Leipzig: Riquethaus

Riquet-Haus, 1908-1909. Architect: Paul Lange. Photo: Daniela Christmann

1908-1909

Architect: Paul Lange

Schuhmachergässchen 1-3, Leipzig, Germany

The Riquet House, located in downtown Leipzig, was built between 1908 and 1909. It was constructed as a business and trade fair building for the Riquet Company, according to plans designed by architect Paul Lange.

Building

Lange was commissioned by Riquet & Co. AG to build a trade fair building for tea on a narrow plot of land.

To obtain sufficiently large rooms, Lange designed the building with a steel skeleton.

The exterior steel columns and ceiling beams in the commercial spaces on the first floor are clad with mirrors and wood décor.

A pair of copper elephant heads on the entrance door are the company’s trademark.

The architect modeled the building’s double-story, curved roof turret after Chinese and Japanese pagodas.

The pagoda roof, visible from afar, refers to the countries of origin of the products sold in the exhibition hall. It also shows the influence of Japonism on Art Nouveau architecture.

The parapets, pillars, main cornice, and round gables are decorated with colorful Art Nouveau mosaics.

Riquet & Co. AG

In addition to cocoa, chocolate, and wafers produced in-house, the company traded Japanese, Chinese, and other Oriental goods.

Following the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, which prohibited the Huguenots from freely practicing their religion, the Riquet family immigrated from France to Germany.

On November 15, 1745, Jean George Riquet opened a “colonial wholesale business” in Leipzig.

Product Line

The company imported tea, coffee, and spices. Initially located in Katharinenstraße, it moved to Klostergasse 5 in 1763.

Among Riquet’s customers was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who declared the brand his favorite chocolate. Goethe kept up a lively correspondence with Jean George Riquet.

After Riquet’s death, his nephew, also named Jean George, continued to run the business from 1791. In 1818, he handed it over to his partner, Christian Friedrich Meyer, who expanded it into a “tea specialty shop.”

Around 1850, Meyer established a retail department selling cocoa, English cookies, jams, coffee, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and Japanese and Chinese goods.

In 1890, the company began producing cocoa.

The number of employees steadily increased, reaching about seven hundred by 1921.

Since 1945, chocolate under the Riquet name has been produced by Waldbaur in Stuttgart.

Restoration and Current Use

After the referendum in Saxony in 1946 approved the dispossession of large companies, Riquet & Co. AG was expropriated without compensation.

Although the teahouse was threatened with demolition in 1968, it was preserved. From 1994 to 1995, the Cologne architect Knut Bienhaus restored it to its original condition, and the tower, which had been destroyed during the war, was rebuilt.

Since 1996, the ground floor has housed the Riquet coffee house.