House Freiligrath

The Koblenz Master builder Nikolaus Lauxen erected this baroque building on Unkel’s Rhinepromenade from 1779 till 1781. Lauxen followed the tradition of the most important baroque master builder Balthasar Neumann. His student, the Kurtrier-architect Johannes Saitz, was Nikolaus Lauxen’s teacher. Friedrich Joseph de Haes (1718-1786), Director of the „Kurkölnische“ Chamber was the owner of the Freiligrathhaus. His daughter Margarethe de Haes celebrated her marriage to Friedrich Cramer zu Clauspruch from Cologne in this magnificent building in 1783. He died in 1792. In 1793, the

„Kurkölnische“ Councillor Caspar Joseph von Biegeleben (1766-1842) became Margarethe’s second husband. He inherited the property after Margarethe‘s death in labour in 1799. In 1800, von Biegeleben married a second time and had a total of 30 children, only seven of whom reached adult age. Von Biegeleben became President Councilor in Hessen- Darmstadt and sold the house to the „Kurpfälzische“ Officer Franz Rudolf von Monschaw in 1819. The young poet Ferdinand Freiligrath, who had recently come to fame, rented this house in 1839/1840. Many writers and artists visited him here. He was in charge of the reconstruction of the collapsed Rolandsbogen – symbol of the Rhine Romanticism. He met his wife Ida Melos here, who accompanied him on his path as poet and revolutionary. From 1873 the house was owned by the Loewe/von Bothwell family for almost 70 years: The Loewe/von Bothwell family, who cherished the musical legacy of the than famous composer and singer Carl Loewe after his death, moved from Kiel to Unkel. In the 1940s the Protestant Synod of the Rhineland inherited the building, where they held services of worship until 1961. Before selling the building, various artists such as the painter Josef Arens and the violinist Prof. Toni Faßbender (1945-1965) lived here. They initiated an active cultural life broadcast on the radio with concerts, readings and wine tastings of the German winegrowers' association. The owners changed several times, before the

„Freiligrathhaus“ was put under monumental protection in 1984.