Reconstruction in line with the work
Haus Schulenburg stood empty from 1990 to 1997 and was left to decay.
Now the house and park shine in their original splendor.
Haus Schulenburg – a work by Henry van de Velde
In 1913/14, the Belgian universal artist and Bauhaus pioneer Henry van de Velde built the country house for the Gera textile manufacturer Paul Schulenburg.
“Haus Schulenburg … is considered the most mature work of the ingenious artist (Henry van de Velde, 1863 – 1957) on the threshold of “Neues Bauen” in Germany.
Here, the ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk he propagated as a symbiosis of architecture, garden design and decorative arts can be experienced as a harmonious whole.”
In 1919, van de Velde designed a gardener’s house, greenhouses and a park with a water lily pond and fountain cascade for an adjoining area of more than 15,000 m².
In 1928, furniture, wall coverings and decorative fabric for a living room were added.
Van de Velde also arranged for the house to be furnished with works of art, with paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Signac, Maurice Denis, Camille Pissarro, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Ludwig v. Hofmann, Max Liebermann, Theodor Hagen; sculptures by Constantin Meunier, Georg Minne and Richard Engelmann.
Structural changes and decay
Haus Schulenburg Gera later underwent considerable alterations.
During a conversion by Schulenburg –sons, the lower hallway was separated from the upper hallway in the mid-1930s by removing the visually defining staircase and closing the skylight opening. After 1950, when the building was used as a medical college, the layout was changed by the addition of lecture halls, sanitary facilities and apartments. The park and gardens that were added in the 1920s were destroyed in 1937 when the greenhouses were demolished and finally in 1998 when the grounds were further subdivided.
In 1957, a 60-metre-long, three-storey building was erected on the approx. 4,000 m² section of land to the west of the building as a dormitory for the student nurses.
Haus Schulenburg stood empty from 1990 to 1997 and was left to decay.
Restoration of the Gesamtkunstwerk
The aim of the renovation, which began in 1997, was to restore the main residential complex and the gatehouse together with the courtyards, garden and pavilions to their condition in 1914 and 1928 respectively.
The restoration of the building, interior and park was largely completed in 2013 after extensive research, including European research. A considerable amount of the furniture designed by van de Velde exclusively for Haus Schulenburg was returned for the restoration.
The boarding school block on the site to the west of Haus Schulenburg was demolished in 2013/14 and the topography corresponding to the former park was restored.
