The Poetic Villa
The splendor of the house in which two famous German "poet princes" met in 1883 is long gone. Most recently, senior citizens spent their last years in this "House with a View". After the lights went out there, the house was deserted and the park grew into a sleeping-beauty green.
The villa saw better times in the 19th century. Its history is closely linked to the once flourishing clay mining in the city.
A wealthy merchant from Hamburg acquired the estate around 1845 as a residence for his family with eight children. The pottery factory, founded by this merchant in 1847, used the
local clay deposits to produce yellow bricks, pipes, tiled stoves and ceramic house and garden decorations in the small town until 1903. The company even presented
their products at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855 and the Industrial Exhibition in London in 1862.
Originally, the estate was part of the local monastery. The merchant sold the estate in 1870 to a politician from Hamburg who sold it again in 1881 to an ophthalmologist who was also a diplomat and had a penchant for poetry. It was in 1884 when two famous German poets who shared a mutual admiration for each other had their only personal meeting ever.
Only a year later, the house was sold again - again to a merchant from Hamburg. A pharmacist is documented as the landowner from 1902, after whose death in 1907 an administration officer took over as the owner. His family kept the estate for many decades. From 1922 the owner had a cavalier house built in brick style by an architect from Hamburg, and the manor house was converted into a villa by 1923. Large terraces, bay windows and the entrance portal with a relief of the coat of arms and the family motto "VINCET VERITAS" ("Truth will win.") of the family were added.
After the war, the villa was used as a retirement and nursing home for several decades, and for this purpose an additional guest house was built in 1965, which is connected to the cavalier's house. In a modification of the architect's original design, the villa and the cavalier's house were also connected by an additional low-rise building with a roof terrace.
Ever since the nursing home has been closed, the complex is abandoned and in state of decay.
