Hexenbürgermeisterhaus, Lemgo

Posted by MadScientist (Düsseldorf, Germany) on 6 October 2008 in Architecture.

Lemgo's Hexenbürgermeisterhaus, named after one of its owners, was built in the 16th century as a merchant's house. The aforementioned owner, Hermann Cothmann (1629-1683), infamous mayor and jurist, was a dedicated 'witch hunter', who, for realizing his ambitions political plans, ruthlessly sentenced up to 100 innocent people to torture and death. In remembrance of this era, a permanent exhibition shows various instruments of torture in that building. The house itself never was a place of torture, though.

Executive summary of the following text here.

Thinking about torture and witchcraft leads us directly to the financial crisis. Though today I was able to listen for some words of wisdom by our Finance Minister Steinbrück for a long time, this was just a straw fire. German government, together with private banks, ties up a rescue packet (several billion Euros worth) for a stumbling bank, the Hypo Real Estate (HRE). HRE has acute financial difficulties, largely resulting from the much-hyped acquisition of the Dublin-based Depfa bank. (It is especially this bank Mr. Steinbrück was making reference to in his quote of the day.) Depfa in turn has an affiliated company in the US, the Depfa First Albany Securities (DFAS). The blurb in the description shows that they are part of the current problems. It gets even worse when we have a look at HRE Holding, HRE's parent corporation. According to the German Securities Trading Act we are able to learn about HRE Holding's shareholders: according to the calculation of an alert German blogger, more than 65% of the companies having voting rights in HRE Holding are located in offshore havens (Bermuda, Cayman Islands). I'm passing out when I think about the money pipeline from our tax money to these tax refugees. (via)

Stop - we're not finished yet! This rescue plan is a whole little drama, as private banks were unwilling to take their share of the bill (8 billion Euros) despite their initial agreement on the rescue. 'Suddenly' new numbers emerged that revealed HRE's real problems; HRE's debts are not only 35 but 50 to 100 billion Euros. Well, another blogger studied HRE's quarterly report and published his results one week ago. But our financial elite obviously isn't interested in the reports of banks that have a need for 35 billions in the short term and many, many more billions in the long term. A flame war in the German parliament about that miraculous increase of debts has already started.

Download my coffee-table book of selected postings here. Enjoy!

Comments (17)

Laurent from Lyon, France

what a superb house.
A way prefer the house to its owner

6 Oct 2008 5:18am

@Laurent: Definitely. There are many other houses in Lemgo with similar decoration, though this one was the most elaborate I've found.

Margie from Auckland, New Zealand

Fantastic architecture!

6 Oct 2008 5:25am

@Margie: Yes, would be nice to see more of this, thanks, Margie!

Emily Ng from Adelaide, Australia

intriguing building. the top part of the building seems quite different from the bottom. v interesting building. thanks for sharing this!

6 Oct 2008 5:41am

@Emily Ng: I presume the upper storeys were used as storage for commodities, as this was a merchant's house.

Linerberry from Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand

Wow, again fascinating news ms. thanks for the links in yesterdays response...I have saved tham to 'my favourites' to hava good look:-)
I stunning building though not such a stunning story...I'm glad no tortures took place there....that would have been too grim! Its such an awesome buliding, hard to believe we could be so barbaric and yet produce such great works of art. really well shot ms:-)

6 Oct 2008 6:31am

@Linerberry: You might add this one to your bookmarks.
I don't think we've moved too far away from our roots; our cultural varnish is very thin.

Ana Lúcia from Leiria, Portugal

A fine architectural shot.

6 Oct 2008 7:18am

@Ana Lúcia: Thanks very much!

MaryB from Staffordshire, United Kingdom

Incredible architecture, I will read the information later on, thanks for including it. :)

6 Oct 2008 9:52am

@MaryB: Thanks, Mary! Enjoy!

Michael Skorulski from Cigel, Slovakia

What a fabulous place and beautifully presented in excellent detail.

6 Oct 2008 11:35am

@Michael Skorulski: There are many houses like this one to be found in Lemgo, it was pure fun. :-)

Amarjit from HOSHIARPUR, India

very clean sweep .. beautiful capture as well as beautiful architecture .. isnt it ?

6 Oct 2008 2:59pm

@Amarjit: Definitely! A typical sample of Weser-Renaissance.

Rui from Leiria, Portugal

Fantastic building. A little bit weird but very interesting! Well done.

BTW: Did you already buy the new camera?
Try this site: www.digitalwonderworld.de

6 Oct 2008 3:06pm

@Rui: Thanks! Yes, I ordered my new camera (40D) today! :-)

Pradeep from Chennai, India

Beautiful shot, lovely composition :)

6 Oct 2008 5:54pm

@Pradeep: Thanks very much, Pradeep!

Evelyne Dubos from Le Mans, France

This architecture is really unusual and unique. A great place to visit.

6 Oct 2008 9:06pm

@Evelyne Dubos: Absolutely! This is a beautiful sample of Weser-Renaissance.

Observing from West Cheshire, United Kingdom

What a magnificent building, the design is - sehr schön, and the image is perfect as is usual.

6 Oct 2008 9:54pm

@Observing: Thanks a lot, including the 'ö'! ;-)

Twelvebit from Victoria, United States

That's a wonderful facade --the building in the photo, not the Germany banking industry. What do you think, who has the more sophisticated financial criminals, Europe or the US? I was going to say Europe because your criminals have been at it longer, but then I started thinking about all the innovation in criminality taking place here, and I couldn't decide.

6 Oct 2008 10:12pm

@Twelvebit: Compared to this house, the facade of German banks is beginning to flake off, but - just to quote a famous American politician - 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong'.

Providing an answer to your question is quite tricky, as you're asking for the most sophisticated financial criminals. I think most American and European bankers are knocked out here, greed is no sign of sophistication. But looking at Switzerland you certainly will find many sophisticated, er, bankers.

akarui from Kagoshima, Japan

Very particular architecture design. Nice and big building.

7 Oct 2008 12:40am

@akarui: Landmarks of a rich city in the 16th century.

JoeB from Brampton, Canada

The barbarian built himself quite the little domicile. Its starting to look like a house of cards one tumbling after another, now where in a recession.

7 Oct 2008 12:46am

@JoeB: There's still enough air below us.