Case 5 from Germany Amaryllis Co-operative Society ... - ICA Housing

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Housing Co-operatives in Germany: Prices for best practice as service providers
in co-operative housing awarded to 11 of about 2,000 housing co-operatives
with about 3 m. members and 2.2 m. housing units. For the first time such competition
was organised by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban
Development together with the National Federation of Housing (GdW), based
on criteria developed by an Expert Commission on Potentials and Perspectives
of Housing Co-operatives. The prices were awarded at the Conference on Housing
Co-operatives, held in Berlin on 13-14 January 2009. For details contact
GdW, “Genossenschaftspreis Wohnen 2008” www.gdw.de
Winner of the price: Price awarded for:
Berliner Bau- und Wohnungsgenossenschaft
von 1892 eG, Berlin
Strategic tool box – fit for the future
WohnBau Westmünsterland eG, Borken Modern interpretation of co-operative principles
Bauverein Halle und Leuna eG, Halle Successful merger of two co-operatives
Altonaer Spar- und Bauverein eG, Hamburg Member-orientation and motivation of members
as central elements for securing the future
of housing co-operatives
Wohnungbaugenossenschaft „Am Ostseeplatz“
eG, Berlin
Eisenbahner Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft
eG Dresden
Wohnungsbau und Siedlungswerk Werkvolk
eG, Amberg
Turning members into co-owners - Integration
, Identity and creation of employment
Sustainable reorganisation and re-vitalisation
of a settlement
Service and quality for all members, young
and old, singles and families – quality management
in present day co-operatives
Bauverein Lünen eG, Lünen Typically co-operative – life long use rights
Baugenossenschaft freier Gewerkschaften
eG, Hamburg
Schweriner Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft
eG, Schwerin
Development of a settlement with a
neighbourhood centre as the key element
Integrated development of a settlement as the
goal of housing co-operatives
Case 5 from Germany
Amaryllis Co-operative Society – Multi-generation Dwellings
Source: Kirbach, Roland: Ab in die WG (Off into a common dwelling), in: DIE
ZEIT N° 5, 24 January 2008, pp. 13-17.
I. Matters to be highlighted as best practice
Development of a special form of housing co-operative society for multigeneration
living, started as an association of interested persons and was later
converted into co-operative society.

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Successful combination of self-interest and group interest in a co-operative society.
Limits of open membership in a close housing community.
II. Portrait of the co-operative society
Name of Co-operative: Amaryllis eG
Type of Co-operative: Housing Co-operative Society at primary society
level, Multi-generation housing project (Wohnungsgenossenschaft
− Mehrgenerationen-
Wohnprojekt)
Year of Formation: Amaryllis co-operative society (eG) 2005
formed by conversion of the Amaryllis association
(e.V.) founded in 1992
Address: Wiesenpfad 18, D – 53757 Sankt Augustin
Tel.: Tel.: +49 (0) 228 555 25 986
E-mail: www.amaryllis-bonn.de
Person to contact: Silke Gross, Dorothea-Erxleben-Weg 8, 53229
Bonn
Number of members: 46 adults aged between 26 and 85 and 20 children
and young persons of less than 18 years.
Number of dwellings: 32 Apartments, 26 of which financed privately
and 6 under social housing programme plus one
large apartment for collective living of 6 persons.
Decision-making bodies: General Meeting (one member – one vote)
Board of directors
Supervisory committee
Extended self-administration: Every inhabitant has a defined task in the cooperative
society. Each contributes according to
his/her talents and capabilities to reaching the
aims of the co-operative society as an enterprise
and as a group of persons.
Weekly plenary meetings of all inhabitants
Sources of finance:
Each member has to sign at least one share of € 5,000 plus about 15 percent of
the total cost of the apartment (i.e. some € 300 per m 2 ). There is no additional

liability of the member for debts of the co-operative society. Additional shares
may be signed up to a total of € 50,000.
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To increase the creditworthiness of the co-operative society vis-à-vis external
investors, external sponsors were sought to serve as guarantors. A special fund
created from contributions of members who are financially better off, issues
loans to financially weaker members to help them pay-up their shares.
Deposits and guarantees are administered in collaboration with a co-operative
bank.
Affiliation to federations
and other organisations:
• From 2005: Affiliation to a co-operative auditing federation,
• Collaboration with a housing consultancy firm (WohnBund Beratung GmbH,
Nordrhein Westfalen, NRW) for advice on acquisition of land, financial
planning and drafting the by-laws of the co-operative society,
• Agreements of co-operation with the competent authorities of the City of
Bonn, the Federal State of NRW and a firm of architects.
III. Description of the case
Background information on aging Germans
In Germany, every year the number of persons above the age of 65 grows by
500,000. Between 2003 and 2006 it has grown from 14.9 million to 16.3 million.
The total of persons needing care has increased between 1991 and 2002 from 1.6
million to over 2 million and will reach 2.8 million by 2020.
This means for all elderly persons who have no relatives to stay with and who
would provide care that they will depend on stationary care. The family networks
are becoming weaker. The distance between parents and their adult children
is growing with decreasing contacts (as shown in a study presented by the
German Federal Government on elderly citizens). This leaves the old with the
choice between loneliness and stationary care.
Preferences and options of elderly persons regarding their forms of living
A survey carried out in Germany by the German Federal Government shows that
only 6 percent of elderly persons would like to live in a common dwelling, while
19 percent would consider this as a possibility. The figures for other forms of
living are as follows:
Form of living Preference Possible option
Residential care 9 % 35 %

Staying with children 25 % 30 %
Senior citizens residence 44 % 24 %
Rearrange current dwelling 34 % 41 %
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The search is on for new forms of joint dwellings like multi-generation dwellings
preferred in comparison with the classical model of shared flats with a
common kitchen and bathroom. The demand for multi-generation housing is
growing (between 2005 and 2006 by 50 percent). Today, most elderly people do
not want to be taken to senior citizen residences with stationary care. They want
to live in a community, see what happens outside, communicate with others and
visit one another. The problem is to find the right social distance between
neighbours. Professional advice in this regard may be beneficial.
The attitude of persons living in such multi-generation settlements should be:
“We do not live here to help others, but we do so to meet our own needs”.
In such housing projects, the question of ownership is important. Individual
ownership of dwellings encourages egoism. Planning for flexibility is equally
important. Flats have to be built in such a way that one large flat can be converted
into two small flats plus guest apartment. Such designs have been developed
by architects specialized in designing multi-generation houses for heterogeneous
groups of inhabitants, e.g. an old villa can be subdivided into 11 tworoom
apartments plus 300 m 2 of common space. In this case, 11 ladies aged between
69 and 85 years live in a self-organised housing community. The old villa
was offered by the city government to be used free of charge for a period of 25
years, provided that the cost of renovation (€ 1 million) were covered by the inhabitants.
A loan taken for this purpose by the residents is paid back by a supplement
to the monthly rent.
Need to make a choice in time
For elderly people living in their old large flats or houses, the moment comes
when these flats become too large and living becomes too lonely. When moving
into smaller flats this means to leave the well known environment and most of
the old furniture behind, one had for the past decades.
The Amaryllis project
The leading idea of Amarillys is: When getting old one should not live alone, but
rather together with others. This can be achieved by moving into a multigeneration-project.
The first step was to join an association of persons with similar needs – the
Amaryllis Association, formed by three couples in Bonn in the 1990s. The object
of this association was to allow old and young persons with and without

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children to live under one roof. When launching the idea, more applications to
join were received than could be accepted.
More than a decade later, the association was converted into a co-operative society
and started to build multi-generation dwellings in form of three two-story
houses for a total of 66 inhabitants including 20 children.
The aim of the Amaryllis co-operative society is to offer its members a form of
living together that reaches beyond generations and allows persons of all ages to
live together. Dwellings without barriers are combined with modern ecological
standards of saving energy (central heating with wood pellets, car-sharing).
A special design of the houses helps to generate good relations with neighbours.
In the first floor, doors from the living rooms lead to a balcony around the entire
house linking all flats. In the ground floor, flats are linked by a common terrace.
In this way the distance between neighbours is kept small.
The new settlement is perceived as a kind of village, allowing communication
across generation limits, encouraging to help others and to be helped in case of
need. This is seen as an alternative to stationary care in a senior citizens residence,
where old persons are locked up and kept away from normal social contacts.
It meets the desire of old persons to be able to continue to live in their own
flat even in case of sickness and need of care. The idea is to allow selfdetermined
living as long as possible.
Members of the Amaryllis co-operative society work in the organisation on an
honorary basis. Every member holds an office in the co-operative society. They
plan the new houses and administer the community together. E.g. every Tuesday
there is a plenary meeting of all inhabitants in which attendance is compulsory.
These meetings are used to spread information, to find solutions for common
problems and to settle disputes.
There is no need to do everything together. Each inhabitant can withdraw into
his/her own flat. However, there is the chance to do many things together. The
co-operative serves as a net which supports and empowers the individual. Such
organisation cannot be composed only of old people needing help. Membership
has to be a mix of young and old persons. It has to be a multi-generation project.
In the case of the Amaryllis co-operative society it was decided to build new
houses financed by a loan from a co-operative bank rather than looking for old
houses. To provide collateral security, the members had to find guarantors for
part of the loan among relatives and friends.
The principal motto of the co-operative society is: To be interested to live in a
community based on binding rules.
This includes:
• Joint planning of the rules for the new social order of living together,
• Be prepared for mutual aid in day-to-day living,

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• Adopt an ecologically reasonable life-style, e.g. limiting the number of
cars and parking lots, encouraging car-sharing,
• No individual ownership of flats but rather common ownership together
with a generation contract reaching beyond the present generation. Members
of the original association had formed a co-operative society which
becomes the owner of the three houses.
Members have to contribute € 400 per m 2 of space, i.e. for a flat of 50 m 2 a total
of € 20,000. This contribution covers only one fifth of the construction cost. Better
off members of the co-operative established a social fund to help those unable
to pay the required share contribution. Some flats are promoted by government
as ‘social housing’ with prices of € 4.80 per m 2 – cold rent – as compared
to € 8.20 per m 2 in case of privately financed flats.
It turned out to be difficult to raise the necessary capital from financial service
providers, because:
• The co-operative society has a variable share capital with partly voluntary
share contributions,
• no personal liability of the members for the debts of the co-operative society,
• difficulties anticipated in case of selling the assets of the co-operative society
in case of liquidation.
IV. Best Practice in applying co-operative principles
Limits of open membership
Where persons with different interests and priorities and of different age live
closely together in multi-generation dwellings, there has to be a strong common
denominator in terms of shared goals and shared organisation culture, to keep
such a group together. The case of Amaryllis co-operative society shows how
such strong group of members can be formed in a long selection process during
membership in the Amaryllis association before it was converted into the Amaryllis
co-operative society. It also illustrates that the closer the group relations
are the narrower are the limits of open membership.
Combining self-interest and group interest
The multi-generation project is based on many individual interests supplementing
each other. It allows for instance old couples who have no children of their
own to live with children, while working mothers or parents receive help from
the elderly by offering child care. E.g. once a week there is a “grandmother day”,
where the child spends an afternoon with its new “grandparents”. Such solution
benefits both and keeps people in good contact as neighbours.