Apartment “crisis” in interwar Kaunas – even a corner or a bed in a room was rented

At the 27th scientific, interdisciplinary conference on the history of Kaunas, organized by Vytautas the Great University, Prof. Dr. Aistė Lazauskienė, after Kaunas became the temporary capital, the face of the city began to change rapidly – it became the center of political, social and cultural life, central government institutions moved here, the nascent administration and army units were concentrated.

According to the data of 1928, Kaunas concentrated 13 percent of all Lithuania. trade and 15 percent industrial companies.

In 1929, a water supply system was installed, the “konke” stopped running, and buses started running.

“However, when all the administrative institutions got up, a huge housing crisis was felt, in those days they used to say “crisis”. There was a great shortage of living quarters, and there was constant friction. It was interesting to examine how apartment tenants and their owners were represented in the municipal council between the wars. There was a struggle between apartment owners and tenants, who were represented by interest groups of unequal organization, which reached a degree of vitality and were difficult to reconcile. Sometimes the fight even turned into an open confrontation. Those groups tried with lobbying actions, public appeals, and memoranda to sway the state that assumed the role of arbiter to their side”, A. Lazauskienė conveyed the mood of those times.

Compared with prices in 1914