Villa Esche, Chemnitz

Villa Esche in the Chemnitz district of Kapellenberg is an Art Nouveau villa built by Belgian architect and designer Henry van de Velde in 1902/1903 and extended in 1911. The house for textile manufacturer Herbert Eugen Esche and his family is considered to be van de Velde's first residential building commission in Germany. The small park surrounding the villa was probably designed by van de Velde's wife Maria Séthe. The Esche and van de Velde families were friends for decades, Herbert Eugen Esche spent his twilight years like Henry van de Velde in Switzerland, where both visited each other again and again.

The villa was the seat of the Soviet military commander in 1945, served as a residential building from 1947, was used by the Ministry of State Security from 1952, was an educational institution from 1964 and stood empty from 1989. It was renovated and rebuilt between 1998 and 2001 by the architect Werner Wendisch and partly with the architect Karl-Heinz Barth. Today, the building houses a Henry van de Velde Museum as part of the Chemnitz Art Collections; here, mainly parts of the original furnishings of the house, also designed by van de Velde, are presented. With the largely original furnished former dining room and the music salon, the museum conveys an impression of the original ambience of the "living spaces" designed by van de Velde. Several other rooms, including a newly created one in the attic, are available for public use. The property is owned by Grundstücks- und Gebäudewirtschafts-Gesellschaft m.b.H. a subsidiary of the city of Chemnitz. Readings and concerts are held here; weddings and wedding ceremonies are also possible. But this location is also used for closed meetings in smaller groups. The Remise or Orangerie houses a restaurant.

The villa is used for concerts by artists in residence. Since 2005, these have been the pianist Vladimir Stoupel, Wolfgang Hentrich, the Chinese staff violinist and composer Wu Wei, Peter Bruns and Kolja Lessing, and in 2010 the Icelandic violinist Judith Ingolfsson.