Eisenheim workers' settlement

Eisenheim. The name alone makes it clear who is responsible for the construction of this settlement: the Jacobi, Haniel & Huyssen iron and steel works union needed living space for their ever-increasing number of workers. Eisenheim became known both for the early beginnings - as the oldest workers' settlement in the Ruhr area - as well as for the impending end and the bitter resistance of the residents against the demolition of the settlement.

The iron and steel union Jacobi, Haniel & Huyssen founded the settlement in Eisenheim in 1846 for their employees. Initially, most of the residents worked on the "Alten Walz" on the Emscher, about a 30-minute walk away. With the upswing in metallurgy, a second construction phase began in the mid-1860s, which lasted until the start-up crisis ten years later. Between 1897 and 1903 the settlement was then expanded a third time; this time mining made it necessary to recruit and settle countless new workers. A total of 51 houses were built in three construction phases, 38 of which are still preserved today. At the turn of the century about 1.200 people lived in Eisenheim.

The two-storey terraced and semi-detached houses from 1846 as well as the houses with the typical cross floor plan, which were built from 1872 on the Alsatian Mühlhausen model, were preserved. The settlement's decline had already begun after the Second World War, when the destroyed houses were only half-heartedly rebuilt. Seven Masters' Houses - the oldest buildings in the settlement - were replaced in 1948 by multi-storey new buildings. At the end of the 1950s, Hüttenwerke Oberhausen Aktien Gesellschaft (HOAG) decided to liquidate the entire estate for the first time. The project was delayed for almost two decades and ultimately met with fierce resistance from the residents.

In 1972, the people of Eisenheim founded a workers' initiative to preserve their settlement - one of the first citizens' initiatives in the Ruhr area. A study by the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences underlined the high value of the living environment for communication and coexistence of the residents. In the course of their protest, the latter converted, among other things, the three washhouses into the People's House (1974), the Children's House (1977) and the Museum (1979). In 1978, Eisenheim received the Culture Prize of the Cultural and Political Society for this. Until the early 1980s, the settlement was renovated with the participation of the residents and the remaining 38 houses were declared a monument. In addition to these, the "Tonino-Guerra-Park" and the "Blue House of the many books" on Werrastrasse are among the visitor highlights.