A short story of the Hutweide housing blocks, Sylwia Strebska

The story of the short U-shaped, one-way street called Hutweide in the hilly village of Bärenstein began in 1951. The street is located rather at the outskirts, up the hill with a beautiful view on the green fields and trees around.

Along with the street itself, approximately twenty identically looking houses were built on both of its sides. All the houses were built for uranium miners of the SAG Wismut uranium mining company (SAG - Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaft). Founded in 1954, the new bi-national Soviet-German company SDAG Wismut continued uranium mining. During the 45 years of its existence, the company had produced a total of 231,000 tonnes of uranium. From 1954 until 1991, Wismut was the world’s third largest producer of uranium, after the US and Canada as first and second, respectively. 

The Uranium mined in the Erzgebirge area  was used as raw material for the Soviet atomic industry. During the early "wild" years, the uranium ore mining here was characterised by poor working conditions, a complete disregard for environmental concerns of the densely populated areas, and the destructive exploitation of resources. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the export of uranium to Russia suddenly stopped. From that time a successor  company - Wismut GmbH - a federal government-owned company - mainly deals with the recultivation of the old mine. Its principal business is the decommissioning, the cleanup, and the rehabilitation of uranium mining and processing sites and restoring the environment for the benefit of man and nature. Rehabilitating large radioactively contaminated sites formerly operated by Wismut is one of the largest ecological and economic challenges facing the reunited Germany. 

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Despite the fact that the miners were only meant to spend the night in the houses on Hutweide, the living conditions were pretty rough. Eight men in one room, sleeping in four bunk beds. In the middle of the room there was only a table and some chairs. There was no water supply. 

According to the plans, the Hutweide blocks were built just for a period of ten years. After that time they were supposed to be demolished. However, the city council facing housing crisis after World War II, decided to change buildings into living houses. Moreover, many of the miners working from the neigbourhood started families, had already several children and wanted to settle down in the area. They needed a place to stay.

From that moment on the identical looking cube blocks started to develop a bit of an individual character depending on their use. Some buildings were adapted for housing needs. Outside staircases and garages were built. The blocks were painted in different colours. Some buildings were  the property of Germania Chemnitz – a factory producing mine equipment and chemicals for the mining industry. From 1966 until 1970 Germania Chemnitz  transformed former miners blocks to holiday houses for their workers. In the 1970ies Hutweide became a spot for “social tourism”.

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After the German reunificion many things changed in Bärenstein. Many companies bankrupted, factories and state enterprises were privatised. Many people lost their jobs. The holiday houses in Hutweide were sold. The era of “social tourism” had come to an end. Still, this was not the final end of tourism in the street. In fact, tourism became one of the ways to survive for many people in Bärenstein. Most of them treat income derived from tourism as extra money, because of the big competition in this business. But some decided to make tourism their sole job and source of living. 

The Schmiedel family is one of those touristic entrepreneurs. After a year long effort, they bought one of the buildings in Hutweide on the 1st of February 1994, with the idea of running their own hotel bussiness. Most of the other houses were also sold, but many of them remained empty and neglected. Nowadays, Gästehaus Hutweide is the only guest house in the street, but nevertheless, it is enough to satisfy the demand. 

Gästehaus Hutweide is a family business and the only job the Schmiedels have. All the family works here. Just after buying the house the windows were changed, walls painted, showers and basins installed in each tiny room. The building was completely renovated in 1985 – a heating system had been installed and the wooden panels put on the walls. The Schmiedels also refurnished the house. The renovation was a big investment. To get the money  together, the  family had to sell their family house and they all moved in to their guest house. 

Hutweide houses were attractive for touristic purposes because of their their location and availability. Some clients from “the social tourism era” are coming back to the house. 

At the very beginning we were working from Monday to Sunday to maintain the bussiness. We sacrificed our family life for it, but the disabled people  (the main clients at the beginning) needed  a lot of care. There were always at least two hot meals during the day. And we tried to create a familiar atmosphere for them – Mrs Schmiedel remembers. Now they occasionally employ people to help with the kitchen work and cleaning. Many Czech people are coming to us looking for a job. We do not employ them. This is a small town and we all know each other. People would talk. It wouldn’t be good for our reputation. There is  a lot of unemployment among Germans here as well, so we give work to “ours”.  And women from the  neighbourhood are flexible and live close. I can always call them and ask for help – says Mr Schmiedel. Our “breakfast lady” for instance. She will be 60 soon and would like to have her birthday party at our place. We already organised the wedding party for her son.  Every year our cleaning lady organises her birthday parties here. It is important – we give them jobs, then they allow us to make money on parties.
The guests are mainly Germans. At the beginning schools classes, later groups organised by charity organisations  consisting mainly of people with light mental disabilieties, also individual visitors. After reunification most of the Eastern Germans wanted to travel abroad and we lost them as clients. They started to come back to us after 15 years with a kind of nostalgia and wanting to see what has changed here. And Western Germans are coming – it is still cheaper for them here. We have guests from April to October and during Christmas time.

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From 1951 until now, only two blocks on Hutweide street were demolished. Most of them serve as living houses. There are some plans to pull down empty buildings or hand them over to the German Army for use.

 

 

View on Hutweide. Shown are living houses on the left side of the street. 

 

View from Hutweide on the picturesque hills.

The author would like to thank Mrs Schmidel from Gästehaus Hutweide for the interview and Mr Benny Lange from Pension Fichte for his “Erzgebirge report” and chat.

Sylwia Strebska ( Tato adresa je chráněna proti spamování, pro její zobrazení potřebujete mít Java scripty povoleny ) born and living in Warsaw. Graduated from the Higher School of Pedagogics, the Academy of Physical Education and the post-graduate Studies of Journalism Faculty of Warsaw University with a specialization in photography. Explored several things as hobbies and as professions. Freelancer photographer, journalist, tour guide and educator. Fascinated by diversity, different cultures and unknown phenomena. Terrified by dissapearing pre-war and socialist heritage of Poland.