House of Samson

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House Samson, built in 1643 in baroque style. There is a wine shop on the ground floor; On the first and second floors, a private museum exhibits East Frisian living culture.

The house Samson is a listed building in the East Frisian city ​​of Leer ( district of Leer , Lower Saxony ). The year of construction 1643 mentioned in the cornice refers to the facade that was added to the house that year. The core of the building was built in 1570.

Today there is a wine shop on the ground floor; On the first and second floors, a private museum exhibits East Frisian living culture. The building and museum have been owned by the Hilke and Fritz Wolff Foundation since the beginning of 2007. According to the statutes, this is committed to the preservation and care of monuments, listed buildings and sites worthy of protection, the promotion of science and research, art and culture as well as the promotion of homeland care and local history in East Friesland.

designation

It is named after Samson , the figure known for his indomitable strength from the judges' days of the Old Testament . Why it bears their name is unknown. At that time it was customary in the Netherlands to give houses names. Presumably, the house was baptized with the name Samson at the topping-out ceremony to symbolize the strength of its owners.

history

The neighboring houses Samson (left) and Wolff.

The construction of the house Samson began in 1570. It was built together with two neighboring houses. During the Thirty Years' War , the Protestant military leader Ernst von Mansfeld set up his quarters in the nearby Harderwykenburg from November 1622 to August 1623 . Parts of his troops entered the town several times and demanded high contributions. In 1622 they destroyed a large part of the house and its facade.

Presumably after its extensive destruction, the building came into the possession of the Dutch merchant family Coops (also known as Cop, Koops or Kop), who owned the property in 1633 at the latest. She had it rebuilt by the Dutch architect Philipp Vingboom, who also designed the upper castle gate of Bentheim Castle and many houses in Kampen . In 1643, the facade that can still be seen today was built in front of the building. From then on, the Coops family ran a cake bakery in the building. On January 23, 1681, David Josten married the daughter of the house owner, Margarethe Coops, and took over the property. There he ran a bakery and pastry shop with a spice trade. His son Jacobus Davids adopted a permanent family name in 1735, as was customary at the time. From then on, the descendants did not have a patronymic name, but the surname Vissering . Jacobus ran a tobacco factory in the house with his wife Johanna van Hoorn . With the marriage of his great-granddaughter Jakoba Vissering, the building came into the possession of Friedrich Groß, who founded a wine shop and spirits factory there in 1800. Groß was mortally wounded during the Battle of Ligny in 1815, leaving behind his wife and daughter. His widow Jakoba Eijdina Groß (1779–1855) then continued the business. About six years later, their daughter Cornelia Wilhelmine Groß (1803–1839) married Johann Daniel Wilhelm Wolff (1800–1852) from Wiesbaden. As a husband, he also took over his mother-in-law's business and gave him the name that is still used today. In 1887 the house was sold to the Tjarks & Lühring company and bought back by the Wolff family in 1927. At the beginning of 2007 it became the property of the Hilke and Fritz Wolff Foundation.

The family continues to run a wine shop on the ground floor. Wolff's administration is located on the first floor. A private museum of East Frisian living culture has been set up on the first and second floors.

Building description

Side view. Good to see: the sign with the lion-defeating Samson hanging in front of the middle window on the first floor.

The Samson house is a three-story brick building with a wig gable. Models were Amsterdam gabled houses of the Dutch early baroque . It was built as a commercial building with a large vaulted cellar. The work and sales rooms were on the ground floor. The storage rooms were on the upper floors. There were more storerooms and magazines in the rear of the building. Larger objects and furniture had to be pulled into the building from the street through the wide windows, as the upper floors could only be reached via a cable lift and a narrow staircase.

The gable is decorated with acanthus leaves artfully carved from whitewashed sandstone, a stone carving work by monks from the Thedinga monastery near Leer. The lattice windows have white frames and green shutters on the ground floor. A speaking coat of arms with a fish and a ring can be seen under the left window on the first floor. This points to the ancestral mother of the current owner family Wolff, a née Vissering. A fragment of an inscription stone with the year 1560 was installed by the reformed rectory under the right window. The reason for this is unknown. The baroque door with the filigree decorated skylight is more recent. The sign hanging in front of the middle window on the first floor shows the namesake Samson dominating a lion.

museum

The private museum in Haus Samson is dedicated to the East Frisian living culture of the 18th and 19th centuries. Claas Wolff founded it after the end of the Second World War . The museum is housed in the former storage rooms on the first and second floors. These were gradually rebuilt for this. Most of the exhibits have been brought together from the East Frisian region. Fritz Wolff lived in the rear part of the museum, which was still recognizable as an apartment, after the bombing of his private house on Neue Strasse until his death. The museum can be visited during the opening hours of the wine shop.

Web links

Commons : Rathausstraße 18 (Leer)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c City of Leer: House Samson . Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c Monika van Lengen: House of Samson . In: Ostfriesland.de. Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  3. ^ Hilke and Fritz Wolff Foundation: The Hilke and Fritz Wolff Foundation . Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  4. ↑ Working group of the local chronicles of the East Frisian landscape , Paul Weßels : Stadt und Landkreis (PDF; 154 kB)
  5. ↑ a b Petra Herterich: New leaded glass windows for the house of Samson . In: Ostfriesen-Zeitung of October 14, 2014. Here quoted from: Hilke and Fritz Wolff Foundation: Presse. Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  6. ↑ a b Fritz Wolff: What Wolff and Samson tell each other. The chronicle of the Wolff family and company . (Part 1. p. 23). Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  7. ^ A b Wolfgang Appell: The East Frisian family Vissering . P. 40ff. Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  8. ↑ Weingroßhandlung JW Wolff, Leer on the website of the Lower Saxony archival information system (Arcinsys)
  9. ↑ a b Wein Wolff: Our house Samson . Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  10. ↑ a b Leer.de: House Samson . Retrieved September 19, 2016.
  11. ↑ Museum.de: House Samson. Rathausstr 16-18, 26789 Leer, Germany. Retrieved September 19, 2016.

Coordinates: 53 ° 13 ′ 37.7 ″  N , 7 ° 27 ′ 4 ″  E