Rosegger-Museum in Krieglach

A house full of history

Front view of the Rosegger Museum and park.

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The country house

In 1877, Rosegger had a country house built in Krieglach, where he spent the summer months with his family. Here he wrote articles for the Heimgarten and works such as Jakob der Letzte, and received friends and personalities such as Ludwig Anzengruber, Franz Defregger and Karl Morré. Why a visit by Johannes Brahms to Peter Rosegger failed and numerous other amusing anecdotes from his life are told in the Rosegger-Museum.

In 1896, he had a cottage made of "soothing wood" built in the garden to help him recover from his asthma. In June 1918, the poet, who was already highly revered during his lifetime, died in his house and was laid to rest in Krieglach cemetery.

History

In May 1877 Rosegger used the revenue from his first books to finance the purchase of arable land in Krieglach covering an area of almost one joch (about 0.57 hectares or 1.4 acres). He then had a country home built on this plot in the same year, based on his own designs. He had already begun planting trees on his property even before the first spade had been turned. Ultimately, 60 little trees grew up around his new home. Even today, one of the wonderful linden trees he planted still provides magnificent shade.

His house eventually consisted of seven rooms for habitation in addition to further ancillary rooms. In September 1877 he moved immediately into the first completed but still damp room of the building and began working from there. As a result, unfortunately, his health deteriorated to a worrying degree.

Every year, from May to October, he spent “six months of life on earth in the town... followed by six months of paradise in the country” in Krieglach. As his family grew in size, Rosegger extended his home and in 1896 even built a wooden 1odge (the so-called Almhaus [Alpine House] – today’s Studierhäusl [little studio lodge]) in the garden. His hopes were pinned on the lodge, which was built entirely of wood, to mitigate his asthma. He used it as a place of retreat and as a guesthouse.

The poet died in Krieglach on 26 June 1918. His widow Anna did her best to review and edit his literary work, and also closed Rosegger’s studio and the room in which he died to preserve these for posterity. Anna Rosegger continued to live in Krieglach right up to her death in 1932. In 1943 the Nazi administrated Reichsgau Steiermark acquired the property on the occasion of the poet’s 100th birthday. The post-war Province of Styria opened it up to the general public in 1948.

In 1963 the inheritors to Rosegger’s estate also sold the Almhaus at the Landhaus. It was ceded to the Roseggerbund (the “Rosegger Association”) which operated a museum of local history at this site from 1968 to 2013.

Glimpses