Villa Annika (also Wagner Villa)
The architect Wilhelm Frickhöfer, who had been involved in the construction of the Rhine barracks, built Villa Annika in 1860/62 on the country road to Schierstein (today Rheingaustraße 137). In 1865, Frickhöfer sold the building to the Sultan's Turkish envoy to the Berlin court, Aristarchi Bey, who had been married to Anna, the daughter of Prussian Minister of War General Eduard von Bonin and his wife Sophie Dequer de Jouy, since 1858. The villa was named "Annika" after her.
Aristarchi Bey, envoy in Berlin from 1854-76, had gained access to the court through his marriage to the daughter of the Prussian Minister of War and developed a close relationship with the Crown Prince's family. The future Emperor Frederick III visited the couple in Biebrich from Koblenz in November and December 1877. Nāser ad-Dīn (Nasreddin), Shah of Persia, also came to Villa Annika during his trips to Europe in 1873 and 1883.
The house is known as the "Wagner Villa" because the composer Richard Wagner rented a small apartment here in 1862, where he worked on his opera "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg". A memorial plaque on the Rhine promenade commemorates Wagner's stay in Biebrich.
In 1889, Rudolf Dyckerhoff bought Villa Annika and its 5,000m2 plot of land. The villa is still privately owned today.
Literature
Engelberg, Meinrad von: Wagner and Biebrich - a house and its history. In: Wagner Perspectives. Papers from the Mainz lecture series on the Richard Wagner Year 2013, ed. Beer, Axel/Kramer, Ursula, Mainz 2015 [pp. 26-48] (Schriften zur Musikwissenschaft 24).
Vollmer, Eva Christina: Rheingaustraße 137, in: Zeitzeugen, vol. I, (1996) [pp. 38 f.].