Haus Basse

Haus Basse stands in Hanover as a late nineteenth-century building whose street-facing facade combines Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque forms. Stone plates and period decorative elements shape the exterior, designed by architect Friedrich Geb during construction between 1891 and 1895. Wilhelm Basse founded the private bank in 1890, and its clients included the Welf family, then living in exile after Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover.

During the early twentieth century, Käte Steinitz held a salon in the Bel Etage with her husband Ernst, drawing figures from the international avant-garde. Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky and Mary Wigman were among the guests who brought art and intellectual exchange into the building. An incendiary bomb damaged the structure during the Allied air raids on Hanover, while restoration after the war deliberately preserved some fire damage alongside a commemorative plaque. The bank closed through insolvency in 1985, ending one of Hanover’s last private banking histories.

The surviving fire marks give the facade a visible connection to wartime Hanover, while the Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque details preserve its earlier architectural character.