WOGEDO Wohnungsgenossenschaft Düsseldorf-Ost eG is a housing cooperative based in Düsseldorf, Germany. Its origins date to 19 July 1919, when 152 workers and their employer, Albert Schöndorff, founded the “Arbeiter-Bauverein Freiheit” in response to housing shortages and long commutes to work. The cooperative’s early development included the construction of 300 homes in the Siedlung Freiheit. The present-day Wohnungsgenossenschaft Düsseldorf-Ost eG was formed in 1942 through the forced merger of four cooperatives; it has used the short name WOGEDO since 1999. 12
WOGEDO’s work centres on renting and managing cooperative housing and looking after its members. Its 2024 annual report records 10,029 members and 4,533 homes, as well as 2,256 garages and parking spaces. 3 The cooperative also invests in maintaining and modernising its housing and replaces buildings where renovation is not feasible or proportionate. 6
Its operations are local: WOGEDO rents homes in Düsseldorf and the nearby city of Erkrath. 11 The company’s registered address is Gleiwitzer Straße 8, 40231 Düsseldorf, and its board members are Dirk Mowinski and Andreas Vondran. 5 The organisation’s history also records the persecution of its Jewish founder: Schöndorff was excluded from the cooperative in 1938 and died during deportation to Auschwitz. 1