THE CLOTHES TICKET.
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.