Lossow's villa
The Lossow'sche Villa is a listed upper-class residential building at Clementinenstrasse 8 in Glauchau . The building was built in 1916/1917 for the textile industrialist Arthur Lossow .
Architect and builder
The designs for the house come from the Dresden architects “Lossow und Kühne”. The client for this new villa was Arthur Lossow, who had this building built for his son Emil Lossow.
Arthur Lossow was a textile manufacturer from Glauchau and in 1899 co-founder of the United Glanzstoff-Fabriken AG (short: Glanzstoff ), which developed and produced artificial silk . Within the Glanzstoff he was the head of the "Saxon Group", which together with the "Lower Rhine Group" and the "Upper Rhine Group" ensured the distribution of artificial silk in the industrial areas. Around 1923 his son Emil Lossow took over the entire agency in Glauchau (Chemnitzer Strasse) and continued to run it until 1945.
description
The "Lossow'sche Villa" is located in the so-called villa district of Glauchau. This residential area was created in the course of the industrial development parallel to the numerous factory buildings and together with several official buildings from the middle of the 19th century in the southwest of the city. Originally this land belonged to the castle park. Today there are still more than 25 villas in this quarter, which strongly shape the cityscape of Glauchau. Most of the villas are built in the style of historicism and art nouveau . The charm of the villa district is additionally supported by an old stock of beech, oak and exotic plants that were still planted during the times of the palace gardens.
The building was built between 1916 and 1917, although there were personnel and material bottlenecks during the First World War . This was particularly reflected in the constant revision of the original building plans, which were repeatedly changed due to a lack of building materials and funds. Originally, a wide terrace with pillared railing was to be created in front of the house on the northwest side, facing Martinistraße, but this was converted into a simple, green area in the course of the planning.
Approaches to this terrace can still be seen today through the granite steps that were set before the plan was changed. The most striking feature on this side of the building is the bay window . This bay window was decorated with a lot of decoration on the pilaster strips and lintels and should primarily look representative.
An outside staircase was also to be built on the northeast side, facing Clementinenstrasse, in front of the main entrance, which was then replaced by a simple driveway compacted with slag due to the scarcity of resources. The corner blocks that are located on all street corners of the building are particularly striking on this side. Above all, they should emphasize the vertical facade structure.
The garden sides of the building are no less attractive. On the southwest side of the building there is also a front bay window with simpler decorative elements and a staircase leading to the winter garden . The southeast side of the building is rather asymmetrical. Both the winter garden and the large bay window do not allow the observer a complete view of this building side. The architect was probably trying to hide the size of the building and make it look more homely.
Another distinctive feature of this villa is the roof area. The entire roof of the main building, the farm wing and the gardener's house has been made with double beaver tail covering . Furthermore, there are hipped and bat dormers in the roof area of the main building and the gardener's house , which interrupt the straight roof areas.
Viewed as a whole, the villa is not a prestigious building, but a cleverly designed residential villa without losing the charm of a mansion. The living room, dining room, sideboard, salon, children's room, winter garden and study were on the ground floor and the bedrooms, bathroom, dressing room and balcony on the upper floor. The servants' bedrooms were on the top floor, and a single-family house (gardener's house) attached to the farm building was specially designed for the gardener and his family. The basement area consisted of the kitchen, the boiler room, the storage rooms and the wine cellar. In addition, Arthur Lossow had a chemistry laboratory set up in the farm building that served as a connecting building to the gardener's house in order to advance his research on artificial silk.
Further history of the house
The villa was only inhabited by the Lossow family until the end of the Second World War. After the end of the war, due to a lack of money and an acute shortage of housing in Germany, they took in many refugees from the area in order to be able to keep the building financially. Until 1950, an average of 10 to 12 people lived in this villa. After Emil Lossow died in 1950, his wife stayed there until 1954 and then moved to Herrenberg in Baden-Württemberg to live with their children. Before their departure, the building was given to the city administration and thus not expropriated. In the period that followed, four families lived in this villa until 1990 (2 families on the ground floor, 1 family on the upper floor, 1 family in the gardener's house), and some of them appropriately converted the original floor plan. Among other things, this affected the original interior design.
After the reunification in 1990, the house was rented by the Lossow family until 1998. In 1998 they then sold the villa to a private investor who, after years of renovation and modernization, converted this building complex into a residential villa again.
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 44.4 " N , 12 ° 32 ′ 18.4" E