An Art Nouveau quarter in Greiz
Greiz in Thuringia is also part of the European Route of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil). The former residence town of the Principality of Reuss, older line, is home to an impressive ensemble of Art Nouveau buildings, with the two street blocks between Marktstrasse and Thomasstraße standing out in particular. There are actually several reasons for this. On the one hand, the town flourished during the upswing of the textile industry in the 19th century, which meant that a number of open-minded, potent builders and architects were based in the region. In addition, there was a devastating fire in this area in 1902 and then the small river Gräßlitz was relocated, which at that time flowed openly in place of today’s Thomasstraße.
Between 1903 and 1907, the quarter was redeveloped with contemporary residential and commercial buildings. These were built as so-called ‘through houses’ between Marktstraße and Thomasstraße. Correspondingly, matching façades were created on both sides, predominantly influenced by Art Nouveau.
Architecture
The street begins on the left with a remarkable building on Burgstraße, the front sides of which face Burgstraße and Marktstraße. To the right of this, the Randel brothers created an Art Nouveau building, which is characterised by floral Art Nouveau ornamentation on this side and was even more strongly characterised by stucco ornamentation at the time of its construction. The narrow clinker brick façade at Thomasstraße 13 was designed by the Chemnitz based architect Ernst Jäger. He was inspired by forms and motifs from castle romanticism. The building ‘Liebers’ Eck’ forms the end on the right-hand side of the picture; the neoclassical clinker brick façade was created by master builder and bricklayer Carl Wilhelm Jesumann.
Buildings by the master builder Arno Dassler
Two further buildings at Thomasstrasse 15/17 and 19 were designed by local master builder Arno Dassler. The double house at 15/17 is characterised by the two high bays on this side, which are accentuated by the half-timbered construction on the top floor. Until 1949, the ‘Zum Tunnel’ inn was located here, and you could walk from Thomasstraße to Marktstraße through the passageway that gave the building its name. The mischievous-looking figure under the right-hand bay window was probably created as an advertisement for a local magazine shop at the time.
In our archive there are further (yet unprocessed) daylight images of this stretch of Thomasstraße from 2013, 2016 and 2018.
