Deutscher Werkbund > estates

The craftsmen's association Deutscher Werkbund and some members built their own housing estates in a number of German and European cities. The idea was to allow the public to experience the principles of reform housing and New Building first-hand. Similar housing estates exist in Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Oberhausen, Cologne and Munich, for instance, but others can be found elsewhere in Europe including the cities of Brno, Paris, Prague, Vienna, Wroclaw and Zurich. As a rule, all exhibitions commissioned their own publications and public relations work, thereby attracting great attention. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the statutes of the association were completely revised and adapted to nationalist thinking. This reorientation prompted many Werkbund members to resign in protest, but others stayed put – partly for career considerations, but also knowing they could rely on conservative and nationalistic sympathies in the reform movements.

Relaunched after the Second World War, the Werkbund is still organized today at the state and regional level throughout Germany. The association has held true to the traditions of its founding years and remains committed to spreading a holistic and Modernist concept of design.

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