Villa

The Meyersche Villa - history

Our club members can enjoy a unique flair in the elaborately restored Meyerschen Villa in Leipzig's Bachviertel. The two and a half storey villa in today's Käthe-Kollwitz-Str. 115 was commissioned by the publishing house Herrmann Julius Meyer ("Meyersches Konversationslexikon") in 1885 in the style of a Mediterranean palazzo of the Neo-Renaissance. The building was the work of Max Pommer and the first of a large number of city villas, which the architect subsequently built for wealthy Leipzig citizens.

The building, veneered in dark red clinker brick and decorated with a remarkable frieze using sgrafitto technology, was bought in 1893 by the merchant Christian Alexander Frege II and passed on to his two daughters Herta Dufour-Feronce and Annemarie Klemm in 1932.

Until the occupation by Russian troops, the Klemm family lived in the rooms decorated with impressive wall paintings and stucco decorations.

From 1943 the NS Altherrenbund of German students had its headquarters in the Meyerschen Villa, from 1948 the Kulturbund der DDR. During this time, the original paintings were repainted several times with latex paints, whereby the stone imitation paintings in beer glaze technique in particular were well preserved in their original form and color. In 2002 the Weitzel family bought the house, which was restored in 2004 as part of a general renovation with many details of the original building fabric. Valuable figurative and ornamental paintings were uncovered from the time of their construction and could be restored true to the original with the support of the city of Leipzig and the then regional council of Leipzig.

Today we can receive our club members and their guests in the exclusive ambience of these impressive rooms and take them into the representative living flair of Leipzig in the late 19th century.

1885 The two-and-a-half-story villa was built in the style of a Mediterranean palazzo (neo-Renaissance) by the Leipzig architect Max Pommer on behalf of the important publisher Herrmann Julius Meyer ("Meyersches Konversationslexikon") on the Elster flood basin.

1893 The merchant Christian Alexander Frege, II. Buys the villa.

1932 His two daughters, Ms. Herta Dufour-Feronce and Ms. Annemarie Klemm, each inherited half of the villa, and the Klemm family lived in the villa until Russian troops occupied it.

1941 Verband der Alten Pauliner e.V .

1943 NS Altherrenbund der deutschen Studenten, Hochschulring Universität Leipzig

1948 Kulturbund zur Demokratischen Erneuerung Deutschlands

since 2002 Familie Weitzel and Club International e.V.

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Architecture

The facade front is veneered with dark red clinker brick, the structural components such as corner blocks, cornices, window frames, portals and columns are made of sandstone. A frieze using the sgraffito technique can be seen under the main cornice of the flat roof.

The north facade with a pronounced central risalit and a balcony built on it faces the Ferdinand-Lassalle-Strasse (Elster flood basin). The west facade borders directly on Käthe-Kollwitz-Straße, originally Plagwitzer Straße.

The portico with the entrance gate is located in the center in the area of the south side of the building, above which you can see the original stained glass windows. On the east side there is a covered terrace / loggia.

In the stairwell and in the staircase to the mezzanine, the lower wall surfaces are decorated with Stuccolustro marble in Pompeian style. Also noteworthy is the representative staircase with art-forged neo-baroque balustrades. The large wall paintings in the stairwell were created in 1886 by the Leipzig art professor Arndt.

During the restoration work, several layers of decorative paintings were uncovered in the vestibule, the second and probably most beautiful version of which can be seen, only in the area to the right of the door to the bar room is a "window under monument law" with the first version of the wall painting. Also worth seeing is the stucco ceiling in the bar room, which is decorated with imitation wood in beer batter glaze, which was very popular when the villa was built.