A group photo from the pre-Corona period. The extended board and members of the Siedlerbund (front row from left): Helmut Vogel, Erich Wäber, Reinhard Ortlauf, Kurt Schäfer. Back row from left: Renate Goerke, Jürgen Walther, Tracy Wittich, Günter Rödelbronn, Jürgen Wittich Photo: private
The Federation of Settlers Offenbach (bds) has been helping house and apartment owners with all kinds of topics for more than 90 years.
Offenbach – The cellar is under water after the last storm. When painting the facade, the paint bucket falls from the scaffolding onto the new car of the neighbor. The oak in the garden is too close to the property boundary: Small examples of topics on which the Association of Settlers Offenbach (bds) has been helping house and apartment owners for more than 90 years. The community of convenience was founded out of an emergency. The trigger was a legal dispute with the city of Offenbach.
Three years had passed since the end of the First World War, and there was a great housing shortage in Offenbach in 1921. In order to boost housing construction, the city granted cheap loans in addition to leasehold rights. A second grant followed six years later.
Heinrich Seidel, who had moved into his house on Gerhardt-Hauptmann-Strasse in 1923, did not have a nice Christmas party in 1927. The city treasury retrospectively charged residential fees of 1262.63 Reichsmarks from him and the other owners. Priceless for Heinrich Seidel and others affected.
In need, they founded the Association of Settlers and Leasehold Owners Offenbach am Main in January 1928. The purpose of the Confederation is – as the statute shows – to this day “the interests of its members in all matters relating to settlers […] to actively support. “
In September 1928, the association brought an action against the charging of the resident fees. It wasn’t until 1932 that the model lawsuit was withdrawn after a comparison with the city. The settlers’ union had achieved its first success for its members. After the end of the Second World War, many Offenbachers were unemployed and homeless, and habitable houses were in short supply; displaced people joined the locals. Just like Manfred Fuhr’s family. The current bds chairman came to Offenbach with his family in 1953. They found a new home between Dietzenbacherstrasse and Schlesierstrasse. Fuhr remembers: “At that time only the houses of the officials of the area administrators were there. Otherwise there was only forest and fields. ”For displaced persons, bomb victims and evacuees, the community – founded in 1952 as the Association of Settlers – Homeowners and Small House Owners Offenbach am Main e.V. – was a decisive aid in building a new existence.
Within a few years, the front forest settlement was created through close cooperation between the settlers in the once swampy forest area. And without any technical tools. “We had no excavators or similar machines. The pits for the foundations were only excavated with shovels and wheelbarrows, ”says Fuhr. The cohesion of the community was an important part of the rapid growth of the Vorderwald settlement. “The electrician helped the bricklayer lay the cables, the bricklayer put the stones for it,” says Manfred Fuhr.
Such coexistence no longer exists today: “Many young people no longer want to be active in such a community.” The federal government has a lot to offer its members, emphasizes the chairman. In addition to its own list of craftsmen who dealt with every problem, from blocked ducts to broken roofs to the right building materials, the federal government helps with advice and mediation in property, legal or insurance issues. He also intervenes in neighborhood disputes. “Any owner who needs help can contact us,” assures the chairman.
Information on the Internet bunddersiedleroffenbach.com
BY JOSHUA BEAR
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