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Zero Hour Has Come and Gone : Allied Efforts to Alleviate the Ruhr Housing

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by Cedric Boiz BA, Simon Fcaser University, 1991 PDJ?., Simon Fraser University, 1993 Thais submitted in partial hlfillment of the requirements for the degree of WIASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History The author has granted an E'auteur a accord6 me licence irrevocable non-exef usiwe licence irrbvocable et non exclusive allowing the National Library of permettant ii la Bibliothiique Canada to reproduce, ban, nationale du Canada de distribute or seil copies of reproduire, pr&x, disiribuer ou his/her thesis by any means and vendre des copies de sa these i_rq any form or form* making de quelque maniere et sous this thesis available to interested queique forme que ce soit pour persons. mettre des exemplaires de cette these a la disposition des personnes int6ressfks. 'The author retains ownership of Cauteur conserve la propriete du the copyright in his/her thesis. droit d'auteur qui prot6ge sa Neither the thesis nor substantial Wse. Ni la Wse ni des extraits extracts from it may be printed or substantieis de cefle-ci ne otherwise reproduced without doivent &re imprim6s ou his/her permission. aubement reproduits sans son autorisation. I hereby .gram to Simon Fraser Unl~crsitythe right lo ft*ntf 1n3 thesis, pm-ect trr extended essay {the title of which is show 1114~1x-) ts users oi the Simon Frasea University Libraq. mcl to rnakr partid or single capies snlv far such users or in rrsponsc to ;I request from the librar). ofmy olher uni\=crsity.or orher educaatianaf insBtuGsn, on its cwn behalf or for one of its uscars. f fm-ther agree that permission for multiple co~qingof this \vclrk fm- s~h~~~~ypan ses may be granted by me or the @leansf Grarhmtc. Studies. It is urrderstaod that copying or ptlblfcation of this xrrrk for flna-rdal gajn shall not be dfowed withaut my written permissian. Title of Thesia/Project/Eactended Essay the Ruhr Hoarsing Shcrmge from 1% 5 to 1949 [date) NAME: Cedric Bilk TlTLE OF THESIS: Zero Hour Has Come and Gone Atlied Efforts to Alleviate the Ruhr Housing Shortage fiom 1945 to 1949 Martin ~it&&-i6fessor I&har3 Deb, Professor Laurence Etchmg, Prctfefsor o%&efmitn Simon Fraser University (External Examiner) 24 May 151516 Tfte foflowing Master of ktsthesis examines the immediate post-w;u era or Mmegnum period of Gmhistory %on 1945 to 1949- In 1946 the French historian Ec@ khrin pubfished frEs idudalwork, The Year Zero in Germans in which he introduced the controvekd concept of a Gwman "zero hour, or a new beginning after r&e told c0Ilaps.eof the scr-calfecf Third Reich. This thesis wid apply the zero hour lqpthaisto the reconstruction process of Ruhr housing during the Mi& occupation perEd. More specificany, Allied housing reconstruction policy will be examined and cr%ica&assessed in relation to its break or co*tlum from N;sriod Scxidfsr precedents. fior to determining whether or not the AngleAmerican efforts diverged significantly &om the Gennan traditions between 1933 and 1945, it was essential to establish which German housing policies could clearly be identified as 'Wational Socialist". This in turn required a survey of the Gmhousing trdions fiom 1918 to 1933. The actual implementation of the Allied reconstruction directives is examined in the Rrrhr mmunity of Essen-Haanopf Based on twelve interviews with Id residents, Essen; miIitary government announcements fiom 1945 to 1949, and secondary research, this thesis argues that the British occupation authorities did attempt to significantty inr&racehousing policy in the Ruhr prior to the formation of the Federal Republic. The Bririsfr Lairow government's efforts to dr& a centralized German reconstntction law, its p'qmd to create a central buskg ofice ar#f its attempts to persuade Gemofficials to Mdprdricated dwebgs, aff represented potential depmres from Ruhr hwsing trdths- UkimatdyI these efforts fdtddue to Britain's bleak economic prebicmxnt ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ltn undertaking tire U of &g this thesis, I have been inspired aad supported by many SdiUiduais. Ptofessor David Ross and Professor Phillip Stigger encouraged me to entw the graduzte pragmm- The resides ofEhmpfwho willingly provided tIteir time, past; experience and patience, deserve a spaid word ofthanks. My My,espxdly my grandmother =the and my mother Helga, hebeen there for me hrnthe outset. My godmother HeUa Hinsel has km actively involved in this thesis for over two years and has been a role model for me for many amre- Profefsor Richard Deb wmriked fris insight and arways bad time to field my questions. I an irrm;cmdy gratefir1 to Professor Mirth Kitchen for providing the impetus for this study and ffking the most supportive senior supenisor I ddhave hoped for. hvea& I wish to titank Y&n Ydpani forkwnttmtous assistance, inexhaustable patience, m~tfagementand support, even during the most challenging phases of this thesis. aapkr One German Housing Poiicy &om -hxjxion to Depression 1901 - 1932 ................... ., ...,.. ...., ..... 8 asyter Twe The New City: National Sociafist Attempts to AU&e the German q-..&&- ,ir"ri-rass Sbi"ie 1933-1943 ............................................................................................... 21 GBap&r Three The Scope of Destntct~*unand the British Predicament ............................................................ 4 1 Cbpter Four &lied RuIur Plans during -tbre frderregnum: From Liberation to Diredive #I37 1945-1949 ...................................................................................................... 57 Chapter Five Post-War CoeConstnrdon in Essen-Haaru,pf: "Germany is much too poor to have to rebuild twice" 1948-1 960 ..................... ,,...- .............................. 78 Copies of the Appendix fineinding n community plan, housing blueprint and coaatructiun pidrves) sre avdabk st tfre S,F.U- IDepsvtmeat of History, While the uwond&iodGerman =mender at him and Karfshomt on the 7th an3 9th of May $945 was the pinnacle of-4kd dtq acfiievements, it simuft~~160ttdyushered in m era of mm&ifion;il Allied respoe6"- far shaping the hreof&f~nany. This hesis will fmson the dricm,dmumataaion anb died~~ent of Mied post-wax housing pT!q towards rk key Rdxindustrid city &?EWE Xhre spciddEy, the thesis wiII k primarily coiwmd dft the adimplementa%ion ofthese recordmaion policies in a single ftuhr-comunity, Essen-Naarzopf. Tfiis lacafe has been chosen as I hfedin the community for twelve years and Kave since returned on seven occasions- Thus, the close ties to the local popularion have reamid and subseqamdy provide an iddopprtunity to collect invafuab'te odaccounts of the post-war experience. It is hoped btthrougfi combining archival and secondarly sources whh the oral testimony, five mtrd qlreftions &It be answered: What German state housing poficies were in place prkr to &e %tiond fhckdist era? Whar: were the ckadzrisics of XdodSociatist housing pofiq? How did post-World War If Allied propods differ hrn Gemtraditions? Did h@o-ilmiwican reconstruction plans significaltly influence post-war ~~ ho&@ Adto wha meat &adoref was m'spost-war busing repaired or begun anew? It is hoped thai though exmhing the post-u.ar development (1 948) of Ewn-Haarzopf, qttdons will be amwad. The city ofEssen 'had the dubious disfinr-tion ofbeing Iabdled the "Munitions Capital of the Tfrird Reichn1 due to the overwhelming presence of the lCrupp Steehorks, which occupied over five square k3orneters of fie city center and mpioyed ;in mounding one tenth of its total pwonof abut 700,000-The immease industrial potentid of the hppfactory would prove to be e~fremeksignificant tu the ihxe of the city both during and after the Second Wodd War. &&BB && camp@^^ ---s&&jeckd to 272 MEd hmhi~~~raids which &&~yd90% of the irmer city." would rank fourth behind Hamburg Cologne and Dresden in actual tonnage ciropped on a specific target. The four thousand residents of the Esseri-Haarmpf suburb wdddet a shikfate, pehpunnmed by the inacGuracy of Allied bombing and the tawd's dose proximity to the area's only major airfieid at MiiZheim, tOK mounding region was work Nationdisozialistixh Siedhmhu and most redyBruno Wasser's PhD. dissertation made by either Gimble, Marshall or Wagner to utilize hlly the oral traditions of their respective cornunities The direct effect which Allied reconstruction policies thus had on the inhabitants is only mentioned in passing. The following Masters of Arts thesis is predominantly concerned with the concept of a Gwman "zero hour" or a rebirth as it applied to housing policy after the Second World War. Edgar Morin's groundbreaking 1946 publication The Year Zero in GermanyJ which has been at the heart of countless post-war debates on Germany's past and future, was a central inspiration to my work. When examining the above-mentioned publications, only three authors address the National Sociafist break or contimum hypothesis as it relates to state housing policy: Dieter Schulz, Ute Peltz-Dreckmann and JemDiefendorf. Niels Gutschow and Werner Diirth's brilliant essay "So Vie1 Anfang war Me" also needs to be mentioned since it also criticizes German post-war urban planners for their inability to break with National Socialist traditions. Even though the zero hour controversy has been dealt with by all five scholars, none have chosen to document what effects Allied post-war reconstruction had on a single community. In the &sequent pages I hope to bridge at least some of these gaps with my area-specific study of Allied reconstruction efforts in the Ruhr industrial center of Essen. More specifically, I will conclude this study with a focus on one community: the 1948 housing development in Essen- Haafzopf. In his thorough 1955 geographic study The Destruction and Reconstruction of Essen, Erich Heyn called Ehirzopf one of the most desirable post-war communities in all of Essen. Due to the &ct that the construction of this so-called "ideal community" began a year before the fodonof the Federal Republic, planning, development and construction had to be sanctioned by the Anglo-American military authorities. In essence therefore, this community serves as a @kct Lh!gb which to =the hypothesis whether or not the Ompatian powers chose merely to conhue pre-war state housing traditions or si-nnificantly influence post-war developments.
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