Moltkeviertel

It is bounded by the thoroughfares Kronprinzenstrasse, Ruhrallee, Töpferstrasse and Rellinghauserstasse and by the railway line from Essen Main Station to Essen-Werden (S6 rapid transit link to Düsseldorf and Cologne).

This included, among other things, the creation of broad urban ventilation lanes in the form of wide streets and cohesive green zones.

The notions behind these extended parks in the immediate vicinity of the houses, sometimes with large playing and sporting areas – the tennis courts were planned as early as 1908 – were essentially reformative in character and these facilities are still very much in use today.

From 1908 on, the roughly half a square kilometre site purchased by the city was developed: splendid mansions were constructed, as were semi-detached and terraced houses and company head offices, built according to individual plans and to suit the respective owner's finances – in the style of Reform Architecture (German: Reformarchitektur) throughout.

Rather the workplaces – primarily educational, medical, administrative, engineering consulting and legal practices – are cheek by jowl with residential buildings.

Offering a sharp visual contrast to the adjacent terrace of old houses in the northern section of Moltkeplatz, the Essen gallery owner Jochen Krüper (died 2002) together with Uwe Rüth (formerly director of the Glaskasten Sculpture Museum Marl), began in 1981 to assemble on the Moltkeplatz green a high quality ensemble of contemporary sculptures (see Literature).

It includes major works by Heinz Breloh, Christa Feuerberg, Hannes Forster, Gloria Friedmann, Lutz Fritsch, Friedrich Gräsel, Ansgar Nierhoff, and Ulrich Rückriem.

At other locations in the Moltkeviertel, it is also possible to see contemporary art works in an external setting – for example at the corner of Moltkestrasse and Schinkelstrasse, sometimes on private land such as in the central section of Semperstrasse, and at the northern end of Moltkeplatz.