The area belongs to the district of Rüttenscheid, which was incorporated into Essen in 1905. The Margarethenhöhe was donated by Margarethe Krupp in 1906 on the occasion of the wedding of her daughter Bertha and was built from 1906 to 1938 by the architect Georg Metzendorf (1874–1934), a member of the Deutscher Werkbund.[1] During the time of its construction, it was, like only the garden city of Dresden-Hellerau, freed from all building regulations by a government decree.
The first houses on the hill were completed in 1910.[2] Before that, in 1909, the viaduct had been built across the Borbecker Mühlenbachtal to open up and supply building materials to the new site and to connect it to the central settlement areas of Holsterhausen and Rüttenscheid. The viaduct also ran over the Mülheim-Heißen–Altendorf (Ruhr) railway line, opened in 1872, with the Margarethenhöhe passenger station (1946 to 1965).[3] The entrance building was later demolished and the railway line was shut down and replaced by a cycle path in 1999.
In 1924 Margarethenhöhe received a Catholic church, which was destroyed in 1944 during World War II. The current Holy Family Catholic Church was consecrated in 1952; since 2008 it has been the parish church of the parish of St. Antonius.
After the Second World War, the settlement, which was largely destroyed, was restored to its historical form.[4] In 1948 Margarethenhöhe became an independent district.[5]
On the still undeveloped land south of the first settlement, the Margarethenhöhe II settlement was built from 1962 to 1966 and 1971 to 1980, architecturally in part inferior and socially problematic, especially in the last construction phase, which also included high-rise buildings. According to the foundation, these houses set "a clear creative contrast to the old Margarethenhöhe".[6] In order to solve the social, technical and aesthetic problems of Margarethenhöhe II, a renovation program was started in 1987, which should also significantly increase public appreciation of the younger settlement unit of Margarethenhöhe.[7]
Margarethenhöhe I, on the other hand, was placed under monument protection in 1987. A model apartment set up by the Ruhr Museum shows the visitor the original design of the residential units and is intended to make “the cultural significance of the Margarethenhöhe monument with its variable types of floor plans visible from the inside perspective”.