Villa Waldrich
The Villa Waldrich is a neo-Renaissance house built in 1879 in the city of Siegen , Hohler Weg 1. The villa was built by the master builder Bovensiepen for the Siegen entrepreneur Heinrich Klein . Today the rooms are rented for different purposes.
history
The former so-called Klein'sche Villa was built in 1879 on the south-western slope of the Siegener Giersberg by the family of the Siegerland entrepreneur Heinrich Klein, one of the co-founders of the Siegener Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft SIEMAG, as a family seat in the style of the Italian early Renaissance. As a three-story building with an additional, free-standing basement on the slope side, it was designed and executed by the builder Wilhelm Bovensiepen in (Essen-) Kupferdreh .
In 1938 it was acquired by the Siegerland entrepreneur Oskar Waldrich as a family home and converted to reflect the changing tastes of the time. In the years that followed, Villa Waldrich served not only as a family seat, but also as a guest house for the Waldrich company . Numerous international business friends were accommodated there, as hotels in Siegen were rare at the time. This is how the Villa Waldrich advanced to a meeting point for European industry.
On December 16, 1944, the villa was hit by fire bombs during an air raid on the city of Siegen and almost completely burned down. The Waldrich family had found refuge in an earth bunker in the garden of the property. The 20 or so inmates survived an explosive device hit directly next to the round bunker.
In 1950, the architect Ernst Kuhn , who had designed the Apollo cinema in Siegen before the war , rebuilt the ground floor and basement of Villa Waldrich and placed an eye-catching light dome where the staircase had previously led to the upper floor. In the years that followed, Villa Waldrich served various purposes, including as a guest house for the University of Siegen .
In 1981 Villa Waldrich became the center of exchange between the university and the region and the domicile of the Siegener Kunstverein. In the following years it developed into an art and exhibition center known far beyond the region's borders. Well-known, but also unconventional artists presented their works to the public. Readings by authors and other cultural events also found an attentive audience.
At the beginning of the 1990s, cultural work in the villa had to be stopped, not least because of the condition of the building.
The Villa Waldrich and the adjoining property were acquired by an investor from the Lahn-Dill district and, from the beginning of 1999, were converted into their current state according to plans by the Siegen architect Friedmund Delius . In a combination of tradition and modernity, the Villa Waldrich was raised to its original height of three floors above the level of the Hohler Weg.
From 2000 to 2013 the villa was used by the advertising agency conception and other tenants. Agency founder Wolfgang Weiß also exhibited expressionist works of art from the so-called lost generation there until the end of 2008 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ conception.cc: Former tenant of Villa Waldrich , accessed on November 28, 2014.
- ↑ wolfgangweiss.de: Official website Wolfgang White , accessed November 28, 2014.
Coordinates: 50 ° 52 '40.8 " N , 8 ° 1' 54.9" E