Find the centre

Norbert Engst

Norbert Engst is a civil engineer, author - and ambassador. He is committed to ensuring that the remodelled Fritz Heckert area gains a better reputation within Chemnitz and that more people see how special it is. Norbert Engst has written a book for this, for which he was awarded the Saxon State Prize for Local History Research together with the Chemnitz City Archive. Now he has another project: he has calculated the centre of what used to be the third largest residential area in the GDR. In the Macher der Woche interview, Norbert Engst explains how this came about and why there is so much more to the Heckert area and its residents than most people realise.

What motivated you to write a book about the Fritz Heckert area?
Norbert Engst: I grew up there and took part in the urban redevelopment process in the 90s and 2000s - purely out of interest in urban development. I accompanied the demolition from 2002 onwards with my camera. I created some great series: A before picture, a during picture and an after picture of each block. At some point, I became interested: How did the Heckert area come about? How was it planned? What were the thoughts behind it? I was fascinated by how it is possible to build a planned city for several 10,000 people on a greenfield site that has to function for generations. I was fascinated by the thoughts the urban planners had: How do you have to build a flat that was then repeated millions of times across the whole of the GDR, like the WBS 70 buildings? And it also had to be practicable here in hilly Karl-Marx-Stadt. At the same time, I could always see what had been researched in theory being put into practice here.

What problems were associated with the demolition of the residential area?
Norbert Engst: Many problems. The first was that, once again, everything happened faster than was good for the city. The framework conditions were set in Berlin, and in the second instance at state level. In Dresden, action then had to be taken relatively quickly. That's why communication with the citizens fell by the wayside. On a Saturday in the summer of 2002, the Freie Presse printed the demolition plan for the Heckert area. On that day, many people learnt for the first time that their block was to be demolished. There had been no tenant discussion beforehand, no participation, nothing. That naturally caused a lot of resentment. Citizens' initiatives were formed to channel the anger, but they couldn't really influence the demolition. The houses were simply empty. If you really wanted to do something, you would have had to start working on the image ten years earlier, to renovate, to design the surroundings - when the houses were still full. But in 2002 it was simply too late.
Another problem was that some plans changed. In Markersdorf South in particular, blocks were withdrawn because they were earmarked for demolition. Two years later, it turned out that the block was staying.

How was it decided which blocks were to be demolished and which were not?
Norbert Engst: It was partly for development reasons. The houses are organised like a series connection, so to speak: District heating, electricity, water, sewage, which flows in centrally at a certain point, then to the next block and the next. They started demolishing from the back. So, of course, sometimes the most beautiful blocks with the best views were demolished, while those closest to some distribution board were left standing.

What is your conclusion after the remodelling?
Norbert Engst: I see the remodelling in a positive light. Today, of course, we have a much higher quality of life. Many houses have been demolished, while many others have been renovated or partially demolished. The housing density has decreased massively. I always think that if it went back to the way it was in the 90s, if all the blocks were demolished and the blocks looked so monotonously grey, that wouldn't be a good quality of life either. People wouldn't want to live here then.
The urban redevelopment was necessary overall. There was also no alternative. People have moved away. The image has changed. That's why we went from 92,000 to 36,000 inhabitants - and the trend is downwards.

Did you develop an interest in urban redevelopment in 2002 or have you always been fascinated by the entire residential area?
Norbert Engst: Basically, it started back in the 90s, when you could still go onto the roofs of all the houses. In 2002, of course, there was the great awakening: cranes everywhere, open houses, open doors, open roofs, open cellars. I had to see it all. I was nowhere near 20 at the time, which was a problem because I was immediately seen as a cable thief in the houses. And I couldn't make people understand back then: I was really only interested in how the houses were built.

How did you manage to make it work after all?
Norbert Engst: I disguised myself as an apprentice, wearing construction trousers and overalls. I trained as a precast concrete worker and knew how to move around on a building site. There were several trades working in a house like that back then: heating engineers, roofers, painters. When I was asked by the painting company: "Who are you?", I naturally had to say that I was the apprentice of the heating engineer who was working down in the basement. But that's how I always adapted. It was a cool time.

Norbert Engst's initial interest in the conversion process quickly grew into a passion for the urban history of the entire residential area. Over many years, he documented every block that was demolished and every block that was remodelled or renovated with more than 1,500 photos: "Over the course of time, a lot of unplanned things accumulated. Then I researched photos from the past, development plans, concepts and construction processes," explains Norbert Engst. He first thought about writing a book about the Heckert area in 2010 and wrote a manuscript. In 2019, this was to become the book "Das Wohngebiet 'Fritz Heckert'. Building in new dimensions".

Did you approach the city archive with your manuscript back in 2010?
Norbert Engst: No, not for a long time yet. I first did more research myself. I approached the city archives in 2016 and initially thought: "Let's see, they won't have much on the Heckert area." But that was a misconception: they have a huge amount on the Heckert area - hundreds of files and plans. Everything had to be read. That took ages. The intensive phase lasted from 2016 to mid-2019, so three and a half years. The city archive is just one of the archives that has holdings relating to the Heckert area. The State Archives also have some. In Berlin, there is the former Institute for Urban Planning and Architecture, which also has a lot from the GDR era and I had to write to and visit them all. And I researched everywhere.

Did you do all that on your own?
Norbert Engst: Yes. It wasn't clear at the beginning that there would be a book. I actually did it for myself and then I was lucky that Mr Cecconi wanted to include my writings in the series from the Chemnitz City Archive. It's very important to have a good editor - in my case, my esteemed colleague Dr Pfalzer, who went through the manuscript with me in many sessions in the attic of the city archive, page by page. I am incredibly grateful to him.

Together with the city archive, you have been honoured with the Saxon State Prize for Local History Research. What does that mean to you?
Norbert Engst: That was nice. I remember when the lady from the Saxony Industrial Heritage Association called. I wasn't expecting that at all. Especially as the book is completely out of the ordinary - the content, the subject, the genre. It's something exotic. And the fact that it is recognised and appreciated is really cool.

But the State Prize for Local History Research was by no means the end of the story for Norbert Engst. This year, he dedicated himself to another project for the neighbourhood: He wanted to find the centre.

How did the idea for the centre plate come about?
Norbert Engst: The Fritz Heckert residential area is an urban development structure. It stretches from Irkutsker Straße to just before Neukirchen. I was interested in where the centre was. And I had to work that out in two different ways: Firstly, I used a geographical information system: I outlined the area of the Heckert area on a map from the surveying office and then the computer immediately calculated where the centre was. We have thousands of corners here - 1,165 to be precise - because that's how many points are needed to precisely delimit the Heckert area. The computer can then calculate this relatively quickly and you get two coordinates X and Y. However, I wanted to do this in a second, "handwritten" way and check it myself. I did this using the Gaussian trapezoidal formula: Entered everything myself in Excel.

All 1165 points?
Norbert Engst: Yes, the coordinates. If you calculate everything, you get coordinates in the Gauss-Krüger coordinate system. They don't tell us anything at first. You have to organise maps from the surveying office, they have to have a certain scale, then you keep working on them. And at some point you get coordinates again and the computer programme places a yellow dot on the map. That is then the centre of this area.
For the Heckert area, the centre point is in the Vita Center. That's why we set the centre point plate at the calculated height on the outside of the pavement. The fact that the point is at the Vita Centre is no coincidence, no marketing gimmick. Although the Vita Center was only built in 1999, it was intended as a community cultural centre for the Heckert area back in the 1980s. A large centre was always intended to be built where it stands today. Due to a lack of money, this was postponed in GDR times - housing construction was more important. But the city planners didn't build this large joint centre there just for fun, but because it is the centre of the Heckert area.

On 10 November, Norbert Engst and the centre manager of the Vita Center, Sascha Twesten, inaugurated the bronze centre plate. It measures 62 by 62 centimetres and was cast by the Hann art foundry in Brandenburg. It is now in the ground and shows all guests and residents where the Fritz Heckert area has its centre.

What special features does the Heckert area have that the rest of the city may not be aware of?
Norbert Engst: We have great views here due to the altitude in the south of Chemnitz. You can see as far as the city centre on one side and as far as the Ore Mountains on the other.
If you're interested in urban development and GDR urban planning, you can still see a lot of it here. I always say that a piece of world history is frozen in Hutholz. It wasn't finished, it was frozen with the fall of communism. But you can see how the GDR was already planning for the period after 1990. You can see where car parks would have been built in the 1990s. You can see foundations that were not realised. You can really see how the period around 1989/90 has been frozen.

The Heckert area is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024, are you already making preparations?
Norbert Engst: We're all very excited about that, we're looking forward to it and we're already making preparations. Above all, it is important to me that the foundation stone of the Heckert area is honoured by being restored. And I would also like to take a look inside: I know that it is hollow and that a kind of time capsule was sunk into it at the time. In my opinion, it should still be inside. The foundation stone is located at the Chemnitz Süd tax office in Paul-Bertz-Straße, directly in the car park.

What do you wish for the future of the Heckert area?
Norbert Engst: That it lives on for another 50 years, that it is presented in a positive light overall. That it plays an important role in the city, in marketing, in commercialisation, which was also possible with the Karl Marx Head, for example. In the 90s, everyone wanted it gone and today it appears everywhere in marketing. And I hope that interested people will come to the Heckert region and want to know how we are doing.

You are also committed to the Capital of Culture. What is your favourite project?
Norbert Engst: I would like to present the Heckert area, to show the various contrasts that we have in a very small area. Top renovated flats on one side, completely unrenovated on the other. I want to make the Heckert area more present within the "Capital of Culture bubble".

What do you wish for Chemnitz in 2025?
Norbert Engst: That the Capital of Culture programme takes people with it, perhaps becomes a little more accessible with projects that are designed for people from here by people from here. And above all, that Chemnitz manages to present itself in a self-confident way, that we don't pick up on foreign trends, but that we continue to present ourselves as we are: in a relaxed way. Which was also the case in the 2020 application. We showed ourselves as we are without any make-up. I would like to see this kind of self-confidence continue.