Berlin workers' gardens
In addition to the " arbor colonists " and the " allotment gardens ", Berlin workers' gardens are a special form of allotment gardens .
Emergence
The idea of workers' gardens originated in Paris and Luxembourg in the mid-19th century . In Germany, these ideas were adopted by Alwin Bielefeldt at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries . In 1904 the first workers' gardens were founded as a colony on the service field of the Jungfernheide forestry under the name "Gartenfeld Jungfernheide, Red Cross Colony" with the help of the German Red Cross .
The workers' gardens were supposed to alleviate economic hardship. Workers and employees, who often lived on the edge of the subsistence level in tenements in confined spaces and even accommodated sleepers , should be given the chance to improve their situation. The aim of the workers' gardens was to consolidate the family as a social function.
In the statutes, the DRK stipulated that the sense of family should be strengthened, the family should relax together in the garden , the man should be distracted from visiting the inn and the pensions should be improved.
Most of the fields required for the workers' gardens planned by the Red Cross were provided by the city of Berlin . There was also support from women's associations, which partly financed the development of the site, the lease fees and the installation of a water supply . The annual rent of the Jungfernheide colony was 1 thaler for a plot .
Workers' gardens were subject to strict rules. In groups of 10 to 12 gardens each, they were combined to form a “patronage”. Each patronage was headed by a "patronage board". A general assembly was held every week. Otherwise, the board's work differed very little from today's tasks: Organization of children's, harvest and summer festivals. Incidentally, alcohol was strictly forbidden at these festivities . There was only milk , mineral water , coffee and chocolate . But beer and cigars were also allowed. There were men's choirs , gymnastics and sports groups for children and young people, folk dance groups and the like. Ä.
The Red Cross program was successful. In 1909 the "Central Association of German Workers and Allotments" was founded. In all of Germany there were around 30,000 workers' gardens by 1911. In 1913 there were 1045 gardens in six fields in Charlottenburg alone . However, the "Association of all planters' associations in Berlin and the surrounding area" did not join this association. They considered the DRK's patronage constitution to be directed against the democratic nature of the allotment garden movement.
resolution
In Berlin-Neukölln , "Representatives of the Central Association of German Workers and Allotment Gardeners" gave advice in the early 1920s. In the end there was the unanimous adoption of a resolution which reads: “ The representatives of the Central Association of German Workers and Allotment Gardeners and the associations and associations that have not yet been centrally united unanimously demand the merger of all allotment garden organizations to form a uniformly managed 'Reich Association of Allotment Gardeners in Germany ' ". The statutes were finally adopted on August 14, 1921 in Bremen .
This ended the existence of the special kind of allotment garden known as “workers' gardens”.
See also
literature
- Jörg Albrecht (text), Karin Blüher (photos): Schrebergärten , westermann, Braunschweig 1989, ISBN 3-07-508998-2
- Wilhelm von Kalkstein: Workers' gardens (allotment gardens) , Dietrich, Gautzsch near Leipzig 1909 (culture and progress; Volume 262)
- Vera Steinborn (Ed.): Workers' gardens in the Ruhr area , LOK Report , Münster 1991, ISBN 3-921980-36-4