Robinson-Crusoe-Haus

The Robinson-Crusoe-Haus stands on Böttcherstraße in Bremen's old town, a brick building in the Lower Saxon style with a stepped gable. Ludwig Roselius, a prosperous coffee merchant, raised it in 1931 because he admired the pioneering spirit of Daniel Defoe's hero. In the novel's telling, that hero is the son of a Bremen merchant who settled in York. Look up at the lower corner and you will see a curved opening resting on a single column.

Roselius conceived and financed the whole Böttcherstraße project, and Karl von Weihe developed the design he proposed. Eduard Scotland and Alfred Runge then shaped the interior for the newly founded Club zu Bremen. Its early rooms held a club room, a dining room, a bar and a gallery. Upstairs, the Vogeler Room displayed nine paintings by Heinrich Vogeler. Bombs destroyed the house in 1944, and the rebuild followed in 1954. None of the original decoration survived, but the stairway now carries carved panels by Theodor Schultz-Walbaum showing scenes from the Crusoe story.

Outside, two sculptures by Bernhard Hoetger bear the titles 'Panther carrying the Night' and 'Puma carrying the Day'. Inside, the Crusoe Hall works as an exhibition space for the Bremen Artisans Association. The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum and the Ludwig Roselius Museum collaborate on the programme. From October the same hall hosts the traditional Weihnachtsmarkt, Bremen's Christmas market.