The Whale House (''Haus zum Walfisch'') is a late Gothic bourgeois house in the old town of

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and is under conservation. The building is currently used by the ''Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau'' bank. It is part of a complex which, in the past, was made up of 17 separate buildings.Michael Schulte-Höping: ''Gang durch die Jahrhunderte'' in:

Badische Zeitung The ''Badische Zeitung'' (''Baden Newspaper'') is a German newspaper based in Freiburg im Breisgau, covering the South Western part of Germany and the Black Forest region. It has a circulation of 145,825 and a readership of 409,000. The paper was ...

vom 1. Dezember 2006 The front wall of the house opens onto the Franziskanerstraße, whilst the rear is on the Gauchstraße, near Kartoffelmarkt square. The building was made internationally famous by

Dario Argento Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and film critic, critic. His influential work in the horror film, horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as ...

's 1977 horror film ''

Suspiria ''Suspiria'' () is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Dario Argento, who co-wrote the screenplay with Daria Nicolodi, partially based on Thomas De Quincey's 1845 essay ''Suspiria de Profundis''. The film stars Jessica Harper as ...

'', where it appears as the Dance Academy, the film's central location.

History

At the current location of the Whale House there used to be three farmsteads, 100×50 feet (ca. 30×15 m) in size: the Haus Zum Blattfuß, Haus Zum Sampson and Haus Zum Ofenhaus.Hans Sigmund, Dieter Hensle: ''Das Haus „Zum Walfisch“.'' S. 231–240 in: ''Schau-ins-Land 104'', Freiburg im Breisgau 1985 Jakob Villinger von Schönenberg (1480–1529) had a house from 1506 in the Barfüßergasse (the present day Franziskanergasse). He is believed to have come from either

Sélestat Sélestat (; Alsatian: ''Schlettstàdt''; German: ''Schlettstadt'') is a commune in the Grand Est region of France. An administrative division (Subprefectures in France, sous-préfecture) of the Bas-Rhin Departments of France, department, the tow ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

or from Freiburg itself, and from 1510 he worked as Emperor Maxilimilian I’s treasurer general. After Jakob Villinger received his citizenship, he submitted a request to the city council to start the building works. Ludwig Villinger, possibly Jakob’s brother,Corinna Löw: ''Jakob Villinger im Dienste Kaiser Maximilians I.'' Dissertation an der Universität Graz, Graz 1987, S. 11 ff. purchased the adjacent building in 1514 and demolished it with the intention of constructing the “prestigious building”, though the city council did not grant the building permit until 1516. Only in 1517 could the Whale House, built on the spot where the original houses used to be, be inhabited. The existing continuous walls were incorporated to the new building.Peter Kalchthaler, Bauten, S. 114 ff. As Villinger had “built a noticeable house”, in the same year the city council let him expand his property further into farmsteads on the Gauchstraße to the rear of the House of the Whale, on the condition that new “domestic dwellings” were to be built in Schiffstraße. On the remaining ground, he built a “pleasure garden”. The name ''Haus zum Walfisch'' is documented in the ''Herrschaftsrechtsbuch'' (book of individual properties) from 1565,

Berent Schwineköper Berent Schwineköper (8 November 1912 – 8 March 1993) was a German archivist and historian. Born in Magdeburg, Prussian Saxony, Schwineköper was the son of an apothecary. At the universities of Göttingen, Vienna, and Freiburg, Schwineköpe ...

: ''Der "Sparkassenblock" in Freiburg (Begrenzung: Kaiser-Josef-Straße, Franziskanerstraße, Merianstraße, Gauchstraße). Einführung zu einer Ausstellung der Öffentlichen Sparkasse Freiburg im Sparkassengebäude in der Zeit vom 22. Mai bis 14. Juni 1985 gezeigt.'' In: ''Schau-ins-Land 1985'' although the numbering of houses was established in Freiburg only in 1806.Freiburger Zeitung Nr. 277 The Freiburg historian Peter Kalchthaler suggests there may be a connection between the name of the house and “the Story of Jonah and the Whale” in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

.Mündliche Auskunft im Juni 2009 Walfisch Erasmus von Rotterdam

As recorded on the façade of the building, the humanist

Erasmus of Rotterdam Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

lived in the Villinger house after his escape from Basel. However, at the time of his arrival in Christmas 1529, the house was still unfinished.''Brief von Erasmus von Rotterdam an

Willibald Pirckheimer Willibald Pirckheimer (5 December 1470 – 22 December 1530) was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, imperial counsellor and a member of the governing City ...

.'' In: Walther Köhler: ''Erasmus von Rotterdam. Briefe''. Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1938, S. 462.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whale House Buildings and structures in Freiburg im Breisgau Tourist attractions in Freiburg im Breisgau