New build - GWG München

Renovation as a service to
the city:
The role of GWG München
In 1918, before the First World War was over, the State Capital
of Munich took the forward-looking step of establishing the
Gemeinnützige Wohnstätten- und Siedlungsgesellschaft mbH
(GWG München). There was a need for thousands of new
apartments and a severe shortage of affordable living space.
In its founding statutes, the new housing association undertook
to ensure the “construction of apartments, especially
small, healthy and affordable apartments for low-income inhabitants
and members of the middle classes, with particular
preference to large families”. Nearly 100 years later, this remains
one of GWG’s main endeavours. In 1978, city councillor
and general manager Hans Preißinger wrote in the commemorative
publication marking GWG’s sixtieth anniversary that the
main emphasis was on its socio-political mandate rather than
economic success. Yet he also emphasised the importance of
a solid financial base. Little has changed since the original
objectives were first formulated in 1918. The company is still
engaged in “providing, in a socially responsible manner, safe
places for broad sections of the population to live in.”
GWG München now has around 26,800 residential and commercial
units on its books. Open spaces are a rare commodity
in Munich. Buildings are a mirror of their times, especially with
regard to their amenities. Just a quick look at the development
of apartment sizes since the Second World War is enough to
illustrate the trend of social change. While in 1950, a fourroom
apartment had 48 square metres, a typical size for 2010
is more than double, at 99 square metres. The trend among
two-room apartments is not quite as drastic, but their sizes still
grew from 35 square metres in 1950 to 55 square metres in
2010.
Expectations have risen too. When the first major GWG
München modernisation programme was drawn up in 1977,
the objective was to raise the quality of 336 residential units to
contemporary standards. In particular, this meant replacing or
reinforcing electrical installations, and installing bathrooms
and central heating with a hot water supply, as well as replacing
windows and constructing balconies, to name just a few
of the basic measures. 1978 marked another milestone in
GWG’s modernisation and renovation activities. The newly
drawn up “Overall Concept for the Sustained Improvement of
Rented Housing Ownership” categorised 4,600 of the apartments
owned by GWG München as requiring renovation and
a further 6,100 as in need of modernisation. Renovation often
entailed transforming a large number of small units into a
small number of larger ones: where no economic alternative
was available, the only choice was to demolish and rebuild.
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In 1992 the city council initiated the “Second programme
of sustainable improvement of GWG rental apartments by
modernisation, major repair and attic conversion” (GMP):
As a result, GWG undertook a programme of fundamental
modernisation for its properties.
An essential element of these large-scale modernisation activities
is the intense care and assistance that GWG München
gives its tenants. Every occupant who has to move out due to
modernisation or demolition and rebuilding measures is informed
in good time of offers for substitute accommodation,
to ensure that nobody is "left out in the cold", in the words of
GWG general manager Hans-Otto Kraus. A special team was
put together to accompany and advise tenants right the way
through the process. Every tenant who has to move may
“move back to his familiar environment once the modernisation
is complete, if he so wishes,” says Hans-Otto Kraus. In
this way, GWG München is “not only preserving the identity
of the neighbourhood through its buildings but also preserving
the neighbourhood of its inhabitants.”