Halle-Neustadt

as a result of its urban planning, which includes high density living, a tram line serving the central corridor and the regional suburban rail system (S-Bahn).

The actual history of the city began in 1958 with a conference of the Central Committee of the SED on "Chemistry Programme of the GDR" at which the settlement of labour in the vicinity of chemical sites Buna - Schkopau and Leuna was decided.

Following extensive site investigations and planning in the district of Halle, the Politburo of the SED decided on 17 September 1963, the construction of the "Chemical Workers' City," known by the inhabitants in short as Neustadt or "Ha-Noi".

Chief architect of Halle-Neustadt was Richard Paulick, his deputies and heads of design groups were Joachim Bach, Horst Siegel, Karl-Heinz Schlesier, and Harald Zaglmaier.

The north-south extent of the old city - wedged between the Saale in the west and railroad tracks and industrial areas in the east - was one of the main problems.

Because of the extremely difficult geological and hydro-logical conditions, especially high water, the development of this area for another residential location for the town was discarded.

With the establishment of the South Park residential area, this road eventually became a kind of rural oasis in a city-scape otherwise dominated by skyscrapers.

As major infrastructure facilities were completed late or never - for example, hotels or department stores were not built - Halle-Neustadt remained hardly more than a bedroom community for the shift workers in the chemical plants and their families.

The development of the city remained "unsatisfactory" because a central tram line was not built along the highway, officially due to lack of electrical power capacity.

In the city center there was a tunnel station which provided a direct commuter link to the Merseburg chemical combines Buna and Leuna Schkopau.

An existing tram line from the center of Halle (Saale) only reached the VIII residential complex on the eastern edge, providing only a fraction of the city with service.

Recreational opportunities included the adjacent mixed forest heath Dölauer with its Heidesee and "channel" (remnants of the unfinished Elster-Saale-channel).

Unlike later "Plattenbau" settlements of the GDR, Halle-Neustadt was generously decorated with artistic details in the construction and especially in residential complex I.

As each of the five building complexes had a planned centre with a department store, health clinic, restaurants, schools, kindergartens and sports facilities, a central square with a 100-metre (300') high prominent "House of Chemistry" was to be built, but was never constructed due to cost.

Only a large gaping trench between the main post office and the theatre complex remained in which groundwater and rainwater collected.

Instead, all residential blocks were designated with a complex numbering system difficult for outsiders to understand (after 1990, this was abolished in favour of street names).

State and party leader Erich Honecker had little interest in the pet project of his predecessor Walter Ulbricht and his chemical industry dream.

The City Council has had difficulties to this day with the demolition of the unused towers since the Slices form the backbone of the town's architecture.

In one of the Slices, the JV Hall, the administration and the New Town Passage have been extensively renovated by numerous long-term unemployed people since 2005.

To elucidate the function of Halle-Neustadt in chemical workers' city, the closing of the key blade was in the form of a benzene ring.