A journey back in time ~ part 1

The other day a job obligation brought me to some address here in my hometown and that instigated a journey back in time. And it instigated some research on my part which actually wasn't as successful as i would wish but here are the results.

The address to which i was sent has a very lovely sound to it. It is called Am Pralinenhaus which would translate into At the Chocolate House. The word "chocolate" here relates to the tempting candy in a box of chocolates like this.

The reason for this kind of a "sweet" address is that there had been a chocolate factory on that area before. More about that later though. 

As i said it instigated a journey back in time and it turned out that this was not a journey following a straight line but it started to sidetrack and meander. 

There are different aspects to this story, as diverse as historical, architectural and personal aspects and i would like to address them all. It turned out a difficult task to really structure that story and so it is now for days on end that i try to write that blog. I wanted it to be a whole but the more i tried the more it slipped away from me. My research brought me more and more details and info which i wanted to use and it became a big mess. As recent as yesterday i was still determined to write it all in one blog entry. I thought giving it subheaders would provide the much needed structure. As of today i have to discard that idea. It is not really working. 

If i don't divide it into several parts i will never come to a result. 

So i made the decision to split it into several parts. And this here is .. of course .. part one. 

1. The situation today 

I will first write about the area where that chocolate factory had been before and how it changed over the years. 

So this is an aerial view of the housing complex to which i was sent. 

The houses on the right are old houses, the houses on the left side are new. 

I was really charmed by that housing complex. Using Google maps and the satellite view i saved those 2 following pictures to show the beauty of the houses. Sadly enough there are no street view photos on Google Earth or Maps because .. if i remember correctly .. people decided against Google making those street view shots here in my hometown. I can understand that sentiment to a degree but it is a pity. Some day i will have to head out and make my own photos. Some day when i am not too busy trying to get a blog entry together, that is. 

The architecture of those houses is so unique and beautiful. I tried my best to find out what that building complex was in the old days but to no avail. This is why i said my research was not as fruitful as i would have wished it to be. 

The next photo shows the area where the chocolate factory had been before. It illustrates the situation when the re-building of that area was begun. 

1. The old villa still awaits its restoration to old splendour  (**see end of that blog entry for more info on that) 
2. The old factory building already had been given its make-over
3. The housing complex which started my curiosity when having been sent there, already been restored
4. This is also an impressive old house which i also had been to before and which has also been already restored in that photo. 

The old building marked with number 2 in the photo above was built in the 1920's as a six-storey factory building by the chocolate company Riquet & Co. and had been restored in the years 2003/2004. At the moment it is used by the Leipzig University of Applied Science and by a company which works in implant, restorative and regenerative dentistry. 

The old factory before restoration work

The restored factory building .. front side

Another shot of the restored building

The rear side of the factory building, ca. 1925, you can see the company name Riquet

The rear side of the restored factory building, today

And here are 2 photos to show the complete make-over of that area. The old villa has been restored and is now used as office building by that dentistry company. The added building next to the old villa is their production building. 

As far as i understand the situation:

• that area is now called Quartier Riquet
• it is owned by a company called Quartier Riquet GmbH and this company is categorised under Real Estates Agents and Managers
• That company has its seat in Berlin

A cooperative by the name of Zentralkonsum also seems to play some part in that but i really don't understand which. Real estate business is something i have no clue about. 

The website of that Zentralkonsum cooperative is a mess if you ask me and it is so very uncomfortable to use. Especially the "picture gallery" section on that website is appalling. I have no knowledge about creating a website but i have experiences in using one and this one is just extremely tiresome and unpleasant for me as a user. Yet they have a few interesting photos of the ** restoration of the old villa and since they have that clause that it is not allowed to reproduce any of their material, i  have here .. reluctantly .. added the link to their picture gallery