Weststadt (Hanau)
The West City is a large housing estate in Kesselstadt , a suburb of Hanau in Hesse Main-Kinzig-Kreis , has about 8000 inhabitants and lies 17 kilometers east of Frankfurt am Main.
location
The Weststadt lies on the western edge of Hanau. In the south, the Main with the extensive Main Meadows forms the natural border to the neighboring Offenbach district and the adjacent Dietesheimer Steinbrüche lake area. On the banks of the Main you pass allotment gardens to Philippsruhe Castle with its historic landscape park at the transition to the old Kesselstädter town center opposite the Hanau district of Steinheim . In the west, a forest area separates the settlement from the neighboring Maintal-Dörnigheim , which extends in the north to Wilhelmsbad with its former health resort and the state park. To the east, the quarter is separated from the historic Kesselstadt by Burgallee .
history
Burgallee is the historical connection between Philippsruhe Palace and the Wilhelmsbad spa complex. For centuries, the area west of this axis was mainly used for agriculture, but also commercially. As part of the increased demand for living space after the Second World War , the Weststadt was developed there from 1965. The result was a housing estate typical of the post-war period with houses and apartments for up to 10,000 people, which, according to Lord Mayor Herbert Dröse , should "finally" eliminate Hanau's housing shortage. Their concept envisaged a departure from the monumental architecture of National Socialism towards a structured and relaxed residential area, far away from industry and traffic noise. It was about a combination of living, working and supply, embedded in spacious green areas, connected by a system of paths and roads differentiated according to traffic routes.
structure
Urban structure
In terms of urban planning, high-rise buildings dominate Weststadt on the arteries and on the central Kurt-Schumacher-Platz. This serves to supply the local population with shops for daily needs. In the center there is a primary school, two kindergartens, a municipal / church-run district office, a youth center and a Protestant community center. In particular, there are numerous multi-storey apartment blocks on a partially avenue-like ring road, consisting of Karlsbader-, Kant- and Königsberger Straße. This is loosened up by low-rise buildings, atrium houses, terraced and semi-detached houses, as well as free-standing single-family houses, mainly on the outskirts of the western part of the city, often with exclusive forest edge locations.
Population structure
Originally, this mixed development was intended to bring together different sections of the population. Above all, a culturally diverse population structure developed. Although individual streets in the center are often referred to as a social hotspot by outsiders , the crime rate is much lower than, for example, in downtown Hanau. Today people from around 40 nations live here. Originally built primarily for refugees and displaced persons from the former eastern areas of the German Reich , later migrants from Turkey, Italy and many other countries also settled there , and since the 1990s there has been an increasing number of repatriates from Eastern Europe and Russia. Above all, the very different social structure separates the former Weststadt development area from the old fishing village of Kesselstadt, which is why Lord Mayor Claus Kaminsky described the Burgallee between the two districts as a "mental bar" on the 50th anniversary of Weststadt's founding.
Kirchhoffstraße - spacious living on the edge of the forest
Bungalows on Tilsiter Strasse
Row houses on Rheinauer Strasse
Dresdener Strasse with park on Humboldtweg
Web links
- Agnes Schönberger: Hanau: At 50 you can celebrate. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , June 16, 2015.
Individual evidence
- ↑ City of Hanau - city districts / city districts. In: www.hanau.de. Retrieved March 20, 2016 .
- ^ A b Agnes Schönberger: Hanau: At 50 you can celebrate. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , June 16, 2015.
- ^ Hans-Ulrich Weicker: The Hanauer Weststadt as a typical urban development of the 1960s. In: Stadtzeit Kesselstadt. Cocon, Hanau 2009, ISBN 978-3-937774-73-2 .
- ^ A b Pamela Dörhöfer: Hanau Weststadt: District from the drawing board. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , September 6, 2012.