In 2011, Sita and Tobias bought the abandoned pump house in Heidelberg. They spent four years renovating it and converting it into a home.

Inside the industrial monument used to be an electric-powered pump from the Baden Railway. It supplied the service water network of Heidelberg's new freight and marshalling yard, which went into operation in 1914. The steam locomotives in particular were to meet their large demand for water here. The interior of the building is therefore dominated by the well shaft, which is fed by groundwater, is over seven meters deep and four meters wide in diameter. From here, electric pumps conveyed the water to the locomotives on the now disused railroad embankment.

From 1965, the pumping station lost its actual function. As a testimony to railroad history, it became a cultural monument in 1987. Afterwards, the pump house stood empty for more than 25 years and gradually fell into disrepair. When Tobias and Sita bought it from the city of Heidelberg in a bidding process for 80,000 euros, it was more reminiscent of a lost place. But the two made it their project.

"How naive we were back then," Sita recalls. "Over the years, there have always been doubts about whether it was worth it." Today, Tobias and Sita know it was worth it.
The two wanted to preserve the exterior appearance of the clinker-framed building. The badly deteriorated half-timbering and the weathered roof truss were restored according to historical models. "We didn't see how bad the half-timbering looked until we bought it. One side was completely rotten and we had to replace it," Tobias recalls. The pair sandblasted the turquoise well shaft and the iron spiral staircase, and cleaned the floor and masonry of pollutants and toxins.

The interior of the old industrial building then had to be made fit for habitation. Electricity, water and sewage systems had not yet been installed. Floors also still had to be added. Two dormers, a new storey ceiling and a false ceiling in the well shaft have increased the living space.2

"There used to be a huge crane in the middle of the room here, 8.90 meters deep, everything was open" recounts Sita. With attention to detail, the completely dilapidated lost place was gradually transformed into a cozy apartment.

Nevertheless, some of the old pump house still remains. Throughout the house, Sita and Tobias have installed railroad artifacts - from Bolich lights and old transformers to an old signal pole and historic signs.

In the annual report of the Department for the Preservation of Historical Buildings and Art, the two were listed as a second example of the successful preservation of a cultural monument with the restoration of their pump house directly behind Ulm Cathedral.

They also tell of their restoration process on their blog: https://pumpenhaus.wordpress.com/

A film by Julius Schmitt (editor), Enno Endlicher (camera) and Cécilia Marchat (sound). Production: EIKON Media GmbH, on behalf of SWR.

0:00 Welcome to the pump house
0:26 Living room
2:12 Kitchen
3:22 Shaft
4:54 Pipe room and well
7:03 Hallway
8:11 Upper floor
9:30 Exterior