Neue Heimat: Unternehmenspolitik und Unternehmensentwicklung im gewerkschaftlichen Wohnungs- und Stadtebau 1950-1982

Abstract

The history of Neue Heimat (NH) has something gigantic about it: during the 1950s and 1960s it was Germany's largest housing company; no one built and rented out more flats. NH, owned by the trade unions, was thus part of the process of modernization during postwar reconstruction, a subject recently much discussed by contemporary historians. But the company was much more than just a producer of low-priced living space: with its architecture and notion of social housing it contributed to the shaping of entire urban quarters and lifestyles. One small example may illustrate this: in 1959, at a time when East German refugees were still supposed to be accommodated in NH facilities, Heinrich Plett, managing director of NH Hamburg, remarked that, on the one hand, these people required a high amount of care and welfare by both local and federal authorities. But on the other hand, the antisocial part among them should be treated equally to the antisocial locals, which meant that they were to be kept in simple, cramped accommodation until they should come to their senses and start to lead an orderly life. As a matter of fact, trade union housing policy was never purely market economy-oriented, but also had a social and political and, one might say, disciplinary role from the start.