Weimar-Waldstadt, Weimar-WHAT?
This project was conducted under the supervision of Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Daniela Zupan, Galyna Sukhomud at Institute for European Urban Studies at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Bauhaus University Weimar.
Co-authors of the Project: Dilara Hadroviç, Ian Ozeroff, Joe Kwasnik, Lena Knape, Marie von Kempis, Nele Ilic
Methods
In order to answer these questions, we adopted a multi-method approach that combined archival research and ethnographic methods (semi-structured interviews). The archival research focussed on official planning documents (local, regional and national plans) and maps of the local area, newspaper articles and bureaucratic corresponded between parties involved in the planning of the Waldstadt.
Our archival research was conducted in:
● Landesarchiv Thüringen - Hauptstaatarchiv Weimar
● Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung - Erkner
● Kunst Bibliothek - University of Leipzig
Our interviewees included:
● Herr Dr. Senff
● The current Mayor of Schöndorf
● Heidi Günzler
Prior to conducting our research, however, we first undertook a review of the relevant literature covering the topics of housing policy within socialist societies (and the GDR in particular) and on the history of environmental movements within the GDR.
By combining these methods, we hope to interrogate the discrepancies between official and lived history. Within the political context of the GDR, many alternative narratives surrounding the construction of Waldstadt may have been lost. For this reason, the official historical records of the planning process may present a simplified version of Waldstadt’s construction, obscuring the many diverse and conflicting reasons for supporting or opposing the construction.
In order to gain as full a picture as possible, we aimed to conduct interviews with as many sources as possible. Through adopting a semi-structured, conversational approach to interviewing, we hoped to allow our participants the space to elaborate on small details and emotionally resonant memories in order to map-out the wider cultural context that surrounded the planning process.
Dr. Senff has lived in Schöndorf since 1963. As head of the seed breeding department, he is involved in agriculture and, as a family man, in the social network of the village. We talked to him about the emergence of the Waldstadt.
"I came to Schöndorf in 1963 as head of this seed breeding department. I studied agriculture at the University of Leipzig and worked there in an institute for plant breeding. Then I was a senior assistant at the Institute for Beet Research in Kleinwansleben, which is in the Magdeburger Börde region, where I did my doctorate on a topic relating to beet seed production. We had developed a special process. But nobody uses it here anymore, only in Italy. From there I came to Schöndorf in 1963 as head of seed breeding. Our main task was the breeding of fodder beets, but also cereals, wheat, spring barley, rye and various fodder plants. We also launched three fodder beet varieties. For centuries, fodder beet was the basis of cattle nutrition over the winter. Now it has been replaced by corn silage. The company was sold by the Treuhand in 1992. A distant relative of my wife bought it. The Treuhand sent me into early retirement because I was already 63 years old but I helped the new owner to keep it going, but instead of 30 employees, now just with three.”