Altsiedlung Friedrich Heinrich, a garden city colony in the Rhineland

On the western edge of Rhine Coal Basin a large coal field dubbed Humbolt was tendered for concession in 1862. It was bought by Friedrich Heinrich Freiherr von Diergardt (a baron), Ferdinand Stein and Wilhelm Königs, with backing from a French investment bank. In 1874 the concession was split in three; the section near the baroque Camp Abbey (Kloster Kamp) was renamed Friedrich Heinrich after the owner. The coal field was prospected from 1901 to 1904. Work on sinking two pits started in 1905 on the edge of the Lintforter Heide.

Pits Friedrich Heinrich 1 and 2 were opened in 1907. At that moment the first houses had been erected near the small village of Lintfort. These semidetached cottages are located within a rectangular block subdivided by two streets in a T-shape. This regular layout combined with the vernacular style of the buildings makes this an example of artistic urban planning in the Sitte-esque German tradition. The rest would be planned along the lines of Sitte-esque design with curved streets, like a Garden City. The inspiration was clearly taken from English examples - probably via Muthesius. The design was drawn between 1905 and 1907, the planner is not known. Like Dahlhauserheide, this mining colony precedes the first official German Garden City, and it was conceived before Raymond Unwins book was published. This makes both the Altsiedlung and Dahlhauserheide good examples of Anglo-German suburban urban development.

Coal production starts in 1912. By that time a small settlement had sprung up on the edge of Lintfort. That village was little more than a hamlet on the edge of heathland, with a single street ending in a small green where two lanes ran further across the heath. Further east some large farms were situated in the fertile zone along the Rhine; further west the Abbey mentioned above and a medieval castle known as Haus Dieprahm on the edge of the Rhine terrace. Between 1912 and 1915 a second building phase grew the colony 200%. At the same time a school was built on the edge of the village on the old green. This also lead to expansion of the original village along two former dirt roads.

On the other side of the colliery site a second colony was taking shape behind the two large director villas opposite the colliery buildings. This colony was built for the upper echelons of the mining company and has a rather regular layout. Unlike the housing for miners these villas are situated upwind from the mine. A separate colony site was begun around 1912 north of the old village. This colony was not primarily aimed at miners, but at auxiliary workers.

Building work was slow to get started after 1918 and resumed in earnest from 1925 onwards. In the next 5 years the colony was finished and more than doubled in size. Around the market a hall was built with a milk dispensary on the other side. On the edge of the garden village a number of shops were built as a small retail centre and further schools were added. On the edges several sporting grounds were built, mostly athletics and football. When the Altsiedlung was finished the town of Lintfort had come into existence. This makes this garden city with 2,200 houses and over 6,000 residents. In 1934 the new municipal authority of Kamp-Lintfort was created by merging Kamp with Lintfort and adjoining villages.

The Altsiedlung -Old Settlement- refers to the position near the former village of Lintfort. On the left the old village is shown in light orange, wiith old rouds shown in yellow. The colliery site -in purple- sits between the Altsiedlung proper (in deep orange) and the villa park (in banana yellow). The smaller colony to the north is also visible. In green the public gardens and sports facilities. On the left the facilities on the plan: Friedrich Heinrich Colliery (FH), churches (c), schools (s), retail space (r), milk dispensary (m), beer hall (h), hostel for young miners (*), a casino (a social club, !), the tow directorial villas (v) and the water treatment board (w).

Though the garden city suffered little damage during the war, sections of the housing were demolished or proposed to be demolished in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This awakened a conservation movement headed by local people. Incidentally some of the tower blocks that where built in that time have been demolished in the new millennium. From the first restoration plan of 1979, which also included partial privatisation of rented housing, to the recent refurbishments by the social housing corporation in 2004 the appearance of the total garden city has been safeguarded and in part improved. The Altsiedlung Friedrich Heinrich is now an excellent example of a garden city inspired suburban satellite built as factory housing for the miners of the nearby colliery.