Gartenstadt-Nord

The original estate largely escaped serious damage during the Second World War and remains inhabited today. The single-family houses came with large gardens intended for growing vegetables, allowing residents a degree of self-sufficiency.

The nickname stems from the section built from 1957 on the southwestern edge of Longerich, whose groundbreaking on 16 July 1956 coincided with the Katholikentag held in Cologne. The aim was affordable housing for families with children; with support from the Catholic Church, mostly large Catholic families moved in. Archbishop Josef Cardinal Frings consecrated the estate on 12 September 1959, and the church of St. Bernhard followed two years later. Ossietzkystraße was later added to provide access to a newly built Catholic elementary school. The estate was designed by several architects, including Herbert Neubert, technical director of GAG from 1947 to 1968, and Wolfgang Schmidtlein for DeWoG.

Extensions to the older settlement were built mainly for employees of the nearby Esso refinery in Cologne, which began operations on 16 December 1958, as well as for workers at the Ford plant. For Esso staff, mostly one- and two-family houses of around 103 m² living space each were built, while GAG erected point-block hostels for Ford workers. Houses in the Katholikentagssiedlung were typically designed as single-family homes with an additional small apartment.

Altonaer Platz is lined by two-story buildings housing shops and restaurants. It also features a group of point blocks with a Y-shaped floor plan and three-story six-family houses. This mix of house types is characteristic of 1950s construction. The single-family houses have since passed into private ownership, while the point blocks remain part of GAG's housing stock.