Homeland

The Brandenburg colony Heimland is a small settlement that belongs to the village of Luhme , which is now part of the town of Rheinsberg . Heimland is only about one kilometer south of the border with the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

history

Heimland has its origins in the garden city movement at the turn of the century around 1900. The driving force was Theodor Fritsch (1852–1933), who published his ideas as early as 1896 in his book “The City of the Future”. Similar plans have already been partially successfully implemented by activists from vegetarian communities, such as in the fruit growing colony of Eden near Oranienburg. Eden was to become a model for Heimland.

At the same time, associations with a nationalist and, from today's perspective, racist character emerged in Germany, such as B. the "German Renewal Community". Their goals of breeding and selection with the goal of a superior human being were supplemented by ideas of a community life on through no fault and unsalable land.

On this basis, on October 18, 1908, the "Heimland settlement company" was founded in Leipzig as a cooperative with limited liability. Theodor Fritsch became chairman of the supervisory board. The Heimland settlement emblem, designed in 1913, bore a swastika in the lettering (Heim + land), as used by many ethnic groups at the time. In the spring of 1908, 60 people from Saxony had already found themselves who wanted to settle in the country according to Fritsch's ideas. In July 1909, the settlement company bought the 450 Prussian acre Luhme II estate near Rheinsberg. Cooperative law and heritable building rights should prevent land speculation.

The settlement area was divided into two circles, the inner one being to be worked on jointly by the unmarried "community farmers", the outer one being intended for a total of 50 parcels on which future settler families were to build and operate. As early as 1910, a guest house for migratory birds and like-minded groups was built.

Until the outbreak of the First World War, houses were only built on 11 lots. The fluctuation was very high for various reasons. Alcohol and tobacco were forbidden; the settlers worked for “simple fare”, 3 marks pocket money a week and every three years a “share certificate” worth 500 marks. Buying his own home (1914: 8,000 to 10,000 marks) was out of the question. Agriculture mainly consisted of the cultivation of rye, oats, potatoes and fodder beets, vegetables and strawberries. In 1914 there were 20 cattle and 50 pigs in the economy.

Since the expectations of the number of settlers could not even come close to being realized by 1914, neither the planned retirement home nor a school were built.

The decline of the settlement began with the outbreak of the First World War, when many settlers and community workers were drafted or volunteered for military service. Now it was particularly precarious that there were hardly any women in the settlement. Only four homelands came back from the war. In 1919 a “German” children's home was to be built, as well as a settlers' school, but this did not get beyond the miserable beginnings. One had to admit that the arid soil could not bring the desired yields. The beginning of inflation meant the end of the settlement. In April 1922 the community was given up and the property and some buildings leased. In August 1926, the liquidation of the "Heimland settlement company" was decided. In 1936 the last shares in the cooperative were paid out. It was not until 1935, shortly before the end, that the settlement was officially called "Luhme-Heimland".

In the GDR, the paths laid out in the early days were given the current names Sonnenweg, Tannenweg and Heegeseeweg. Most of the houses were used as company holiday homes. In addition, many other buildings and bungalows were built. The companies involved were the VEB Stahl- und Walzwerk Hennigsdorf (site south of Kapellensee), the VEB Glaswerk Berlin-Stralau and the consumer cooperative Berlin and the surrounding area (former Gut Luhme II). The manor building and the arable land were cultivated by the Luhmer LPG "Solidarity".

After the German reunification in 1990, the holiday homes were given up. They changed hands several times and some of them were left to decay. The former Gut Luhme II and the area at Kapellensee now house a guesthouse and hotel.

literature

• Historical Gazetteer Brandenburg - Part 1 - Prignitz - A-M . Modifications made by Lieselott Enders . In: Klaus Neitmann (Ed.): Publications of the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv (State Archive Potsdam) - Volume 3 . Founded by Friedrich Beck . Publishing house Klaus-D. Becker, Potsdam 2012, ISBN 978-3-88372-032-6 , pp. 338 .

swell

• Garden city movement

Coordinates: 53 ° 11 ′  N , 12 ° 49 ′  E