Haus Balchem, Town house in Altstadt-Süd, Cologne, Germany

Haus Balchem at Severinstraße 15 is a Cologne town house with a suspended intermediate storey and a three-storey curved volute gable that dominates the street. Its facade, rebuilt after the 1944 fire, has a projecting oriel above the entrance carried by Corinthian columns, and cross-barred windows. The interior is a reconstruction, as the original rooms were destroyed.

Haus Balchem began as a forge, bought in 1670 by the Cologne brewer and council member Heinrich Deutz, who rebuilt it in Baroque style by 1676. After changing owners several times, it passed to the Balchem brothers, whose brewery operated here from 1884 to 1921. The house burned down on 6 April 1944; the city of Cologne bought it in 1954 and rebuilt it as a monument, and it has been listed since 1 July 1980.

Locals call the house "Em Balge", after the Balchem brothers who ran a brewery here from the 19th century; the Kartäuser-Bräu Gebrüder Balchem operated until 1921. The ground floor and mezzanine once held the tavern "Zum goldenen Bären", opened by Heinrich Deutz as a meeting place for councillors and guild masters. Since 1975 the building has housed a district library of the Cologne city library.

The house sits in Altstadt-Süd, a district easily accessed by public transportation and on foot. Visitors can view the exterior architecture at any time from the street without needing special arrangements.

The interior is not original: after the 6 April 1944 fire, salvaged staircases, floors and doors from demolished Cologne town houses were installed, including the spiral staircase from the Rinkenhof, torn down in 1911. The vaults beneath the plot were built for three houses, but Heinrich Deutz made a single building of them.