Roman city settlement
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 Characteristic rotunda |
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| Basic data | |
| Area : | 0.3 km² |
| Population : | 2,493 |
| Population density : | 8,310 inhabitants / km² |
| Creation time: | 1927-1929 |
| location | |
| District : | 8 - north-west |
| District : | Heddernheim |
| District : | 43 2 (Heddernheim-West) |
| Center / main street: | Hadrian Street |
| architecture | |
| Architectural style: | classic modern |
| Urban planner: | Ernst May |
| Architect: | Carl-Hermann Rudloff |
Coordinates: 50 ° 9 ′ N , 8 ° 38 ′ E
The Römerstadt is an early modern settlement in Frankfurt am Main , which was built as part of the New Frankfurt project on the northern edge of the Nidda valley at the end of the 1920s.
location
The Roman city is located in the southwest of the Heddernheim district on the right of the Nidda . It is bounded to the north by the street In der Römerstadt , to the south by the streets An der Ringmauer , Hadrianstraße and Im Burgfeld . The city motorway Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse has been dividing the settlement into an east and a west part with a bridge since the 1960s.
History of the origins of the Roman city
Remains of a Roman settlement were discovered during excavations , but were built over after the finds were secured. Most of the found objects can be found in the Archaeological Museum in Frankfurt , in the Heddernheimer Heimatmuseum in the New Palace and in the Nassau Antiquities Collection (SNA) of the Wiesbaden City Museum. The name Roman city was chosen because the settlement on the territory of the former Roman , the supply of Limes serving small town of Nida was built. Street names also indicate the Roman context.
As part of the Niddatal development planned by the settlement office headed by Ernst May since 1925, the large Römerstadt settlement (architect Carl-Hermann Rudloff ) with a total of 1,220 residential units was built along the slopes of the Nidda between the old town centers of Praunheim and Heddernheim in 1927 and 1928 built. The apartments were equipped with the Frankfurt kitchen, which was new at the time . Leberecht Migge and Max Bromme designed the gardens and green spaces as a transition from the Frankfurt core city to the new settlements in the periphery. Since only about a third of the residential building land required for the construction of the 581 single-family houses and 602 storey apartments was owned by the city, the rest of the land was previously acquired from private property in an expropriation process for 2.60 to 5.60 RM per square meter. Moving into the first apartments began in the summer of 1928, 500 apartments were occupied in October 1928, and the Römerstadt settlement was completed in October 1929. Street names such as Am Forum and Mithrasstraße refer to the Romans, as does the street Im Burgfeld , which follows the course of the Roman defensive wall.
Architectural-historical classification
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In terms of urban planning, the concept of the satellite town was implemented at an early stage , a settlement of limited size in the outskirts of the city. All of the services required on a daily basis, such as schools and shops, should be available here, while the central facilities of the metropolis, such as universities and hospitals, should be accessible via good transport links. "The advantages of small-town life - living close to nature, the integrity of the community - ... [should] ... combine with the economic and cultural advantages of the big city".
The ground plan of the settlement has a dynamic shape , also due to the topographical slope in the valley of the Nidda . Its borders are clearly marked by a wall in the south and a 3–4-storey perimeter development.
The individual houses show the formal language of the “International Style” of the architecture of this decade. Its principles are rationalism and functionality, with it the rejection of ornament and decoration. Flat roof, white plaster, cubic dimensions, right angles and asymmetry are their characteristics. This rationality demanded by May also determined the furnishings of the individual apartments. Central heating, baths, and full electrification (see below) were not yet a matter of course in housing developments. The approximately 7 m² Frankfurt kitchen was specially developed for residential construction in New Frankfurt by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky with the aim of optimizing all household work processes. It was supposed to replace the traditional kitchen-cum-living-room as well as the relatively large living room as a complement to the conventional, mostly little-used "living room". Ernst May's concept was based on a popular educational approach: "With the Roman city, the residents were given an environment that was designed with a specific cultural objective in mind, from public spaces to house and garden to furniture." the Roman city recognize certain similarities with the Dessau-Törten settlement , which was built around the same time according to plans by Walter Gropius . There are differences in terms of comfort, which was much higher in the Roman city.
The Ernst-May-Gesellschaft has from 2006 a house of the settlement, the Ernst-May-Haus museum and a corresponding pattern garden with a designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky gazebo largely restored landscaping to its original condition of the 1920s.
financing
The construction project was financed to a large extent by an increase in the capital of Mietheim AG and with the help of house interest taxes , furthermore, to a not inconsiderable extent, by high-interest foreign mortgages taken out in the United States and by helping the tenants with building cost subsidies amounting to around 4 till 8 %. This compulsory entry fee had to be paid in full when moving into the apartment and left to the housing association without interest. This grant was then repaid through a rent reduction lasting over 10 years. The tenants were able to record the legally guaranteed right of residence for a period of at least 10 to 15 years and the associated "feeling of security" as a positive equivalent for their financial employment, provided they regularly met their ongoing obligations such as rent.
Occupancy
In general, the binding guidelines for all new housing developments also applied here, according to which tenants were only awarded who had been registered as seekers with the municipal housing office for at least one year or who provided the housing office with an independent family apartment in an old building when moving into a new apartment. This happened to around 35% of new tenants. From July 1, 1929, the waiting period was reduced to six months and completely abandoned around 1930 in the interest of the occupancy rate. In this respect, it is understandable that in the Roman city, with the relatively high proportion of single-family row houses and a by no means low rent in the first few years, citizens from the upper middle class in particular rented rooms.
The apartments were "inherited" by the tenants over generations due to the contractually given possibility, so that in the 1980s, meanwhile, elderly first-time occupants of the Roman city were living at very affordable rents.
Second World War
The Second World War had an impact on the day the war began for the Roman town uncomfortable, because it in 1929 appointed after much debate line with buses von Praunheim to Heddernheim only summarily ceased once to take them temporarily back into operation. The next contact with the war events in May 1940, when British bombers of the Royal Air Force , which is probably the VDM plant , to attack with a bomb attack several series throws rained down on the Roman town. There was damage to buildings in Hadrianstrasse and Am Forum in particular . The repairs, especially the window fronts, started the next day. In 1944 the street An der Ringmauer was a rather random bomb target. Some houses were also destroyed here. Overall, the Roman city survived the war far better than other parts of Frankfurt. However, this was the reason that in April 1945 all tenants of the Roman city were ordered by US authorities to leave their apartments within two hours and only with small luggage; any violation would be punished as looting. The Roman city, abandoned by its residents, was made available to foreign workers from the closed VDM works (copper works) for a few weeks. After the completion of the work to be carried out by Gartenstadt AG, American families moved into the houses and apartments, which were then in need of renovation, and were protected from German access by a high, reinforced fence until the currency reform in 1948 . It was not until the mid-1950s that the apartments were released and the former tenants were offered a resumption of tenancy.
Housing association
Probably the most important building measures in the context of the Frankfurt housing estate after the First World War were initially no longer the joint-stock construction company for small apartments, which had been in municipal ownership since 1923 . This was responsible for the Bruchfeldstrasse settlements, which began in 1926, and in particular Ginnheimer Höhenblick with its panoramic position over the Niddatal to the Taunus , hence the name Höhenblick. About the same time began on Bornheimer Hang the construction of large housing Bornheimer Hang . In contrast, Mietheim AG , which in 1923/24 also came largely into the possession of the city, and from July 1929 Gartenstadt AG, was responsible for the Römerstadt settlement . In addition to his work as head of building construction, Ernst May also became a technical board member of the property developer, an extremely unusual constellation to this day. Ernst May also built a villa for himself on the edge of the Höhenblick estate.
Before 1933, the separation of the municipal housing associations was lifted again and the Römerstadt settlement was transferred to the municipal stock corporation for small apartments.
Interest group Römerstadt e. V.
Following the example of the settlement association founded in June 1927 in the neighboring settlement of Praunheim as an association of home owners to safeguard their common interests, the tenants of the settlement Römerstadt joined the community of interests Römerstadt e. V. together. The central themes of the IG Römerstadt were always where new territory was deliberately entered in the construction and furnishing of the settlement and this resulted in particularly typical problem situations, especially at the beginning of the settlement's history, e.g. B. at
- the full electrification of the settlement,
- the heating cost calculation with central supply,
- the transport connection to local public transport,
- the rent caused by the foreign capital.
In addition, the community of interests is particularly active within the Römerstadt settlement in the organizational and settlement cultural area, for example through the association's own tenant newspaper "Die Römerstadt" and the annual garden party or the organization of stairwell cleaning.
After the Second World War, the IG Römerstadt continued to exist as a non-registered association and mainly took care of the aspects of the settlement.
Full electrification
The Roman city was the first fully electrified settlement in Germany: Specifically, for the individual apartment or the rented terraced house, only combination stoves for electricity with integrated Notherd for briquettes were available for cooking and the supply of warm water via an electrically operated 80 l -Low pressure accumulator took place. The row houses for rent had an individual central heating system operated with coke. There was no gas supply . The decision in favor of such a supply system was made by the housing association and the city's technical offices against the background of the increasing importance of electricity for individual households after months of cooking attempts in the machine office and detailed calculations by the city's electricity company . In addition to the advanced technical argument in favor of electrification, there was also a structural justification: Because of its relatively small size for the time and its material made of wood-based materials, the “ Frankfurt kitchen ” could only absorb the water vapor generated when using town gas with difficulty . Moisture and mold growth would have been expected. It should be noted that this negative side effect was simply accepted in later fitted kitchens. Due to the size of the settlement, the electricity could be obtained at a special “Roman town tariff” with a day / night distinction. This served the economic relief of the tenants.
Ernst May House
In the Römerstadt housing estate, a terraced house designed under May's direction was renovated as an Ernst May House by the Ernst May Society Association and restored to its original state with objects from the New Frankfurt . It is open to the public as a museum and illustrates the achievements of the New Frankfurt.
The house in the street Im Burgfeld with the house number 136 was completed in 2010 and presented to the public. On August 15, 2010, the Ernst-May-Haus also took part in the 2010 series of events on the Route of Industrial Culture Rhine-Main . Particular emphasis was placed on the Frankfurt kitchen and Ernst May's contribution to modern housing construction, taking into account the basic social needs of the population .
Transport links
The problem of a traffic connection between the settlement and Praunheim and Heddernheim was recognized when the first decision on the construction project was made in December 1926 and the municipal housing association therefore criticized the planning. You referred to the fact that the proposed settlement Roman town about 15 minutes from the nearest station of Frankfurt tram will be in Heddernheim removed. Since 1932 there was even a public debate about the transport links between the settlements of the Niddatal project in the monthly Die Siedlung .
The Roman city was opened up to traffic since the winter of 1928/29 by the Frankfurt am Main tram terminating at the end of line 18 “Praunheim Bridge” through Alt-Praunheim and from the street Am alten Schloss along the northern edge of the Roman city into Heddernheimer Kirchstrasse and Bus line K leads to “Heddernheim-Bahnhof” with a considerable three-minute frequency during peak times. The bus line, designated as number 60 since March 11, 1940, was idle for some time after the start of the war in September 1939, including in the winter of 1942/43, was used again from February 15, 1943 and from January 6, 1944 to January 8 1945 - with further interruptions due to the war - operated as a trolleybus . After the war it started again as a bus route on September 1, 1948; After the overhead lines had been repaired, trolleybuses were in operation from November 1, 1948 to October 4, 1959. After the overhead lines were dismantled, buses on line 60 are still running today.
In 1974, as part of the extension of the A1 line (today's U1 line ) from the north-west center to Ginnheim by two additional stations , the Römerstadt received its own connection to the Frankfurt U-Bahn network . The U9 line, which was introduced for the winter 2010 timetable change, also serves this stop.
literature
- Helen Barr, Ulrike May, Rahel Welsen: The New Frankfurt - Walks through the Ernst May settlements and the architecture of its time . B3 Verlag, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-938783-20-7 .
- Ronald Kunze (ed.): The settlement. Monthly for the non-profit settlement and housing industry (1929–1939). Bulletin of the building cooperatives and building companies of Greater Frankfurt . Institute for Housing Policy and Urban Ecology V., Hanover 1986 (reprint).
- Heike Lauer: From »New Morocco« to the »flagship settlement par excellence«. On the social history of the Römerstadt settlement. In: Walter Prigge, Hans-Peter Schwarz (ed.): Das Neue Frankfurt. Urban development and architecture in the modernization process 1925–1988 . Frankfurt 1988, pp. 19-40.
- Ronald Kunze: Tenant participation in social housing. Establishment and development of tenant representatives in the settlements of the non-profit housing companies . Kassel 1992, ISBN 3-89117-071-8 .
- Elisabeth Lücke: The Roman City . In: Frankfurt am Main - tours through Frankfurt history . Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-395-4 .
- Robert Velten: The Roman city in Frankfurt and the socio-architecture of housing developments in the 20s . Münster 2012.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Statistical Yearbook 2008 City of Frankfurt accessed on Feb. 26, 2020
- ↑ .
- ↑ Lauer, p. 20.
- ↑ Lauer, p. 27.
Web links
- Article about the May settlement at Monumente Online
- The Ernst May House in the Römerstadt settlement provides information about the settlement as well as about the architect Ernst May