First things first, you can visit the factory from the inside. They offer guided tours run by retired employees each weekend and the tours come highly recommended (Sat 12:00h, Sun 10:30h). The level of access you get to a still fully operated plant is surprising. Unfortunately, the tours seem to be in German only.

For Gropius the Fagus Factory was his big breakthrough. He was 27 and did not have a big name yet. Through familiar connections he heard of the plant being built in Alfeld and wrote Carl Benscheidt, the founder of Fagus. Supposedly, Gropius' must have been pretty convinced of himself (loads of swagger in the letter). Lucky for him, Carl Benscheidt appreciated this mindset, recognized his talents and gave him the job. Gropius took over from Eduard Werner who had done the original plans for the plant. The result is a magnificent Bauhaus building, eight years before there was actually a Bauhaus (1911 vs 1919).

Apart from the architectural perspective, it is worthwhile to look at Fagus as an industrial heritage site. It's not a mine, not a coal or iron plant, but a shoe last plant, pretty unique in and of itself. Originally shoe lasts were made from beech, latin fagus, which is also where the company got its name. I had little knowledge on how shoes were produced so going to a shoe last plant was quite informative.

The founder of Fagus, Carl Benscheidt, got his big break in the 19th century when he sold shoes specifically tailored for the left and right foot each instead of a generic shoe form to be used on both feet. Benscheidt worked for 30 years for a shoe last company in Alfeld (Behrens) and left to found his own shoe last factory when the heirs took over. Indeed, you can see his original employer just across the railroad tracks.

The company Benscheidt founded (Fagus) is still in existence 100 years later and owned by his family. The company (Behrens) he left went broke 40 years ago. Fagus still manufactures shoe lasts, but in a sign of the changing times, the German plant primarily does the design of the shoe lasts while the manufacturing takes place all across the globe. On top, shoe lasts are only one business area of the company. It expanded into engineering and electronics in areas related to their manufacturing processes (measurements, safety). In this way, Fagus is a very nice example of the famous German Mittelstand: innovative, globally competitive, evolving, family owned.

Logistics

• The factory has parking and is next to the train station of Alfeld. The good railroad connection was a prerequisite for the shoe last production.
• I would recommend visiting on a weekend when the plant is closed.

Amenities

• There is a small cafe, a visitor center and a museum on site.
• The site has the GREATEST world heritage exhibition I have EVER seen. In the new visitor center they have a 5m x 1.5m touch screen that shows world heritage sites across the globe with pictures. It's really immersive and loads of fun.

While You Are There

• The site is part of the Harz hotspot. Hildesheim, Goslar and Corvey are nearby. We continued by car to Corvey.
• The whole region (Harz, Weserbergland) is really nice, old towns dotted in hills, monasteries, palaces ... On the road from Alfeld to Corvey we passed several sites of note that we wanted to explore.