Listed property in the state capital
The district of Reisholz is in the south of Dusseldorf, the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its Henkel Estate has been a Deutsche Wohnen neighbourhood since 2012. As another listed 1930s development, it’s a great fit for the company’s portfolio.
The Henkel Estate in Dusseldorf has a long history. A large part of today’s estate was built in the 1930s as a works housing estate for the company Henkel. The principal architect was Wilhelm Beckmann. On acquiring the estate, Deutsche Wohnen invested over 1.8 million euros in renovating the neighbourhood in the Reisholz district. Many of the buildings’ facades were repainted and around 170 of the 400 apartments acquired a balcony.
In December 2014, part of the estate – 159 of 406 residential units in total – was listed by the state capital Dusseldorf, putting it under heritage protection. The city’s grounds for this decision were that the estate bore testament to how suitable living space was created for the workforce even in the most challenging economic conditions – specifically, the global economic crisis. The district of Reisholz remains an industrial area today and is home to factories owned by Henkel and BASF. It was also pointed out that with its residential courtyards arranged around a central area and its large open spaces, the estate provided workers of the time with a minimum of self-sufficiency.
