Residents of German social housing legacy still pay 'Middle Age rents'
Stibi has to pay just 88 euro cents a year for her apartment in the social housing complex known as the Fuggerei, where rents have not gone up since the Middle Ages.
Founded in 1521 by the wealthy businessman Jakob Fugger and believed to be the oldest such project in the world, the Fuggerei in the city of Augsburg provides living space for 150 residents facing financial hardship.
Consisting of several rows of yellow terraced buildings with green shutters and sloping red roofs, the complex still resembles a medieval village.
"I had a truly wonderful life until I was 55," said Stibi, a mother of two in her 60s from Augsburg.
After she was diagnosed with cancer, "everything went from bad to worse" and she was left with no other option but to apply for social housing, she said.
Waiting lists are long for apartments in the walled enclave not far from Augsburg city centre, with most applicants having to wait "between two and six or seven years", according to resident social worker Doris Herzog.
"It all depends on the apartment you want. The ones on the ground floor are very popular," Herzog said.
Applicants must be able to prove that they are Augsburg residents, Catholic and suffering from financial hardship.
Advertisement
Relative of Mozart
Martha Jesse has been living at the Fuggerei for 17 years after finding herself with monthly pension payments of just 400 euros, despite having worked for 45 years.
An inner view shows Martha Jesse's flat in the Fuggerei in Augsburg. (Photo by Michaela STACHE / AFP)
"Living elsewhere would have been almost impossible," said the 77-year-old, whose apartment is filled with religious symbols.
Advertisement
The Fuggerei was heavily damaged in World War II but has since been rebuilt in its original style.
Renowned composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's great-grandfather, the mason Franz Mozart, was once a resident and visitors can still see a stone plaque bearing his name.
READ ALSO:
'Nachzahlung' - What are the rules around additional housing costs in Germany?
For Andreas Tervooren, a 49-year-old night security guard who has lived at the Fuggerei since 2017, the complex is "like a town within a town" or "the Asterix village in the comic books".
The meagre rents at the Fuggerei are all the more remarkable given its location an hour's drive from Munich, the most expensive city in Germany to live in and one of the most expensive in Europe.
Rents have also risen sharply in many other German cities in recent years, leading to a wave of protests.
READ ALSO:
Which German cities are the most in need of new housing?
But not at the Fuggerei, whose founders stipulated that the rent should never be raised.
Daily prayer
Jakob Fugger (1459-1525), also known as Jakob the Rich, was a merchant and financier from a wealthy family known for its ties to European emperors and the Habsburg family.
Fugger set up several foundations to help the people of Augsburg, and they continue to fund the upkeep of the Fuggerei to this day.
The annual rent in the Fuggerei was one Rhenish gulden, about the weekly wage of a craftsman at the time -- equivalent to 88 cents in today's money.
Although some descendants of the Fugger family are still involved in the management of the foundations, they no longer contribute any money.
"We are financed mainly through income from forestry holdings, and we also have a small tourism business," said Daniel Hobohm, administrator of the Fugger foundations.
The Fuggerei attracts a steady stream of visitors, and the foundations also receive rental income from other properties.
In return for their lodgings, residents of the Fuggerei must fulfil just one condition -- every day, they must recite a prayer for the donors and their families.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local Germany
2 hours ago
- Local Germany
TELL US: What do you think of the German school system?
Children in Germany must attend school full-time for at least nine years, from the age of six, often at schools that are maintained by the German state in which you live and are free of charge. READ ALSO: Key dates - When do children go back to school in Germany? Pupils don't usually wear uniforms, often refer to their teachers casually (especially young students), and typically finish for the day by 2pm. Of course, with the exception of some international schools, instruction is primarily in German. These are perhaps some of the most overt differences between school in Germany compared to many other countries. But which differences have you noticed, for better or for worse? Take a look at the survey below and let us know your thoughts. If the survey doesn't display in your browser, CLICK HERE .
DW
8 hours ago
- DW
How smart city planning helps to avoid accidents – DW – 08/18/2025
The Finnish capital Helsinki went twelve months without a traffic fatality. Data-driven city planning helped. Zero. That is the number of people killed in traffic accidents in Helsinki during the last year. Although other cities have achieved this feat — such as the Norwegian capital Oslo in 2019 — Helsinki, which has almost 690,000 people, is among the largest to do so. Its most recent traffic fatality was in July 2024. The Finnish capital's road toll has been substantially lower than of other European capitals, both in absolute terms and per capita. It recorded four traffic fatalities in 2024 — 0.59 per 100,000 inhabitants — until early July. By comparison, Berlin recorded 1.45 per 100,000 and London 110. Oslo, which is only slightly larger than Helsinki, had 0.56. According to Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer and road planner for the City of Helsinki, there are several reasons for the success. Atop the list is the reduction of speed limits to 30km/h. Although a 30 km/h speed limit is not uniform around Helsinki, it is implemented on more than half of the city's streets, Utriainen said. Helsinki also lowered speed limits around schools to 30 km/h earlier this summer, to protect children on their way to school. "I think it is one of the key measures. Only reducing speed limits is not a sufficient measure, but it is still important," Utriainen told DW. Helsinki's achievement aligns with the European Union's "Vision Zero" program, which aims to move as close as possible to zero road fatalities by 2050. To reach that goal, Helsinki's city administration began a Traffic Safety Development Programme aimed at making the city's streets safer and more socially responsible. Helsinki wants to identify the most important routes for child, pedestrian and cyclists safety and rebuild its infrastructure with this in mind. This involves reconstructing bike paths, street lighting, improving guidelines and networking with other cities and institutions. Increasing public transport use, which removes cars from the roads, is also a priority, according to Utriainen. Helsinki collected crash and driving speed data and resident feedback to identify dangerous sections of road or accident blackspots. It helps traffic planners to understand how the traffic in the city works, where changes need to be made and can be used to plan street and pedestrian crossings, bike paths and public transport. Hagen Schüller, a traffic planner and engineer at PTV Transport Consult in Berlin, said that considering many data points was important when undertaking modern traffic planning. But it's a complex undertaking. "You have to take a lot of factors into account. That makes road safety very complex," Schüller told DW. "In most big cities, there are traffic control centers, where the traffic of the whole city is monitored, via sensors, cameras, detectors. "You can't control every factor, like bad weather, but removing one creates a buffer and the accident doesn't happen." To check and improve the success of these actions, traffic control is important. Coordinating between the city and police has enabled Helsinki to enforce traffic rules and control city speeds. "Speed enforcement is one important measure to address actual driving speeds," Utriainen told DW. "The police are responsible for speed enforcement in Finland, but the city is responsible for building fixed control points, which the police operate." There are now 60 fixed control points — speed cameras — around Helsinki, mainly on roads of 40km/h or more. "We have found that the fixed control points reduce the proportion of excessive speeding in particular," Utriainen said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Schüller believes the future of traffic management could be automated and AI driven. Still in development, automation, he said, will emerge along with self-driving vehicles. If approved for use, these vehicles would send speed and location data to traffic control centers, which will return information about speed limits and disruptions. Artificial intelligence, Schüller said, could be used to automatically analyze pictures from traffic cameras to control traffic. Schüller is convinced that Vision Zero is possible and thinks Helsinki's efforts are a model for medium-sized cities. "Most cities that did that [achieve zero fatalities] are smaller, much smaller. The attention that Helsinki gets for that is justified," Schüller said. For other European cities, the challenge is about overcoming local politics and opposition for road transformation. Discussions about destroying parking spaces to build bike lanes, reducing speed limits or creating no-car areas are an everyday topic for many German cities. But the knowledge and the technology are already available, Schüller said.
DW
a day ago
- DW
China: A women-only secret script returns as symbol of strength – DW – 08/17/2025
Image: Jade Gao/AFP In a studio in the village of Goulan Yao in the central Chinese province of Hunan, teacher He Yuejuan uses a brush to carefully write characters in a secret script that was created centuries ago by women and is now being rediscovered by a new generation. Image: Jade Gao/AFP Nushu, which means "women's script," originated about 400 years ago. Since women were denied access to education, they secretly learned Chinese characters and adapted them to Nushu in order to communicate with each other through letters, songs and embroidery. The script was passed down through generations of women in the remote and picturesque county of Jiangyong in southern China. Image: Pedro Pardo/AFP The village of Goulan Yao in Jiangyong County is closely linked to Nushu, as it is considered the origin and one of the few remaining centers of this unique women's script. The region is characterized by mountainous terrain, rural communities and a relatively low population density. Image: Jade Gao/AFP Around a hundred Nushu learners participate in a workshop at a hotel near the village of Goulan Yao. The script, with its 600 to 700 syllabic characters, is now regarded nationwide as a symbol of female strength and identity. "Nushu offered a safe way for women to communicate with each other. It essentially creates a sanctuary for us," student Pan Shengwen told the AFP news agency. Image: Jade Gao/AFP Compared to other characters, Nushu ones are modeled on a woman's body — less angular, slimmer and shaped like willow leaves. "When writing, your breathing must be calm and only then can your brush be steady," said another participant in the workshop, which was set up by the local authorities to promote the script. Image: Pedro Pardo/AFP Nushu is more than just a writing system — it represents the life experiences of women from rural areas of the county. According to teacher He Yuejuan, the script is gaining increasing attention due to its elegance and rarity. After rigorous examinations, she became one of 12 officially recognized "heiresses" of Nushu, and is now authorized to teach it. Image: Jade Gao/AFP The week-long workshop attracted great interest from women from all over China. One of them was Zou Kexin, who became aware of Nushu through an online post and wanted to "experience it for herself." "It's a unique writing system belonging to women, which makes it really special," said the 22-year-old participant. Today, Nushu is considered part of China's cultural heritage. Image: Jade Gao/AFP 08/17/2025 August 17, 2025
