Brentano House

The title of this article is ambiguous. For more, see under Brentano House .

Brentano house (2009) seen from the opposite Brentano barn

The Brentano House in Oestrich-Winkel , together with its historical outbuildings and the garden extending to the Rhine, form a cultural monument of particular historical interest. The former winery of the Brentano family is particularly well-known through the numerous visits from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Bettina von Arnim, among others . Since 2014 it has been in the area of ​​responsibility of the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens and is currently being renovated, with the possibility of viewing the historic living quarters at the same time.

history

The house was built in 1751 by Johann Michael Ackermann from Bingen and his wife Maria Catharina Pleissner. Then it passed to the son Adam Ackermann, who died in 1789 without leaving a son. The wealthy Frankfurt merchant Franz Dominicus Brentano (1765–1844) acquired the property with his brother Georg Brentano (1775–1851) in 1804 in order to use it as a summer residence for himself and his wife Johanna Antonia Josepha Edle von Birkenstock (1780–1869) from 1806 use. In 1808 it passed completely into the hands of Franz and his wife Antonia, called Toni.

Famous guests

Glance into the bedroom that Goethe used several times

The house is one of the centers of romanticism on the Rhine and served the family and their circle of friends as a summer residence. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , the Brothers Grimm and Freiherr vom Stein were among the many guests from politics and culture who came to the house . Goethe wrote a part of his Italian trip here .

Goethe stayed here in 1814 and wrote his notes on the “Rhine journey” and the beginning of the description: “The Rochus Festival near Bingen”. He lived in the house of the “beloved and revered” patrician family Brentano-Birckenstock (now - 1870 - Brentano-Pfeifer), and in the same house Bettina von Arnim , Clemens Brentano's sister, wrote her letters to Goethe in Weimar. The letters were written here in 1807 when Bettina was twenty-two years old. Goethe immortalized his cozy corner in the verses:

"Abundance of water, size of country, clear sky, happy railway,

These waves, these rafts, also land in angles - "

Clemens Brentano , who is considered to be the main representative of the Rhine Romanticists, was rarely in the house. The so-called “hall” on the upper floor formed the center of house life. Adjacent to the hall was a bedroom and a study, which Johann Wolfgang von Goethe used during his stays in 1814 and 1815. Goethe was considered a difficult and capricious guest. He used to get up very early in the morning and take a morning stroll in the gardens, not wanting to be disturbed. If you violated your wish for rest, you had to expect severe reactions and a bad mood. In the evening Goethe liked to enjoy wine in appreciable quantities. Although he usually preferred Franconian wines, he also drank the local Riesling here, and the Brentano family gladly took the opportunity to please their famous guest in this way. Bettina von Arnim was said to be infatuated with Goethe, but was found by him to be increasingly annoying. After a dispute, this ultimately led Goethe to forbid her stay in the house during his visits to the Brentano house. This request was granted to the prominent guest.

Later use

In the 1830s, the use of the Brentano house passed to the eldest son of Franz Dominicus and Antonia Brentano. Georg Franz Melchior Brentano (1801–1852) had married Lilla Pfeifer (1813–1868) on January 5, 1836, the daughter of merchant and shipowner Valentin Pfeifer from Sommerau (Eschau) in the Spessart , formerly active in Amsterdam . This line of the family was called Brentano-Pfeifer from then on. Georg Melchior Brentano-Pfeifer's family lived alternately in Winkel and in their domicile at Neue Mainzerstraße 11 in Frankfurt. In Winkel they cultivated and sold wine.

Renovation and use as a museum

View of the renovated garden facade in 2018

In 2014 Udo Baron von Brentano sold the property in urgent need of renovation to the State of Hesse. The purchase price of 1.2 million euros for the property and vineyard as well as around 2.1 million euros in renovation costs for the main house were paid for by the state and the property was then handed over to the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse. The city of Oestrich-Winkel, together with the Free German High Foundation, founded a non-profit sponsoring company that will take over the museum once the renovation is complete. Parts of the ground floor are leased as a restaurant.

Architecture and equipment

The Ackermann family's decorations on the walls and railings, which have a large curved "A", testify to the origins of the house. But the Brentano family coat of arms can also be found in many parts of the house. Furniture, carpets and wallpaper are often still originals. There is also a part of the old library in the house, the oldest book of which dates from the 16th century and contains a collection of songs. The bedroom in which Goethe stayed has an almost perfectly preserved wallpaper with bright blue colors. Since wallpaper colors usually fade significantly over the course of approx. 200 years, the Brentano family had the wallpaper examined, and it was found that the colors were made with the addition of the poisonous Schweinfurt green .

The Brentano house is no longer inhabited, but it is open for agreed tours to view the historic rooms.

literature

• Wolfgang Bunzel: The Brentano house in Oestrich-Winkel. A gem of romance . Ed .: Administration of the Palaces and Gardens of Hesse, Regensburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-7954-3329-1

• Dagmar Söder: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany - cultural monuments in Hesse , Rheingau-Taunus district I.2 Altkreis Rheingau . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse , Theiss-Verlag , Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-29875 . See especially pages 857–858.

• Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter : The house of the Brentano . In his novel, first published in 1873, the romantic poet set a monument. Franz von Brentano (1882–1940), born in Winkel, published the novel as a book in 1913. He was the grandson of the poet Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter and Georg Melchior Brentano-Pfeifer (1801-1852). His parents were Emil Georg Brentano-Pfeifer (1845–1890), who died in Winkel, and the poet's daughter, Antonie “Tony” Johanna Emilie Müller (1857–1883).

Web links

Commons : Brentanohaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Site of the sponsoring company of the Brentano House

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.brentano-haus.de/formulare/index.php?form_id=9122
2. ↑ http://www.brentano.de/
3. ↑ The Gazebo (1870) / Issue 25
4. ↑ The description of Goethe's stay in the Brentano House was given by Angela Baroness von Brentano in the Brentano House on April 21, 2006 as part of a guided tour of a group of visitors and a personal conversation.
5. ^ State and address manual of the free city of Frankfurt, 1852
6. ↑ Chronicle of the Pfeifer family, around 1975 (only published in the family circle)
7. ^ Supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung Munich, Thursday, April 9, 1868
8. ↑ https://www.schloesser-hessen.de/oestrich-winkel.html?tx_waconstandort_waconstandorte%5BstandortDaten%5D=49&tx_waconstandort_waconstandorte%5Baction%5D=show&tx_waconstandort_waconstandorte%5Bcontroller1d3c8dbashorte99e33d3c8d8dc96dort9bcontroller2d3c8dc96d =
9. ↑ Oestrich-Winkeler City Council approve carrier company for Brentanohaus ( Memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Wiesbadener Kurier from February 5, 2014
10. ↑ http://www.brentanohaus.de/

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 43.4 "  N , 8 ° 0 ′ 4.6"  E