Stauffenbergstraße 8–10

Characteristics:
Clinker Bricks • Flat Roof • Setback & Front Garden

Stauffenbergstraße 8–10 was built between 1929 and 1930. The facade is mostly dark clinker brick, with horizontal bands that slightly protrude between the floors. The building has a boxy form with a flat roof and a stepped profile at the top. It is set back from the street with a small front garden. The balconies and recessed loggias are finished in simple stucco that contrasts with the brick facade.

Southeast corner

Southwest corner

On the back, a vertical row of stairwell windows creates a glass-like column in the center. Inside, the staircase is plain and geometric, with stone steps, metal handrails, and brightly painted wooden doors.

Entrance seen from the courtyard

The house is listed in an address book from 1933, three years after it was completed. Back then, the street name was still “Garnisonstraße” (Garrison Street). The owner is listed as “Kredit-Kasse f. Haus- u. Grundbes. m.b.H.” (Credit Institution for Real Estate Ltd.).

The listed professions of the main tenants are maid, bookseller, chemist, wool merchant, teacher, businessman, engineer, lawyer, painter, and authorized signatory. Not working class, not upper class. This was solid middle-class housing.

The stairwell from the ground floorModernism in Architecture

Stairs leading up to bright apartment doors

Each floor contains three four-room apartments, and a smaller two-room unit. All apartments have a balcony and/or loggia, and one or two bathrooms. On the top floor, behind the little windows of the southeast corner, is a shared room for drying laundry.

Floor plan of the building

What caught my eye about this building is how much it reminds me of the prefabricated housing blocks from the 1970s and 80s at first glance. The boxy appearance, uniform facade, flat roof, and repeated balconies all feel familiar. It shows how the architecture of the 1920s laid the groundwork for modern housing concepts that were still being used half a century later.

I strongly prefer the 1920s version because of the smaller scale and more handmade feel. Four stories instead of six, textured clinker brick instead of concrete panels, and details that feel more crafted than industrial.

The building in Stauffenbergstraße

A prefabricated building from the 1970s in Riebeckstr. 36, Leipzig