Teutoburgia settlement

Settlement Teutoburgia, in the background the shaft structure of the eponymous mine

The settlement Teutoburgia , including Garden City Teutoburgia , is under protection of monuments housing estate in Herne district Börnig .

history

The workers' settlement was built on the initiative of the union at the same time as the Teutoburgia colliery in 1909 and was expanded until 1923. The executing architect Berndt had designed it based on the English garden city idea of Ebenezer Howard with apartment buildings, large open spaces, green spaces, outdoor seating and gardens.

The central Baarestrasse was oriented as an avenue towards the mine’s factory gate, which no longer exists today. To the right and left of it, the Schreber, Lauben, Schlägel and Teutoburgiastrasse as well as the Bogenweg swing. Schadeburgstrasse with the somewhat larger houses of the officials and Steiger is located directly on the colliery site. To the west is the Teutoburgiahof , built in 1918 , first a cul-de-sac, then a ring road around the inner courtyard of the block development. These apartments, built in the last phase of construction after the First World War, were simplified and made more compact. A total of 459 residential units for over 1400 residents are built on approx. 21.4 hectares in 136 buildings. More than 20 different house forms were designed from four basic types, mostly for two or four families, occasionally as row or block developments. Elaborate roof shapes with various dormers and bay windows, entrance loggias for each apartment, exposed half-timbering and cleaned house surfaces alternate. No building is the same as the other, as different constellations have been used again and again, and yet all are similar due to the identical basic shapes.

During the Second World War, the settlement was largely preserved. However, the apartments often had no bathroom and were heated with coal or coke. In 1962 the streets, the sewer system and the lighting were renewed. Individual houses were individually expanded or renovated by their residents, so that the uniform character of the settlement was partially dissolved. From 1980 onwards, the owner Veba Wohnen AG planned fundamental and settlement-wide renovations to the houses and in 1986 an inventory and a tenant survey were carried out, the results of which were presented in 1987 at a general tenant meeting. The first measures began in 1988, but initially only with monument-friendly approaches. Veba Wohnen AG had assured the tenants extensive participation in all measures, a permanent right of residence and the long-term preservation of the settlement when the settlement was taken over.

House with a front yard
Small conveyor vehicles as a reminiscence of the mining tradition
House view
General plan of Baarestrasse

In 1989 the current building project was included in the International Building Exhibition Emscher Park (IBA), which not only resulted in new financial resources and a consolidation of tenant participation (e.g. through a separate "neighborhood architect" as a representative to the housing association), but also strong monument protection requirements and brought about an intense network of interests between tenants, owners, IBA and monument protection authorities . All houses were restored to their original exterior condition, in the core area of the settlement, the "Teutohof", which the residents affectionately call, clay tile roofs and wooden lattice windows were used, but cheaper parts (e.g. made of plastic) were used in the other areas. The front gardens were recultivated without fences and hedges as a common communication level according to the original garden city concept (light, air, greenery, security, social order and manageability); the seats in the entrance loggias match. In addition to the Margarethenhöhe in Essen, the Teutoburgia settlement is the best-preserved and most important workers' settlement in the Ruhr area in terms of culture and town planning.

In 1998 all four renovation and refurbishment measures were completed, and a total of more than DM 30 million was made available in funding. Veba Wohnen AG received the “builder award” for the exemplary renovation.

The legal successor, Deutsche Annington, has been privatizing the housing stock in the estate since 2005 .

Trivia

The settlement served as a backdrop for film adaptations of the youth book series The Vampire Sisters . The film was shot here for The Vampire Sisters (2012), The Vampire Sisters 2 - Bats in the Belly (2014) and The Vampire Sisters 3 - Journey to Transylvania (2016).

literature

Clarke, Michael: Teutoburgia. A colliery as a garden city , in: Frank Braßel (Ed.): “Nothing is as beautiful as…” History and stories from Herne and Wanne-Eickel, Essen 1991, pp. 340–342.

Jolk, Heinrich: In the Teutoburgia Art Forest, nature and art should enter into a dialogue. Careful redesign on a former colliery site in Herne , in: Locations 1995/96 (1995), pp. 233–237.