Sundial and photovoltaics: the listed Neufriedenheim settlement in Laim stretches along the Lindau motorway.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
The sundial with signs of the zodiac on the corner of the Fürstenrieder/Ammerseestraße building is an eye-catcher. Anyone who takes the A96 in the direction of Munich and turns their gaze to the left at the Laim exit knows the work of art: it has been emblazoned on this façade for almost a hundred years, created by the artist Ernst Kozics. The four-storey block above the autobahn is part of the Friedenheim settlement, or as many residents say: Neufriedenheim. The building and its extension along Fürstenrieder Strasse act like a bulwark: behind it lies a village idyll, shielded from view and street noise.
The Neufriedenheim estate is a special quarter in Gewofag’s portfolio, also for its boss Klaus-Michael Dengler.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
188 small, two-story houses, all with a front garden, staircase, garden and partly green facades. From the outside, the buildings look alike, only the coloring and decoration make the difference. “This is the only row house settlement that we have at Gewofag,” says Klaus-Michael Dengler, Managing Director of the municipal housing association, not without pride. The Friedenheim planned by architect Bruno Biehler – or Neufriedenheim, named after the neighboring sanatorium at the time – was built on a green field between 1928 and 1930 as one of the five founding settlements of the Gemeinwohlige Wohnungsfürsorge AG (Gewofag).
Previously, the then Munich SPD city councilor and housing consultant Karl Preis had called for the construction of 12,000 apartments to “eliminate the housing shortage”. “Neufriedenheim”, emphasizes Lothar Schmidt from the Laim Historical Association, “has nothing to do with the former Laim district of Friedenheim”. While this was near the Friedenheimer Bridge on Landsberger Strasse and has now completely disappeared, Neufriedenheim is an “artificial name that the head of the mental hospital, Dr. Rehm, probably invented”.
The one- and two-family houses were gradually built to the east of Fürstenrieder Straße (from bottom left to top right) until around 1939.
(Photo: Archive of the Laim Historical Association)
In any case, Friedenheim or Neufriedenheim is worth protecting, despite its artificial name: The Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation has now placed the row houses between Fürstenrieder, Saherrstrasse, Inderstorferstrasse and Joergstrasse under ensemble protection. The justification: “The simple architectural language of the buildings and the urban planning arrangement according to the ideas of the time, good lighting and ventilation” show “influences of modern building in the time of the Weimar Republic”. Social housing construction in Munich set a new standard at the time: All apartments in the Gewofag founding settlements had running water in the kitchen and bathroom and a toilet with a cistern – not a matter of course at the time.
Kindergartens, schools and churches were taken into account in the settlement construction. There were communal facilities, laundry rooms for residents and children’s playgrounds. And the “settlements in the countryside” were supplied with shops for everyday needs: with retail shops, restaurants, workshops for craftsmen, medical practices and pharmacies. A pioneering achievement that was unique in Germany. In 1930 the magazine “Die Baukunst” praised in Munich that the aim was “not just to build apartments, as is often the case elsewhere, but apartments that meet the ethical housing requirements that the tenant should feel comfortable and content.” Because only then will “the housing shortage not only be solved numerically, but actually”.
Gerhard Lankes does not want to leave the tight-knit community.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
But how did life and life live in Friedenheim? One who should know is Gerhard Lankes. The 61-year-old master craftsman grew up in the Laim settlement, although he lived somewhere else in between, but returned in 1988. “It’s a lottery win if you’re allowed in here,” he knows from experience. “At that time I was a journeyman and had to go to the clinic with my wife to have an ultrasound of our child made – because at that time you could only get an apartment as a family.” For Lankes, returning was like coming home. Because he knows most of the residents of Friedenheim.
Grandma, grandpa, mother, sister, childhood friends – they all lived in the settlement and most of them still do. When walking through the streets, you can hear “Servus” from everywhere, people greet each other, Lankes has been on first-name terms with his neighbors on Gaishoferstrasse for years. “We are,” he says, “a tight-knit community.” There are now 1800 apartments in Friedenheim, the small house settlement was only in the first construction phase. For comparison: All five start-up settlements offer 11,000 tenants housing, Gewofag’s portfolio comprises a total of 39,000 apartments.
Sometimes it’s the little things that make the charm – like this copper door with a sculpture above the entrance at Fürstenrieder Straße 148.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
In any case, Lankes still knows the area without the Autobahn, as a child he went for a walk on the Ammerseestraße. He was in the only kindergarten at the Name Jesus Church in the neighborhood. “There weren’t any educators back then, we were looked after by nuns in habit, and we got a warm meal at lunchtime.” Lanke’s daughters, now 28 and 33 years old and still living in Friedenheim, also attended this institution. All the children went to the Senftenau school, and many learned to swim in the “Mother and Child” fountain on Reindlstrasse, which is now a listed building.
Lankes even remembers how he and his friends always got into trouble because they took water from the “Peterl-Brünnlein” on Stürzerstrasse to build their sandcastles. “We were then scolded because of the sand in the well,” he says with a smile. On Inderstorferstraße there was a butcher, a baker, a cobbler, the grocer “Konsum” – all the local amenities were within walking distance. Because every shop also had an apartment, the shop owner only had to go through one door to get to his private quarters.
And today? Friedenheim still looks idyllic, and the tenant structure is still homogeneous, which is why Gewofag only integrated a living in the district location into the settlement a few years ago. With a residents’ café and doctor’s office to guarantee security of supply in old age. It is the only new building in the district. However, puts Gerhard Lankes into perspective, a change is happening again. And not all of the newcomers fit harmoniously into the community. Many also preferred to keep to themselves and hide away. But that is “a general topic, it’s not just for us”.
In addition, the houses are of course charming and affordable, but also “simple”. “We have an unheated basement and a non-heatable stairwell, you have to like that. And you should also be a bit handy if you want to live here. A lot of people don’t want that anymore.” The fact that the people he knows consider themselves lucky to have an apartment in Friedenheim is proven by a sentence Lankes hears from the elderly residents: “If we leave here,” they say, “then only horizontally.”