Country house and summer retreat

"Sommerfrische" (Summer retreat) is a 19th and early 20th century term. In the German dictionary by the Brothers Grimm, the definition is "recreational stay of townspeople in the countryside in summertime" or "the townpeople’s longing for the countryside in summer". With the opening up of Europe by rail transport from the middle of the 19th century, travel became easier. The nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie could travel comfortably to the countryside by train.

Starting from Munich, the rural regions towards the Austrian border were gradually opened up by railway construction. The expansion of the rail network not only meant economic but also tourist development.

Franz Zell built country houses and hunting lodges for his clients from the Allgäu to Hungary: in Siegsdorf in Chiemgau, Garmisch, Murnau, in Bujak /Hungary, Icking, in Oberstdorf for the Count of Geldern-Egmont.

At Schliersee, an extensive country house colony developed with the extension of the railway line from Schliersee via Fischhausen-Neuhaus to Bayrischzell.

Franz Zell designed and built at least three country houses in Neuhaus from 1910, among others for the actor and theatre director Xaver Terofal (1862-1940), for Baron von Tautphoeus and for the Councillor of Commerce Schöller.

The model and inspiration for Zell’s country house architecture can be found in his repertoire of models, his photographs of Bavarian farmhouses from Weilheim-Schongau to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Berchtesgadener Land.

Michaela Thomas