Old barn becomes residential building: funding decision handed over

In the villages and small towns of the Waldeck-Frankenberg district there are some buildings that were obviously not built only 30 years ago, but date back at least to the century before last and have clearly seen better times. Many of them have been standing empty for years and decades, have often been offered for sale for just as long, but have found no takers. Their problem: they do not fall under monument protection regulations, so they would not be eligible for funding from monument protection.

The district of Waldeck-Frankenberg has been offering a solution to this problem since 1 January 2019 and will continue to do so until the end of 2023: its funding programme for the renovation of old buildings. A total of half a million euros is made available each year to enable new utilisation concepts for older buildings. The aim of the funding programme is to set accents and create incentives for making rural areas even more liveable.

First District Councillor and Head of the Building Department Karl-Friedrich Frese was pleased to be able to hand over a funding notification for the maximum sum of 25,000 euros for a particularly exciting project in the core town of Waldeck. Building owner Hubertus Nottscheid will have a barn from 1891, which was previously unused, converted into a flat. The basement and part of the ground floor had already been completed 19 years ago by the previous owner. In addition, a concrete false ceiling is now to be added to the ground floor. On the resulting gallery, which can be reached via a staircase, owner Nottscheid would like to set up a study.

"Two years ago, my wife and I decided to move here to Waldeck and set up another small business," Hubertus Nottscheid says. The trained chef and studied sales and marketing specialist had previously driven past the barn for sale time and again during his hunting trips in the district. However, the couple's plans to set up a small regional shop and a distillery on the ground floor of the barn and to use the attic, which was yet to be separated, as living space failed due to overly complicated and expensive approval procedures. "The district's monument preservation office then drew our attention to the funding programme for the renovation of old building fabric," says Nottscheid; they gratefully took up this opportunity immediately.

"This is exactly what our funding programme for the renovation of old buildings is intended for - to bring life into old buildings, to do something about the many vacancies and thus to make rural areas a little more attractive," emphasised Frese, the head of the building department. There is always talk of "getting back to the countryside", but all those involved have to do something to achieve this, including the district in the extended area of monument protection. Some time ago, it was decided to really show the flag here and to install a well-funded support programme. Not least also with regard to the climate to be protected: "Every newly used vacancy is one building less that is built on the so-called greenfield site, where further valuable soil would have been sealed by the construction."

In the meantime, the Nottscheid couple has been able to realise the distillery planned in the barn directly on the market square in Waldeck's core town. Together with a well-stocked regional goods shop, the "Land in Sicht - Wildes aus Waldeck" enjoys great popularity among locals and holidaymakers alike. Nottscheid's motto: "What you want to buy must also be available for direct tasting" is well received. And soon the range will be expanded to include home-brewed beer - a brewery is to be built in the recently acquired manor house of the old farm in Höringhausen. All in all, a successful example of how committed ideas can bring new life to otherwise derelict inner-city areas.