Mirror colony
The Spiegelkolonie is the oldest workers' housing estate in Mannheim and one of the oldest institutions of its kind in Germany . It is considered an important example of early company housing construction. It was built in 1852 with the settlement of a mirror factory of the Parisian mirror glass manufacturer Saint Gobain for the workers brought from France in the then Baden village of Waldhof , which is now a district of Mannheim.
The 19 workers' apartment blocks were built in a cost-effective and space-saving row construction. There were also houses for senior officials and the director's villa with a park. In addition to a kindergarten, school and Protestant and Catholic church, the settlement also had an outpatient clinic. Since the workers came from Lorraine and brought their families with them, the settlement was initially a purely French colony.
In the 1960s, the settlement was almost completely demolished, only the former canteen building, an office building and an apartment block from 1865 remained. After the last buildings threatened to deteriorate, the initiative of local politicians was able to finance the renovation of the now listed properties which was completed in 2005.
A memorial plaque now commemorates the most famous resident of the settlement, Sepp Herberger , who was born here in 1897.
Web links
- Rhein-Neckar industrial culture : Mannheim mirror colony. Retrieved December 6, 2014 .
- Marchivum : city history. Mirror factory and mirror settlement on the Waldhof: industrialization is picking up speed. Retrieved May 18, 2020 .
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- Brockhaus Mannheim . Mannheim and Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-7653-0181-7 , p. 309 f.
- Andreas Schenk: Architectural Guide Mannheim . Berlin 1999. ISBN 3-496-01201-3
- Martin Wenz: The oldest factory housing estate in Mannheim. From the renovation of the so-called mirror colony in Mannheim-Luzenberg. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg , Volume 37, 2008, Issue 3, pp. 168ff. ( PDF 414 kB)
Coordinates: 49 ° 31 ′ 13 " N , 8 ° 28 ′ 38" E