Villa Gans, Cultural heritage monument in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany.

Villa Gans is a residential home in Kronberg im Taunus designed with clean geometric shapes and purposeful simplicity in its exterior walls. The building catches the eye with its arranged window rows and bright surfaces that show how the interior spaces are organized from the street.

Clara Gans, unmarried daughter of the Frankfurt industrialist Adolf Gans, had the house built between 1929 and 1931 to plans by Peter Behrens. Of his seven designs in different styles she chose a flat-roofed building in the New Building manner, with up to eight servants in mind. A 1938 arson attack destroyed the rosewood dining room; Gans emigrated to Switzerland and never returned. The villa stood empty from 1969 until its 1974 listing as a monument, and has been used as three flats since 1984.

Locals know the house as the "Landhaus einer Dame im Taunus", the title under which it appeared in 1930s architecture journals. Clara Gans, called "Lala", had it built for herself and up to eight servants. The interior once held a green-tiled fireplace with gold joints, a floor of swamp oak inlaid with maple, and walls covered in pale grey-yellow goatskin.

The villa stands at Falkensteiner Straße 19 on the edge of Kronberg, on a 13,000 m² slope below Falkenstein. It is a private three-family house, so visitors view the exterior from the street only. The rough stone garden walls step down the slope in front of the pale facade, and the ribbon windows and railed balconies read best in daylight.

Clara Gans chose one of seven designs Peter Behrens prepared in different styles, picking a flat-roofed New Building house for herself and up to eight servants. The interiors were as modern as the shell: sliding windows sank electrically into the walls, and the staircase railing was partly silver bronze with a Galalith handrail.