In the back the 'Villa Hügel', a 19th-century mansion in Bredeney, now part of Essen, Germany. It was built by the industrialist Alfred Krupp in 1870-1873 as his main residence and was the home of the Krupp family until after World War II.
More recently, the Villa Hügel has housed the offices of the Kulturstiftung Ruhr (Ruhr Cultural Foundation), an art gallery, the historical archive of the Krupp family and company, and a concert venue.
Hügel simply means “hill”, as the villa sits atop a hill. It was sometimes named Villa Krupp, after the family.
The Nuremberg chief prosecutor Robert H. Jackson considered Krupp to be a central case of crimes committed by industrialists in association with National Socialism:
“Four generations of the Krupp family have owned and operated the great armament and munitions plants which have been the chief source of Germany’s war supplies. For over 130 years this family has been the focus, the symbol, and the beneficiary of the most sinister forces engaged in menacing the peace of Europe.”