Basels House

Behind the stucco façade of 1885 lies an older half-timbered house. It takes its name from the Basels family, who shaped the town’s history for nearly four centuries as farmers, entrepreneurs, and public officials.

In 1743, Johann Conrad Basels ran the inn Zum Roßkamm here at Neustraße 32. As the wall anchors on the courtyard side show, he expanded the property in 1751 with a second timber-framed building of equal size.

In 1768, his cousin Peter Jakob Basels purchased the house. A year later he had it faced in brick, placing above the entrance the initials of himself and his wife, Anna Catharina Dannewitz.

Their inn, complete with brewery and farm, also served as a post station with up to sixteen horses, which remained in service until the arrival of the railway in 1863.

The Basels family continued to hold public office and manage businesses beyond the town. Around 1900, a soap factory operated here, followed by a wholesale food business that lasted until the 1960s.

The family line ended in 1969 with the death of Maria Basels, yet her legacy endures through two charitable foundations: the Maria Basels Retirement Home Foundation, which also owns this house, and the Maria Basels Foundation for the Municipal Kramer Museum, where parts of the historic interior are preserved.