| Original caption: “Painter put finishing touches on Dortmund Housing Project, built to help bring labor stability to German coal mines.” Workers complete exterior preparation of MSA-Siedlung Dortmund-Scharnhorst (“Mutual Security Agency Settlement Community Dortmund-Scharnhorst”) circa 1955. Scharnhorst is the name of the local mine. Bombings during World War II resulted in the destruction of 98 percent of Dortmund’s urban center. 66 percent of Dortmund’s entire civilian housing was destroyed. The United States 95th Infantry Division liberated Dortmund on April 12, 1945, and turned administration over to the United Kingdom Royal Army 2 days later. Political Adviser to the Military Governor of the British Zone Sir William Strang (January 2, 1893 – May 27, 1978) recorded in his diary on July 6, 1945, how difficult the postwar housing crisis was for the people of Dortmund. Strang was surprised not so much by the extent of the destruction in the British Zone, but as by how untouched the countryside had been by the war and by how healthy the German population looked. Later in his diary he expresses astonishment, for instance, that the owner of the house in the small Westphalian town of Lübbecke, which he occupied, still had a cook, “two young housemaids,” a laundry maid and a gardener. His diaries would record a more sombre account of life in Germany in the summer of 1945; Strang did foresee “widespread malnutrition and something near to starvation,” unless coal production increased dramatically and large supplies of grain were imported: “Dortmund almost [is] totally in ruins, except round the outer fringes. The population more healthy looking, better dressed, and showing less sign of strain than one would have expected, even in the more heavily damaged urban areas. The official ration is low, but in the country it is at present supplemented from stocks and garden produce. The position in the large towns is difficult, and the workers certainly do not receive enough to sustain heavy labor. We were told at Dortmund that signs of malnutrition are beginning to appear, and that administrative staffs are beginning to show signs of over-work, bad temper and tiredness, from shortage of food. But I cannot say that, even in the Ruhr, from a casual inspection, we saw obvious or widespread signs of acute distress. What the winter may bring is another story; and what the position may be in the Soviet zone is also another story.” “It is strange to see people going serenely and even cheerfully about their business in their ruined towns and cities. I asked the Commander of the military government detachment where the four hundred thousand inhabitants of Dortmund found place to live. He said that they had moved out to the less devastated periphery, several families to a house. I asked how, if that was so, it came about that the main streets in the centre were thronged with people. He explained that although Dortmund is in ruins, the life of the city goes on in cellars and on ground floors. Some factories are working; some banks are open; some shops are doing business; exchange of goods and services goes on. Roads still lead in and out of Dortmund, though it is like threading a maze to find one’s way about them. Where those roads meet the life of the community continues to spring and begins to reorganize itself. I asked whether he thought that Dortmund would ever be re-built. He said certainly, sooner or later. The city authorities were already thinking ahead and actively debating alternative schemes: he himself had been brought into consultation.” The Ruhr coal mines depended exclusively on single young men for workers, and, finding themselves isolated and almost compelled into a dirty, exhausting vocation separated from their families and friends, many ran away before arriving on site or quit their contracts early. Turnover at the coal mines was critical; perhaps 2 percent of contracted workers would show up for jobs at times, and they wouldn’t last long. Some workers likened working in the mines to virtual slavery; 3 men were given 3 months in prison for refusing to work there, and another 2 got 3 months for leaving without leave in March 1946. 4,000 miners struck in March 1947 for more rations; joined by a 100,000 people at Oberhausen, where they threw stones and overturned British vehicles. Miners, who had been receiving 2/3 of the 1,550 calories allotted each day, demanded full rations for themselves and their families. The Manchester Guardian reported that even with the focus on repairs, only 60 percent of planned construction was carried out in the 1st 11 months of 1948, dropping to 28 percent in December. New construction was too modest in scale to make any difference in the housing crisis. The Marshall Plan administrators were concerned that Dortmund citizens were using American funds for building repair instead of new construction, so they banned funding except for new dwellings. Dortmunders were deeply concerned by attempts to shut down war industries. The Horde Steel Plant, which was classified as a war resource, was to be decommissioned by the British. The Germans rightly saw steel production as a necessary component of both new and repair construction, and protests broke out when the request for the plant to remain open were denied in March 1949. The Dortmund City Council was also dealing with an influx of refugees from Communist East Germany and Poland. Former Polish Germans, dubbed “expellees,” numbered 17,000 by 1947 and 60,000 by 1953. A 100,000 people came to Dortmund by 1950, when the city grew to 500,000 residents. With no place to house millions from the former East Prussia nationwide and those thousands of refugees that wished to escape Communism in East Germany, Dortmund’s City Council set up temporary camps in Schleswig-Holstein and later in Siegen for those wishing to settle there. On top of this, the United Kingdom Royal Army seized property as it saw fit for its own needs and displaced the residents, contributing to the housing crisis. 40 percent of requests for relocation to Dortmund were rejected in 1950. The United States and the United Kingdom both noted that disaffected refugees and expellees were ripe for Communist influence. The Marshall Plan, passed by Congress on April 3, 1948, provided assistance to the Ruhr Valley to build 9 residential communities by 1955. MSA-Siedlung Dortmund-Scharnhorst was the 9th project to be completed. From 1951 to 1953, experimental settlements with 3,275 apartments, the so-called Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) settlements, were built in 15 cities in the Federal Republic of Germany. ECA was set up to administer the Marshall Plan. The buildings were financed entirely with approximately fourty-4,000,000 Deutschmarks in ECA funds. The lessons learned from the ECA project were implemented in a follow-up project. Between 1953 and 1955, 9 so-called MSA mining settlements were built in the Ruhr region and Aachen, fully pre-financed with a 100,000,000 Deutschmarks in ECA funds. Architect Horst Peter Loy (June 21, 1914 – January 31, 1979) was selected to design the communities. A delegation of Germans, led by Loy, traveled to the United States to see the Kopperston Mine in Beckley, West Virginia and the housing projects in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania and Levittown, New York. His groups studied American urban housing projects as well. It was important to Loy that the housing have ample space for growing families and a garden space for each owner. Problems with build quality and subsidence earned MSA-Siedlung Dortmund-Scharnhorst the nickname “North Korea.” The 1st residents lacked doors and light fixtures. Miners complained about the size of the apartments and wondered why they had attached 2-story housing instead of traditional German apartment buildings. They also didn’t like being forced to purchase the property, instead of renting. Since the MSA projects used intensive manual labor, many miners thought that apartment buildings would be built quicker and cheaper. While the apartments in the housing projects were supposed to be reserved for miners, in practice, they were purchased by anyone in Dortmund; controls on identifying professions were quite lax. This was a function of the severe housing crisis, corruption, and a social stigma against mining. That initially changed; by the early 1950s, some 40 percent of male Dortmunder high school students said they wanted to be coal miners, while girls no longer expressed disdain for marrying 1. Sustained problems with coal mine recruitment meant that guest workers from Turkey and South America had to be imported starting in the 1960s. Immigration has rekindled support for far-right-wing nationalist parties in Germany in the 21st century. Loy’s housing projects still stand, and are occupied by Dortmunders to this day. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0683.jpg |
| Image Size | 640.74 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2202 x 2934 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Agency for International Development |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 1, 1955 |
| Location | |
| City | Dortmund |
| State or Province | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-286-ME-6(8) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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