It was in 1875 that the school building in Ottersdorf, near Rastatt, was built. After the school moved its activities elsewhere, the building gained an additional storey in 1936/37 and was then converted into apartments for teachers.

Anselm Kiefer—whose father was a teacher in Ottersdorf—lived in this house with his parents, siblings, and another family of teachers from 1951 to 1957, before they moved to Rastatt-Niederbühl.

In 2019, Kiefer bought his childhood home in Ottersdorf with the intention of restoring it to host exhibitions. When he visited it with Wim Wenders, the filmmaker was so taken with the house and its proximity to the Rhine that he shot scenes for his film ANSELM – The sound of time (2023) in both Anselm’s childhood room and on the banks of the Rhine.

‘He showed me his parents’ house in Ottersdorf, which he had bought back. In the 80s and 90s, it had been ‘restored’, i.e. disfigured, and he had it rebuilt to its original state. (…) Today, the building is too beautiful to be true and I wanted it to be in the film. The scenes of the young Anselm take place there on the Rhine. It fascinated me because I also grew up on the Rhine, a few hundred kilometres further north in Düsseldorf. It was the same river that we both often stood in front of at the same age. The Rhine was my youth, I was there every day, there were no playgrounds, just rubble playgrounds where you weren’t allowed to go, but of course you went anyway. (…) The Rhine bridges were in the water and the other bank was like the other side of the moon – you couldn’t get there. It was the same for Anselm, his bridge was destroyed and France was out of reach. It was the same river – I really wanted to film there, so the young Anselm had to be in it too.’

Wim Wenders in DCM Stories
Source: ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, Text: Bettina Krause, September 20, 2023

Exhibitions are shown in Haus Kiefer as of spring 2025.