clean boots. However, the tip came to £3, which seems a good

deal and helps to explain the ease with which German servants save

enough for their marriage outfit on small wages. It is usual also to

tip the servant where you have supped or dined. Your opportunity

probably comes when she precedes you down the unlighted stairs with a

lantern or a candle to the house door. But you need not be at all

delicate about your opportunity. You see the other guests make little

offerings, and you can only feel that the money has been well earned

when you have eaten the elaborate meal she has helped to cook, and has

afterwards served to you.

Domestic servants come under the law in Germany that obliges all

persons below a certain income to provide for their old age. The Post

Office issues cards and 20 pf. stamps, and one of these stamps must be

dated and affixed to the card every Monday. Sometimes the employers

buy the cards and stamps, and show them at the Post Office once a

month; sometimes they expect the servant to pay half the money

required. Women who go out by the day to different families get their

stamps at the house they work in on Mondays. If a girl marries she may

cease to insure, and may have a sum of money towards her outfit. In

that case she will receive no Old Age Pension. But if she goes on with

her insurance she will have from 15 to 20 marks a month from the State

after the age of 70. In cases of illness, employers are legally bound

to provide for their domestic servants during the term of notice

agreed on. At least this is so in Prussia, and the term varies from a

fortnight to three months. In some parts of Germany servants are still

engaged by the quarter, but in Berlin it has become unusual of late

years. The obligation to provide for illness is often a heavy tax on

employers, especially in cases when the illness has not been caused by

the work or the circumstances of the situation, but by the servant's

own carelessness and folly. Most householders in Berlin subscribe 7.50

a year to an insurance company, a private undertaking that provides

medical help, and when necessary sends the invalided servant to a

hospital and maintains her there. It even pays for any special food or

wine ordered by its own doctor.

One cause of ill health amongst German servants must often be the

abominable sleeping accommodation provided for them in old-fashioned

houses. It is said that rooms without windows opening to the air are

no longer allowed in Germany, and there may be a police regulation

against them. Even this cannot have been issued everywhere, for not

long ago I had a large well furnished room of this kind offered me in

a crowded hotel. It had windows, but they opened on to a narrow

corridor. The proprietor was quite surprised when I said I would

rather have a room at the top of the house with a window facing the

street. I know a young lady acting as _Stütze der Hausfrau_ who slept

in a cupboard for years, the only light and air reaching her coming

from a slit of glass over the door. I remember the consumptive looking

daughter of a prosperous tradesman showing us some rooms her father

wished to let, and suggesting that a cupboard off a sitting-room would

make a pleasant study. She said she slept in one just like it on a

higher floor. Of course she called it a _Kammer_ and not a cupboard,

but that did not make it more inviting. Over and over again I have

known servants stowed away in holes that seemed fit for brooms and

brushes, but not for creatures with lungs and easily poisoned blood.

This is one of the facts of German life that makes comparison between

England and Germany so difficult and bewildering. Everyone knowing

both countries is struck by the amount of State and police

surveillance and interference the Germans enjoy compared with us. I do

not say "endure," because Germans would not like it. Most of them

approve of the rule they are used to, and they tell us we live in a

horrid go-as-you-please fashion with the worst results. I suppose we

do. But I have never known an English servant put to sleep in a

cupboard, though I have heard complaints of damp fireless rooms,

especially in old historical palaces and houses. And I have never been

offered a room in a good English inn that had no windows to the open

air. These windowless rooms may be forbidden as bedrooms by the German

police, but it would take a bigger earthquake than the empire is

likely to sustain to do away with those still in use.