Schweinsbergsiedlung
The Schweinsbergsiedlung (also called Muna-Siedlung and Muni-Siedlung ) is an abandoned residential area near the Schweinsberg near Heilbronn ( Baden-Württemberg ). The settlement was created in 1945 due to the housing shortage in the city, which was destroyed after the air raid on Heilbronn on December 4, 1944, when former ammunition sheds were converted into residential buildings. The settlement was abandoned in 1971 and all buildings were demolished. The former settlement area is now used for forestry.
Geographical location
The place of the former Schweinsbergsiedlung is in the Heilbronn mountains 3.3 km south-southeast of the Heilbronn city center, 800 m northwest of the Schweinsberg summit ( 372.8 m above sea level ) at a maximum of about 315 m . To the northwest and west are the Ludwigsschanzen , to the southeast there are two burial mounds and to the east the site of a former shooting range. The state road 1111 (Heilbronn– Donnbronn ) leads past a little to the southwest and the Schweinsbergweg to the east in the forest , which connects the Gaffenberg in the north with the Schweinsberg in the south.
history
After the air raid on Heilbronn on December 4, 1944, there was a great housing shortage in the war-torn city of Heilbronn. Immediately after the end of the war, one of the greatest tasks of the mayor Emil Beutinger , who was appointed by the American occupation forces, was to create living space. In 1939, 28 simple ammunition sheds were built west of the 1935 shooting range. Most of these survived the war. A large amount of timber and around 200 emergency beds were stored on the site. On September 5, 1945, the city administration applied to the American military government for the building to be made available for residential purposes; the application was granted the following day. The buildings each consisted of only a single unheatable room with usually two doors and four windows. 19 buildings with a floor space of 9 × 6.50 meters and three buildings with a floor space of 14.20 × 8.90 m seemed suitable for residential purposes. Using the existing timber, the buildings should have wooden floors and the smaller ones should be separated into two rooms, one of which was intended as a kitchen-living room. The larger buildings were to be divided into two and three-room apartments. The construction costs would be reimbursed by the administration for Wehrmacht buildings.
Although there was neither enough water nor electricity, and doors and window panes were missing, the huts were already inhabited in the summer of 1945, so that the planned expansion of the buildings was delayed until the winter of 1945/46 and even then, due to the occupancy, not all expansion plans could be implemented could. By May 1946, the city had signed tenancy agreements with the residents of 22 buildings. In June 1946 the buildings were fitted with windows, in December 1946 around half of the buildings had lockable doors, and electricity was not installed in all the huts until 1947. On November 30, 1947, the confidante of Evangelical Women's Aid described the social composition of the residents as follows: There are several asocial families among them who give the children bad examples, but also very orderly, respectable people who bravely take on the emergency .
The settlement was supplied with water from a nearby spring, for which a simple well and pumping system had been built in 1939 to cover the water requirements of the former canteen on the shooting range. Since the spring threatened to flood the shooting range on a regular basis, a drainage system was built in 1942 , which, however, led to the seepage of a large part of the spring water. The reduced amount of water could not meet the needs of the 170 people living in the settlement and a further 30 people who were quartered in the former canteen and who were now employed by the municipal civil engineering department. In February 1947, the town council dispatched a dowser to track down another spring. However, test drillings based on its results remained inconclusive. It was then planned to supply water via a 450 m long pipe from the old spring, which would be used to feed an existing extinguishing water tank and two further taps. However, this line was not implemented, so that the only tap on the edge of the settlement remained for the entire settlement.
The buildings originally had no toilets . In 1945, the existing residents all refused to reduce the already scarce living space by installing a toilet, but in return undertook to arrange for the construction of toilet houses in their accommodations themselves. By January 1947, 15 primitive toilet houses had been built, while some residents continued to relieve themselves in the surrounding forest. The health department criticized the hygienic conditions in 1947 and found some cases of scabies . However, nothing changed about the poor abortion situation.
Since the water supply and hygiene in the settlement could not be improved significantly, but at the same time the Americans were considering confiscating the area as a military training area, the Heilbronn municipal council forced the evacuation of the settlement from the spring of 1951. However, there was still a lack of replacement housing, and the Americans gave up the site in December 1951, so that the settlement continued. The buildings were now under the administration of the Heilbronn Federal Property Office, which refused to carry out further maintenance, but was unable to create replacement apartments due to lack of funds. In protest about the poor living conditions, several residents stopped paying rent. The settlement remained inhabited for another two decades. In 1969 around 40 people lived in the Schweinsbergsiedlung. The last family moved there on November 6, 1971. Then the last buildings were demolished and the former settlement area leveled and used for forestry.
Individual evidence
literature
- Christhard Schrenk : The Schweinsbergsiedlung (1945–1971) . In: Swabia and Franconia. Local history supplement of the Heilbronn voice . 38th year, no. 6 . Heilbronner Voice publishing house, June 1992, ZDB -ID 128017-X .
Coordinates: 49 ° 6 ′ 58 ″ N , 9 ° 14 ′ 33 ″ E