The Rector’s Residence

A family home for the rector of the Old Town School

The Rector’s Residence, next to the Old Town School is one of the few examples of a modern detached house by Otto Haesler.  From an historical perspective, the former residence is an important attraction for lovers of avant-garde architecture.

Parallel to the construction of the Old Town School (also known as ‚The Glass School‘) the residence for the Rector of the school was built in the southwest corner of the school grounds, between 1926 and 1928. While Otto Haesler built numerous villas and single-family houses in Celle and its surroundings from 1906 to 1920, he subsequently rejected the construction of large single-family homes as uneconomical due to the high costs compared to multi-family houses. However, the Rector’s Residence was part of the overall contract of the Old Town School and so Haesler accepted this project too.

The building is constructed of several cubes and offers three living rooms on the ground floor and the sleeping rooms on the upper floor. Otto Haesler placed great value on colour. The decorative painter Karl Völker was commissioned to create a colour concept for the building – unfortunately the original colours have been lost over the years.

Even when the doors are locked, thanks to the "24-hour-gallery", visitors can still get an impression of the interior of an apartment and residents‘ lifestyle during the Bauhaus period: Photos of the interior of a furnished apartment are on display directly at the Rector’s Residence.