A Short Essay About Linden Today And 50 Years Ago

by Philipp Puttins

Linden is a district of Hannover. It borders to the center; in between there is the BBS 3, our school.

Its area consists of Linden-Nord, Linden-Mitte, Linden-Süd and Limmer. It has about 45.000 inhabitants.

Linden is characterized by old buildings; blocks of flats made of red-blue clinker which were built in the 1920ies. In this time as an industrial base Linden was seeked after by many people who were looking for work. This is the reason for the self-image as a traditional working class district.

50 years ago the housing conditions of local labour differed much to those of today: The flats were significantly smaller, often two rooms for one family had to suffice. The toilets were separated to stairway or backyard. Taking a bath meant visiting a public bath on Sunday. These baths had nothing in common with the swimming baths we know today; there was no pool but a lot of bath tubs.

Today Linden is not a working class district anymore. Industries moved, social barriers blurred. Linden is now populated by a colourful mix of classes and ethnics. Students love to live in Linden because of its proximity to the Hannover University.

The unification of the intellectual student body, the tradition of progressive labour movements and the great number of immigrants gives Linden a unique climate of peaceful cooperation; alternative structures and ways of life can develop without conflicts.

To draw a picture of Linden's streets there are wholemeal-bakeries, shops selling biological food and goods, oriental traders selling vegetables and almost everything else, alternative nurseries and an endless number of Turkish “Kiosks”.

The students brought another thing to Linden: The pubs and the parties. There are a lot of beer taverns and party-locations and almost every night an event takes place.

Last but not least, you can share a flat with a few students to save money.

So, in my opinion, Linden is ideal as domicile for a student of the BBS 3.

The changes of the area of Schaumburg

between 1956 - 2006

by Martin Kappmeier, corrected and edited by K. Lange

County of Schaumburg Lower Saxony
Emblem county of Schaumburg

Past 1956 : In the 50´s of the last century the business activities in Germany began to rise, which means that a lot of companies were founded or increased their production.One could notice this in our area too, there were many jobs for the workers e.g. in the industry, the trade or at the coal mining. And all the jobs were not far away from home, therefore most of the workers went to work by foot, bicycle or motorcycle.At that time no supermarkets existed, all the food you needed came from private greenhouses, the weekly market in the next town, or a little shop in the village.People used their time off for joining clubs or they became members of different activities e.g. the sportsclub, a traditional dancing club or the volunteer fire brigade. In that time the government began to set up a social network to support the deprived.

Present 2006 : Right now we have big problems with unemployment in our country.Due to high wages in Germany a lot of companies produce their products in other countries. The unemployment has a strong impact on our county,as one can´t find a job in the domestic industry or on the crafts market. One is forced to drive longer ways to nearer cities by bus, train or car, to get a good job. Mostly people with good qualifications are preferred.Today,we buy all our food in supermarkets, because it is easier and more convenient than getting it from one's greenhouse. People use their free time in another way than in the past, they try to relax or go for a little bit of sport. Many clubs have problems with new members,because only few people want do do something without being paid. Our social system is a huge problem, there is financial disaster,for the very reason that our country has too many people who are not employed. One can see that there were big changes in the last decades.

Natural environment
In the early years there were only farmhouses and everyone more or less bought products they really needed, not what they wanted.Therefore the industry didn´t have to produce as many things as today(e.g. one or more sorts of washing powders or something alike).The result of the lower production was that less waste existed. Today many families want to live in our area,because it´s more quiet and cleaner than in a dirty city. Therefore they build a lot of row houses which spoil the natural atmosphere in the villages of our county. This problem is becoming bigger and bigger. That´s how the natural environment has changed in my area.

My Hometown Gardelegen

By Nino Hinte, corrected and edited by K. Lange

Gardelegen is a little city in northern Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen Anhalt). The region is called “Altmark”. Today more than 11500 people live in Gardelegen. 50 years ago it belonged to the German Democratic Republic. Many things were different then than they are today, for example the educational system, the appearance of the people and things you can do in your spare time. In this time (1956) teenagers had no computer or mobile phone. TV was very rare, too. Often they played soccer or did some other activities in sport clubs. These clubs were paid by government taxes so the teens could do sport for free. Today many young people are “couchpotatoes”, they only sit at home and don’t do any sport. A reason could be that today many sport clubs are very expensive. The consequence of which is that 30% of our teens are too fat. They eat too much candy and fast food. 50 years ago that was not possible because sugar was very expensive and fast food wasn’t invented.

But everything was much better than it had been in the 1940’s. The “Second World War” was over and the people had much more food and other things than during the war. The destroyed city of Gardelegen was rebuilt and many more buildings were built, like schools and churches. Today many ruined houses are still to be found in Gardelegen. Some ruins will still get restored as some others will be kept original.

In the years after the Berlin Wall collapsed, Gardelegen has become a beautiful city with many companies. 40 years before there was absolutely no industry there, only some cows and pigs in an animal farm. For some years one company has been producing some parts for cars (VW) and another company has been manufacturing wooden parts for IKEA. That’s a great economical gain for the whole region because many people have been employed. In the 10 years before many workers had lost their jobs because many companies had run bankrupt. Now the workers have got a new chance... .