StandortEnser Straße
The haunt house
The haunt house once was a gothic warehouse, the access of which was only possible through a timber frame house standing next to it. In the middle ages it served as fire proof warehouse for merchants. It was erected round 1300, made of rough limestone cuboids. The stair gable of six steps points to the Enser Straße, the longitudinal side of the Katthagen.
The shutters were made of iron in order to protect the stock inside 
the stone house from fire. Tightly attached to the old warehouse is one of the oldest timber frame houses in Korbach, the former Wille house.
On January 10th, 1893 the "Corbacher Zeitung" reported about the
"Corbacher Sonderling crank), the so-called Blumenchrist". He inhabited the celler of the old stone house, where he lived under poorest
circumstances.
The name "haunt house" traces back to a saga, after that once a mean woman was changed into a black pig for her hard-heartedness.
The saga:
Once upon a time a cold-hearted, mean woman lived in the haunt house. She was so mean, that she did not give her servants enough food. If a poor man walked in her yard, she sicked the dog on him. She preferred to leave the remnants for the pigs instead for the ones in need. She even expelled her nephew, because he was going to marry a poor woman. But then the cold-hearted woman got ill and died. Feeding the pigs, the maid now saw a black pig. After she chased it away, it appeared in the kitchen. The maid was going to chase it away again, but now the pig spoke it meant to have an eye on the maid to be loyal. The pig wanted her to touch and release it. The maid touched it with her apron and it turned black as if it was burnt. From now on the pig came every day and brought a lot of trouble to the house. The nephew, who inherited the house of the old woman, requested the Franciscan friars for help. But nobody managed to chase the pig away.
Only the abbot of the Corvey convent was, according to legend, capable of liberating the house from the weird pig. He trapped it in a huge wardrobe and quickly locked the door. Now the pig was banned for good. The nephew later did many more good things and married the woman of his heart. Today the house is used by the Verein Freilichtbühne (open air theatre club). Who knows, maybe the pig is still in the wardrobe?
© Luisa Bethke/ M. Möller
Literatur:
Hans Osterhold: Meine Stadt. Korbacher Bauten erzählen Stadtgeschichte, hrsg. vom Magistrat der Kreisstadt Korbach, 3. Aufl., Korbach 2004.
Ein Rundgang durch die alte Stadt, bearb. von Ursula Wolkers, hrsg. vom Wilhelm Bing Verlag und Magistrat der Stadt Korbach mit Förderung der Sparkassenstiftung Waldeck-Frankenberg, Korbach 1999.
Marie-Luise Lindenlaub: Korbach steckt voller Geschichte(n). Reiseführer in die Vergangenheit einer Stadt, Korbach 2008.
Wilhelm Hellwig (Hrsg.): Sagen und Geschichten aus Korbach und Umgebung, 4. Aufl., Korbach 1999.