Lepsius House

The building now known as the Lepsius House, located on Große Weinmeisterstraße in Potsdam, originated as the wine steward's house of Johann Gottfried Zeising, chamberlain to Frederick II, who cultivated a vineyard of over 14 acres here from 1772. The oldest part of the building is likely the barrel-vaulted cellar. Around 1800, the first additions were made, transforming it into a single-story residence with a hipped roof. The core of this structure is still preserved today. Several extensions were built in the first half of the 19th century. This was followed by alterations and the demolition of outbuildings. The residence was then augmented on the north gable with a two-story addition, a veranda, a pergola, and elaborate facade ornamentation. Some of this ornamentation was removed in the 1930s. The Lepsius House is a defining feature of the park and residential area on Pfingstberg. The park at Große Weinmeisterstraße 41-45, laid out in 1872 by Gustav Meyer for the banker Henkel, is one of the most significant garden design creations that further enhanced the image of Potsdam's park landscape in the period following the reigns of Frederick William IV and Peter Joseph Lenné. The house was named after Dr. Johannes Lepsius, a Protestant theologian who lived there from 1907 to 1925 and dedicated his life's work to the rescue of the Armenian population in Turkey, Iran, the Balkans, Syria, and Lebanon. Since 2004, the German Foundation for Monument Protection has been involved in the restoration of the roof and facade of the Lepsius House.