Siedlung Teutoburgia, Herne: a garden village for miners

The city of Herne is located between Bochum and Recklinghausen in the Ruhr Area. The city was formed in 1975 by joining the former municipal authorities of Herne and Sodingen. Herne forms the geographic centre of the Ruhr Area and is subdivided in several boroughs, mostly former villages and small towns. Eickel is part of Herne, as are Wanne, Holthausen, Röhlinghausen and Horsthausen. Located within the Ruhrrevier the area is known for its mining and heavy industry.

The trader Carl Wilhelm successfully prospected an area near Holthausen for coal in 1855 and again in 1856. In 1866 his concession called “Laura” was bought by William Thomas Mulvany, an Irish entrepreneur from Dublin, who sank the first pit here. Coal production proved unprofitable, however. The abandoned mine was bought by the Bochumer Verein für Bergbau und Gusstahlfabrikation (Bochum Society for Mining and Cast Steel Production) in 1905 who renewed the abandoned pit and sank a second one. Coal production in the renamed Teutoburgia Mine started in 1911.

The Trade Union of Miners initiated the building of a workers colony near the rural colliery site of the Zeche Teutoburgia in 1909. The architect Berndt was given the commission and he designed a garden village type colony based on English examples, probably via Muthesius. The garden village was located directly opposite the colliery near an older colony built Am Knie (literally: at the knee) for the short-lived mining activity in the late 19^th-century.

The central Baarestrasse links the old village street with the colliery site and was aligned with the entrance gate. The bottom section widens into a wide avenue with a central green. The other streets all have a curved alignment linking the Baarestrasse with the Schadeburgstrasse , another pre-existing street, that ran along the southern edge of the colliery. The street ran along the manor of Schadeburg (Rittergut in German). The remains of this moated castle, first mentioned in 880, were visible until they were cleared in 1961 to make way for a church and day-care centre.

Most of the garden village was built between 1909 and 1914. A row of shops was included at the beginning of the Baarestrasse on the Castroper Strasse as well as a pub. Between 1921-23 the colony was enlarged on the westside by extending the Schlägelstrasse beyond the Bogenstrasse to join the new Teutoburgiahof, as curved street that culminates in a cul-de-sac that resembles a court beguinage. In total 136 buildings were erected with 495 dwellings; rowhouses are counted as a single building in Germany. On a site measuring 21,4 hectares this makes 23 houses per hectare which is below the garden city standard of 12 per acre (=29,5 per hectare) expressed by Unwin in Nothing gained by overcrowding.

The housing is mostly comprised of semidetached and terraced family housing, with some blocks with an up-down apartment arrangement. The terraced housing is mostly in groups of 4, but there are also terraces of three and five, and a few comprised of 10 or twelve linked dwellings. From 4 basis house types over 20 different designs were developed. All are designed in a vernacular style with facades in light render. No block looks the same as a variety of standard details were combined in different ways with various roof shapes. The placement of the blocks along the streets show some Unwinesque characteristics, with set-back building lines and angled corner-blocks, but also clearly refence the scattered approach advocated by some German planners of the time. The Siedlung Teutoburgia is also known as Gartenstadt Teutoburgia, but isn’t a true garden city as most amenities were absent.

The Siedlung Teutoburgia as it used to look: on the left the village of Börnig (B) with the old watermill (M) on a since disappeared stream and on the right the hamlet of Holthauserbruch (HB). The garden village is located directly south of the colliery (Zeche Teutoburgia – Z) with the spoil heap (H) directly east. Along the pre-existing road more buildings were built as a result of the opening of the mine and the realisation of a colony. The old colony (C) is located directly next to the garden village. The formal entrance between a row of shops (r) and a pub (p) is located on this through route. West of the remains of the Schadeburg (S) the Teutoburgiahof (Th) was built. Opposite a football pitch (F) was made as a sporting facility for the miners.

The colliery was also not very productive in its second incarnation, so Zeche Teutoburgia was closed down in 1925. Most of the 1200 worker were reassigned to neighbouring mines Zeche Constantin and Zeche Mont Cenis located at walking distance at 3 and 1 km respectively. In 1926 the concession Teutoburgia was merged with neighbouring concessions in Castrop and Rauxel. In 1929 Zeche Erin was connected with the old galleries of Teutoburgia. In 1983 the combined mine was shut down and apart from some pit towers and a machine hall little remains. The colliery site at Teutoburgia is now a sculpture park; the Erin colliery site has been redeveloped as an industrial park. The mining colony was refurbished during the 1980s. Renovation following the original appearance followed in 1998. The housing was privatised in 2005.