Haus An der Rur

Construction of the house:

The exact year of construction of the house is still unknown to us. However, it is quite certain that the house was built together with the neighbouring houses in the period 1770 to 1780 in the heyday of the Monschau cloth industry.

Interesting: The slightly smaller neighbouring house No. 12 between Hotel Stern and our house No. 10 was built some years later. Originally, there was a gap between the houses which served as a ford to cross the Rur.

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Original use of the house:

It is quite certain that the house was originally part of the cloth industry. Cloths were washed with the clean water of the Rur from the Venn in the cellar and dried on the upper floors and on the Rahmenberg behind the house. The lower floors were inhabited.

Interesting: To wash the cloths, water from the Rur was branched off into the cellars of the houses via a small canal. In our house was also a small canal in the basement, which may have started behind the bakery on the other side of the bridge.​

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​​Photo left: The photo shows the restored vault in the cellar. We think           Photo right: The photo shows the "new" higher positioned roof truss

that the underground canal to clean the cloths passed through the vault.       before the restoration (see red arrows)

 

Use of the house in the 19th century:

Unfortunately, we do not have any exact information about how the house was used in the 19th century. Since the Monschau cloth industry lost importance in the second half of the 19th century, it can be assumed that cloth production in our house first declined and was then discontinued.

Interesting:

• In the 19th century, the house was given a completely new roof truss. The new roof truss was built slightly higher. In addition, the ceiling of the 3rd floor was renewed and the room height was increased. We suspect that the 3rd floor was previously uninhabitable due to a too low room height and was only used to dry cloths.

• Today's Monschau market square was only built in the second half of the 19th century. Originally, it was built up with houses, but they were destroyed by a great fire in 1876. Today's market square was built 10 years after the fire.

 

Use of the house in the 20th century:

From 1932 Mrs. Kremer ran a guest house with a bar. We found the concession documents, including a drawing of the ground floor at the Monschau Historical Society. The house number of the house was 210 at the time.

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Both photos: Concession documents from 1932 for a guesthouse with a bar       Photo right: Certificate of permission for a guest house with bar

Photo left: above is a sketch of the ground floor at that time, below a sketch

of the neighbouring houses, the Rur and the market square.

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In the post-war period, living space was in high demand. Up to 50 to 60 people lived in the house under very simple conditions.

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In the years after 1950 the apartments on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors were rented. A succession of various shops were operated on the ground floor. 

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The last use as a living space and shop took place at the end of the 80s or beginning of the 90s. After that, the house stood empty.

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At the end of the 90s, a Dutch building contractor completely renewed the ceiling between the basement and the ground floor with the help of extensive funding. The dilapidated oak beams between the basement and the ground floor were replaced by four steel girders and a concrete ceiling. An important activity, because the house had sunk by 50 to 60cm in the centre, which resulted in considerable damage. We do not know during which time the house sank so much, but we are aware that not much had been done to the house since the war. 

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Use of the house in the 21st century:

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T​he work by the building contractor was not continued, so that the house remained empty for many further years. 

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We acquired the house in 2014 in a very dilapidated condition, repaired and restored it extensively and finished the work in 2024. When we bought it, we were aware that it would become a very big project for us because the condition was really very bad (see "Renovation work"). Nevertheless, we greatly underestimated the actual need for repairs and also the requirements of the building authority, especially the fire protection requirements. We clearly exceeded our originally estimated duration of 3 years for the work. It took 7 1/2 years until we were finished. However, we did not put ourselves under time pressure and carried out the work accurately and as needed to be done to achieve a good result even if it took a little longer than planned.
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Since 2021, we (Michael & Michelle Beckmann) have been running a holiday apartment on each floor, the first years on the upper floors only whenever we did not work in the house. Since 2024 all 5 floors have been rented in the completely finished house.

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Photo above: Shows some findings we found during the restoration works.

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Further information about the history of the town Monschau can be found here:

Monschau – Geschichtsverein des Monschauer Landes (gv-mon.de)