The 1898 book To-morrow:
a Peaceful Path to Real Reform by Ebenezer Howard directly resulted in the
foundation of the Garden City Association in 1899. The
real breakthrough came after the 1902 reissue of his book retitled Garden Cities of Tomorrow and the
subsequent foundation of the First Garden
City Ltd. (1903) that would develop Letchworth Garden City. In the year the
reissue of Howards book was published the Deutscher Gartenstadt-Gesellschaft
was founded in Berlin, so before the first Garden City (Letchworth) was started.
This might surprise many Anglo-Saxon people, as they have been ensured that the
Garden City Movement originated in England. It did so in fact, but at the same
time it didn't...
Germany especially had a long tradition of providing
housing for workers and also a standing practice of spatial planning. An
example is the Altenaer Baugesellschaft (Altena Building Society) that was founded in 1870 by local
industrialists and businessmen to tackle the housing shortages that resulted
from industrialisation. English sources portray the rapid spread of the Garden
City Movement in Germany and neighbouring countries as the result of Ebenezer
Howard's acquaintance with Herman Muthesius and Bruno Taut. It is actually the
other way around: without his German contacts Howard would never have been able
to expand his ideals beyond England - where it was that only with wealthy
backers the first Garden City Letchworth could be established, making it in
essence little more than yet another model housing project.
The German Garden City Society (1902) was founded by
the romantic poets of the Friedrichshagen Circle (Friedrichshagener Dichterkreis) and members of the New Society (or Neuen Gemeinschaft - a group of anarchists, artists and Lebensreformers*
that advocated communal living, a return to nature, self-sufficiency, alternative
medicine, naturism and organic food). The ideals expressed by Howard in his
utopian book landed in fertile soil in Germany, as there was already in
existence an infrastructure of Baugenossenschaften
(Building Cooperatives), Baugesellschaften
(Building Societies) and Gemeinnützige
Unternehmen (Non-profit companies) and
several societies and cooperatives op people aimed at social change and
improving living standards.
Where in England the innate conservatism of the people
best placed to influence decision-making made the ideal of garden cities a
utopian vision, the situation in Germany meant that these ideas could be
integrated into known initiatives, especially the Siedler-movement and the
Baugenossenschaften. On top of that Germany at that time had a spatial planning
practice that was very concerned with shaping urban expansion and improving
public health and housing standards. The same concerns lead to the
esteblishemnt of planning regimes in neighbouring countries. That is why these
ideas on urban expansion via suburban satellites -which is how Garden Cities
were translated- were so easily absorbed into standing practices in mainland
Europe.
Villenkolonie Gern in Munich was developed by
investors to house the cultured and creative. Some houses have workshops on the
ground floor with a family house on the two floors above.
These suburban satellites were akin to Villenkolonien and Gartensiedlungen of the 19th century. Villenkolonien were strictly
residential districts created at some distance from the main city along tram or
rail lines. They consisted of free standing large family houses in an ample
garden on streets planted with trees. Some examples also featured terraced
housing, apartments and artists' studios. The street plan could be regular, but
was mostly curvilinear and inspired by then current fashions in garden design.
These "villa colonies" were built from 1860 onwards in Hamburg,
Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Potsdam, Mühlheim, Duisburg and other major urban
centres.
The Villenkolonie Menterschwaige just outside Munich
comprises of large mansion-block type buildings split into several dwellings
and small detached and semidetached middleclass housing.
The 19th century Gartensiedlungen came in two guises:
the Siedlerkolonie and the Gartensiedlung. The main difference is
that the Siedlerkolonie was developed
for housing with amenities supplied and streets built by the developers, whilst
the prospective residents had to build their own house or employ a building
firm. The new "settlers" would thus populate a new area with only a
limited number of regulations regarding style, building line and building
height. Often only the minimal distance to the edge of the plot was defined.
The Gartensiedlung
has its origins in smallholdings and groups of weekend houses in their own
private garden. These often very regularly laid out estates grew more permanent
in times of housing shortages. From 1880 they are a separate category of
suburban living environment in Germany characterised by front gardens with
hedges, sometimes tree-lined streets and large back gardens. This type could
also be realised by a developer with prospective residents building their own
house, but often the building regulations were stricter and the developer offered
a choice of several house types with a selection of building firms to execute
the work. A few of these "garden estates" were built by building
cooperatives or non-profit companies. The Gemeinnützige
Obstbau-Siedlung (Communal Orchard Estate) in Oranienburg (1893), the Gartensiedlung Gronauerwald (1897), Gartenstadt Neu-Biburg (1900) and Gartenstadt Waldperlach (1911) are
examples of Gartensiedlungen.
Gartenstadt Neubiburg isn't a true garden city but a
Gartensiedlung. It was developed near a train station from the ancient woodland
of Perlacher Haid by Mathias Grundler. The housing was realised by
self-builders and selected building firms.
There are more estates and suburban housing areas
named Gartenstadt or Gartensiedlung then there are housing projects developed
by the German Garden City Society. The first "Garden City" developed
in Germany was the Siedlung
Dahlhauserheide in Hordel. This garden village was built from 1906 onwards
by the Krupp Company; this is three years before the more famous Margarethenhöhe. Between 1906
and 1939 81 housing projects were initiated by local branches of the German
Garden City Society. For comparison in Belgium 61 garden villages and garden
neighbourhoods were built, whilst in the Netherlands 105 garden villages and
garden estates were realised. In Germany many more housing projects inspired by
spatial characteristics of the garden village were realised than the 81
mentioned, but these were built as municipal housing (Berlin, Frankfurt, etc.),
by building societies or by companies. Austria also has garden villages as
municipal housing (in Vienna).
These garden villages were quickly adopted as a model
of workers housing by socialist politicians and trade unions. Public money was
put towards building more and better housing for the working classes and the
lower middle class. Confessionalist and conservative politicians never really
liked the idea of governmental involvement in housing provision. As a model of
housing they strongly preferred the village-like setting of a garden village or
garden suburb as this fit their social ideal and reminded them of simple
country living (where religious institutions wielded more influence than in the
cities). Public (co)funding of social housing sidetracked speculative builders
and favoured building societies and housing coops. Eventually companies set up
affiliated building societies to realise workers housing. An example is
Philipsdorp in Eindhoven built for the Philips Company by the Thuis Best
Building Society (founded in 1899 as Eindhoven Vooruit).
The Bellingham Estate is an LCC out-county housing
estate developed in the 1920s. The regular streets planted with blossom trees
are lined with short brick-built terraced and semidetached housing and small
front gardens. This an example of a garden suburb.
Indecently not a single garden city was built, except
for Letchworth and Welwyn in England. In Britain most Garden City Movement
housing projects are garden suburbs (Hampstead, Tower Gardens, Arnos Grove,
Downham, Bellingham. etcetera). Some like New Addington are best characterised
as a suburban garden village satellite. In Europe these garden city housing
projects took the guise of garden villages and garden suburbs. In Belgium some
are even smaller in scale and consist of little more than a dozen of terraced
social housing. The idea of low density housing estates with some clustered
amenities for local residents became a staple of city planning and has lasted
until the present. After WW2 the central argument of creating satellites around
large cities to prevent urban sprawl was implemented in Germany
(Entlastungsstadt), France (Villes Nouvelle), Britain (New Towns), the
Netherlands (Groeikernen) and Belgium (Louvain-la-Neuve). The influence of the
Garden City Movement has thus proven lasting in city planning. In recent years
some nostalgic estates have been developed showcasing 1930s architecture. These
are sometimes called garden village, but have none of the spatial
characteristics and the name should be viewed as a marketing label.
* Herein lies the origins of the New Age Movement,
Hippies and the current Eco-movement.
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