Council of International Fellowship
in Deutschland e.V.

Verein zur Förderung des internationalen Austausches von Fachkräften in der sozialen Arbeit

Wilhelm Wannemacher (CIP participant of 1958) was particularly eager to have Ollendorff-Platz as a part of the Ernst-Ludwig-Barracks for the barracks are a symbol of how a military territory is being turned into an area for peaceful living. All his life, Henry B. Ollendorff pursued the goal of building bridges for peace and understanding and this place is a wonderful example and therefore especially suitable to bear Henry’s name.

The following history of the Ernst-Ludwig-Park was
written by the advisor to the Head of the Darmstadt Construction Department, Dieter Wenzel, and was presented at the CIF conference by Wilhelm Wannemacher:

Ernst-Ludwig Barracks were built, in 1937/1938, as accommodations for an infantry battalion.-

1945: used by the US Army for sapper and headquarter units.-

2000: The town of Darmstadt acquires the site and founded a property and utilization company (GVD) to develop the site.-

As of the year 2003, 310 housing units, a daycare center, a community center and grocery shops are in the process of being built.-

250 trees will be planted; a fifth of the former barracks grounds will be converted into open green areas. The residential area is on a bus line. The buildings are constructed with low energy consumption. All rainwater in the development area is being utilized on-site and no longer flows into the sewage system.-

During demolition of the existing buildings, there is a total separation of the material. All of the mineral building rubble from the barracks (about 35.000 m3) will be built into the southwesterly noise abatement barrier.

What a meaningful utiliszation of military installations!

A Darmstadt citizen, Mr. Wolfgang Galsheimer, has documented the whole history in thousands of photos under this link:
http://www.ernst-ludwigpark.de/website/start/start2.htm
See how the barracks and the area looked 50 years ago.