The Whale House
building in Freiburg im Breisgau, Freiburg Government Region, Bade-Württemberg, Germany
The Whale House (Haus zum Walfisch) is a late Gothic bourgeois house in the old town of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and is under conservation. The building is currently used by the Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau bank. It is part of a complex which, in the past, was made up of 17 separate buildings. The front wall of the house opens onto the Franziskanerstraße, whilst the rear is on the Gauchstraße, near Kartoffelmarkt square.
The building was made internationally famous by Dario Argento's 1977 horror film Suspiria, where it appears as the Dance Academy, the film's central location.
History
At the current location of the Whale House there used to be three farmsteads, 100×50 feet (ca. 30×15 m) in size: the Haus Zum Blattfuß, Haus Zum Sampson and Haus Zum Ofenhaus.
Jakob Villinger von Schönenberg (1480–1529) had a house from 1506 in the Barfüßergasse (the present day Franziskanergasse). He is believed to have come from either Sélestat in Alsace or from Freiburg itself, and from 1510 he worked as Emperor Maxilimilian I’s treasurer general. After Jakob Villinger received his citizenship, he submitted a request to the city council to start the building works.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Whale House” is building in Freiburg im Breisgau, Freiburg Government Region, Bade-Württemberg, Germany. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Whale, House and building, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “building in Freiburg im Breisgau, Freiburg Government Region, Bade-Württemberg, Germany” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 18, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1590964. VIAF identifies the subject as 4570156619125028780002. Authority coordinates are 47.996, 7.851. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1480, 1529 and 1506.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Whale House”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Whale House primary sources, The Whale House archive and Whale research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Whale House”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Whale House” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.