The Brummel House
The most valuable and best preserved of all of Adolf Loos’ realisations in Pilsen is the home he designed in 1927 for Jan and Jana Brummel at Husova 58. Here he launched a radical renovation of the single-storey townhouse by builder Edward Kroh at the end of the 19th century. He stripped the house of its original historicist stucco decoration and covered its gabled roof with an attic, then expanded it on the west side with a vertical extension with a smooth façade. This gave the building a completely new, elegant, and progressive look in an otherwise not-very-attractive environment.
This seemingly unappealing address was purchased by William Liebstein in 1907, given it was closely located to his wood and coal business. Jan Brummel then joined his company in the early 20s. Soon the two families were united when Jan’s brother Leo married Liebstein’s daughter Gertrude in 1921, with Jan then marrying Gertrude’s younger sister Jana only one year later. There were no more Liebstein daughters left for the last of the Brummel brothers, Kurt, who became the only one to marry a non-Jewish girl named Valeria. After William Liebstein’s death, the home fell into Jan and Jana’s hands, with Jana’s widowed mother, Hedvika, also having a right to use the home for the rest of her life. With this in mind, Adolf Loos created a living space suited for two generations. The well-arranged structuring of the apartment on the first storey allowed the younger couple’s and elder lady’s areas to be completely separate. Their rooms met in the spacious common dining room in the charming enfilade of four spaces finished with a roomy balcony.
Loos’ interior acted as the family’s meeting room until 1939, when the Brummels were forced to give up their home to Aryanisation. They managed to come to terms with the German Adolf Straub, who they already knew thanks to their timber business. Straub moved into their apartment but allowed Jan, Jana, and Hedvika to live in the guest rooms located one storey up, which was the same time that they employed the now widowed Valeria as their housekeeper. In 1942, Jan, Jana, and Hedvik were sent off to the concentration camp Terezín because of their Jewish heritage. One year later, Hedvika died there, having not yet turned 68. Jan and Jana were then sent separately to other camps in the east. It’s a miracle that they survived and returned after the war to their home in Pilsen, where Valeria and her son Michal awaited them. Although the days of socialism weren’t any easier for the family, they managed to remain living in their home, even saving it from being demolished in the early 1980s. After 1989, the home was then returned to their ownership.
The interiors were almost completely preserved, including the unique and precious collection of free-standing furniture originally designed by Loos, which didn’t survive in any of the other interiors. The interior is an example of a brilliant combination of various materials and coloured surfaces. Jan and Jana’s living room with an oak veneer is dominated by an imposing cement replica of the Renaissance fireplace, which was intended to draw the inhabitants’ attention away from the windows, which only provided views of the home’s unsightly industrial surroundings. The same function was then played by the large mural on the dining room wall by Austrian painter Robert Aigner with motifs of the Italian countryside. It’s no coincidence that this family was well-connected with multiple talented artists. One of the brothers, Kurt Brummel, was gifted with skill as a painter, as was their cousin, surrealist Edita Hirschová, to whom a private exposition is dedicated directly within the home’s interior.
Visitors can view the entire apartment, including the washroom, bedrooms, and Hedvika Liebstein’s extravagant “yellow room”. The renovations of the Brummel house were carried out by a team led by Profession of Architecture Václav Girsa.
The painting has to be so impactful that the poor man who lives here forgets that he has an ugly factory right under his nose, instead thinking that this painting is his view from the window… The colours must be refreshing and lively. This is only possible when the painting is painted directly on the wall, without a frame or glass.