In this neighborhood, the lone parent holds together

In the "problem quarter" Dulsberg live above average many single parents - they feel comfortable here

For example, there was this morning when Mandy Moeller and her ten-month-old daughter woke up with a fever, and Moeller thought, "I do not break the day, as miserable as I feel. The 30-year-old called two neighbors, single mothers like her. One brought soup immediately. The other offered to babysit for an hour. "That saved me," says Mo? Ller.

Or the evening when Sabine Thiessen *, 40, also a single parent, once again had fun and did not manage to pick up her children from the play afternoon at the parents' school. The headmistress brought the two home without further ado. For the self-evidentness with which she did that, Thiessen is still grateful to her today.

If you want to know what solo parents need, you can study, ask experts - or just go where a lot of them live: to Dulsberg. The district of Hamburg has one of the highest shares of single parents in Germany (43 percent) (for comparison: the German average is 19 percent). Almost one in two children only grow up with one parent.

Dulsberg is actually considered a "problem quarter". 8.5 percent unemployed, more than every third child is dependent on state help. At the elementary and district school, 80 percent of schoolchildren have a migration background. But if you ask single-mothers like Moeller or Thiessen, as they find it here, they swarm: the cohesion, the helpfulness!

"You just have something like a replacement family," says Möller. "That's exactly what you lack elsewhere in everyday life."

Dulsberg: big city focal point with village character

Such a network does not emerge by itself, especially in neighborhoods where most of them are so worried that they often lack the energy to take care of others' problems. That's how it was in Dulsberg for a long time. They lived side by side. That was also due to the apartments in the simple brick buildings: they are indeed good - one of the reasons why so many single parents are here.

Thiessen about only 570 euros warm. But they are also small, on average 53 square meters. There is hardly any room for meetings with neighbors. For cafe visits, money and families often lack the understanding of other guests for romping children. "The most important question was: How do we get people together?" Says Jürgen Fiedler. The graduate sociologist leads the district office of Dulsberg. Since 1992, here, on the ground floor of a residential building near the church, the Faithfuls are walking together for the change from the big city focal point to the neighborhood with village character. At that time, Hamburg started its first district development program, and the direction was clear: Dulsberg needed places where they could meet without obligation - to talk, seek advice, make friends.

Exemplary: There are 50 facilities and meeting places in Dulsberg

A circle of social workers, church officials and citizens began to create such spaces: neighborhood cafés, cultural centers, mother-and-child gatherings. Single parents were not even in focus. But they benefited the most.

With around 50 facilities, Dulsberg today has one of the densest networks for families in Hamburg. There's the neighborhood party where Mandy Moeller livens up with her daughter when you roll the blanket upside down on Sundays at home. Or the parent school with the opposite parent-child house Villa Dulsberg, where Sabine Thiessen found advice when she did not know what to do after her divorce. On the grounds of the elementary and district school, in turn, a nurturing cosmos of breakfast buffet, all-day school, house of youth and school sports club has been created, in which children, if necessary, from 6 to 18 o'clock worried.

All problems are tackled early

An ideal world Of course, Dulsberg is not. When money is so tight that it only lasts for toast, as Sabine Thiessen did three years ago, the best family reunion does not help. And when a mother like Mandy Moeller no longer dares to go to the park because of the drug dealers who are sitting there recently, the colorful teamwork can also be annoying. On the advice of a neighbor, Moeller wants to address the issue in the neighborhood office. Because that's the point that differentiates Dulsberg from other neighborhoods: If there are problems, you tackle them. Preferably as early as possible. Two committees, a working group with representatives of the social institutions and the district council, in which residents sit next to shopkeepers and police, meet there for one to two months each. "Seismographs of the district," Fiedler calls them.

A "district mother" is available to single mothers

For those who still feel lost, comes to the family cafe? of the SOS Children's Village every Tuesday Anna Roca *. The 27-year-old, three children, single mother, Mozambican roots, is the first district mother of Dulsberg.As a trained neighborly aid, she takes mothers who do not find their own counseling centers. Most are given to her through doctors, kindergartens or other facilities.

But also in the Cafe? -Sprechstunde come women who need tips, many single parents. Roca then likes to tell them about them. To give courage. "You should notice: As a single mother, no one has to be ashamed." Roca now lives in the neighboring district, but she grew up in Dulsberg - and wants to return home. But finding an apartment is difficult. Not because the rents explode; thanks to close contact between district office and housing companies, they are still low. But nothing is going to be released, says Roca: "Those who live here do not want to leave."

* The name has been changed by the editor.

Dulsberg is Hamburg's smallest district with 120 hectares - and the most densely populated: 17,422 people live here, around half of them have non-German roots. A large part of the apartments dates back to the 1920s. At that time, the district was conceived as a new-build workers' settlement with green inner courtyards and footpaths connecting the halls. This open architecture also promotes togetherness today.