It has been said that the sign _Verboten_ was the most seen sign in
Germany, but now that sign has a rival in _Ohne Bezugsschein_, which
means "without a clothes ticket." All the store windows are decorated
with these cards and merchants are pushing forward these articles
because they are more expensive than the articles which require a
card, and most people would rather pay a few marks more than go to the
trouble of getting a card.
Along in May, 1916, there were rumors of a ticket for clothes, but the
people only laughed, "How could there be a ticket for clothes?" they
asked and "What will we do if our clothes wear out and we can't get a
ticket for any more?"
On the 10th of June the ordinance was published, and it went into
effect on the 1st of August. Now the ticket is in full swing, and
one must have a ticket to get all the articles of wearing apparel and
household things that are not marked _Ohne Bezugsschein_.
The _Bezugsschein_ was not originated to make things uncomfortable for
people in general, but to protect the people who are poor and to keep
the rich people from buying up the cheap useful articles that poorer
people must have for winter. At first it was only cheap useful articles
that were on the card, and articles of clothing that were over a set
price could be bought without a card, but now many expensive things are
on a card as well, and no matter what the price is, a man or a woman
can have only two woolen suits a year.
The following list is from the ordinance of June 10, and it tells what
things can be bought without a card. The prices quoted are the lowest
prices of articles without a ticket. The first list is of articles
which require no ticket at any price.
1. Silk or art cloth.
2. Half silk cloth.
3. Silk or half silk stockings for men or women.
4. Ladies' cotton stockings of which a dozen pairs weigh less
than 750 grams.
5. Men's cotton stockings of which a dozen pairs weigh less than
450 grams.
(This is to keep the coarser stockings for the poor.)
6. Silk or half silk gloves for men or women.
7. Cotton gloves made from number 80 thread or finer.
8. Ribbon, cord and bobbin.
9. Suspenders, or garters for men or women.
10. Lace tulle or curtains.
11. Tapestry and all kinds of cloth for furniture.
12. Caps, hats and veils.
13. Umbrellas.
14. Woolen cloth for ladies' dresses or suits which is not over
130 centimeters wide and retails at at least 10 marks a meter.
15. Colored or flowered stuff of cotton material which is not more
than 50 centimeters wide and retails for not less than 3 marks
a meter.
16. Cotton goods as used for aprons etc., which is not over 90
centimeters wide and retails for not less than 2 marks a meter.
17. Printed cotton goods which is not over 90 centimeters wide and
retails for not less than 2 marks a meter.
18. Unwashable white goods.
19. Corsets.
20. Wash goods not more than 80 centimeters wide which retails
at not less than 3 marks a meter.
21. Linen not more than 80 centimeters wide which retails at not
less than 3 marks a meter.
22. Pure linen bed covers which retail at 30 marks or over.
23. Handkerchiefs.
24. Colored aprons which retail at 2 marks and over.
25. White aprons which retail at 2 marks and over.
26. Satin shoes.
Men's ready made clothes without a ticket at the following prices and
over.
Suits 75 marks.
Coats 47 "
Jackets 32 "
Vests 11 "
Pants 18 "
All things for military use can be bought without a ticket.
Women's ready made clothes without a ticket at the following prices and
over.
Woolen suits 80 marks.
Coats 60 "
Wash suits 40 "
Woolen waists 11 "
Wash skirts 20 "
Woolen skirts 30 "
Trimmed woolen dresses 100 "
Night gowns 10 "
Combination suits 6 "
Drawers 10 "
Corset covers 5 "
Dressing sacks 10 "
Wash petticoats 12 "
For every article of wearing apparel or cloth that is not in this list
and is cheaper than the set price, one must procure a _Schein_ in order
to buy the article. This means that all the cheaper waists, dresses,
aprons, pants, stockings, underwear and skirts require a ticket, also
all the cheaper cloth by the meter. One cannot buy a yard of flannel,
a wash rag or a dusting rag without a ticket. Nearly everything for
children requires a ticket.
It is very troublesome to get a ticket, but if you know what you want
before you go to the store, you can procure your ticket first, and
this saves time. The _Bezugsscheinstellen_ are scattered all over the
city. Each district has a place, and you must get your ticket from
the district in which you live. They have on file all the _Scheine_
you have procured, so you can't get more than your allowance, and
if you have moved from one place to another you must wait until
they investigate what you have had in the other district before they
will give you a _Schein_. You must show your passport or your police
registration.
The clothes ticket is a large piece of paper with a place for your
name, address and occupation. The clerks write on the paper the article
you wish and how many of each article. For every kind of an article a
separate _Schein_ is needed. On the back of the ticket it tells that it
is not transferable and that the misuse of it makes you liable to six
months imprisonment or a fine of 15,000 marks. It also says that it is
good only in the German Empire. This is not supposed to be a joke.
If anything happens to a person's clothes, like loss by fire, new
clothes can be procured if the person can prove that the fire was an
accident. An American I knew had all his clothes stolen except the suit
he was wearing. He went to the police and explained his case, and after
a few weeks he got a permit to get some more clothes.
When a man gets a new suit he has to turn in his old suit. These old
suits are repaired and are put away for the soldiers when they come
home from the war. Germany forgets no details.
The limit of things that a person can buy is rather indefinite, for
some people require more clothes than others. Some men get twelve
shirts a year, and others get only six. Two woolen suits are allowed
and six pairs of stockings.
Since April, 1917, a ticket has been required for shoes, and each
person is allowed two pairs of shoes a year. This is really the hardest
restriction of the whole war, for the leather is so poor that hardly
the best would last six months. Shoes for men are not as bad as the
shoes for women, and the soldiers have very good shoes, but when I left
Berlin the only kind of shoes that a woman could buy was fancy patent
leather with cloth tops, the soles of which were like paper. What the
German women are going to do for shoes this winter I do not know. I
could not get any shoes at all. In the summer of 1916 I had a pair made
for sixty marks, but the next summer they wouldn't make any to order,
and I wear so small a size that I could not get any shoes to fit me in
Berlin.
When I left for Denmark I was very shabby looking. I had a nice silk
suit and a pretty hat, but that was the extent of my wardrobe. The
girls in the boarding-house where I lived bought nearly everything I
had. They were just wild to buy my things, and I sold what they could
wear because I knew I could get more and they could not. It was a
pity that I am so small, because they could hardly get into what they
bought. The daughter of the boarding-house keeper with whom I lived was
going to have her winter suit made out of a portière that she had dyed
a nice brown color. She had used up all her tickets and couldn't buy
any woolen material. As I was going away I let the girls get tickets in
my name. This was very nice of me, for I had to go and get the tickets
myself, and I had to wait in line to get them.
The ticket is very hard on girls about to be married, as a German girl
must furnish the house and have at least two dozen sets of sheets and
pillow cases and about one hundred towels. As one person can get only
two sheets a year on the ticket, it would at that rate take a girl
twelve years before she could be properly married. So the scheming of
getting things without a ticket was as great as the scheming of getting
food without a card, and the government cannot prevent it.
A week before I left Berlin, a printed card was hung up in my room
at the boarding-house. It said, "After August 1 people coming to this
boarding-house for an extended stay must bring their own bedding with
them. The washing will be done every four weeks." It was signed "The
Boarding-House Union." I was glad that the washing was to be done every
four weeks, because I was seven weeks at that boarding-house, and I
never once had clean sheets. After three weeks the sheets got a kind
of gray color, and then they never seemed to get any dirtier. Special
provisions are made at hotels where each guest must be furnished with
a clean sheet.
The clothes _Schein_ is especially designed to limit the sale of woolen
goods, and many German women who had never worn silk before in their
lives are wearing it now, because wool is so expensive. The ticket
is very hard on the dry-goods merchants, the tailors and the men's
furnishers, and they complain that their business is frightful, but
Germany doesn't care for the individuals, she is looking out for the
country as a whole.