German recreation center
The Deutsche Erholungswerk (DEW) is an association based in Hamburg that has been building and operating holiday villages since 1953 to enable parents to have affordable holidays with their children.
Foundation and goals
Johanna Brauweiler (1896–1989) played a key role in its founding in 1953 . The Hamburg journalist and CDU politician was the editor of the women's service before 1945 , after the war she was active in the journalistic working group of the German Evangelical Church Congress . The DEW was organized as an association to enable parents to spend inexpensive holidays with their children and thus strengthen family cohesion. In the following decades, therefore, six holiday settlements were built across the country. The construction of the holiday villages was supported by public funds and private donations. According to its own information, DEW finances the ongoing work from rental income and private donations.
DEW holiday villages
For all holiday villages, small-format houses, mostly semi-detached houses and a main / community house, were grouped like small villages in an idyllic landscape. Regional style features are reflected in the architecture, often half-timbered or wooden paneling is used. The first holiday village (40 semi-detached houses, seven single houses and a main house in brick framework) was built in the mid-1950s in Schneverdingen in the Lüneburg Heath . In the holiday village of Schneverdingen, outdoor shots were shot for the film Heimat - Deine Lieder , which was shown in German cinemas in 1959. In 1960 the holiday village Blomberg followed (15 semi-detached houses and a community house with half-timbered elements) in the Teutoburg Forest . The holiday village Golsmaas on the Baltic Sea (50 detached houses, twelve terraced houses and a main house as a roof-top house with half-timbered elements partly painted red) was inaugurated in 1965.
In 1966 DEW built the Gedern holiday village in the Hohen Vogelsberg (40 semi-detached houses and a main house with large windows in dark wooden frames). In addition, the holiday village Sattelbogen in the Bavarian Forest (60 double houses and one main house with wood-clad upper floors) and the holiday village Todtnau in the southern Black Forest (64 double houses and one main house with wood-clad upper floors) should be mentioned. Of these six locations, five are still operated as DEW holiday villages. The Blomberg holiday village has been leased as a residence for refugees since summer 2015.
literature
- Patrick Bockwinkel: City of Blomberg leases the holiday village for five years . Up to 180 refugees are to be accommodated in the 30 houses, in: Lippische Landes-Zeitung January 19, 2016.
- Martin Schack: A house on time . Bungalow holiday villages from the 1960s in the Teutoburg Forest, Eggegebirge and Weserbergland, Detmold 2014, pp. 24-25.
- Ernst Bernhauer: The state promotion of tourism in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin from 1961 to 1964 (contributions to tourism research 10), Berlin 1967, p. 153.
- Sybille Diekmann: The holiday home areas in Schleswig-Holstein . A settlement and socio-geographic study (writings of the Geographical Institute of the University of Kiel XXI, 3), Kiel 1963, pp. 160, 176.
- Hermann AL Degener: Who is who? Lexicon of the times, containing biographies and bibliographies, Volume 14, Berlin / Leipzig 1961, p. 162.
- Feriendorf Blomberg , in: Die Zeit April 1, 1960.