This complex of 140 apartments in 67 houses was built between 1516 and 1526 by the Fugger family to house poor city residents, mainly families with children, on the condition that they were "of good character," hardworking, and Catholic.

The annual "rent" was symbolic, about a few cents of the resident's daily wage, in addition to the obligation to pray three times a day, one Our Father and one Hail Mary, in honor of the Fugger family. The tradition continues to this day, with the annual rent payment now equivalent to a Rheinischen Gulden (the currency of the time), or only about €0.88!

Today, about 150 people live there, and one of its former illustrious residents was the master stonemason Franz Mozart, great-grandfather of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This village of houses has many gardens, and one of these houses was made as a model for visitors to see what the houses are like inside. The model house is located at Ochsengasse 51.

The best-preserved house in the Fuggerei has become an interesting museum, the Fuggerei Museum, which tells the whole story of the place. It is located on Mittlere Gasse, entrance through house number 14.

In the Fuggerei gardens there is also a bunker used in World War II.

This bunker has a permanent exhibition entitled "The Fuggerei in World War II - Destruction and Reconstruction," which shows the fate of the Fuggerei and its inhabitants during the National Socialist period and the post-war reconstruction phase. Text and photographs, films and sound, as well as all documented exhibitions of the bombing of Augsburg in World War II, plus the reconstruction of the Fuggerei and the city of Augsburg. Around the houses, visitors will find several shops and restaurants, such as the Himmlischer Fuggereilädle.