Storehouse from Nidda

Built: about 1709
Dismantled: 1977/78
Reassembled: 1980 to 1982

This trizonal storehouse is a rare example of a richly decorated working building. Its ornate front with diamond-shaped infills emphasizes the important role the building played in the town. At its original location in the Vogelsberg region, the two-storey building had been part of a larger lordly estate located north of the church and west of the castle. It served as storage for tenancy payments in kind.

The store was sold in 1887 to the town of Nidda, then, in 1895, to Levi Zimmermann and in 1908 to Mayer Stern and his wife Klementine. This Jewish family ran a business for agricultural products until they were disowned and deported by the Nazi regime in 1938.

In 1949, the former storehouse came into ownership of the Lupp company that used the building for their builder’s yard until 1971 and raised the entrance to the front of the upper floor as seen on the picture from 1978. A further gate was added to the back of the building. During reassembly in the museum, the entrance at the eaves side of the building was reduced back to its original size. The building once more features its full-length timber-frame and facade decorations as documented in a photograph made in 1942 by the conservationist and architecture historian Heinrich Walbe.