SpaceStories

Not afraid to leave gaps

Entrepreneurs Birgit and Mathias Mahnke have dedicated themselves to the creative revitalisation of old industrial properties in eastern Germany and have skilfuly proven that coincidence can be planned.

by Ulrich Knoll in November 2023

Entre­pre­neurs Birgit and Mathias Mahnke have dedi­cated them­selves to the creative revi­ta­li­sation of old indus­trial pro­perties in eastern Germany and have skilfuly proven that coin­ci­dence can be planned.

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Some things that look like coin­ci­dence at first glance were in fact an oppor­tunity that was seized with a keen eye. One person who not only believes in the exis­tence of coin­ci­dences, but also inte­grates them into his stra­tegic thinking, thus faci­li­tating the deve­lo­pment of spaces with potential, is the management con­sultant Mathias Mahnke from Ilvesheim near Hei­delberg.

25 years ago he got into the real estate sector — let’s just say by chance for now. Over the years, a passion for archi­tecture and the pre­ser­vation of existing buil­dings grew out of what was initially only intended as a financial investment. Since then, he and his wife have acquired dozens of buil­dings and in recent years have incre­asingly devoted them­selves to old indus­trial pro­perties, which they are slowly but ste­adily revi­ta­lising from the inside out.

In con­ver­sation with him, the high art of Arab sto­rytelling comes to mind: In a fast-paced and lively manner, he tells the at times adven­turous story of his journey into the East German real estate and art cosmos, which branches out into dozens of plot lines, meanders freely between the post-reuni­fi­cation years and the present, tou­ching on the prot­ago­nists of the New Leipzig School one moment, only to delve into details of aug­mented reality or urban deve­lo­pment the next.

With openness and ima­gi­nation, ever­y­thing can be “turned around”.

Mahnke is, of course, any­thing but a sto­ryteller or a fan­tasist. And cer­tainly not a gambler.

Flashback to the early summer of 1995: Mahnke, now in his mid-fifties, accom­panies a farmer friend to Löbnitz, where the friend buys a farm. On the pro­perty: Two prefabs with six resi­dential units each and the farmer has no idea what to do with them. Mahnke thinks about it for a moment and, acting on a whim, buys the units from him. At roughly the same time, an architect friend buys a Grün­derzeit (Wihel­minian) house. Mahnke follows his example, even though the Leipzig-Lin­denau dis­trict is not nearly as trendy at the time as it is today. He has the house com­pletely reno­vated; however, sub­se­quently the pro­perty and rental market sta­gnate. A positive side effect: many artists and creative people move to Lin­denau because of the moderate rents. There develops an exciting mix of studios, neigh­bourhood asso­cia­tions, urban gar­dening pro­jects and some quaint shops.

Mahnke  watches this deve­lo­pment with interest. And then, almost over­night, in 2013 he comes up with the idea of the fac­tories: From his expe­rience in Lin­denau, he knows that artists can hardly afford the rents there and that studios have become scarce. On the other hand, at the time there are plenty of similar indus­trial vacancies in Leipzig. Straight away, he calls the city’s cul­tural affairs officer and arranges an on-site visit, because he has long had his eye on a pro­perty: Diet­zold­werke (Dietzold Factory), built in 1905 as a metal goods factory, in accordance with the plans of the architect Emil Franz Hänsel, is up for sale — after a long period of vacancy and with its roof truss des­troyed by fire.

Reno­vation from the inside out: pre­ser­vation and gradual revival

Without third-party financing — the banks would not co-operate! — a com­plete reno­vation was out of the question. However, with the help of Haus­halten e.V. the perfect solution was found: the initiative, founded in 2004 by archi­tects and urban planners, dedi­cated itself to pre­cisely this challenge at the local level: too much vacant space worth pre­serving in the urban land­scape, too little demand. The idea of the so-called “guardian houses” is as simple as it is inge­nious: to safe­guard the main structure, at least one person is needed to move per­ma­nently into each building. These “guar­dians”, who live rent-free for several years, take over caretaker duties and on their own initiative begin self-orga­nised deve­lo­pment.

This is how Jurek Rotha came to the Diet­zold­werke as a guardian. And as a caretaker and artist he still lives and works here today — on 240 square metres including a studio. Of course, he is no longer alone: To date, three quarters of the Diet­zold­werke are occupied; 30 artists work in 20 studios in an area of 3700 square metres. A gallery and an exhi­bition space have also been inte­grated. Two lofts are available for holiday guests who want to expe­rience indus­trial culture up close and live right in the middle of the art scene.

The rental threshold for artists is at the lower end of the scale: mostly tenants start off with simple fur­nis­hings, and upgrades follow gra­dually. The lofts are dif­ferent, and Birgit Mahnke is in charge of their design and fur­nishing. As in all her indus­trial heritage buil­dings, the theme of reuse and upcy­cling plays a major role. Old mate­rials are reused or used for new fur­niture, such as wooden beams from col­lapsed inter­me­diate cei­lings, metal parts or bricks. The same applies to objects found on site, such as filing cabinets, lamps, Bakelite switches, shower trays or indus­trial clothes racks, which become part of the new story and allow history to shine through.

Re- and upcy­cling play a major role in the con­ceptual design of our lofts and spaces. Old building mate­rials and indus­trial arte­facts become part of the new story and allow the history to shine through.

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Birgit & Mathias Mahnke

In 2014, the oppor­tunity arose to acquire the neigh­bouring Druck­far­ben­werke (Printing Ink Factory) built in 1907. Here, too, the “guardian model” has been suc­cessfully applied. Today, the 2200 square metres of usable space with 40 studios and the “Galerie ff15″ loft with 120 square metres, which will be com­pleted at the beginning of 2021, are almost com­pletely occupied. Along with the Baum­woll­spin­nerei (The Cotton Spinning Mill), both addresses have long been among Leip­zig’s estab­lished art loca­tions.

In con­trast to an anonymous visit to an exhi­bition, guests have the advantage that they can contact the artists at any time. And in any case, they can meet and talk to them infor­mally in the building or in the various lounges outside. The lofts them­selves are home to num­erous unique cha­racters — whether they are resident here or have been invited to take up an artist resi­dency or are other artists from the Leipzig scene.

The rubble must go!

In 2015, the Mahnkes managed to acquire half of a plot of land in between the two above-men­tioned pro­perties — so that the two buil­dings could be con­nected. Again, mira­culous ent­an­gle­ments occurred, which ulti­m­ately ensured that the acti­vities of the couple, without any planning, expanded into nearby Zeitz. The demo­lition con­tractor, owner of the other half, had stored con­s­truction waste on the joint pro­perty, but had not sold it due to falling raw material prices.

It was still there in 2017 when Mathias Mahnke had an uncon­ven­tional idea and picked up the phone – gist of the con­ver­sation: If the removal — finally, and by next afternoon — is assured by a notary, he will in return buy the Nudel Fabrik (Noodle Factory) in Zeitz, with which the demo­lition con­tractor was struggling unsuc­cessfully at the time. Deal? Deal! Another odd thing: de facto only two thirds of the factory were acquired, the rest was ownerless at the time. Since the state of Saxony-Anhalt had rejected the inhe­ri­tance, the Mahnkes sub­se­quently appro­priated it in a complex pro­cedure with notarial assis­tance.

Today, “die Nudel”(the Noodle), as it is popu­larly known, is a creative hub for art and virtual reality. Both in con­ception and imple­men­tation, the location differs signi­fi­cantly from the pro­jects in Leipzig. Zeitz, formerly domi­nated by the brown coal industry, is one of the victims of Reuni­fi­cation, is struggling with popu­lation loss and vacancies and is still in the process of trans­for­mation. It is the­r­efore fitting that new contacts have been made with the national and inter­na­tional virtual reality scene, which is now  tog­ether with artists, revi­ta­lising the place with new crea­tivity. There are hardly any long-term studio leases here, the focus is on project-ori­ented work. Co-working is per­fectly pos­sible thanks to num­erous com­munal work and common rooms with fle­xible use and simple accom­mo­dation and is also affordable for start-ups. Thus, “Die Nudel”  is incre­asingly becoming an expe­ri­mental field for new deve­lo­p­ments.

For Holi­da­y­ar­chi­tecture-guests, there are two lofts to choose from so far;  in prin­ciple, 14 further rooms would be sui­table for deve­lo­pment and renting to guests: However, the Mahnkes will decide what will happen next, one step at a time. They want to remain as fle­xible as pos­sible in their decision-making. This also suits Mathias Mahnke for another reason: If there’s one thing he can’t stand, it’s boredom. It stresses him out more than all uncer­tainties ever could.

For this reason, too, it is clear that the available space – curr­ently about 20 per cent is being used  — does not have to be put on the market quickly, let alone should be. In view of the rapid deve­lo­pment of new tech­no­logies, it also seems wise to leave enough “gaps” and to gra­dually com­plete the jigsaw puzzle with building blocks that still cannot be ima­gined today.

Speaking of art and new tech­no­logies: One of the most exciting prot­ago­nists for the Mahnkes has long been the Leipzig-born street art and mul­ti­media artist Jonas Ihlen­feldt alias Bond TruLuv. He is one of the first graffiti artists ever to embed aug­mented reality ani­ma­tions in his works. At inter­na­tional venues, he expands the boun­daries of con­tem­porary urban art in spec­ta­cu­larly vivid images by fusing graffiti writing, 3D painting and science fiction ele­ments with Light­brush graffiti as well as aug­mented reality. Recently, his works can also be dis­co­vered in the Nudel Fabrik and the adjacent poly­clinic, which he has chosen as new play­grounds since 2020.

So there are many worlds for guests to explore — on a large scale, on a small scale, some­times hidden from view. It’s worth taking a closer look!

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Text: Ulrich Stefan Knoll. This article first appeared as part of our book publi­cation
Raum & Zeit | Space & Time

Photos: © Birgit Mahnke, Jonas Ihlenfeld

Update in November 2023:

In the meantime, the Nudel­fabrik has been actively deve­loped and has estab­lished itself as a seminar location in the last two years. The acti­vated gross floor area is curr­ently over 3,000 square meters and is divided into 45 over­night rooms, three com­munal kit­chens and ten co-working and seminar rooms. Cor­porate groups and orga­niza­tions from Germany and Europe use the extra­or­dinary area between indus­trial culture and Ost­modern with its green outdoor area for creative work­shops, training courses and work­a­tions.

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