Milchhof Arn­stadt – archi­tecture kissed awake

Inspiring event spaces offer more than just a roof over your head. In our section Spaces we introduce you to places where you can step into history.

SPACE

You can find beau­tiful spaces like this in our Spaces section. There you can dis­cover inspiring places and unusual loca­tions for work­shops, con­fe­rences, events and more.

Today we are going on the trail of German indus­trial culture and will find out how sleeping buil­dings are kissed awake .…

Arn­stadt is the oldest town in Thu­ringia and known to music lovers for the annual Bach Fes­tival in honour of the town’s most famous son, Johann Sebastian. Nature lovers also get their money’s worth here, as Arn­stadt is con­sidered to be the gateway to the Thu­ringian Forest. There is also a more recent reason for fans of archi­tecture to visit the Bach town: the Milchhof Arn­stadt, an indus­trial monument that was included in the 2018 “Grand Tour of Modernism”, a sel­ection of out­standing Bauhaus and modernist buil­dings. The story of the Milch­hof’s redis­covery is like a fairy tale, even if it wasn’t a prince who rode in to save the building. But somehow, he did kiss the Milchhof awake. And that in turn has aroused our curiosity.

We meet pho­to­grapher Jan Kobel on the ramp of the dairy farm. Where the farmers used to deliver their fresh milk to receive the pro­cessed pro­ducts on the other side you now find the ent­rance to a venue with indus­trial charm. There is still a lot to do, says Jan Kobel, and there is no question of it being finished. But thanks to his com­mitment and funding, the building was saved from decay.

How do you kiss a building out of its slumber?

Since coming to Arn­stadt in 2005, I have passed the decaying Milchhof time and again and thought, what a pity that no one is taking care of this beau­tiful and unusual indus­trial monument. As chance would have it, it was I who finally took on this task. I was running a photo seminar for school stu­dents on the buil­dings of the architect Martin Schwarz. I thought that exhi­bition at the end of the seminar would be the best place for the Milchhof, Martin Schwarz’ archi­tec­tu­rally most important building. We then spent days putting rubbish and debris into con­tainers and making the building acces­sible. At the exhi­bition opening, everyone was thrilled and I had prac­ti­cally no choice but to con­tinue. I never thought that a school project would turn into a life’s work.

What makes the Milchhof so special?

The Milchhof is high-tech for its time: Func­tion­alism and social aspi­ra­tions come tog­ether behind a hori­zontal brick façade. The building was erected in 1928 as a new pro­duction facility for a coope­rative of 80 dairy farmers. A modern building for a com­pletely new product: pas­teu­rised milk. The func­tional sequence from the delivery of the milk to indus­trial pro­cessing can be traced struc­tu­rally.

How is the dairy farm used today?

The Milchhof and its grounds are to become a cul­tural centre for Arn­stadt. So far, there is a hall mea­suring 250m² that can be used for all kinds of events. In addition, there are four exhi­bition rooms that we give to young artists for one year at a time. The Milchhof can only be rented as a whole, including the exhi­bition rooms, so that guests can also expe­rience the art at the same time. At present we only offer the Milchhof for summer events, as there is no heating yet. In future, however, it should work for the whole year.

The host: Pho­to­grapher Jan Kobel came to Arn­stadt in the early 2000s and stayed. Tog­ether with his wife Judith Rüber, with whom he has published num­erous travel books, he reno­vated an ensemble of listed buil­dings in the middle of Arn­stadt. In the former Möl­ler’­schen glove factory, they have been running the Hotel Stadthaus Arn­stadt tog­ether since 2005.

The Space: The Milchhof Arn­stadt is an archi­tec­tural monument of inter­na­tional standing and has been listed as a stand-alone monument since 1994. In 2018, on the occasion of the Bauhaus100 anni­versary, it was sel­ected by a jury of experts as a signi­ficant modernist building in Germany and included in the “Grand Tour of Modernism in Germany”. The 250m² former pro­duction hall with its 32 dif­ferent types of white tiles now serves as an event space for up to 150 people. The Milchhof is being suc­ces­sively reno­vated. It is sui­table for con­fe­rences, exhi­bi­tions, product pre­sen­ta­tions or photo shoots.

You can read more about the Milchhof and the Hotel Stadthaus Arn­stadt in our Home­Story.

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The hotel

Hotel Hotel Stadthaus Arn­stadt

Hotel Hotel Stadthaus Arn­stadt

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The listed ensemble in the his­toric core of Arn­stadt con­sists of a half-tim­bered house in the Renais­sance style and a factory building from the year 1903. Nowadays it houses a hotel.

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