The model housing estate of 'Schaffendes Volk', Düsseldorf 1937
Visitors stroll through a model estate of white gabled houses with shutters, flower boxes and garden walls, an aircraft on display among them.
A white house with a sunshade over its terrace, neighbouring houses with steep tiled roofs and dormers, a heavy front door panelled in diamonds in a white brick wall: the camera walks through a model estate as visitors in summer clothes stroll along its curving streets, look over the low garden walls and crowd round a twin-engined aircraft displayed beside a long modern exhibition hall.
The estate was built for the Reich Exhibition 'Schaffendes Volk' in Düsseldorf in 1937, the regime's great show of German work, materials and housing under the Four-Year Plan, which drew several million visitors. The houses, with their steep roofs and white walls, embodied the regime's preferred domestic style; they were built to be lived in, and many still stand.
Film Visitors stroll through the model estate, 1937
Film Model houses at the Düsseldorf exhibition, 1937
Film An aircraft on show among the houses, 1937
Film A gabled house with a balcony, 1937
Film Crowds in the street of the model estate, 1937
Film A front door in the model estate, 1937
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