Hoffmann Hotel

This Parisian townhouse, with a quadrilateral plan featuring a main building framed by a courtyard and garden, was built around 1770 in the Louis XV style. Its street-facing facade is distinguished by two balconies and a small balcony, while the window frames display six decorative variations. The window keystones are carved with high-relief busts, various rocaille motifs, and floral designs, except for those on the left side, which remain unfinished due to the Hoffmann family's bankruptcy in 1781. François Joseph Ignace Hoffmann, an Alsatian industrialist, commissioned this building before facing financial ruin, prematurely ending his decorative ambitions.

The Hoffmann family significantly impacted the 18th-century Alsatian economy as industrial leaders, enriching themselves through the cultivation of madder. This plant, whose root produces a bright red dye, had been exploited in Haguenau since the Middle Ages under the name "Hagenauer Röth." In the following century, the Hoffmanns made Haguenau the leading European center for madder production, exporting a red powder used throughout Europe. This dye notably colored the trousers of French soldiers until 1915, making them highly visible during the early battles of the Great War. Even today, the Saint-Cyr cadets wear ceremonial uniforms with "madder red" trousers, thus perpetuating the legacy of this emblematic industry.