Zechensiedlung Hervest

The Hervest miners’ housing estate is a good example of the principles of the garden city movement and its impact on workers’ housing. In social-hygienic terms, it is, like many of the housing estates of that period, a response to the Wilhelminian tenements.
The execution plans prepared by architect Eggeling in 1912 and 1913 were based upon an overall construction plan. The construction was started in 1913 and after WWI resumed and finished in the 1920s. It was built for the miners of Zeche Fürst Leopold. From the beginning organised as a co-op, between 1918 and 1930 its eastern part became the Catholic part, its western part the Protestant one.
Of the 544 houses, 178 were privatised. In 1972/1973, Hoesch-Wohnungsgesellschaft and the City of Dorsten agreed upon an extensive renovation. The houses were modernised from 1986 and the entire miners’ housing estate listed in 1987. The fountain square as the housing estate’s centre was opened by Johannes Rau, Minister-President of North Rhine – Westphalia, in 1988.
At the time, the housing estate documented an important turning point on this district’s way to an industrial region. The housing estate still is the urbanistically most closed unit of this band-structured district of Dorsten. This is even more important as the neighbouring Fürst Leopold pit, functionally connected with the housing estates for decades, has now been shut down. Although in part also listed, it is still awaiting a sustainable use that is in line with regulations pertaining to the preservation of historical monuments.

Author: Stadt Dorsten
Last changed on 11.02.2008

Categories:
Architecture » Residential buildings » Multiple Housing