287 the cultural problems that preoccupied him”.10 From 1918 onwards, the theoretical – in Schmidt’s own words, “too school-like” – apprenticeship training was radically reduced to a minimum of almost zero, and the focus was shifted to practical work. This reflected the massive and pervasive orientation towards craftsmanship that emerged in the search for ‘recuperation’ after the First World War. Schmidt felt the need to clarify this change of course in a formulated departure from earlier thoughts: “Nothing educates people better than thorough and conscientious work.”11 Architect Heinrich Tessenow’s concept for the establishment and organisation of the craftsmen’s community in Hellerau, which he published in 1919, bears unmistakeable similarities to the early programme for the Bauhaus in Weimar. Here, as there, we encounter the concept of “masters”. Training of apprentices was to be a key task of the community.12 Moreover, Tessenow had been able to get to know Bauhaus protagonist Walter Gropius in person: he had met him in the summer of 1918. The circle of patrons of the craftsmen’s community included writer and Salonnière Hertha Koenig, and also the well-known – although already controversial – reform pedagogue Gustav Wyneken.13 Tessenow – who, in his designs, was sometimes prone to changing his mind about positions and ideas – saw in the Hellerau project a potential way to pursue his vision of bringing together “craftsmen and peasants” in the form of a small-town settlement project. The desire of the individual for a degree of solitude – in their own workshop, on their own patch of soil, in their own small garden allotment – coincided with the basic philosophies of the architect Gustav Lüdecke14, a newcomer to the garden-city extension, and with those of the social reformer Percival Booth, who lived in Hellerau and initiated the construction of Kriegsheimkehrerhäuser (homes for veterans returning after the war).15 In 1920, Johannes Schomerus, an agricultural councillor for the State of Saxony and an expert in fruit growing, founded the anthroposophically influenced, organic- farming oriented Lehr- und Mustersiedlung Hellerau (Hellerau school and model settlement), an agricultural/horticultural learning centre for garden city settlers. With a view to “self-sufficiency gardening”, the main aim was to offer courses in fruit and vegetable growing, home economics, fruit utilisation and small-animal husbandry. According to Schomerus, the place to find “humane dwelling” par excellence was certainly not the big city; it was the garden.16 This sentiment is clearly reflected in the collocation “garden city”. Initially, and in the early years following 1900, Karl Schmidt’s Hellerau project was referred to as a “colony project”. Architect and urban planner Fritz Schumacher described Schmidt’s development of the idea in his memoirs: “In his whole being, he was born to be far more of an agitator than a craftsman. Pursuing new cultural ideas [...] was a need for him [...] A natural need led from the factory building to the workers’ colony. It was just a single step from the workers’ colony to the general problem of human settlement. From human settlement to all conceivable further problems of an ideal cultural community, his busy imagination swiftly spanned the bridge.”17 From early autumn 1906, under the auspices of the so-called Siebener-Kommission (Commission of Seven), a questionnaire survey was launched in the Deutsche Werkstätten on the current and desired living conditions of the workers and employees. One could, theoretically, view such a form of employee participation in the “colony project” as worthy of the attribute ‘exemplary’.18 However, in the final analysis, Hellerau turned out to be far more than merely an optimised factory housing estate. Architect and author Hermann Muthesius praised the Hellerau idea as “going one step further by making the inhabitants of the settlement co-creators, quasi-owners, and the whole settlement [...] a collaborative effort independent of the factory enterprise”.19 Anyone who wanted to was welcome to take up residence in the garden city. The mix of differently designed “houses types” aimed to promote a mixed social structure. It is this progressive aspect that definitely merits the distinction ‘exemplary’. Wolf Dohrn, in particular, never tired of pointing out how crucial the role of land reform was in the garden city idea – as was the colony’s inherent socio-educa-
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