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Stadthaus Arn­stadt – A Wun­der­kammer of sophisti­cated living

Am Pfarrhof 1, on a pic­turesque square in the ancient centre of Arn­stadt, stands a set of buil­dings that are listed as his­toric monu­ments.

by Britta Krämer in November 2017

By Britta Krämer

Am Pfarrhof 1, on a pic­turesque square in the ancient centre of Arn­stadt, stands a set of buil­dings that are listed as his­toric monu­ments. They could not be more rich in con­trast: a 430-year-old half-tim­bered house which can look back over a fasci­nating career and an indus­trial building dating from 1903. For more than 120 years, from the turn of the century until just after reuni­fi­cation, these two buil­dings housed the Julius Möller glove factory. Pro­duction ceased after German reuni­fi­cation and the buil­dings stood empty for 15 years, falling into decay until Judith Rüber and Jan Kobel dis­co­vered it in 2005 and fell in love with its rugged indus­trial looks and high light-drenched sewing rooms. They purchased the Möller factory tog­ether with the half-tim­bered house and reno­vated both buil­dings with award-winning sen­si­tivity. In 2013 Hotel Stadthaus Arn­stadt opened its doors and has been inspiring its guests ever since with its uncon­ven­tional mix of har­mo­nious archi­tecture, fine cuisine and lei­surely cul­tural expe­ri­ences. The town house is like an inter­di­sci­plinary Wun­der­kammer of sophisti­cated living and escapes any tourist cate­go­ri­sation, thank goodness! The hosts alone are respon­sible for this, due to their ten­acious love for the truly beau­tiful things in life — from Bach to Bauhaus.

Spirit of place

Jan Kobel is a pho­to­grapher. His images are studies of scenes that, at first glance, seem unspec­ta­cular. Indus­trial buil­dings, Bauhaus-cor­ridors, Venice without pigeons, New York street life, snapshots of out­moded, common rou­tines. Through just such scenes he creates a haunting and powerful figu­rative lan­guage: it distils the essence of archi­tecture, cap­tures the sense of a place and trans­lates form and patina into poetry. Kobel’s photo series makes the quiet nuances of a moment or motif per­cep­tible and visible.
He and his wife Judith Rüber have col­la­bo­rated to produce some quite special travel books over recent years which explore desti­na­tions that are not only off the beaten track, but they teach the reader the art of idleness and attentive dis­cernment in order to reveal the secrets of Venice, New York or Ibiza on the less fre­quented paths and from the per­spective of their inha­bi­tants. Slow travel in the truest sense of the word. Jan Kobel‘s photos and Judith Rüber’s words describe the desti­na­tions through an unfil­tered, close-up lens. Cul­tural diversity, local life­styles, food delights and daily rituals are brought into focus, become imme­diate and tan­gible and leave a lin­gering, resonant impression. That is exactly the effect that Stadthaus Arn­stadt has on its guests.

Facets of sophisti­cated living

When you type in the search word “Arn­stadt’, Google spits out Johann Sebastian Bach first and foremost, the Baroque period and the first docu­mented mention of Thu­ringian Brat­wurst. Yet – who would have thought it – this barely scratches the surface of the true cha­racter of this place. Arn­stadt is an ancient centre of com­merce and from time imme­morial has been a town open to foreign influences and new per­spec­tives. This can be detected even today. The clear space of its tri­an­gular plazas, and the topo­graphy of the town in general, are designed for com­mu­ni­cation and inter­action at every corner, creating spaces that are attractive to be in. Arn­stadt is in the heart of Thu­ringia and yet a Medi­ter­ranean flavour per­vades its streets, coupled with the savoir-vivre of the south, and music, from Bach to jazz.

The list of erst­while inha­bi­tants and owners of the town house reads like a curious smor­gasbord of human love for culture: aris­to­cratic chalk cutters, the sisters of an art-loving prince (Johann Sebastian Bach’s employer), a church priest (at whose organ the very same Bach used to sit), numis­ma­tists, coll­ectors of rare objects, girls’ boarding school tea­chers and senior stu­dents, and a glove manu­fac­turer who turned the heads of fine Parisian society with his crea­tions in leather.

The Möller glove factory made an inter­na­tional name for itself in the 19th century for fine Thu­ringian leather gloves and the fine Parisian society at the Gal­leries Lafayette used to queue up for the last word in fashionable handwear made in Arn­stadt. After 1990 Julius Möller closed the factory gates for the last time and deso­lation set in at the pre­mises opposite the Ober­kirche (even Johann Sebastian was long out of fashion – even if only tem­po­r­arily).

Work-flow and Genius Loci

The reno­vation of the buil­dings (“The house told us what to do with it”) not only brought some his­toric archi­tecture sub­limely to light, but res­tored its former function as an urban think tank and a place for artistic and cul­tural encounters and for the finer things in life. In the Stadthaus, where living and working have always merged seam­lessly tog­ether, lei­surely holidays and inspired work flows are by no means incom­pa­tible with one another and the current in-word “Bleisure” is not so much a trend here as simply a part of the spirit of place.

In the airy, light-drenched factory sewing rooms a culture floor — the “Kul­tur­etage” has been created – fitted out to tech­nical per­fection and with a Steinway piano at its center – covering the whole range of uses: venue for work­shops and seminars, fashion-shoot location and a space for product pre­sen­ta­tions, concert hall, art gallery, catwalk and pho­to­graphic studio. A must in August: the events during the Bach:Sommer under the artistic direction of con­ductor and musi­co­logist Joshua Rifkin. Anyone staying in the Stadthaus will want to spend a lot of time on the art level. Its rugged indus­trial cha­racter sets the tone, as it always has. If you close your eyes, you can hear the even rattle of the sewing machines.

Life in a his­toric monument with a con­tem­porary edge

In the inviting com­munal areas — the former parlour and kitchen — and the six light-suf­fused bed­rooms in the old half-tim­bered house, the his­toric fabric of the building has been brought to light and fea­tures centre stage. New ele­ments have been har­mo­niously inte­grated with the old, in balanced measure so that the ori­ginal cha­racter of the house is still dis­cer­nible, yet there is no sense of dowdy anti­quity. The place drips with history, but there is nothing stale or melan­cholic about it. Here at Stadthaus Arn­stadt, history can be accessed and expe­ri­enced from a tho­roughly modern per­spective. Life in a his­toric monument with a con­tem­porary edge, with the finest sen­si­tivity for har­mo­nious room con­cepts, divine food and inspiring content.

The Milchhof and Bauhaus 2019.

The hote­liers Rüber-Kobel have a weakness for aban­doned indus­trial buil­dings and for the slum­bering potential that often resides in them to become places for archi­tec­tural and cul­tural expe­rience. In 2014 Jan Kobel purchased the Arn­stadt Milchhof (1928, by architect Martin Schwarz) tog­ether with a partner and as a co-share­holder in Bau­denkmal Milchhof Arn­stadt GmbH, with the aim of res­toring the building as an out­standing example of Bauhaus archi­tecture to landmark pre­ser­vation stan­dards, and of estab­li­shing it as a mul­ti­func­tional art and cul­tural centre. Jan Kobel sees the future Milchhof closely linked to the Bauhaus movement phi­lo­sophy: ”Archi­tecture that is not only simple and beau­tiful, but also opti­mises work pro­cesses, mini­mises cost, lets light into the building and reflects above all the inte­rests of the people living and working in it”. It is the­r­efore no coin­ci­dence that the Milchhof is part of the jubilee pro­gramme 100 years of bauhaus to be launched by the Bauhaus asso­ciation in 2019. By now, the reno­vation of the ground­floor has made it pos­sible to open it for culture events and archi­tec­tural tours. The guests of the Stadthaus visit the Milchhof on Sundays tog­ether with the new land­lords and get quickly aware of its striking atmo­sphere.

In the award speech for the his­toric monu­ments pre­ser­vation prize of Thu­ringia, Stadthaus Arn­stadt was described as an ‘important nucleus for the deve­lo­pment of Arn­stadt in terms of urban planning and culture’. Indeed, it would appear that it (as well as its owners!) has taken on the role of a pen­dulum that is well aware of its centre of gravity and focus, and yet retains the mobility and the drive to be per­pe­tually rea­ching out in all direc­tions, making its impact in other realms and spheres of activity, and inspiring pro­gress in them. We wait with bated breath to find out what they will do next…

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Text: Britta Krämer, November 2017

Picture credits and image rights: Jan Kobel

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