Villa Bärenfett, Blockhouse museum in Radebeul, Germany

Villa Bärenfett is a single-storey log blockhouse in the garden of Karl May's former home at Karl-May-Straße 5 in Radebeul. Architect Max Czopka designed it on a sandstone base with a gabled roof and a dormer, and it was extended in the same style in 1927/28 and again in 1935/36.

Klara May, Karl May's widow, had the blockhouse built in 1926 for Patty Frank, who gave his Native American collection to the Karl May Museum in exchange for lifelong residence and a curator post. Architect Max Czopka won the competition against Otto Rometsch with a single-storey design on a sandstone base, gable roof and dormer. An annex in the same style followed in 1927/28 for the museum, which opened on 1 December 1928; a further extension by Czopka came in 1935/36 because of visitor numbers. Frank lived there until his death in 1959, his wife two years longer.

The building is named after Patty Frank, the Indian collector who lived here from 1926 until his death in 1959 and served as curator of the Karl May Museum. In return for lifelong residence, he made his North American collection available to the museum, which opened in the annex on 1 December 1928.

Villa Bärenfett stands in the garden behind Karl May's former house at Karl-May-Straße 5 in Radebeul; the street was formerly called Kirchstraße. The blockhouse is a protected monument and part of the Karl-May-Museum, whose exhibition rooms were added to it in 1927/1928 and again in 1935/1936. Visitors reach the site on foot from the street entrance and pass through the museum rooms of the log building.

Patty Frank, the Sorbian-born collector who moved in here, was a former circus performer and acrobat who had travelled with a Wild West show. His collection of some 3,000 Native American objects formed the museum's original holdings, and he lived in the blockhouse until his death in 1959.