Hufeisensiedlung

It was not only the cultural heyday of the Golden Twenties which caused a rapid increase in population, but also the advance of industrialisation and the end of the First World War.

At 3.8 million people, the number of inhabitants not only exceeded today's population but also made Berlin the third-largest metropolis in the world at that time after New York and London.

One of these enterprises, GEHAG (Gemeinnützige Heimstätten-, Spar- und Bau-Aktiengesellschaft), founded in 1924, hired Bruno Taut to act as the chief architect responsible for the construction of the estate.

[citation needed] Closely linked to the heart of Berlin, the development combines a unique architectural style with the social ideal of a terraced garden home for everyone.

Doors and windows and individual building elements of the blocks of flats like loggias, stairwells or low-ceilinged attic floors are painted to contrast clearly with the facades.

Further contrasts in material and colour are created by the use of bright red and yellow clinker bricks in the area of the chimneys, the entrances and the base of the walls.

[citation needed] Like so many architects, Bruno Taut did not want the rooms with their carefully chosen colours to be covered up or cluttered by inappropriate furnishings.

But instead of wanting to convert the residents to the Bauhaus-type tubular steel furniture which was very up-and-coming at the time, he made suggestions about how typical furnishings could be improved by simplifying and removing things.

[1] Bruno Taut was accompanied by Martin Wagner (1885–1957), who acted as a political organiser and networker and is regarded as a key figure in the construction of Berlin's housing estates.

He initiated the founding of GEHAG (a non-profit building society and housing cooperative), was a co-founder of the Deutsche Bauhütte and the director of various professional associations.

[citation needed] Initially responsible as the second architect for the Stavenhagener Straße section of the Horseshoe Estate, Martin Wagner was appointed in 1926 to the position of city planning director of Greater Berlin, which had been created in 1920.