This project deals with the mutation of a place over time and the traces of the key influences such as military, religion, politics and agriculture, which are still visible today.
It is about a city district of Griesheim/ Hesse (Germany), which became in 1948 the new home for Hungarian refugees of German origin. They named it Sankt Stephan after the first Hungarian emperor.
The series title »The Paprika Village« is a quote from an old newspaper article. It refers to the fact that the Hungarians introduced the cultivation and use of peppers in our area.
Religion played an essential part in the life of the settlers. The cities building department designed the streets as a Christ on the cross when seen from above. Right at the beginning, the bell tower was built. It was replaced, together with the makeshift church with a large church in 1954. The processions led on high holidays through the whole settlement.
The regional government decided to settle these people in the difficult to cultivate area because they experienced growing wine and vegetables on sandy grounds.
The idea of cultivating wine was abandoned after a short time and asparagus, which is more suitable here, is grown until today.
The government's idea was to create some kind of copy of the Hungarian village they settlers came from. A standard house was designed by the municipal building authority, based on the architecture of Hungarian farmhouses. On the right: In this house, 14 Donau street, settler Adam Schultz opened the district's first post office. For some years, it was also a police station. Three years later, the office moved into another house, a few meters away. Schultze's daughter still runs a post office in Griesheim.
The change of a street (Nehringstrasse) of St. Stephan: From 1951 to 1962 to 2020. On the right: The remains of a bunker from the second world war were here until the 1970s.
Johann Berghardt opened his Restaurant »Zur Paprika« at 17 Donau street in 1951. It is named after the vegetable because the settlers from Hungary brought it (and its use) to our area. The building burned down a few years ago and was replaced with a multi-family house.
The community was an essential part of the settler's life. The football club was founded in 1953 and still exists. Besides that, the district has a choral society, carnival society and costume group.
The former commercial district (1920/ 1967/ 2020): The area where Sankt Stephan is located today was used for military purposes from 1860 on. In the beginning, it was a training camp for the Germany army. At this place just outside the camp, bars, restaurants and stores opened there here. With the founding of the (now non-military) city district, it became a trading place again. The bank, a butcher and other stores opened. Today only the butcher is left.
The »Stars and Stripes Compound«: After WWII, the US Army used the former airfield and its buildings until 2007. The European edition of the newspaper »Stars and Stripes« was edited and printed in the old airfield building from 1956 to 2007. The building was initially built in the thirties as a terminal for zeppelin flights. Today this part of the airfield area is abandoned and waiting for a new use.
The wind tunnel: It is the only fully preserved and used building on the former airfield site. It was built in 1935/ 36 and used for military and civil research. The US Army used the building as a casino after the war. In 1954, research was restarted by University Darmstadt.
Sankt Stephan is the home of Germany's oldest airfield, founded in 1908. It was used mostly for military purposes, but in the 1930s for civilian flights, too. For a long time after the second world war, it was a base for nuclear and non-nuclear warhead missiles. Today, it is a university research area, contains a small museum and is a nature reserve.
