Althoff block

Althoffblock gate entrance from Neuer Graben

Glance into one of the inner courtyards

The Althoff block is an urban residential complex in Dortmund , construction of which began in 1914. The cooperative Spar- und Bauverein Dortmund eG, which was founded here, has around 12,000 apartments in Dortmund in 2007, around 1,600 of them in the Althoffblock residential area. The Althoff block is a model for urban living and recorded as an ensemble on the Dortmund list of monuments over the individual buildings.

The core of the residential area is the cross between Althoffstrasse and Roseggerstrasse in the south-west of Dortmund city center. The entrances via Althoffstrasse are separated from the adjacent, heavily traveled streets by gates. The entire Althoff block with its four-storey residential buildings encloses several large inner courtyards, each of which offers several thousand square meters of green space with playgrounds and meadows that are only accessible to residents. There are no entrances for cars or garages. Some of the gardens are not accessible through driveways at all. The residential complex, which has been developed over decades, offers individual design of the individual buildings despite the comparable standards of the apartments.

The housing offer was originally aimed mainly at workers in the surrounding industrial companies and small civil servants and employees. The majority of the apartments are relatively small with a size between 45 and 75 m², so that today not many families live in the Althoff block. According to a WAZ report dated February 23, 2002, around 50% of the tenants were over 60 years old and a third under 30.

In cooperation with Caritas , the cooperative maintains a “neighborhood meeting place” at Steubenstrasse 16, which takes special care of the elderly, offers numerous courses and publishes a small newspaper. Caritas continues to operate a social station.

Web links

Commons : Althoffblock  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ WAZ report: Neighborhood meeting continues to work even without subsidies ( Memento from September 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 25.6 ″  N , 7 ° 26 ′ 42.2 ″  E