The artist Johannes Helle

When Johannes Helle received the commission in November 1987 to give an unusual and exceptional design to the tank cellar at the Schlossgut Diel wine estate, his original intention was to stay in the Nahe region for only three months. The fact that this dragged out to two and a half years can be ascribed to the circumstance that the artist continuously presented new design ideas and recommendations, including other cellars, walls surrounding the vineyards as well as parts of the winery building in his overall concept. In addition, Johannes Helle proceeded to paint numerous pictures, and produced wine-related sculptures from barrel staves, items that were shown in the course of several exhibitions at Schlossgut Diel, which were also available for sale. Johannes Helle left Burg Layen in the spring of 1990, moving first to Trier and later to Kaiserslautern. Since 2000 he has been living in an artists‘ studio house in the Lichtenberg suburb of Berlin. Each year in August Johannes Helle returns to Burg Layen, to give the steel tanks in the cellars of Schlossgut Diel a new face, always as an updated and revitalized version and extension of his overall artistic work.