On the outskirts of Monschau’s old town in Eschbachstraße is a representative ensemble of 18th-century houses that is structurally out of the ordinary in Monschau. It is a three-winged complex that once housed not only living quarters but also workshops and the counting house. The complex was built in the French style. Similar building complexes can still be found today in the old town of Eupen, for example.

At the time of construction in 1778, the farm complex was located on the main connecting road from Monschau in the direction of Aachen and Düren. The building was erected by Markus Martin Bauer (1738-1803) from Augsburg, who was related to the Schmitz family through marriage. He was also a manufacturer of fine cloth and ran a woollen laundry and a dye works in the building. However, the Bauer & Kayser company produced rather small quantities compared to the other fine cloth manufacturers. In 1783 it no longer appears in the statistics.

In 1804, the fine cloth manufacturer Johann Heinrich Elbers (1764-1840), son-in-law of Paul Scheibler, who came from Mülheim/Rhine, bought the building ensemble and considerably expanded his production on site. He had a multi-storey weaving corner (workshop rooms with hand looms) built on the opposite side of the street, of which only the cellar area made of quarry stone remains. A little below the Elbershof on the Rur, there is still a stately building, the so-called Elberskontor. It housed not only the administration of the von Elbers company, but also other workshops. Particularly striking is the arched rafter roof, which looks like an inverted ship’s hull and enormously enlarged the roof storage space compared to a normal gable roof. Apart from the Roter Bau/Tuchschererhaus, this is the only surviving building in Monschau with this roof form.

In 1842, the Johann Heinrich Elbers company additionally acquired a fulling mill located on the Äuchen downstream on the right bank and built a wool washing, spinning and roughening plant here. This area remained in the company’s possession until 1886. The Elbershof itself was thoroughly renovated in the mid-1970s and now houses holiday flats.

Text Gabriele Harzheim