The European Henry van de Velde Route in Saxony and Thuringia

 Weimar – Jena – Gera – Lauterbach – Chemnitz

After staying in Berlin for just two years, Henry van de Velde moved to the city of Weimar in Thuringia with his family in 1902 and acted as Artistic Adviser for Industry and Craft in the service of the young Wilhelm Ernst, Grand Duke of Saxony-Weimar. Here, by launching an arts and craft seminar, van de Velde took his first steps towards fulfilling his life-long desire, to found his own school. His teaching career in Weimar, which was to last over ten years, had begun.

Alongside numerous private commissions for furniture and equipment items, his first commission, which came right at the beginning of this time, was in Chemnitz; the construction of a residential property for the family of the Chemnitz-base textile entrepreneur, Herbert Esche, van de Velde's first architectural commission in Germany.

Numerous other designs for living spaces, the interior decorations for the Nietzsche archive and the commission for additional residential properties and the Lawn Tennis Club in Chemnitz occurred during this Weimar period. And finally – in 1907 – he also built his own School of Arts and Crafts.

1902-1903Design and construction of Villa Esche in Chemnitz
1903Interior furnishings of Nietzsche Archive in Weimar
1904-1911Design of Art School in Weimar (later Bauhaus University)
1907-1909School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar
1907-1912Construction of his own private residence, "Unter den Hohen Pappeln" (Under the Tall Poplars) in Weimar
1906-1908Design of the Lawn Tennis Club in Chemnitz (commissioned by Herbert Esche's brother Fritz)
1907-1909Lauterbach manor house (interior work) next to Werdau/Saxony (commissioned by Herbert Esche's brother Arnold)
1908Redesigns at Villa Quisisana/Saxony (commissioned by Herbert Esche's father-in-law Theodor Koerner)(parental home of Johanna Esche, née Koerner)
1909-1911Ernst Abbé monument in Jena
1912-1913Design and construction of Villa Dürckheim in Weimar
1913-1914Design and construction of Villa Henneberg in Weimar
1913-1914Design and construction of Villa Koerner in Chemnitz (commissioned by Herbert Esche's brother-in-law, Dr Theodor Koerner)
1913-1914Design and construction of Villa Schulenburg in Gera

Henry van de Velde - Weimar

Henry van de Velde - Jena 

Henry van de Velde - Gera 

Henry van de Velde - Chemnitz