Inselstraße 17, Architectural heritage monument in Pempelfort district, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Inselstraße 17 is a neo-Gothic building erected in 1897–98 by architect Josef Kleesattel for judge Hugo Lenzberg, now housing the city registry office. Its five-axis show facade has two entrances, an oriel and balcony, and windows topped by pointed keel arches with crockets, pinnacles and a finial bearing the construction date.
Inselstraße 17 was built from 1897 to 1899 to a design by architect Josef Kleesattel dating from 1891, as the home of judge Hugo Lenzberg, who commissioned it. Lenzberg later became president of a senate at the Oberlandesgericht and hosted concerts and meetings with composers Max Reger and Hans Pfitzner in the house. His widow Anna Lenzberg, née Beer, and the children were persecuted for their Jewish origin; she died on 20 July 1942, a day before her planned deportation from Derendorf goods station to Theresienstadt. Restored from March 2006 to February 2007, the building has housed the registry office since.
Since 2007 the building has housed Düsseldorf's registry office (Standesamt), so civil weddings take place in the rooms of a neo-Gothic villa. The house owes its cultural weight to Hugo Lenzberg, who hosted concerts and met composers Max Reger and Hans Pfitzner here. In the garden stood Cornelius Andreas Donett's sculpture group Die Jahreszeiten, now kept in the Stadtmuseum.
Inselstraße 17 now houses the city's registry office (Standesamt), so the interior is normally seen only by couples marrying there; the neo-Gothic facade with its five axes, two entrances and crowning tracery balustrade can be viewed freely from the street. The building was restored between March 2006 and February 2007.
In the garden, before the house was built, stood Cornelius Andreas Donett's sculpture group The Four Seasons, once belonging to the Thomashoff milk-cure establishment at Inselstraße 15; it is now in the Stadtmuseum. A sandstone portrait by Bernhard Sopher replaced the bronze bust of Hugo Lenzberg made by Arno Breker in 1930, which metal thieves stole in 2007.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,511 contributors worldwide.