Birkenwiese settlement

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Aerial view of the "Birkenwiese settlement". The yellow dots show the houses in the original settlement
House number 16 in the Birkenwiese housing estate. The former extension (farm building) was subsequently converted into a room.
House no. 17. All 23 houses have meanwhile been more or less sustainably converted and / or expanded. The external appearance was changed individually.

The Birkenwiese settlement (also known as Dollfußsiedlung ) was a construction project of 23 single-family houses with significant personal contribution by the later residents and was built from 1934 to 1935 to provide inexpensive living space for the relatively poor strata of the population after the end of the First World War in the urban area of Dornbirn , Vorarlberg , Austria , to accomplish.

Surname

The Birkenwiese corridor ( Dornbirn dialect : Birkawies ) refers to the birch and alder population that can be found here to this day . It is a floodplain on the left bank of the Dornbirner Ach , which came into the ownership of the municipality when the common land was divided up around 1800. The name for the settlement was taken from this corridor. In Vorarlberg there is only a parcel with this name in Dornbirn, although birch and alder stands are quite common in the reed .

Background and story

Such settlements, sometimes also referred to as workers 'settlements or contemporary as workers' colonies , were built in the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century on the initiative of non-profit organizations or by entrepreneurs in the entire German-speaking area to provide inexpensive and healthy living space for those who were still living at the time To create largely unpaid strata of the population and to eliminate the housing shortage that prevailed after the war. Architects and construction technicians already began in the mid-19th century, deal with the investment of such settlements to even the simple man durability and safety, functional layout, consideration of light, air and vegetation, but also the leisure and sports facilities, as a basis for healthy living.

The Birkenweise settlement with 23 houses is part of the settlement movement in German-speaking countries (see also: Vienna Settler Movement ), in which living space was built for poorer citizens on the outskirts of the city at that time (hence also: suburban settlement ). In Austria the settler movement was taken over by the Federal Minister for Social Administration, Josef Resch , in Dornbirn by the Landtag member Josef Anton Fäßler . In order to make the project easy to implement, inexpensive loans were granted and the building site was provided by a municipality on favorable terms. The houses were built by the later owners in a joint effort and the construction costs were kept low. The houses were raffled only after the complete construction among the later owners, so that they could not gain an advantage over the others in the construction. A similar, smaller, settlement like the one in the Birkenwiese was previously realized as the Im Porst settlement and then, slightly larger, the Im Forach settlement .

On March 13, 1934, a committee headed by the government commissioner, Ludwig Rinderer, was set up to establish suburban settlements in Dornbirn. As early as March 18, 1934, the committee's positive opinion was published in the municipal newspaper of the city of Dornbirn , and the next issue of the municipal newspaper informed the population that no more registrations for the allocation of houses in the planned suburb would be accepted because it was already closed many are available. On April 11th, the decision to build the Birkenwiese settlement was made, and in midsummer the terrain measurements and parcelling were carried out. To implement the project, the non-profit settlement cooperative Dornbirn (rGmbH) was founded in early August 1934. Construction of the settlement began at the end of August 1934.

On April 14, 1935, a family evening took place in the club house in Dornbirn as a settlement party, at which the ownership of the settlement was also transferred to the settlement cooperative and the building was raffled to the individual settlers.

location

The Birkenwiese settlement (around 425  m above sea level ) was built on a two- hectare , previously undeveloped, reed area in what is now the Schoren district on the western edge of the populated urban area. The Dornbirner Ach flows only about 150 meters away. In the decades after the Second World War , the area around the Flur Birkawies quickly developed into an important settlement area in Dornbirn. Today this settlement is embedded in the rest of the settlement area so that it can hardly be distinguished. When it was built, it was clearly delimited, but it is still on the edge of Dornbirn. The Birkenwiese stadium is to the east, directly behind the settlement.

Size of the settlement

The Birkenwiese settlement consists of thirteen free-standing, largely identical single-family houses on an area of ​​two hectares and 29 acres and extends roughly parallel to Höchststrasse over a length of around 450 m.

Construction, planning, execution and equipment

In order for the requirements to be met to receive a cheap federal loan, various requirements had to be met as part of the project. Each settlement site must be large enough to allow small animals to be kept (at least 600 m², maximum 2500 m² area). Long-term unemployed, war invalids and large families were supported. The cost of a house should not exceed 5,000 shillings (EUR 363.36), of which the settler had to raise 10% himself and around 1500 working hours for the construction of the house, whereby the value of the working hours did not count towards this 10%. The remaining 90% were granted as loans by the Federal Housing and Settlement Fund. Josef Anton Fäßler was able to convey all 23 single-family houses to interested parties after just 14 days. Excavation began in May 1934 .

The Austrian state granted a loan of 103,500 schillings for this settlement project and the required building land was given by the city of Dornbirn for 50 groschen per square meter . Each settler received around 1000 m² of building land and had to provide their own work worth 1,000 schillings and 500 schillings in their own resources. On April 14, 1935, the houses were raffled among the settlers.

Deliberately avoiding machines, two cellars were dug in the gravelly building site and two storeys of the cellar were completed. The houses were built with concrete on the outside in the basement, while the upper floors were made of knitted wood (ground floor) and half-timbered (upper floor and extension). The residential building occupies an area of ​​45.04 m², the farm building (extension) an area of ​​13.91 m². The buildings are traditionally and simply designed in the spirit of the Stuttgart School and have rooms of almost the same size (the kitchen-cum-living room is 17.97 m², slightly larger than the three rooms with an average of 11.77 m²). No personal contribution from the settlers was required for the plumbing work, doors and windows or for the sanitary installation. The twenty-three two-story single-family houses provide shelter for one family on each of the two full floors . Kitchen gardens and fences with the same alignment reinforce the uniform impression of the ensemble. At the beginning, the settlers were obliged to plant the kitchen gardens with grain , vegetables and other things for their own consumption and to keep small livestock .

literature

  • Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years of the Birkenwiese suburban settlement 1935–1975 , Dornbirn 1975.

Web links

Commons : Siedlung Birkenwiese  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ At the municipal council meeting of the city of Dornbirn on September 14, 1934, it was also decided to rename the previous Rathausplatz to Dollfuss-Platz . Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years of the Birkenwiese suburban settlement 1935–1975 , p. 15.
  2. ^ Albert Bohle: Dornbirn Lexicon , search term: Birkenwiese, VI. See also Margit Altfahrt: The future lies in the past: Studies on the settlement system of the interwar period, Deuticke 1983, p. 73.
  3. ^ Albert Bohle: Dornbirn Lexicon , search term: Birkenwiese, VI.
  4. ↑ Werner Bundschuh , inventory: Heimat Dornbirn 1850–1950, Vorarlberger Authors Society, Bregenz 1990, ISBN 3-900754-08-X , p. 151.
  5. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 Years of the Birkenwiese Outskirts Estate 1935–1975 , p. 12.
  6. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years of the Birkenwiese suburban settlement 1935–1975 , p. 13.
  7. ↑ Werner Bundschuh, inventory: Heimat Dornbirn 1850–1950, Vorarlberger Authors Society, Bregenz 1990, ISBN 3-900754-08-X , p. 152.
  8. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 Years of the Birkenwiese Outskirts Estate 1935–1975 , p. 14.
  9. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 Years of the Birkenwiese Outskirts Estate 1935–1975 , p. 14.
  10. ↑ Chairman was Josef Anton Fäßler , secretary Georg Maurer and treasurer Mr. Natter. This company was dissolved again in April 1941.
  11. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years of the Birkenwiese suburban settlement 1935–1975 , p. 15.
  12. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years Birkenwiese outskirts settlement 1935–1975 , p. 20. Agenda item 6 was intended to pay homage to the homeland and the fatherland .
  13. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 Years of the Birkenwiese Outskirts Estate 1935–1975 , p. 14.
  14. ↑ poultry , rabbits , goats or z. B. Pigs .
  15. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years of Birkenwiese suburban housing estate 1935–1975 , p. 11.
  16. ↑ Werner Bundschuh, inventory: Heimat Dornbirn 1850–1950, Vorarlberger Authors Society, Bregenz 1990, ISBN 3-900754-08-X , p. 152.
  17. ↑ This corresponded to about four to five monthly salaries of a simple worker (see: Stubat, senior newspaper of the city of Dornbirn, No. 32, Dornbirn 2002, p. 5).
  18. ↑ Stubat, senior newspaper of the city of Dornbirn, No. 32, Dornbirn 2002, p. 5. 1500 working hours at that time corresponded to about 1500 schillings. In the commemorative publication 40 years of the Birkenwiese outskirts settlement 1935–1975 , p. 23, it is stated that the settler hour was valued at 70 groschen.
  19. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 Years of the Birkenwiese Outskirts Estate 1935–1975 , p. 12.
  20. ↑ Werner Bundschuh, inventory: Heimat Dornbirn 1850–1950, Vorarlberger Authors Society, Bregenz 1990, ISBN 3-900754-08-X , p. 152. See also regulation of the Federal Ministry for Social Administration of April 6, 1925, Federal Law Gazette No. 187 and decree of the Federal, Housing and Settlement Office of October 26, 1932, Zl. 83103/32 on the guidelines for such suburban settlements.
  21. ↑ Stubat, senior newspaper of the city of Dornbirn, No. 32, Dornbirn 2002, p. 6.
  22. ↑ In 1934, the federal government made available a total of 5.6 million schillings for the whole of Austria through the Federal Ministry for Social Administration. (Herbert Amann et al., Festschrift 40 years of the Birkenwiese suburban housing estate 1935–1975 , pp. 13 and 15).
  23. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years of the Birkenwiese suburban settlement 1935–1975 , p. 15.
  24. ↑ Werner Bundschuh, inventory: Heimat Dornbirn 1850–1950, Vorarlberger Authors Society, Bregenz 1990, ISBN 3-900754-08-X , p. 152. Stubat, senior newspaper of the city of Dornbirn, no. 32, Dornbirn 2002, p. 5.
  25. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years Birkenwiese outskirts settlement 1935–1975 , p. 24. Only two basement walls were concreted because there were only two wooden formwork and the concrete had to be mixed by hand.
  26. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years of the Birkenwiese suburban settlement 1935–1975 , p. 15 ff.
  27. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 Years of the Birkenwiese Outskirts Estate 1935–1975 , p. 18.
  28. ↑ Herbert Amann u. a., Festschrift 40 years Birkenwiese suburban housing estate 193521975 , p. 19.

Coordinates: 47 ° 24 '52.6 "  N , 9 ° 43' 29.7"  E