Fuggerei

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The Fuggerei in Augsburg (2010)

The Fuggerei in Augsburg is the oldest existing social housing estate in the world. The row house settlement was donated by Jakob Fugger “the rich” in 1521. Today 150 needy Catholic citizens of Augsburg live in the 140 apartments of the 67 houses for an annual (cold) rent of 0.88 euros. To this end, they speak once a day an Our Father , a creed and an Ave Maria for the founder and the Fugger family . To this day, the social housing estate is maintained from Jakob Fugger's foundation assets. The Fürstlich und Gräflich Fugger Family Seniorat acts as the supervisory body of theFürstlich und Gräflich Fugger Foundation Administration , which looks after the Fuggerei and eight Fugger foundations.

History of the Fuggerei

Monument to Jakob Fugger
Maria Elisabeth Countess Thun-Fugger with Michail Gorbatschow during his visit to the Fuggerei in 2005
Memorial plaque on Franz Mozart's house
Corner in the Fuggerei

The Fuggerei was donated by Jakob Fugger on August 23, 1521 as a housing estate for needy citizens of Augsburg. The letter of foundation stipulated:

"Namely, so should such Hewser Poor people and craftsmen and burgers and residents of this city of Augsburg, which it is necessary and is best invested, for God's sake equalized and in it neither has to bar and was not viewed ..."

The complex was built between 1516 and 1523 under the direction of the master builder Thomas Krebs. At that time, 52 apartments were built around the first six alleys. The apartments in the two-storey houses, which were built according to largely standardized floor plans, were generously planned for the circumstances at the time of their construction. The concept of the Fuggerei as helping people to help themselves was downright modern. The social settlement was for of poverty threatened artisans and laborers thought that could on their own, for example due to illness, lead independent households. They could pursue their livelihood inside and outside the Fuggerei and should move out again if the economy recovered. For the time, the residents of the Fuggerei were able to enjoy an almost luxurious privacy.

Until the 20th century, the Fuggerei mainly housed families with often several children. Only “worthy poor people” were allowed to move into the social housing estate. According to the will of the founder, beggars were not accepted.

The "Fuckerey" got its name as early as 1531. The first Fuggerei clergyman was the Jesuit Petrus Canisius , who was canonized in 1925 . In 1581/82, the master builder Hans Holl built the St. Markus Church in the settlement, donated by Markus and Philipp Eduard Fugger . In the Thirty Years War , the Fuggerei was largely destroyed by the Swedes until 1642. Franz Mozart , the great-grandfather of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , lived in the Fuggerei from 1681 until his death in 1694 .

The Fuggerei was expanded in 1880 and 1938. During the Second World War , around two thirds of the settlement was destroyed in a British air raid on the night of bombing in Augsburg from February 25th to 26th, 1944 in two air raids by the Royal Air Force on Augsburg. As early as March 1, 1944, the Princely and Countess Fugger Family Seniorat decided in writing to rebuild the Fuggerei.

From 1945 the social housing estate was rebuilt with funds from the foundation according to the plans of Raimund von Doblhoff according to the historical model, so that the first buildings could already be occupied again in 1947. Reconstruction was completed in the 1950s . By 1973, the Fuggerei was expanded by around a third on the adjacent rubble property that was acquired, to 67 houses with 140 apartments today.

Fuggerei today

Most of the apartments in the Fuggerei are around 60 square meters and have their own entrance. Almost all of the apartments on the ground floor have a garden, those on the upper floor have a storage room. The apartments are connected to the district heating network of the city of Augsburg. The mechanical door bells, which are operated by a train, have been preserved throughout the age of electrics. The pendants and handles of the old bells are different, supposedly to avoid confusion in the dark Fuggerei (there were no street lighting yet). The conditions of admission are still the same as when it was founded: Anyone who wants to live in the Fuggerei must be Augsburg, Catholic and of good repute. The year (cold) rent for an apartment in the Fuggerei is still the nominal, inflation unappreciated value of a Rhenish guilder (converted 0.88 euro ). The tenants bear the ancillary costs (85 euros since July 1, 2013).

The ensemble with eight alleys and three gates is a "city within the city" with its own church, "city walls" and several "city gates". Since 2006, however, only one gate has been open to visitors, which is closed by the night watchman every evening from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Fuggerei residents who return through the Ochsentor by midnight give the night watchman a fee of 0.50 euros, then one euro. The main gate will be open again from 5 a.m. The property of the Fuggereistiftung consists of forests and real estate and finances the social housing estate to this day. From 2006 onwards tourism was added as a new source of economic income .

The Fuggerei is administered as one of nine Fugger foundations by the Fürstlich und Graeflich Fugger Foundation Administration. The foundation administrator is Wolf-Dietrich Graf von Hundt . The supervisory body of the administration is the Princely and Countess Fugger Family Senior Council. Since 2004, Countess Maria Elisabeth Thun-Fugger has been chairing the family senior council for the first time. Hubertus Fürst Fugger-Babenhausen and Markus Graf Fugger-Babenhausen are represented in it as well as Albert Graf Fugger von Glött until his death .

  • Views

  • Markuskirche and Herrengasse

  • View of Herrengasse from the south

  • Herrengasse

Tourism in the Fuggerei

The Fuggerei is probably the most popular tourist destination in the city , along with the Augsburg Town Hall . Your visit costs an entrance fee, which is used to preserve the Fuggerei. In 2006 the Fuggerimuseum was significantly expanded and redesigned. It also houses the last apartment preserved in its original state, which was furnished in the style of the 18th century. Since 2007, a fully furnished show apartment in Ochsengasse has been showing how Fuggerei residents live today. In 2008 the museum was built in the “World War Bunker in the Fuggerei”. In the preserved air raid shelter from 1943, the history of the building, the Augsburg bombing night from 25/26. February 1944, the years of reconstruction and the expansion of the Fuggerei up to 1973.

In the Fuggerimuseum, in the show apartment and in the World War II bunker, films explain the history of the foundation and the family that founded it. Several sights in the Fuggerei - from the church to Franz Mozart's house - have been signposted in German , Italian and English since 2006 . In 2007, the first and so far only Augsburg monument to the founder of the Fuggerei, Jakob Fugger the Rich, was erected in the Fuggerei.

  • A room of the Fuggerimuseum
    (redesigned in 2006)

  • The show apartment furnished in 2007

  • In the World War II bunker

Fugger fountain

The Fugger Fountain
Pump well next to the St. Mark's Church

In the middle of the Fuggerei, i.e. at the intersection of Herrengasse and Ochsengasse or Mittleren Gasse, is the Fuggereibrunnen , also known as the Markusbrunnen . It consists of a bulbous, cast iron water basin from which a simple column with two differently sized water bowls rises. This is the third well at this point since the Fuggerei was founded.

The first fountain was built in 1599 at the expense of the Free Imperial City of Augsburg. It was a wooden fountain. In 1744 the wooden fountain was replaced by a stone fountain made by master stonemason Sebastian Ingerl. In 1880, the cast-iron water basin that still exists today was added to the Fuggerei. It had previously stood on Königsplatz and was replaced there by the new Thormann fountain .

In addition to the wells mentioned, the Fuggerei also had several pump wells with an iron handle. One copy has been preserved and is located in Herrengasse next to the Markuskirchlein.

Philatelic

With the Inception 5 August 2021 which gave German Post AG , a special stamp in the nominal value of 80 euro cents on the occasion of 500 years Fuggerei in Augsburg out. The design comes from the graphic artist Sandra Ellen Hoffmann Robbiani from Bern.

literature

Non-fiction

  • Martin Kluger : The Fuggers in Augsburg. Doing business with the church and the emperor . 1st edition. context Verlag Augsburg, Augsburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-946917-22-9 .
  • Astrid Gabler (Ed.): The Fuggerei: 500 years . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-446-26351-2 .
  • Martin Kluger: The Fugger. The German Medici in and around Augsburg . 1st edition. Context Verlag Augsburg, Augsburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-939645-13-9 .
  • Martin Kluger: The Fuggerei. A guide to the oldest social housing estate in the world . 1st edition. context Medien und Verlag, Augsburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-939645-16-0 .
  • Ulrich Fugger von Glött: The Fuggerei. The oldest social housing estate in the world . Wißner, Augsburg 2003, ISBN 3-89639-397-9 (out of print).
  • Benjamin Scheller: Memoria at the turning point. The Jakob Fugger the Rich Foundations before and during the Reformation . Academy, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-05-004095-5 .
  • Marion Tietz-Strödel: The Fuggerei in Augsburg. Studies on the development of social foundations in the 15th and 16th centuries . Mohr, Tübingen 1982, ISBN 3-16-844570-3 .
  • Franz Herre: The Fuggers in their time . 12th edition. Wißner-Verlag, Augsburg 2005, ISBN 3-89639-490-8 .
  • Benjamin Scheller: Memoria at the turning point. The Jakob Fugger the Rich Foundations before and during the Reformation. Berlin 2004 (Academy), ISBN 3-05-004095-5 .
  • Mathias Wallner and Heike Werner: Architecture and History in Germany. Pp. 60-61, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-9809471-1-4 .

Fiction

  • Günter Ogger: Buy yourself an emperor / The story of the Fugger Roman / Droemer Knaur 1979.
  • Peter Garski: The Fuggerei Phantom . AC-Verlag, Augsburg 2005, ISBN 3-923914-62-8 .
  • Reiner Schmidt: Barefoot through the Finstere Gass'. A childhood in the Fuggerei . Wißner, Augsburg 2003, ISBN 3-89639-412-6 .

Web links

Commons : Fuggerei  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die Welt : Business bosses should stick to Fugger from March 6, 2009, accessed on October 4, 2010.
  2. ↑ a b Jürgen Bartel, including: Augsburger Brunnen . Brigitte Settele Verlag, Augsburg 1989, p. 45 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 22 ′ 7.6 ″  N , 10 ° 54 ′ 14.6 ″  E