100 years ago, architect Theodor Fischer built bright, airy apartments on the outskirts of the city for industrial workers. A chronicle tells about what life was like in the Alte Heide settlement. Even today it is a popular address for people on a budget.
Housing shortage is a permanent condition in Munich, and not just in the 21st century. Even before the First World War, when industrialization drove people to the city, there was a lack of small apartments. Complete strangers shared a bed in shifts. After the war, everything got worse: the workers without a place to live were joined by refugees and returning soldiers, and there had been hardly any construction for years. Sensible quarters had to be found, as many as possible, as quickly as possible. Many of today’s housing innovations were already tried out back then. And some of them on the sheep pastures between the northern district of Schwabing and the old village of Freimann.