For 100 years: Chemnitz, the organised allotment garden city

Heiko Dittrich & Roland Kaden

"We are a long way from being bourgeois with garden gnomes," says Heiko Dittrich, head of the history working group of the Chemnitz allotment garden association. Together with Roland Kaden and the members of the 180 allotment garden associations in Chemnitz, they are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. The city association is taking this as an opportunity to put its heart and soul into producing an illustrated book depicting the allotment garden associations. The chronicle of the allotment garden federation is also being updated.

How do you celebrate 100 years of the Chemnitz allotment garden federation?
Roland Kaden: There are various highlights throughout the year to mark the 100th anniversary. The volunteering event in November will be the crowning glory.
Heiko Dittrich: Every two years this honorary event takes place with around 500 invited guests from the allotment garden movement. We honour various members and people who have achieved something special. In previous years, we have held the event in the canteen in Reichenhainer Straße. The plans for this year have not yet been finalised. Perhaps we will go to the Chemnitz Exhibition Centre or the Chemnitz stadium.

Which highlight of the anniversary can the general public take part in?
Heiko Dittrich: The public can take part in the club celebrations that are taking place this year. We have several clubs that are celebrating their 100th anniversary. The city association is taking part in these celebrations. We are working on an illustrated book for the anniversary, which is due to be published in late autumn. This is a big task for us. We are producing a 200-page illustrated book about all 180 allotment garden associations of the city federation. Our 15,000 members may be able to recognise themselves in it. Gardens are shown, club houses and activities in the association. There are historical pictures and aerial photographs. Roland Kaden, in particular, was involved in compiling this together with our history working group and the chronicle working group.

A temporary history working group, which has existed since autumn 2016, is made up of 18 allotment gardeners and chroniclers: Heiko Dittrich, Karl-Heinz Renner, Armin Menzer, Barbara Schubert, Marco Köstner, Martin Neumann, Jürgen Kosche, Sabine Brauer, Steffen Lexow, Helga Bünning, Roland Kaden, Frank Haubold, Lutz Siegert, Cordula Steinz, Edda Grünert, Konrad Kunze, Sigrid Kunze and Anett Quanz. Together they are working on the history of the city association and the allotment garden movement in Chemnitz. Last year, for example, an elaborately researched article on the history of allotment gardening in Chemnitz was published in Chemnitzer Roland to mark the 100th anniversary. This year, a large illustrated book about the allotment garden movement will be published and chroniclers are currently working on expanding the chronicle to include the years 2009 to 2019. Highlights, events, changes and activities of the city association will be presented.

How and why did you come up with the idea of writing up the history of the allotment garden movement?
Roland Kaden: It has to do with the traditions that have been cultivated in the federations and associations for decades. That's why a history working group was set up at the city federation. It didn't exist in this form in the days of the VKSK (Federation of Allotment Gardeners, Settlers and Small Animal Breeders, in GDR times, editor's note).
Dittrich: During the GDR era there were already various activities in the direction of history. For example, as a photo circle. The working group only came into being after reunification, actually from 2004 onwards. Since then, there have been annual get-togethers and thus an exchange of experiences between the chroniclers in the city. There are between 40 and 50 chroniclers for 180 associations. One aim of the working group is to find a chronicler for every club. But there are also clubs that have little to do with the chronicle.

Do you have to develop a passion for a chronicle?
Heiko Dittrich: That's right. If this passion is not there, then it becomes difficult. In the majority of cases, someone is found who has, as you say, a "passion" and who works on it and continues it regularly. Everything from the past year is written down with pictures and so on. This makes it much easier to turn it into a chronicle. Some people do this in the form of a calendar with dates and the club's history on the back or on a DVD with pictures. Nowadays you have many options. It doesn't have to be the chronicle in this printed form.

Where do you get the information from if such formats are not available?
Roland Kaden: It's archive material from the clubs, from the associations, from the Small Map Museum in Leipzig, from state and city archives.
Heiko Dittrich: We use the city archives, the Freie Presse archive, the city library and, of course, mainly the archives of the individual clubs if they are available. We have collected images and compiled texts. And all of this was done by the working group on a voluntary basis. But our main work this year for all members is the illustrated book with the 180 clubs. A lot of voluntary work has gone into this. Each of us is investing a lot of time in this illustrated book.

Did you take the photos for the illustrated book yourself?
Roland Kaden: Yes, all of them. Almost all the chroniclers in the working group were involved. It was an incredible effort and great teamwork.
Dittrich: Some of them provided the pictures, for others it was difficult to get images. Our association is a voluntary organisation - it's voluntary. We in the working group agreed to travel to the clubs and take photos there. Of course, it all involves work and, above all, time.

Where does your passion for the chronicle theme come from?
Roland Kaden: I was already interested in stories and history in my early youth. Especially for everything that had to do with city events and historical development. If you like, I went to an allotment garden when I was 17 and familiarised myself with the whole thing. Even back then there were good people who kept chronicles. That's when I discovered my passion for allotment gardening and the allotment garden. I was then on the board of the Kappel allotment garden association for over 40 years from the 1960s and was elected chairman in 1971. In 1960, this association was one of the most beautiful and one of the largest with around 510 gardens in Karl-Marx-Stadt. In the 1970s, I was then active on the board of the city association and later on the city district board - all on a voluntary basis - and I couldn't let go of the cause, so I became fully involved in the association and allotment garden movement.
Heiko Dittrich: I grew up with the allotment garden movement. From childhood through my grandmother who had an allotment garden in Limbach-Oberfrohna. I have been in the allotment garden there since I was a child, I am also personally interested in the local and local history and since the early 1990s I have published a book about Limbach-Oberfrohna together with a picture publisher, "History once and now" when I was just in my early 20s. After moving to Chemnitz, I took an allotment garden in Chemnitz with my wife - in our Luisenhöhe association. In 2004, the association celebrated its 100th anniversary and we set ourselves the task of writing a chronicle for the association. So I joined the working group of the city federation and started working in the working group in 2004 and later took over the management of the working group. This is how my professional and private life - my hobby - in general the history and of course the history of allotment gardening came together. I was - like Mr Roland Kaden - co-author of the chronicle that we published in 2009.

In the meantime I have realised that it is not only older people who are involved in allotment gardening. The allotment garden has become young - what is the current situation there?
Heiko Dittrich: There is currently a change in the age structure. There are still many associations with an average age of 60 plus. But there are now also clubs where the average has already dropped below 50. Many young people are trying their hand at allotment gardening. And the word is getting around. It's a nice leisure hobby to relax in allotment gardens, to grow your own fruit and vegetables, to see them grow and to try them out for the first time. There are many young people who spend their holidays in the garden.

Is Chemnitz a nice city for an allotment gardener?
Roland Kaden: Chemnitz has always been an exemplary green city, a real oasis. Chemnitz is a unique city in terms of monuments, green spaces and parks. I would say that Chemnitz is a role model in Saxony and throughout Germany.
Heiko Dittrich: Yes, to take the "Gartenstadt Gablenz" from the 1920s as an example. Our association was founded in 1919, with Dr Walter Oertel as its founder. He was very involved with the association to combat consumption. Primarily because the factory workers needed something green. After the First World War in 1919, many allotment gardens were created and in 1929 Chemnitz was the city with the highest density of allotment gardens. Furthermore, in 1937 the Golden Spade was awarded to the city of Chemnitz. It can therefore be said that Chemnitz has been the allotment garden city for 100 years. Even in GDR times, mainly from the 1970s onwards, many more allotment garden sites were added. Water and electricity lines were needed and paths were installed. The entire infrastructure was created, garden centres were built and so on.

The allotment garden movement is also a cultural asset. We want to be the Capital of Culture in 2025. What can the allotment garden movement contribute to this?
Heiko Dittrich: Allotment gardens also offer space for social and cultural projects. For example, kindergarten groups come to the allotment garden and tend the beds. There are gardens for senior citizens. We also have expert advisor gardens in the associations that members can visit. Then in 2018 we had the art festival "Begehungen" in the "Vereinigte Kraft". There, artists were able to realise their ideas in empty gardens for 14 days. The allotment garden movement can also contribute to culture with ideas and projects. We've already had readings, we've already had a church service - these are all things that you wouldn't necessarily associate with an allotment garden association. We are a long way from being bourgeois with garden gnomes.