Industrial Heritage

The Villa Girmes

Manufacturer's villa, town hall, museum – three lives of one house

Anyone looking for traces of the textile industry in Oedt cannot miss one building: the Villa Girmes on Johannes-Girmes-Straße. It was built as the home of the manufacturing family that shaped the town economically for more than a century, later served the municipality of Oedt as its town hall, and today houses the local history museum in its basement – including the archaeological finds recovered at Burg Uda.

This single house therefore joins the two narratives of the place: the medieval castle and the industrial rise of the nineteenth century. About ten minutes on foot separate the villa from the castle tower.

At a glance

Key dates of the Girmes legacy in Oedt

1879
Johannes Girmes founds his velvet and plush mill
1850
Peter Mertes indigo dyeworks founded
1970
Oedt becomes part of Grefrath
free
Admission to the museum in the basement

The family behind the house

In 1879 Johannes Girmes founded a velvet and plush mill in Oedt. The business grew into the largest employer in the municipality: at its peak the works employed several thousand people and made Oedt a centre of textile production on the Lower Rhine.

The family shaped the town in more than economic terms. It had workers' housing built, endowed public institutions, and erected in the villa a house that displayed the wealth and self-image of the Lower Rhine textile industrialists. Display was part of the business – the manufacturer's villa was residence and calling card in one.

Girmes was not the only textile firm in town. As early as 1850, almost three decades earlier, the firm of Peter Mertes had been founded: an indigo dyeworks that later added workwear manufacture. Both works determined the appearance of the town and the working day of its people for generations.

Why textiles, and why here?

Handloom weaving is documented in Oedt long before industrialisation. On the Lower Rhine weavers traditionally worked at home, often as a sideline to smallholding. When mechanical looms and steam power became available in the nineteenth century, the new technology met existing skill, available labour and markets the merchants already knew – in the Netherlands and later in the Ruhr. Craft became industry, and a village on the Niers became a factory town.

From residence to town hall

From the 1970s the German textile industry came under severe cost pressure. Production shifted to countries with far lower wages, and the effect struck the whole Lower Rhine. It struck Oedt hard: the Girmes works closed, the largest employer disappeared, and the municipality had to reinvent itself economically.

The villa survived this rupture because it was given a new purpose. The building was converted into the town hall of the municipality of Oedt. That conversion is the reason the house still stands today: many manufacturers' villas in the region were demolished or left to decay after their works closed. A building with a public function gets maintained.

In 1970 Oedt lost its independence in the local government reorganisation and became a district of the municipality of Grefrath in the county of Viersen. The street name Johannes-Girmes-Straße keeps the memory of the founder present on the town map.

The museum in the basement

Where the finds from Burg Uda are on display

In the basement of the former villa, the Heimatmuseum Oedt presents a dense collection on local history in a modest space. For visitors to Burg Uda it is the essential second address: this is where finds from the excavations of around 1960 are kept that have no room in the castle tower itself.

Added to these are exhibits on the textile history of the town, on everyday life and on the religious culture of the Lower Rhine. The collection is looked after by the Heimatverein Oedt e.V., which also maintains the castle tower.

Visiting

Johannes-Girmes-Straße 21, 47929 Grefrath-Oedt, Germany
First Sunday of each month, 2–5 pm (February to December)
Admission free

Focus of the collection

• Archaeological finds from Burg Uda
• Documents on textile history
• Historical photographs of Oedt
• Everyday objects from local history
• Ecclesiastical art and customs

Combining both visits

Museum and castle tower lie about ten minutes apart on foot. On a first Sunday of the month between April and October both are open – the only date on which tower and collection can be combined in one day. Details on the page Visitor Information.

Open questions about the building

Less is documented about the Villa Girmes than its importance for the town would suggest. So that this page does not create a false impression of certainty, we name the open points explicitly:

Not yet documented

• Exact year of construction
• Architect and master builder
• Original plan and room layout
• Year of conversion into the town hall
• Alterations to the façade
• Status as a listed building

We are working to document these details from the holdings of the Heimatverein Oedt e.V. and the local yearbook „Das Üdsche Heimatblättsche“. Anyone with sources, building records, photographs or personal recollections of the villa and the Girmes works is warmly invited to contact the association.

Sources and status

The statements on this page draw on the local history of Oedt and on information published by the Heimatverein Oedt e.V. Individual references for the building history will be added once archive research is complete. Points marked as open are expressly not documented. This website is a private information project and is not operated by the Heimatverein Oedt e.V. All statements about the association are descriptive and without warranty; only the association itself can give binding information.

Last updated: August 2026

Read on

The industrial history of Oedt and the castle in context

Overview

Industrial heritage in Oedt

From handloom weaving to velvet and plush: the textile tradition of the town.

To the overview
Association

Heimatverein Oedt e.V.

Who maintains the castle, runs the museum and documents local history.

To the association