The Essighaus was an impressive gabled town house in the old town of

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...

in northern Germany. One of the city's finest examples of

Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought ...

, it was almost completely destroyed by bombing in 1943. The entrance flanked by projecting

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...

s is the only part of the building which has been restored.

History

The house was built in 1618 in the ornate Renaissance style. With its richly decorated facade and interior, it was known well beyond the bounds of the city. Located on Langenstraße in the city's

Schlachte The Schlachte is a promenade along the east bank of the River Weser in the old town of Bremen in the north of Germany. Once one of the city's harbours, it is now popular for its restaurants, beer gardens and river boats. Etymology ''Schlachte'' i ...

district, the building takes its name from a vinegar factory (German ''Essig'' means vinegar) on the property at the beginning of the 19th century, but it may also be a corruption of Esich-Haus, as the Esich family originally lived there. Combining living quarters, an office and a shop, it was typical of Bremen's old merchants' houses. In 1897, a wine bar called the "Alt-Bremer Haus" opened on the premises. The Bremen branch of the East Asian Company was founded there by local merchants in 1901. Essighaus was the location of a fainting spell by

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

in 1909. This was not seen as a minor event by his student

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, ph ...

who saw it as evidence of the psychoanalyst's own neurosis.

Rebuilding

In 1956, after suffering serious war damage, the house was rebuilt by the architects Wilhelm Wortmann and Erik Schott who restored the lower facade from the remains. Following conversion work in 1985, the building now belongs to the Deutsche Factoring Bank. Since 1973, it has been listed as a heritage monument. A plaque on the building records the history of the building and the grander ''Kornhaus'' building which was next door before it was destroyed in the war.Information plaque
Wikimedia commons, retrieved 16 January 2014

References

Literature

* {{Bremen Buildings and structures in Bremen (city) Buildings and structures completed in 1618 Renaissance architecture in Germany Buildings and structures in Germany destroyed during World War II 1618 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire