Rieselfeld is a city quarter (''Stadtteil'') in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. It is located in the western part of the city and borders the nature reserve Freiburger Rieselfeld in the west, right next to a little zoo called Tiergehege Mundenhof, Opfinger Straße in the south and

Besançon Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland. Capi ...

allee in the east. The industrial area Haid is part of the Sankt Georgen district and is located to the south of Rieselfeld, while the district Weingarten is situated to the east of Rieselfeld.

History

The word ''Rieselfeld'' means

leach field Septic drain fields, also called leach fields or leach drains, are subsurface wastewater disposal facilities used to remove contaminants and impurities from the liquid that emerges after anaerobic digestion in a septic tank. Organic materials in ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and refers to how the area started. To ensure wastewater disposal for the city, which had grown to a population number of over 50,000 inhabitants,

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

acquired an area spanning 500 hectares from the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

in 1891. After

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

had ended,

Sinti The Sinti (masc. sing. ''Sinto''; fem. sing. ''Sintetsa, Sinta'') are a subgroup of the Romani people. They are found mostly in Germany, France, Italy and Central Europe, numbering some 200,000 people. They were traditionally Itinerant groups i ...

, among them some who had survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, settled in the area of Haid, a district adjacent to today's Rieselfeld. The Opfinger Siedlung, home of alleged outlaws and criminals, was also very close by. Living in these areas, which were not yet situated in the city, meant societal exclusion for the inhabitants. In 1985, the sewage plant had to be shut down due to insufficient capacity to deal with wastewater. The amount of wastewater had increased to 90,00 m³ per day and the disposal could not be handled without preparing the soil of the area beforehand, which caused additional legal problems. The Rieselfeld district was established in 1992 when a competition to design city districts was initiated. The group "Süd-West" from Lörrach won the competition together with the architectural firm Böwer Eith Murken Spiecker, the architect Manfred Morlock and the landscaper Bernd Meier. The overall management was assigned to Hans Rudolf Güdemann. After several soil analyses and the subsequent soil stripping, all requirements were fulfilled to build on the former wastewater disposal area. In 1993, work started in the first segment. In 1994, the first apartments were being built and only two years later, the first apartments were finished and given over to the new inhabitants. The next year, the Clara-Grunwald primary school was opened and the Kepler Gymnasium, which already existed at this point, was moved into the newly built complex. Additionally, the Sepp-Glaser gym was dedicated and the initial work for the second and third segments of project “Rieselfeld” were started. To ensure public transportation to Freiburg's city centre, tram line 5 was also installed in 1997. In 2000, work for the fourth and last segment of “Rieselfeld” started. One year later, a park was added, as well as a church and a community centre. In July 2006, work to expand the Kepler Gymnasium began.

Funding

Since the site was owned by the city funding for planning and development costs was raised through the sale of the site itself. The initial costs currently amount to 145 million euros, of which 85 million were offset by the sale of the site. The Rieselfeld Project was coordinated by the building department, specifically the newly founded group called “Projektgruppe Rieselfeld”. The development of the site was undertaken by commercial building contractors as well as private property developers, that is to say a collaborative association. In order to prevent an area of homogenous buildings, each investor was only allowed to build 40 housing units in one area, which equals three building plots.

Architecture

Almost all the apartments in Rieselfeld are arranged in rows of houses along the street with green spaces and gardens in between and in back. Urban style buildings, with no space in between, were, however, built along the Rieselfeldallee which functioned as a principal axis for the area and accommodated the tram line. In order to ensure a heterogenous social structure, rental and owner-occupied apartments as well as single family homes and blocks of flats were not separated from each other. With regards to environmental sustainability the entire development is constructed to be energy saving, mostly using renewable power sources. In addition, the district is both entirely wheelchair and buggy friendly. The Maria-Magdalena Church is a compact concrete building designed by Susanne Gross, an architect from

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. The fact that it is a church is not immediately obvious, especially as it is missing a tower. It is located in the centre of Rieselfeld and is, somewhat unusually, home to both a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Church which are both named after Mary Magdalene. The two Churches are separated by a large foyer with a side wall which can be moved to make a large joint room out of the two sacred spaces.

Demography

The demographic of Rieselfeld is characterised by two striking factors: * Of the 6000 residents living in the district midway through 2004, 75% were from the city of

or from nearby areas. * Around one third of the residents are under 18. With regards to the second point, three schools - a primary school, a secondary school (which was relocated there from the city centre) and the third Waldorf School in

- as well as several nurseries have been built.

Job market

Among other things, the district was designed to enable residents to find a job in Rieselfeld or in the immediate vicinity (e.g. the industrial area Haid). After construction in the district was completed in 2013, around 1,000 new jobs in kindergartens, schools, restaurants and doctor's surgeries have since been created.

Traffic regulations

All streets in the district have a speed limit of 30 kmh (approximately 18,6 mph) in order to keep individual traffic low and make the district quiet and family-friendly. The tram line 5, leading through the main street of the district, has connected Rieselfeld with the city centre since 1997 and enables people to reach it within 15 to 20 minutes by getting on the tram at one of the three stops ''Maria-von-Rudloff-PLatz'', ''Geschwister-Scholl-Platz'' and ''Bollerstaudenstraße''. Rieselfeld is also served by several bus lines.

Parks

A small park was built right next to the secondary school ''Kepler-Gymnasium'' in the north of Rieselfeld, including a lawn for sunbathing and a playground for children. The primary school ''Clara-Grundwald-Grundschule'' is opposite the ''Kepler-Gymnasium''. The green roof of the primary school's gym is accessible and connects the park with the ''Maria-von-Rudloff-Patz''. There is also a sports field north of ''Mundenhofer Straße''. The second park is located in the southwest of the district. It is a wetland biotope that is watered only with rainwater from the surrounding rooftops.

Wild carrot ''Daucus carota'', whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace (North America), is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Old World ...

(Queen Anne's lace) is the host plant for the caterpillars of the Old World swallowtail and grows at the border of the park. The nature reserve Freiburger Rieselfeld borders the district to the west and functions as a local recreation area for its residents.

Famous people

Bahar Kızıl Bahar Kizil (Turkish: ''Bahar Kızıl''; born 5 October 1988) is a German singer and songwriter of Turkish descent, best known as one of the founding members of the girl group Monrose, which won the fifth season of the German version of ''Pop ...

, member of the former pop girl group Monrose, lives in Rieselfeld.badische-zeitung.de
/ref> * Käthe Vordtriede, journalist, author and Jewish émigré, was honoured in Germany for the first time when a street was named after her in this district.

References

External links

Official homepage of the quarter
{{Authority control Quarters of Freiburg im Breisgau