October, i 9 1 5 
41 
A HOUSING EXPERIMENT IN STUTTGART 
The Rehabilitation of a Squalid Mediaeval Corner by the Erection of Picturesque and Serviceable 
Buildings—A Study in Teutonic Tenements for the American Architect 
JOHN J. KLABER 
A combination of various materials has been used to excellent advantage 
on the buildings facing the Geiss-Strasse, ground floors mainly of 
stone, the upper of stucco. On this facade is a stone oriel, illustrating 
the tale of Hansel and Gretel 
S TUTTGART, the capital 
and principal city of the 
kingdom of Wurtemberg, is 
one of the most prosperous and 
enterprising cities in Southern 
Germany. Unimportant in the 
Middle Ages, it has grown in 
recent times to be an industrial 
center of considerable import¬ 
ance, with over a quarter of a 
million inhabitants, and its 
prosperity is at present under¬ 
going a phase of phenomenal 
growth, witnessed by the con¬ 
struction of large and luxuri¬ 
ous stores, restaurants, the¬ 
atres and other structures of 
various natures. 
The old town, like those of 
most German cities, is the cen¬ 
ter of industry and commerce, 
but preserves, nevertheless, 
many of its old half-timber 
structures of the Middle Ages, 
which are, it must be con¬ 
fessed, more picturesque than 
sanitary. Their gradual re¬ 
building and replacement with 
modern structures has threat¬ 
ened to destroy this pictur¬ 
esqueness, and its preservation 
has been a matter of no little 
thought on the part of the au¬ 
thorities. 
The entire length of the old 
town is not over half a mile, 
being unusually small relative¬ 
ly to the present importance of 
the place, so that the rebuilding 
of five small blocks of houses, 
which forms the subject of the 
present article, is by no means 
an insignificant part. This is, 
in fact, the beginning of an organized 
scheme for the development of the entire 
quarter. 
The Eberhardstrasse, named for one of 
the old Dukes of Wurtemberg, which had 
not then attained to the rank of a kingdom, 
bounds this territory on the southeast, fol¬ 
lowing the lines of the old fortifications. 
It is one of the chief arteries of the town, 
lined with handsome shops for most of its 
length. The other streets included in the 
area are unimportant, being of a mixed 
character, partly residential, of no very high 
grade, partly commercial. From these ele¬ 
ments, together with the use of stucco as 
the principal building material of the region, 
have been derived the designs for these 
buildings, by the city architect. Karl Hen- 
gerer, and the architects Heinz Mehlin and 
Karl Reissing, of Stuttgart. 
The ground floors throughout are oc¬ 
cupied by shops, including laundries, bak¬ 
eries, and others serving the immediate 
neighborhood, together with a number of 
restaurants and beer halls, used, no doubt, 
by the frequenters of the nearby markets. 
On the Eberhardstrasse the shops are of a 
higher grade, including bookstores, auto¬ 
mobile agencies and the like. 
The upper floors are occu¬ 
pied by small and medium¬ 
sized apartments, a use to 
which the small size of the 
building sites is particularly 
adapted. Occupied by peo¬ 
ple of the working classes, 
these apartments are neverthe¬ 
less far above the tenement 
flats to which habit has so often 
reconciled us. 
The plan shows the ground 
floor of the block D, the most 
important of the group, with 
large stores brilliantly lighted 
by their broad show windows. 
The upper floors of this block 
include a restaurant and cafe 
on the first floor at the south¬ 
west end, the rest being given 
up to offices. The other build¬ 
ings are more strictly residen¬ 
tial, and the plan shows typical 
floors, with the division into 
apartments. 
The disposition of these 
apartments is not without in¬ 
terest, though its conditions are 
by no means those of American 
practice. The small sites, the 
elimination of elevators and 
multiplicity of small stairs, 
have made possible plans that 
are models of convenience and 
economy. There are no long 
corridors, no badly lighted bed¬ 
rooms, and despite American 
ideas as to European sanita¬ 
tion, it may be noted that baths, 
though not present in all the 
apartments, are to be found in 
a considerable number, even 
though the probable tenants are of a very 
modest social grade. 
Block A, nearly rectangular in form, is 
divided in its internal arrangement into 
five separate houses, with a central court. 
The stairs have been placed in the corners, 
occupying the least useful position for 
rooms, and the court is used mainly to light 
the stairs, kitchens, baths, etc. Among the 
eight apartments on each floor, only one 
bedroom gives on the court, and this in a 
most favorable position. All other prin¬ 
cipal rooms face on the four streets sur¬ 
rounding the block, a result made possible 
