File:Dortmund - Kolonie Landwehr, Rhader Weg - Flickr - Rutger van der Maar.jpg

Dortmund

The Landwehr colony is a mining settlement in the Bövinghausen district of Dortmund that belongs to the Zollern colliery.

The Zollern colliery was built as a model mine for the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG (GBAG), and the Landwehr colony was built in parallel as a model settlement in the immediate vicinity. Like most of the mine complex, the buildings were designed in the historicist style and underline the ensemble character of the entire complex, which as such is registered as a monument in the city of Dortmund's list of monuments.

The first building in 1898 was a two-family house for Steiger on Grubenweg, which leads to the factory gate. In 1900 the director's villa was built for the manager on Rhader Weg. By 1904, additional apartment buildings followed on these two streets, totaling eight civil servants' houses with 29 apartments. The individual design was complex; Curved gables, bay windows and decorative framework. This part of the settlement was planned and carried out by Paul Knobbe, the GBAG architect, and by machine inspector Wenzel Köller.

In the second part of the settlement, on the eponymous Landwehrbach, are the 23 workers' houses planned by Knobbe alone with a total of 87 apartments. According to the idea of the garden city, there are five different types of houses for mostly four families. The houses are placed on one side of the street, have small front gardens and old plane trees. The properties are much larger and offered kitchen gardens and stables for self-sufficiency.

Because of the small number of residents and the immediate proximity of the Bövinghausen settlement, no separate infrastructure in the form of churches, schools or shops was planned. ________________________________________________

Dortmund is the largest city in the Ruhr area. It has a population of 593,000 inhabitants, making it the eighth largest city in Germany. Dortmund was founded around 882. Throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the "chief city" of the Rhine, Westphalia, and the Netherlands Circle of the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was destroyed and decreased in significance until the onset of industrialization. The city then became one of Germany's most important coal, steel and beer centres. The town expanded into a city, with the population rising from 57,742 in 1875 to 379,950 in 1905. Sprawling residential areas like the North, East, Union and Kreuz district sprang up in less than 10 years. Dortmund consequently was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The devastating bombing raids of 12 March 1945 destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center. These bombing raids, with more than 1,110 aircraft, hold the record to a single target in World War II. Post-war, most of the ancient buildings were not restored, and large parts of the city area were completely rebuilt in the style of the 1950s. A few historic buildings as the main churches Reinoldikirche and Marienkirche were restored or rebuilt, and extensive parks and gardens were laid out. The simple but successful postwar rebuilding has resulted in a very mixed and unique cityscape. ________________________________________________

After visiting the Ruhr area three years ago, I did a revisit, since there was still so much to see. In less than six days I visited six cities, two museums, and I did some extensive car spotting by bicycle. I have hundreds of car spots to share and took photos of the historic or interesting buildings.

The Ruhr area ('Ruhrgebiet') is named after the river that borders it to the south and is the largest urban area in Germany with over five million people. It is mostly known as a densely-populated industrial area. By 1850 there were almost 300 coal mines in operation in the Ruhr area. The coal was exported or processed in coking ovens into coke, used in blast furnaces, producing iron and steel. Because of the industrial significance, it had been a target from the start of the war, yet "the organized defences and the large amount of industrial pollutants produced a semi-permanent smog or industrial haze that hampered accurate bombing". During World War II, the industry and cities in the Ruhr area were heavily bombed. The combination of the lack of historic city centres, which were burned to ashes, (air) pollution, and urban decay has given the area and the cities a bad reputation.