Gerloffsche Villa (Braunschweig)

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View from the Löwenwall
Garden side on the slope to the Magniviertel

The Gerloffsche Villa , also called Villa Gerloff and since 2006 known as the House of the Brunswick Foundations , villa on Löwenwall 16 in Brunswick was built in 1888/89. The upper-class representative building is located in the north-western area of ​​the Löwenwall ( Monumentplatz until 1904 ) and borders the property directly on the Gaußschule . The villa is now a listed building .

History of origin

Around 1820, a "Langerfeldt", probably the merchant and finance advisor Friedrich Langerfeldt , acquired one of the newly created properties on today's Löwenwall.

Georg Ernst Ludwig (Louis) Gerloff (January 14, 1845– December 24, 1927), sugar wholesaler in Braunschweig, bought a summer house in the south-eastern green belt of the city on part of the former fortifications that had been razed at the beginning of the 19th century the city . This summer house was the first house that was built on the Löwenwall. In 1888/89 Gerloff had the villa named after him built for himself and his family of eight. The architect was Ludwig Winter , a relative of Gerloff's. The Wilhelminian style villa was an unusual building in its time. The house stands on a steeply sloping, former wall of the Braunschweig defenses. To the front, on the front side, only two floors and a mezzanine floor are visible, but to the rear there are five floors. The building materials were transported to the property from behind. For this purpose, Gerloff acquired some of the rear plots on the Klint , had the residents temporarily relocated and demolished the residential buildings there. Then the building material was delivered. After the construction work was completed, new houses were built and the residents were able to move in again.

architecture

Sugar loaf and sugar beet
In the octagonal vestibule of the villa, the Brunswick lion made of Fürstenberg porcelain hangs from the ceiling.

The villa itself is correspondingly elaborate and designed to be effective both inside and out. The front side faces southeast towards the Löwenwall. The slope side is designed as a garden and supplier side and faces the Magniviertel .

The architectural style imitates models of the Italian Renaissance . Above the ground floor made of white stone with a presented loggia lies the brick-red Bel Etage with three round-arched, white-framed window pairs, of which the middle one is emphasized by a flat triangular gable. Above it is a half-height functional floor with staff and utility rooms, and above it the unusual Italian-style flat roof . The cast iron decorations of the loggia and the access to the left side door show plant ornamentation . The representative of the builder will testify Sugar and sugar beet in the gable of the loggia and the monogram L. G. in the gable of the side access. At the back of the house there were ancillary rooms in the basement and a carriage house - still preserved today - for a carriage .

The interior design, to a large extent preserved to this day, is also designed to be generous. An octagonal hall paneled with dark, richly carved wood forms the center of each floor, from which the rooms are accessible. A turned wooden staircase still preserved today leads to the upper floors. The walls of the stairwell and the rooms are partially paneled with wood. The Villa Gerloff was the first house in Braunschweig with central heating .

In the octagonal vestibule , a large Brunswick lion made of porcelain by the Fürstenberg porcelain factory hangs from the ceiling. There are only eleven copies of this figure, all of which - with the exception of one reserve copy - can be found in institutions in the former Braunschweig region .

Usage history

In 1976 the villa became the property of the city of Braunschweig. The building, badly damaged by renovations and decay at that time, was extensively and stylishly restored . From 1983 to 2003 it housed the municipal museum's collection of forms and part of the city's music school .

Form collection of the city of Braunschweig

In 1942 the artist Walter Dexel founded his collection of historical and contemporary everyday objects from handicraft and industry. The collection was affiliated to the Braunschweig University of Fine Arts in 1953 , and from 1963 it was kept in the Braunschweig Municipal Museum . In 1983 the move to Villa Gerloff followed, where it stayed until 2004.

House of the Brunswick Foundations

Post boxes from foundations ...
... at the House of the Brunswick Foundations

In 2006 the building was handed over to its present purpose and hosts since the House of Brunswick foundations several foundations from town and country Braunschweig, including Braunschweig Cultural Heritage Foundation , Braunschweigische Foundation , the Foundation Royal Palace Brunswick , the Brunswick Savings Bank Foundation and the Community Foundation Braunschweig .

literature

Web links

Commons : Villa Gerloff  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tobias Henkel, Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz Foundation (ed.): Monument with garden. From Gerloff's villa to the house of the Brunswick Foundations. P. 14.
  2. ^ A b Frank Schneidewind: The villa on Löwenwall. P. 7.
  3. ^ Norman-Mathias Pingel: Collection of forms. In: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon , p. 74.

Coordinates: 52 ° 15 ′ 38 "  N , 10 ° 31 ′ 51.5"  E