Around 1860, the housing situation in Darmstadt was precarious. This was due to the rising population, a growing working class in the wake of industrialisation and the associated lack of affordable housing for low-income families.

As a reaction to the inhumane housing conditions, the Bauverein für Arbeiterwohnungen, today's bauverein AG, was founded on 6 October 1864. The new building society for workers' families has a total of nine founding fathers.

The founders of the association are all gentlemen of Darmstadt's bourgeoisie and court society. Among them were Paul Freiherr Westerweller von Anthony (officer and adjunct to Hereditary Prince Ludwig, later Grand Duke Ludwig IV), Dr Ernst Becker (private secretary to Princess Alice), Dr Prosper Bracht (property manager and legal adviser to two aristocratic families in Darmstadt), Otto Wolfskehl (banker to Princess Alice), and Dr Dr Dr H. Bracht (property manager and legal adviser to two noble families in Darmstadt). Prosper Bracht (property manager and legal adviser to two noble families in Darmstadt), Otto Wolfskehl (banker), Wilhelm Schwab (private individual), Christian Lauteschläger (master builder and first architect of the Bauverein), Ferdinand Wittich (court printer), Georg Merck (son of the company founder Emanuel Merck) and August Wilhelm Weber (assesor at the Darmstadt district court).

The first four Bauverein houses were built between 1867 and 1869 in the Johannesviertel neighbourhood at Landwehrstrasse 33 and Kasinostrasse 69, 71 and 61 (today: Blumenthalstrasse 53, 57 and 61). The first tenants included workers from the nearby machine factory and the Hessian Ludwig Railway.

The first statutes of the Bauverein für Arbeiterwohnungen, approved on 5 April 1866, state: "The purpose of the association is to provide healthy and cheap housing for working-class families in suitable locations in the city."

A second group of houses with 8 flats per block was built between 1873 and 1876 at Feldbergstraße 39, 43, 88 and 92.

At the end of the 19th century, in 1899, the tenth Bauvereinshaus was built at Feldbergstraße 82/84 with a total of twelve flats spread over three floors and an annual rent of 192 marks per residential unit.