View from the Marburger Straße of Klubb and the Church of St. Nicholas

The watercolour shows in landscape format the view from the Marburger Straße on to the cobbled market square around 1850. The viewer gazes along the street into a cloudy sky. Only a small number of people can be seen strolling along; the painter devotes himself entirely to the urban scene. In the left part of the picture, we see a colourful, narrow and interlocking group of houses with historic gables, known as the ‘Klubb’. The tower of the Church of St. Nicholas projects behind it. Consisting of 25 small, multi-storey houses, the ‘Klubb’ was destroyed by a large fire on the night of April 12-13, 1869. The fire broke out in two houses and within a quarter of an hour had spread to the other buildings in the complex. Thanks to the efforts of Siegen’s voluntary fire department, which was founded in 1865, the commitment of numerous emergency services from the surrounding area and the civil courage of many local people, the fire was contained and the flames were prevented from spreading to the Church of St. Nicholas. Nonetheless, 49 families and some 200 people lost their homes and possessions overnight.