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Dresden. A streetcar stop behind the factory halls of Infineon you stroll on the way to the German workshops through the already budding grounds of Gartenstadt Hellerau. Fritz Straub, who has been managing director of the workshops since 1992, welcomes you here in a historic machine hall with large windows. The view falls on Gartenstadt's wooden houses, which were built by the company in 1934 using innovative prefabricated construction methods. Today, the company mainly builds large yachts and villas. Fritz Straub, who is responsible for 450 employees, speaks energetically and with a sense of history about the ideas and connections in Hellerau.
Mr. Straub, why did your predecessor as head of Deutsche Werkstätten, Karl Schmidt, have a garden city built in Hellerau in 1909?
Karl Schmidt was a self-taught master carpenter who set up his own furniture and interior design company. His innovative way of thinking is evident from the fact that he combined mechanical production methods with craftsmanship at an early stage. He did not shy away from technical innovations. However, he always combined his company with socio-political ambitions. From his apprenticeship years in England, he was familiar with the model of the garden city, which inspired him. After the turn of the century, he wanted to expand his company and at the same time demonstrate his ideas for reform. In view of industrialization and the slumification of cities, the question arose as to how people could live and work decently in the future. And Hellerau was an experiment in which this was tried out.
What has remained of these ideas?
We don't play the capitalist game that only allows a company to earn a lot of money. We reinvest all profits in the development of the company. That's why we don't pay a dividend and I, as a shareholder, receive a normal managing director's salary like my other colleagues on the management board. So it's not about money, but about initiating developments that guarantee good jobs and working conditions.
What are the concrete connections to the garden city?
We see ourselves as part of an organic Hellerau system. We have very good contacts with the Festspielhaus Hellerau, are in close contact with the citizens' association, take part in children's festivals, organize concerts and a gallery. But we also do things that a company has nothing to do with: for example, we are involved in setting up a new wayfinding system in Hellerau because it simply bothers us when people come here and can't find their way around. And one thing is already clear for the future: as the sole shareholder of the company, I will transfer my shares to a charitable foundation, which in turn will promote the development of Hellerau!
A massive industrial development is now underway in the north of Dresden, TSMC and Infineon will build new production halls, 30,000 new jobs could be created by 2030 - and this will require living space: Could the garden city serve as a model for this?
That's exactly what we're thinking about right now: Up here in the north of Dresden, where the new housing is to be built, we have a great idea from the old world with Hellerau! Parts of the citizens' association and Hellerau have already thought about what a garden city of the future could look like. To do this, we need to look at the historical ideas of the garden city, take the model apart and consider which aspects we can use from it.
What are approaches to the garden city that you consider sustainable?
In principle, the garden city is almost a mandatory model for the future: we are confronted with climate change, which means that we need forms of settlement that are adapted to this in terms of urban planning. This means lots of cooling green spaces, renewable energies, a sustainable water balance and, very importantly, ecological construction. But it is also about social issues: how can the settlement model create a social community? In the garden city, some very responsible models have already been tried out in the form of cooperative ownership models and cooperative management. The garden city itself is a model for the future. However, we need to rethink and adapt some ideas and approaches. The garden city of the future needs to be more compact in order to avoid land sealing.
If the head of TSMC approached you now: How would you convince him that TSMC should support the idea of a garden city?
We are in a situation where large parts of the economy have a shortage of skilled workers. We need people. And local quality of life is effective retention of skilled workers! But there is also the fact that companies with a vision for the future, i.e. companies that think long-term, have to take a hard look at themselves and see what responsibility they bear. In the last twenty years, we have experienced a very capitalist, profit-oriented business world. For example, companies have sold off their company apartments en masse, which were still a matter of course for large companies after the Second World War. I hope that we are now slowly moving towards a rethink that also focuses on responsibility for employees again.
You strongly emphasize the responsibility of companies. Where do you implement this?
In recent years, we have been working on setting up a training academy. We use it to train our employees for the special tasks in our company, but we also want to offer training and further education to other companies in the future.
At our location in Moscow, we also realize how strongly we are involved in international politics and therefore have to act responsibly.
You want to promote Hellerau's reputation and future: What projects are currently playing a role for you?
Unfortunately, our World Heritage application was recently rejected, but we will continue to pursue the project. This also includes making Hellerau known as an important point of reference for Dresden and Saxony. And Hellerau will also ber Federal Garden Show 2033 play a role. In this context, we are thinking of launching a model construction project that combines the housing requirements in the north of Dresden, the historic garden city and the Buga. For ten years now, there has been an intensified discussion about the garden city of the future. Hopefully a lot will happen in the next few years.
The interview was conducted by Paul Meyer
