Waldheim Heslach

"A place where I am human, where I can be!"

This was the situation of a worker at the turn of the 20th century: working an average of up to 60 hours a week under the harshest conditions; a daily wage of just over 3 Reichsmark for adult men; unhealthy, cramped housing with no sanitary facilities and often no heating; malnutrition and up to 10 people per 30 square meters! It reminds us of the current situation of many workers in Asia, South America and Africa.

Then a very good idea was born in Heslach: in order to escape the whole social misery at least a little, the workers should create their own homes and meeting places for recreation in the great outdoors! In spring 1908, the then SPD local chairman Carl Oster (1874-1954) and a few other comrades founded the Arbeiter-Waldheim-Verein Stuttgarter Karlsvorstadt e.V. (Workers' Forest Home Association Stuttgart Karlsvorstadt). That same year, the first of its kind, the Heslacher Waldheim , was opened on a meadow orchard in the Vaihingen badger forest. Nowadays, it is impossible to imagine summer garden inns without the Waldheime - even 100 years later! Their existence demonstrates the unique contribution of the Stuttgart workers' movement to cultural life and recreation in the 20th century.