Budde-Haus

The Budde-Haus is a socio-cultural center in the Gohlis district of Leipzig, Germany. The house was built in 1890-91 as a residence for the Bleichert family and has been used as a cultural center since 1956. It has been a listed building since 1973 and is an important example of late 19th-century architecture in Germany. Since 1993 it has been one of eleven socio-cultural centers in Leipzig.

In 1860 a gasworks and a collection of office buildings were constructed on the large site between present-day Lützowstraße and Benedixstraße. In 1880, this property was purchased by Adolf Bleichert (born 1845 in Dessau, grew up in Leipzig-Gohlis), the owner of a cable-car company. This was followed by the conversion of the office buildings into "Villa Bleichert", a home for the Bleichert family. In 1890 the old villa was demolished, and from 1890 to 1891 the "Villa Hilda" was built, named for Adolf Bleichert's wife Hildegard. The Bleichert family had eight children, two of whom died young. In 1899, Adolf Bleichert contracted tuberculosis, and in 1901 died in a hospital in Switzerland. The Bleichert works were continued by the sons Max and Paul Bleichert, and in 1918 the family was raised to the hereditary nobility "von Bleichert". In the early 1920s the family moved out of the house. In 1927 Karl Mende, a wholesaler for industrial glass based at the Eutritzscher Freiladebahnhof, bought the property and used it as a residence for his family, which necessitated various modifications to the buildings. These included covering the ceiling of the upper floor was enclosed in glass tiles. During the bombing of Gohlis in 1945, the right wing and the glass dome of the house were destroyed. The Mende family continued to live there until 1952, also housing refugees. Following the arrest of Karl Mendes on the charge of forming a monopoly ("Monopolbildung"), the ownership of the property by the Mendes family came to an end. Karl Mende was later able to escape from prison in Zwickau with forged papers and fled to West Berlin.

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