Freidorf BL

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Freidorf 1988

The Freidorf settlement belongs to Muttenz , Canton Basel-Landschaft , in Switzerland . The Freidorf housing estate is the most important housing estate in Switzerland from the period between the world wars and Switzerland's first full cooperative.

Full cooperative

Freidorf was founded in 1921 by the Association of Swiss Consumers (VSK) as a model project of a full cooperative with a cost share of 8 million francs, in which the placement of living space and life in the village community was organized according to cooperative principles. Each cooperative member took on a share of 100 francs. Around 600 people who worked for the consumer association lived in the settlement.

The establishment of full or integrated cooperatives was suggested by Charles Fourier , Victor Considerant and Karl Bürkli . In addition to the economic, other areas of life should be included, such as living and householding together, working together, childcare, schools, culture, health care, care for the elderly, etc. This holistic approach also included political and economic equality for women.

Based on the educational philosophy of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and the social reformist thoughts of Heinrich Zschokke , VSK protagonists such as Johann Friedrich Schär realized their cooperative ideas in Muttenz. The initiator of the Freidorf was the President of the VSK Administrative Commission, Bernhard Jäggi , who held leading positions in several companies associated with the cooperative movement. In 1919 he began to put his long-cherished idea of ​​a free village into practice and after its completion he moved into an apartment in the free village himself. In 1923 Jäggi founded the cooperative seminar in Freidorf.

In his guidelines published in 1921, Jäggi defines his core ideas for the Freidorf project:

The (...) basic idea in the consumer cooperative organization lies in the form of the smaller, self-contained economic community, which manages itself in the simplest possible way while avoiding all avoidable costs and, following federal association organs, operates as comprehensive self-sufficiency as possible, so that the whole economic area appears as an expanded, but in all its parts quite clearly arranged cooperative household through which the energies and advantages of the large economy are tapped into the individual family economy. This idea must be revived in the cooperative movement if the goal is to be achieved.

- Bernhard Jäggi

A large cooperative house was built in the center of the settlement , which, with large assembly halls and numerous rooms, served a variety of cooperative activities and became the seat of the cooperative seminar and, in 1927, the foundation for the formation of integral cooperatives by Henri Lasserre .

There were two shops and a restaurant for the common procurement of food and everyday items. The welfare fund (Batzensparkasse), a group insurance and a retirement and spouse's insurance were founded as social institutions. From 1920 to 1948, a separate cooperative money, the free village money, was issued and used as consumer money . From 1920 to 1967 (from 1967 "Mitteilungen") its own newspaper, the "Wochenblatt", was published.

The cooperative building had its own school and kindergarten, library and reading rooms. The culture was promoted with an orchestra and folk choir as well as cultural events. The Foundation for the Promotion of Settlement Cooperatives offered courses on cooperatives. The cooperative seminar held courses on education, administration and household up to vocational training, with practical activities in the house, kitchen and administration. Freidorf was the training center for the Basel consumer association .

The amount of the rent was determined in accordance with local standards. A lower rent in the amount of the operating costs would also have been possible because, thanks to the VSK foundation, there was no mortgage interest. With the difference, a “fund for the construction of further cooperative villages” was raised. This solidarity tax should have made it possible to build a second village after 38 years.

The Freidorf settlement cooperative still exists as such today. The houses are generally rented to families with underage children; Renting a house requires membership in the cooperative and a permanent contract of at least 50% at Coop .

architecture

Freidorf Muttenz, seen from St. Jakobs-Strasse ( traditionalism )

The settlement was designed and built by the later Bauhaus architect Hannes Meyer (1889–1954), and it was built between 1919 and 1921 in the cooperative model based on the garden city model. Meyer himself described the Freidorf as half a monastery and an institution, half a garden city and a Jura village. The development plans were drawn up in 1919 at a special exhibition at the Zurich Museum of Decorative Arts (for which a catalog was also published) together with those of the Geneva garden city "Piccard, Pictet Co." by Hans Schmidt et al. shown.

The building site, surrounded by a wall all around, above a site edge ("Schänzli") on the edge of Muttenz on St. Jakobs-Strasse, is roughly triangular in shape, according to Meyer the symbolic ideal form of the "first Swiss full cooperative" (1919–1921). The architect Rudolf Christ (1895–1975) is said to have played a key role in determining the settlement plan. 150 terraced houses are arranged in a grid around a central village square , each with small front gardens and kitchen gardens at the back. The whole settlement is very green with rows of trees. In the middle of the village there is a tree-shaded square, which is intended as a playground and is decorated with a fountain and an obelisk monument. This is adjacent to the so-called cooperative house , built between 1922 and 1924 , which originally served as a restaurant, shop, school, meeting room and seminar. At the beginning of 1921 a tram line was opened from Basel to Muttenz, which runs directly past the Freidorf, so that the transport connections were also favorable.

In the Swiss gardening art of the 20th century, the Freidorf represents a high point in the development of the so-called residential garden style, which, in contrast to the contemporary predominant style of the architectural garden, placed the function on the strict orientation to formal design principles. A private garden should no longer be a privilege of the rich bourgeoisie, but a continuation of the living space outdoors and open to changing activities (similar to the concepts of Harry Maasz in Germany).

The townscape of the Freidorf was classified as of national importance by the federal government and the canton of Basel-Landschaft in the course of the inventory of protected sites in Switzerland (ISOS) (a corresponding Federal Council ordinance (VISOS) has been in force since October 1, 1981).

The water house settlement in Münchenstein , built in 1920–1921, based on designs by Hans Benno Bernoulli , the plans were worked out by the architect W. Brodtbeck AG , represents a private-sector alternative to the Freidorf settlement , which was realized at the same time but was financed by a cooperative .

literature

  • Hannes Meyer: The Freidorf settlement . In: The work. 12 (1925), 2, pp. 40-51. Meyer, Hannes: The Freidorf settlement ( Memento from June 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). Reprint in: Martin Kieren (Ed.): Hannes Meyer, Architect: 1889–1954; Writings of the twenties , Baden: Müller, 1990, ISBN 3-906700-23-2 .
  • Johann Friedrich Schär : online text . In: Die Bodenreform (1922), pp. 167–171.
  • Faust, Helmut: History of the cooperative movement. Origin and path of the cooperatives in the German-speaking area. Frankfurt / Main 1965, p. 458.
  • Möller, Matthias: Living in cooperation. Everyday life in the cooperative in the Freidorf model estate near Basel (1919-1969). Frankfurt / Main 2015.
  • Möller, Matthias: Self-help in the living area - the example of the Freidorf settlement cooperative. In: Social work in the entrepreneurial city: contexts, programs, outlooks. Springer Verlag 2015 [1]
  • Jens Martignoni: The open village money: history of a cooperative complementary currency . Seminar for cooperatives at the University of Cologne .
  • Heinrich Zschokke: The gold maker village. Complete new edition with a biography of the author. Published by Karl-Maria Guth, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86199-035-2 .
  • René Roca (ed.): Holistic approach in building a cooperative : In: Early socialism and modern Switzerland . Schwabe Verlag , Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7965-3819-3 .

Web links

Commons : Genossenschaftssiedlung Freidorf  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ There were hidden reserves formed by the VSK over the years, which according to the law in force from 1916 had to be given to the federal government as war profit tax or used by the taxpayer for a purpose that would benefit the general public. The taxable war profit was the amount by which the net income of a tax year exceeded the (average) net income achieved in the pre-war years.
  2. ^ Heinrich Zschokke: The gold maker village . Cooperative novel from 1817
  3. ↑ Markus Hofmann, Neue Zürcher Zeitung of October 30, 2010: The carillon of peace still sounds
  4. ^ Hans-Rudolf Heyer : Jäggi [Jaeggi], Bernhard. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz .; as well as Dr. hc Bernhard Jaeggi-Büttiker (1869-1944) ( Memento from July 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Local history Muttenz: Freidorf
  6. ^ Jens Martignoni: The free village money: history of a cooperative complementary currency
  7. ↑ Living in the Freidorf | Houses
  8. ↑ Rudolf Christ. In: arch INFORM ; Retrieved January 3, 2010.
  9. ^ Hans-Rudolf Heyer: Gardens, urban residential gardens. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Coordinates: 47 ° 32 ′ 13 "  N , 7 ° 37 ′ 42"  E ; CH1903:  614284  /  265,152