Volkshaus

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One of the oldest European people's houses, Folkets Hus Copenhagen, now a workers' museum (2007)

As People's House (also Arbeiterheim or Volksheim , Scandinavian: folkets hus , French: du maison peuple , Russian: Narodny dom ) were building referred to as an economic, political and cultural centers of the labor movement starting around the 1890s in continental Europe were built cities or set up .

history

People's House "Vooruit" in Ghent (2006)
Volkshaus Jena (2010)
Volkshaus Leipzig, (AK 1913)

With the establishment of trade unions and workers' parties at the end of the 19th century, the problem often arose that there was a lack of appropriate meeting rooms, since the mostly middle-class restaurant owners were not prepared to rent rooms for this, or only at high costs. In order to be independent of this, workers' associations and trade unions started their own initiatives in many cities to build their own houses or to acquire and convert existing buildings. There were also some socially committed industrialists who operated or promoted the construction of such houses. Such a building typically included offices of the union and a workers' party, one or more ballrooms, and rooms used for educational purposes. Occasionally they also included a consumer cooperative store . The pioneers of the movement were the Scandinavian countries , followed by Russia , Belgium , Germany , Switzerland , France and Austria-Hungary . Some of these folk houses were later also built in the Mediterranean and South America .

After 1945, new people's or workers 'homes were built in Western countries, but without the architectural demands of the early buildings of the workers' movement. In the socialist states , however, there were numerous new buildings, initially mostly in the neoclassical style of the Stalin era . From the building type of the people's house there developed that of the culture house , in larger cities that of the culture palace .

List of European folk houses (selection)

Volkshaus Gotha after the renovation (AK 1928)
Volkspark Halle (2015)
Volkshaus Düsseldorf (2011)
Tiedthof Hanover (2013)
Paasitorni Helsinki (2007)

Belgium

Denmark

Germany

In Germany, after the repeal of the Socialist Act in 1890, numerous people's houses were built, mostly as association houses of the SPD and the trade unions, but in some cases also through socially committed entrepreneurs. On May 2, 1933 , the union offices of NSDAP organizations in over 160 cities were occupied, the free unions were smashed and the people's houses were transferred to the German Labor Front . After 1945, the unions in the west got their buildings back - often destroyed in the war. In the GDR, on the other hand, they remained in state or communal ownership and the social buildings were mostly converted into so-called culture houses .

Finland

  • 1900 Puistotorni Tampere , built by the workers' association, expanded in 1912 and 1930, architect Bertel Strömer
  • 1908 Paasitorni Helsinki , renovated in 1919, extended in 1925, architect Karl Lindahl

France

Maison du Peuple Saint-Malo (2013)
  • 1902 Maison du Peuple Nancy
  • 1920 Maison du Peuple Saint-Malo architect Edmond Eugène Mantrand
  • 1925 Maison du Peuple La Cité , Rennes , architect Emmanuel Le Ray

Austria

Former workers' home Favoriten, Vienna (2012)

Norway

  • 1907 Folkets Hus Oslo , replaced in 1962 by the new building of the Norwegian trade union LO and the Oslo Congress Center
  • 1926 Folkets Hus Eydehavn
  • 1931 Folkets Hus Sauda , Skulegata 20, architect: Gustav Helland

Russia

From the 1880s onwards, numerous people's houses (Narodni Dom) were built in Russia, around 20 in Saint Petersburg alone . They contained libraries, theaters and restaurants and served above all for adult education for both workers and the middle class. As a rule, they were financially supported by the municipalities and the state, as well as through donations from private sponsors. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the name Volkshaus was no longer used, but replaced by the Kulturhaus or Kulturpalast .

People's House Moscow 1904.

Sweden

In Sweden, the facilities were mainly created in industrial communities, often outside the city center. After that, the idea spread from the south to the north, creating a total of over 692 Folkets Hus.

  • 1899 Folkets Hus Kristianstad , created by converting a theater building
  • 1901 Folkets Hus Stockholm , Barnhusgatan 14. Renewed in three stages in 1951 and 1960
  • 1905–06 Folkets hus Helsingborg , Gustav Adolfs torg, architect Harald Berglin
  • 1948 Folkets Hus Malmö , architect Hans Westman, today a conference center

Switzerland

Volkshaus Zurich (2014)

Czech Republic

People's House Prostějov (2007)

See also

  • Kōminkan , comparable cultural and educational centers introduced in Japan in the 1940s

literature

  • Klaus-Dieter Mahn: People's houses . Volume 1 and 2, Halle (Saale) 1982; DNB 831147865 ( Dissertation A University of Halle 1982, 189 pages - in two volumes).
  • Robert Schediwy : City images - reflections on the change in architecture and urbanism . Lit, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7755-8 , p. 93 ff.
  • Ernst Seidl (ed.): Lexicon of building types. Functions and forms of architecture . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-010572-6 .
  • Anke Hoffsten: The people's house of the workers' movement in Germany - community buildings between everyday life and utopia, Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 2017, Böhlau-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-412-50734-3

Web links

Commons : People's Houses  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sergey Prokofiev Diaries 1907–1914 trans. Anthony Phillips. Faber, London 2006, p. 292.
  2. ↑ Kyril FitzLyon, Jenny Hughes: The companion guide to St Petersburg. Boydell & Brewer, 2003, pp. 64-65.
  3. ↑ Sankt Peterburg: Music Hall. Carthalia - Theaters on Postcards, accessed December 4, 2011 .