In the course of industrialisation, new urban districts were built in Fürth from about 1850 on. At that time, the front buildings had a representative residential function. The back buildings mostly housed the craft shops or small factories of house owners and simple flats for the workers. Until now, these Wilhelminian style areas have remained largely undestroyed. Together with the historic old town, they belong to the redevelopment area “Westliche Innenstadt”.

Large parts of the western inner city are listed (around 90% of buildings). A multifaceted spectrum of historic forms of building and urban areas was maintained. They range from Franconian half-timbered houses in the historic old town and eclecticistic, Wilhelminian style sandstone facades to large art nouveau townhouses or from rural-Franconian-style village squares to squares of large-city format.

The western inner city disposes of structural potentials to combine housing and working, to improve the quality in courtyards and in public areas. It has a valuable stock of old buildings with a balanced range of flats of different sizes built in a closed block structure over a large area. It is centrally located and close to attractive local recreation areas and it is well accessible by public transport.

However, many different problems have arisen in the last few decades. Constructional and urban development defects, economic weaknesses and social problems interfere with each other and reinforce each other.

Due to the low level of rents, other measures such as the redevelopment of facades and the design of courtyards mostly did not happen. The state of flats in buildings in general, e.g. toilets on the corridor, single stove heatings, simple window glazing, remained insufficient.

This was aggravated by urban development deficits: courtyards were mostly sealed and largely covered with buildings, other open areas such as balconies are mostly lacking. The roadscape partly gives a sad impression as sandstone facades are often polluted.

Furthermore, there has been a strong fluctuation of nationalities and social groups in the western inner city which also endangered social stability.

The situation in the western inner city at the end of the 1990s in general was inconsistent: the valuable potential of architectural and urban history, which is largely listed, faced large challenges regarding social and economic stability, constructional and technical adjustment as well as regarding an advancing urban development.

The buildings in the western inner city were mostly constructed during the phase of the first urban extensions at the beginning of the industrialisation in the second half of the 19th century. Until today, the building stock has been largely maintained.

Since 1999, the area has been regenerated under the Federation-Länder programme “Districts with Special Development Needs – The Socially Integrative City” (in short: Social City). This programme at the same time aims urban, social, cultural and economical improvement of destricts with special development needs.

The main objective is to develop the western inner-city into an attractive housing and commercial location for different population groups. Fluctuation is to be reduced, the population structure to become more balanced and stable in the long term.

The following subordinate objectives are pursued in the context of a socially oriented neighbourhood regeneration:

In view of the complex challenges, it was necessary to launch an interdisciplinary neighbourhood development approach integrating different actors and potentials. The city council and local actors agreed upon an integrated concept of action, which includes territorial master planning to ensure a steady neighbourhood regeneration process.

The social neighbourhood regeneration of the western inner city has been executed in the framework of the urban development programme “Districts with Special Development Needs – The Socially Integrative City”, which is financed by the Federation and the Länder. This programme at the same time aims urban, social, cultural and economical improvement of destricts with special development needs.

Tthe following constructional and urban development measures were executed:

In addition to classical refurbishments in the context of the financial support for urban development, the city council and the neighbourhood management have developed a programme for additional redevelopment measures. If flats have already been categorised as refurbished, the refurbishment of facades, the design of courtyards and the creation of open areas can be subsidised as measures within this programme.

The material project elements are complemented and supported by a series of organisational, social and pedagogical measures, especially by

The Fürth approach combines a comprehensive, long-term perspective and an integrated development and cooperation approach with a pragmatic, gradual implementation.

In order to guarantee diversity and to network different fields of action and in order to achieve an integrated perspective and approach, synergies between urban regeneration and resources from social and cultural programmes were consequently developed. The following areas are especially concerned by this:

The preparatory analyses provided a comprehensive informative basis about the initial situation and about urban development and social requirements in the neighbourhood “Westliche Innenstadt”. At the same time, they attracted more attention from local actors for the regeneration project planned.

The neighbourhood management was able to base its information and motivation activities on this and to improve information among the neighbourhood population. The interest of citizens in concerns of social neighbourhood regeneration has grown in the meantime.

Additionally, the social and communicative measures were able to improve communication beyond language borders and different interests. The understanding for facts and contexts of social neighbourhood regeneration was thus improved.

In general, basic information procedures have been established, sustainable participation and cooperation customs have been maintained. This has created sound prerequisites to effectively continue urban regeneration measures and activities to ensure social stability.

During five years of social neighbourhood regeneration, numerous projects have been implemented. Functional and spatial structures thus could be adapted to changed requirements. The townscape and quality of public areas as well could be visibly improved.

With the “Sanierungsergänzungsprogramm”, an adequate kind of funding has been introduced for owners with limited financial means. It enables to gradually execute redevelopments in order to keep the financial burden within manageable limits. First projects could be implemented and completed to the satisfaction of residents and owners.

Urban regeneration projects and supplementary measures have already had an important share in the improvement of housing and living conditions and of framework conditions for the local economy.

However, it also has to be mentioned that five years of implementing measures to change urban development structures and to implement activities to ensure social stability are a short period. The sustainability of measures and a transfer into independent structures has not yet been ensured. Therefore, the “Fürth Way” launched must be continued in a committed and sustainable way and with external support.

Residents as well as house and business owners of the neighbourhood are the primary beneficiaries. Other special target groups are children and young people as well as migrants.

The bodies implementing the redevelopment measures (building owners, businessmen, businesses, bodies responsible for public facilities, city council) use own funds. A large part of urban regeneration measures is funded under the Federation-Länder programme “Social City”. The city council contributes with 40%.

For social, communicative and economic measures additional funding programmes are used:

The inner city of Fürth counts among the EU’s assisted Objective 2 areas. In this context, measures are financed under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF).

City of Fürth, urban planning department
Stefan Kunz (Project coordination), tel. +49 (0)911/974-3341

01/01/1999

case

Urban Policy > Urban environment

Urban renewal