Walddorf workers' housing estate

A small house of their own with a kitchen garden - around 1907 this was not to remain a dream for the textile workers of Hagen. Karl Ernst Osthaus brought the participants of a conference for "workers' welfare institutions" to Hagen in 1905.

As a result, he was able to get the Munich-born artist-architect Richard Riemerschmid a building contract through Elbers in Hagen. 

Riemerschmid is still famous today for projects such as the first German garden city in Hellerau near Dresden.  

From 1907, he began building a complex for workers' housing in Hagen, the so-called  "Walddorf-Siedlung", with 87 planned workers' housing units and additional communal facilities such as caretakers' flats and a kindergarten.  

The houses, built from the grey limestone of the adjacent quarries, are strongly influenced by the Heimatstil with a rustic character. Each house has a small garden at the back for self-sufficiency.  

At the very beginning of construction it became apparent that this style of building is very costly, so that after the completion of eleven houses it was decided to stop the building project. 

Further building activities were also prevented by the start of the First World War, so that Riemerschmid's plans were never completed. 

Since 2001, one of the houses has been rented as a branch of the Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum and is thus also accessible to the public. During the guided tour of House No. 17, one gains an insight into the lifeworld of the workers of that time.