After the Tyrolean Fritz Eller had become a successful architect in Düsseldorf, he first built a bungalow on the Lower Rhine for the young family. When, at the age of 35, he was appointed to hold the chair for structural and industrial buildings at the RWTH Aachen, the later builder of the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament (1981 to 1988) needed a new domicile, at that time professors were still required to reside. During a walk in Aachen, near today's RWTH-Klinikum, the couple came across the derelict Muffet estate and saved it from demolition. "There are at least hills here," said Trude Eller, who also came from Tyrol.
"We would like people to continue to live and live culture here," says Marc Eller, the youngest of the couple's four children. Like his brothers Philipp and Erasmus Eller and his sister Klaudia Keilholz, he also became an architect. After the death of Trude (2017) and Fritz Eller (2018), the ensemble of historic manor house and studio and residential building attached in the 1960s fell into a slumber that has now ended.
The Ellers recently presented their parents' collection at an open house. "We show what culture has been created here in more than 40 years," explains Marc Eller. Gut Muffet was also a creative retreat for his father. "Sketches, sculptures, works of art and poems were created here." For years, Fritz Eller commuted between the chair, the Düsseldorf office and the construction sites.
Together with his brother Philipp, Marc Eller takes care of the planned construction work. A vacant lot between the manor house from 1870 and the residential wing is currently being closed. The Eller siblings are still in talks with the city of Aachen about exactly what should be built in the former manor house, barn and dovecote. "We ask for the support of the authorities involved so that the spirit of this place is preserved," said Marc Eller at the open house.
Already in 1967, Gut Muffet was partially listed as a monument, and a few years ago the city of Aachen declared it a monument in its entirety. The Eller family wants to accommodate various tenants at Gut Muffet, and art should be shown and viewed in a semi-public space. In this way, the neighborhood – numerous terraced houses were later built around the estate – should also be included.
"We would like this place to become an inhabited, creative place again, as it always was when Trude and Fritz Eller were alive," says Marc Eller. Both found their final resting place in the Westfriedhof, just a few minutes' walk away.
