Haus Schulte-Witten

Haus Schulte-Witten is a manor house in Dortmund's Dorstfeld district, built in 1880 and listed as a historical monument. Erich Schulte-Witten had it enlarged between 1913 and 1915, and architects Gröpler, Feldmann and Müller gave it its Neo-Baroque and Neoclassical face. A park lies behind it, and beside Wittener Straße the old economic and pension building serves as commercial space.

The family behind the house traces its line to 1394, and sold extensive lands around it to mining companies during industrialisation. Archaeology even points to a building from the Thirty Years' War that stood here before the present one. The city of Dortmund leases the house, the family keeps its ownership, and inside you find the district library. Up to sixty wedding guests fit into historical rooms such as the living room and the blue salon.

Concerts, readings and storytelling evenings fill its calendar, and it cooperates with local schools and kindergartens on children's theatre. An electronic carillon of twelve bells has sounded from the clock tower since 1989, a gift from the Dorstfeld Support Association. It plays over the district every day, first as a commemoration of local mining history. A renovation in the early 2000s added traditional songs to its repertoire. The Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation met under this roof for many years. Opposite the house, a memorial sculpture recalls the Dorstfeld synagogue, which was desecrated and demolished in 1938.