House flea

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House flea

The house flea , even Floh'sches house called, is a late-baroque patrician house in the center of Krefeld. It stands on the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Carl-Wilhelm-Strasse and was built in the 18th century by the silk baron Johann von der Leyen . His descendants received high-ranking guests there, such as the Cologne Elector Maximilian Franz of Austria , the Tsar Alexander I and the Prussian Prince Friedrich Wilhelm III.

history

The client Johann von der Leyen

According to the information provided by the future owner Peter von Loevenich in a letter dated October 2, 1815, House Floh was built in 1766 as one of the first buildings in the fifth Krefeld city expansion. The silk entrepreneur Johann von der Leyen (1734–1795) commissioned the Krefeld builder Michael Leydel to build a house for him. However, since the Prussian building authorities strictly regulated new buildings, the exterior of the house had to remain strictly unadorned for the time being. It was not until 1776 that the building received its representative decorative elements during a redesign. In the 18th century, the Floh house was considered the finest of all patrician houses in the silk city. By inheritance it came to the Mennonite family von Loevenich, because Johann's daughter Susanna Maria had married her cousin Peter von Loevenich on November 14, 1786. Their daughter Maria brought the property to the family of her husband Cornelius Floh, after whom the building got its current name. The Floh family remained the owners until 1895.

In the 20th century the building changed hands before the Sparkasse bought it. They had it restored in 1927 and redesigned for their purposes.

During the Second World War , Friedrichstrasse - and with it the Floh house - was almost completely destroyed by bombs in 1943. Only the western facade of the building remained. The savings bank had the house rebuilt in 1950. In 1959 it was bought by AOK Krefeld , which has had its headquarters there since 1962/63.

Brief description

Floor plan of the Flea house

The plastered corner house shows the style features of the rococo in the transition to classicism . Its three storeys rise on a square plan and are covered by a tent roof. The corners of the building are particularly emphasized by pilasters . The two 16-meter-wide facades of the house facing the street are divided into five axes by windows with segmental arches as the upper end. In the convex central axis of the west side is the round-arched portal framed by the house , the keystone and gusset of which have acanthus ornaments . Above it is the small balcony with a wrought iron grille with gilded acanthus leaves. A door with a strong roof and decoration made of oak leaves allows access to the balcony . The central axis is emphasized once again at roof height by a cartouche decorated with festoons and wreaths , which shows the von der Leyen coat of arms. The crown placed on it is a sign that the builder Johann von der Leyen was ennobled by Friedrich Wilhelm II on November 21, 1786 . The west facade, together with the heraldic cartouche and the balcony grating, is the only part of the house that escaped destruction by bombs in World War II and thus originally dates from the 18th century.

Little is known about the former interior layout and furnishings because of the war damage. An exception is embellished with representations of the Arts Society Hall , which was reconstructed in the 1950s on the ground floor of the house. Its stuccoed ceiling shows an oval central circle with a rosette , which is surrounded by garlands of flowers. The walls of the room are divided into fields, whose ornamental stucco symbols symbolize the arts. Other decorative elements are over portraits and putti .

literature

  • Eva Brües: Krefeld - 1st city center (= The monuments of the Rhineland. Volume 12). Rheinland-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1967, p. 53.
  • Karl Rembert: Building the house Friedrichstrasse 27. In: The home. Announcements from the Association for Local Studies in Crefeld. Volume 18. 1939, p. 271 ff.
  • Clara Bettina Schmidt: Michael Leydel. An architect of civil construction during the Enlightenment. Müller and Busmann, Wuppertal 1997, ISBN 3-928766-26-0 , pp. 68-81.
  • City of Krefeld: Discover the city center. StadtBauKultur - Krefeld. City of Krefeld, Krefeld n.d., p. 17 ( PDF ; 1.5 MB).

Web links

Commons : House Flea  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b Gabriele M. Knoll: Monument Day I: City Garden - Green spaces with history. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung . Edition of September 11, 2011 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Cf. Peter Kriedte: Baptism-minded and large capital: the Lower Rhine-Bergisch Mennonites and the rise of the Krefeld silk trade (= publications of the Max Planck Institute for History. Volume 223). 2nd Edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-35801-6 , p. 446, note 44 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ Clara Bettina Schmidt: Michael Leydel. An architect of civil construction during the Enlightenment. 1997, p. 213, note 29.
  4. ↑ Christina Schulte: The first city expert with a diploma . In: Westdeutsche Zeitung . Edition of January 6, 2011 ( online ).
  5. ^ City of Krefeld: Discover the city center. StadtBauKultur - Krefeld. no year, p. 17.
  6. ^ Clara Bettina Schmidt: Michael Leydel. An architect of civil construction during the Enlightenment. 1997, p. 216, note 98.
  7. ↑ Information according to the Krefeld cadastral map available online

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 4.6 ″  N , 6 ° 33 ′ 42 ″  E