Bleichert and Mende family In 1860 a gasworks and a collection of office buildings were constructed on the large site between present-day Lützowstraße and Benedixstraße. In 1880, this property was purchased by
Adolf Bleichert (born 1845 in Dessau, grew up in Leipzig-Gohlis), the owner of a cable-car company. This was followed by the conversion of the office buildings into "Villa Bleichert", a home for the Bleichert family. In 1890 the old villa was demolished, and from 1890 to 1891 the "Villa Hilda" was built, named for Adolf Bleichert's wife Hildegard. The Bleichert family had eight children, two of whom died young. In 1899, Adolf Bleichert contracted tuberculosis, and in 1901 died in a hospital in Switzerland. The Bleichert works were continued by the sons Max and Paul Bleichert, and in 1918 the family was raised to the hereditary nobility "von Bleichert". In the early 1920s the family moved out of the house. In 1927 Karl Mende, a wholesaler for industrial glass based at the Eutritzscher Freiladebahnhof, bought the property and used it as a residence for his family, which necessitated various modifications to the buildings. These included covering the ceiling of the upper floor was enclosed in glass tiles. During the bombing of Gohlis in 1945, the right wing and the glass dome of the house were destroyed. The Mende family continued to live there until 1952, also housing refugees. Following the arrest of Karl Mendes on the charge of forming a monopoly ("Monopolbildung"), the ownership of the property by the Mendes family came to an end. Karl Mende was later able to escape from prison in Zwickau with forged papers and fled to
West Berlin.
Klubhaus Heinrich Budde The villa officially became the property of the city of Leipzig. Between 1953 and 1954, was used as a boarding school for civil engineering students of the engineering school and then between 1954 and 1955 as a home for 80 "difficult girls". In 1956 the property was transferred to the successor company of the Bleichert-Werke, the VEB Verlade- und Transportanlagen Leipzig, for cultural use. On August 11, 1956, it was inaugurated as the "Klubhaus Heinrich Budde". The coming decades meant a lively cultural life in the house, including a library and dance events.
Budde-Haus In January 1993, the "Klubhaus Heinrich Budde" was closed and the building restored to the grandson of Karl Mendes. Following a "Save the Budde-Haus" campaign by the citizens of Gohlis, the city of Leipzig bought the property for DM 2.4 million and donated the entire site to the newly founded Heinrich-Budde-Haus e. V., which reopened the building as a socio-cultural center. Despite lively cultural activities and major renovations, the city of Leipzig repeatedly made plans to sell the building. After the Heinrich-Budde-Haus e. V. filed for bankruptcy in 2014, the cultural office of the city of Leipzig took over the management of the property. Following a call for tenders, the villa was re-opened as a cultural center by FAIRbund e. V. in 2017. == Namesake of the Budde-Haus ==