The Yellow House in Laiz: Farewell after 40 years full of stories!

The Yellow House in Laiz: Farewell after 40 years full of stories!

After almost 40 years, the “Yellow House” in Laiz is finally closing its doors. A farewell party scheduled to take place in two weeks will mark the end of an era in which the building, built around 1900 by the Jewish Frank family, served as communal accommodation for refugees. In recent decades, people from various countries have found refuge here, including Vietnam, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Syria. At peak times, up to 230 people from 26 nations lived in the “Yellow House” in Sigmaringen, but its condition had suffered greatly over the years.

The building, which was originally built as a brewery, served as a commercial bakery for a while after the war and later as a fashion school. According to local mayor Wolfgang Querner, the positive integration of refugees within the village community has contributed to acceptance. At the beginning there was resistance to the accommodation of asylum seekers, but this quickly gave way to a wave of willingness to help.

Reconstruction and future of the Yellow House

The “Yellow House” is now being renovated by the Baumann Immobilien company from Tübingen. Over the last three years, extensive renovation work has taken place to create 42 modern apartments from the moribund building. The work is well underway and the new exterior façade is now light blue, while the adjacent building shines in a striking turquoise. This new color design makes the “turquoise house” clearly visible from various vantage points in the area and is even perceived as more eye-catching than Sigmaringen Castle.

District Administrator Stefanie Bürkle emphasizes that refugees can often be better integrated in smaller towns than in large cities. The Sigmaringen district has already acquired two additional accommodations to address the needs of the refugees and currently has 600 places in temporary accommodation.

Memories and stories

Former residents of the “Yellow House” return to tell their stories. Nguyen Van Tinh, who fled Vietnam with his family in 1980, talks about his time in the house that offered him and his family a temporary home. Bujar Zeqiri, who fled Kosovo in 1992, has successfully integrated into Germany and now works as a CNC turner. Hassan Cheikhmous, who came from Syria in 2014, is currently living in follow-up accommodation and is completing training as an auto mechatronics technician.

Anja Schäfer from the district office remembers the history of the Yellow House and the Jewish Frank family, whose brewery was an important refuge for many refugees over the years. In order to make access to the new building easier and to further beautify Laiz, there are already proposals, such as the renovation of the church and the Prime Minister's house.

The end of the “Yellow House” not only heralds the end of important accommodation for numerous refugees, but also the beginning of a new era for the building, which will be transformed into a modern residential building that will promote coexistence in the community in the future. Further information can be found in the reports Swabian newspaper and the Stuttgart newspaper.