Spiegelkolonie, Worker housing complex in Waldhof district, Mannheim, Germany
The Spiegelkolonie is a worker housing settlement in the Waldhof district of Mannheim, made up of two-story houses with pitched roofs. The plastered buildings have wooden galleries along the rear facade, and each unit comes with a private garden and separate front and back entrances.
The settlement was founded in 1852 to house French workers brought in for the Saint-Gobain mirror glass factory, making it the earliest worker housing development in Mannheim. It was built at a time when local industry was growing rapidly and skilled workers were being recruited from abroad.
The name of the settlement comes from a mirror glass factory that once stood nearby and whose workers the houses were built for. The small private gardens behind each home are still tended today, giving the place a lived-in, domestic feel.
The settlement is best seen on foot, as the building details and rear galleries are only visible from close up. It is well served by public transit, and daylight makes it much easier to take in the full layout.
Football coach Sepp Herberger, who led the German national team to the 1954 World Cup title, was born in 1897 at house 171 and grew up here while his father worked at the nearby factory. The house still stands today and looks much the same as it did during his childhood.
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