Mannus Riedesel
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Mannus Riedesel (1662-1726) was a master builder in the early 1700s in the Counties of Wittgenstein and surrounding areas. At least ten structures that he built are known to exist, and are regarded as jewels of "half-timbered" [[Fachwerk]] construction.
He was born and died a peasant and tenant of the Counts in the hamlet of Melbach, but was literate and widely traveled. Five children from two marriages are known. Descendants live in both Germany and the United States today.
Riedesel used a variety of figures, but favored grapes and grapevines as symbols of fertility. Both human- and gargoyle-like faces adorn various structures. They are carved in the wood, as were inscriptions. The name of Mannus Riedesel appears on some, but not all, of his surviving buildings and in a variety of spellings. Today, the inscriptions and other ornamentation are brightly painted.
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[edit] Ludwigsburg
East Wing
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South Wing
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Front Door
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Perhaps the best known of Riedesel's work is a large, two-winged house in Bad Berleburg. It was built and decorated at two different times--between 1707-1709 and again in 1724. The original owner was a member of the collateral line of the Count of Wittgenstein-Berleburg. It is situated along Odeborn creek, which flows through the city. Especially interesting is the carved front door.
[edit] Hof Dambach
Another commission from the Count of Wittgenstein-Berleburg was a hunting lodge and forester's house not far from Wunderthausen. Dambach was a hamlet in medieval times, but was abandoned by 1500. Evidence of the village can be found in the valley of Dambach creek. In 1711, Mannus Riedesel built the main house. The Count paid for it, but it was occupied by a forester named Georg Wilhelm Stark, and his wife Elisabeth. Hof Dambach is decorated with various runes, figures, and other symbols of peace and fertility. There are other old out-buildings with the property (bakery, horse stall) but they were not built by Mannus Riedesel. Inside the main house, the hallway runs the full length of the house with living and sleeping rooms to the left. The cellar was underneath, where livestock were originally kept. Once upon a time, the decorated chamber and hunting room was used for speeches and presentations by the forester, pastors, teachers and others.
Today Hof Dambach is a Pension serving tourists from Germany, the Netherlands, and elsewhere.
[edit] Schulkapelle in Sassenhausen
Church in Sassenhausen
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Entrance; note inscription from the apocryphal book of Sirach
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The small village of Sassenhausen is the site of a distinctive and still-functional church which Mannus Riedesel built in 1703. Behind the sanctuary is another room which was later built in to serve as a school. Wittgenstein was still recovering from the Thirty Years' War. The question is raised as to how a small village of only 14 dwellings and perhaps 90 people could afford to engage the best-known builder in Wittgenstein. But Mannus Riedesel had close family ties to Sassenhausen. His younger brothers had godparents from Sassenhausen, and his sister was related by marriage to another master carpenter in Sassenhausen. The Count provided the timber. With two or three journeymen and help from the villagers, the church wa completed in the summer of 1703.
One must enter the chapel through a low door that forces one to bow one's head. The altar rails are inscribed with early deacons of the church.
[edit] Lotzes/Fuch'ses in Wunderthausen
Lotzes/Fuchs'ses
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The last house known to have been built by Mannus Riedesel sits on the main road through Wunderthausen. It was erected in 1726, the same year he died. Little detail is known of its construction. Lotzes is one of three old Fachwerk houses that survived the fires of the late 1800s. |
[edit] Stoltz'sches house in Laasphe
Stolz'sches in Laasphe
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This is another grand town home built in 1705. Though not as large as the Ludwigsburg, it towers over the street. The corner posts are richly decorated in Mannus Riedesel's usual style. It was built for the wealthy brewer and distiller Joh. Adam Stoltz and his wife, Anna Elisabeth. It is said to have been the first house built outside the town gates. |
[edit] Hain-Hof in Puderbach
Hain Hof in Puderbach
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Hain-Hof, a large farmhouse in Puderbach at Eschenstraße 6 built in 1712 |
[edit] Others
The barn built in 1702 at his home in the Melbach; some of the beams are richly decorated (not readily accessible to the public, as it is privately owned)
The house on Königstraße in Laasphe built in c1709
The house at Parkstraße 5 in Bad Berleburg built in 1725; it was built for a lieutenant in the Count's small guard contingent who died young; details of the widow's correspondence with the Count asking for help as well as details of the construction costs have been preserved
[edit] References
[German language site describing the Ludwigsburg and Schulkapelle
