Heinrich Vogeler, who had inherited his wealthy father's fortune as a young man, despised life in the city, its noise, stench and rush. At the age of 22 he moved from Bremen to Worpswede, where he joined the artists' colony based there. In 1895, he acquired the so-called Barkenhoff, an upper middle-class manor. He renovated the main building according to his own designs and furnished it himself from furniture to cutlery.