Volkshaus

The Volkshaus in Bremen is a brick building from 1928, designed by Richard Jansen as a union house and community centre. It packed in more than four hundred rooms. Union offices, a library, a workers' chamber, a workers' bank and a youth centre all found places there. A hotel, a restaurant, a bowling alley and even a non-profit funeral home sat under the same roof. On the brick facade, eight sculptures by Bernhard Hoetger depicted the struggles of the workers.

In April 1933, after the political turn, police searched the building and arrested several union officials. The eight sculptures came off the facade and ended in the melting furnace, for reasons of public safety. The National Socialist German Workers' Party took over, and the city bought the building in 1938. Various authorities used it through the war, and a 1944 air raid left it heavily damaged. Reconstruction after the war altered the original only in small ways.

Sculptor Manfred Lohrengel recreated six of the eight figures in 1979 and set them back on the facade. Protected as a historical monument, the building received a thorough renovation from 2005 to 2007. The Bremen Office for Social Services works there, and six recreated figures watch from the brick.