Wolfsbrunnen Castle
Coordinates: 51 ° 12 ′ 14 ″ N , 10 ° 6 ′ 25 ″ E
The Wolfsbrunnen Castle is a modern-day , starting from 1904 in the style of neo -built castle . It is located about 800 m north-northeast of the Schwebda district in the Meinhard forest area at the foot of the Dachsberg in the Werra-Meißner district in Hesse. Today it is used as a hotel .
history
The royal Prussian chamberlain and district administrator of the Eschwege district , Alexander von Keudell (1861–1939), had the castle built between 1904 and 1907. It was a gift from the Kassel industrialist Oscar Henschel (1837-1894), whose daughter Louise he had married.
The ground on which the castle was built was a park created by the von Keudell family around the local Wolfsborn spring around 1780, which gave the castle its name and which the Kassel architect Anton Karst (Karst & Fanghänel) in the castle courtyard in preserved form as a fountain . The castle was occupied on June 27, 1907 by the married couple Luise and Alexander von Keudell. After her husband's death on June 24, 1939, his widow and her family continued to live in part of the castle.
During the Second World War the castle was from 1943 to 1945 as an auxiliary hospital for Eschweger main hospital of the Wehrmacht used. The American occupation forces stayed in the castle only briefly until October 1945. The rumor that the 3rd US Infantry Division , also called the "blue and white" from its coat of arms, reached the limit of their ability in the architecture of the castle, is confirmed by the fact that they are in and around Eschwege had spoiled them with these colors within a very short time, whereby the ceilings were blue, the walls white and stairs, railings and garden fences were colored accordingly, but the castle remained untouched.
From October 1945 to 1947 the castle served the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) as a branch of the Eschweger camp for displaced persons , for example to take in orphaned Jewish children.
The relief organization of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck leased the castle from August 1947 to September 1956 in order to be able to carry out the tasks assigned to it. a. People returning from Russia looked after in the castle. In August 1949 the conference of the chief executives of the Diakonische Werke of the Protestant regional churches took place here, at which sponsorships were decided to support the regional churches in the former Soviet zone of occupation (the later GDR ). The original regulation of cooperation (e.g. Berlin was supported by Westphalia , Thuringia by Württemberg , Mecklenburg by Bavaria ) remained in place until the 1980s and there were only minor shifts in responsibilities.
From 1951 to 1953 the castle was available as a rest home for mining apprentices from the Ruhr area .
The Federal Border Guard leased the castle from 1958 to 1961 after it had been vacant for a long time. With the public money that was more readily available, the castle was renovated and adapted to the requirements of the police force.
After that, the castle was again vacant for a long time, but from 1965 to 1966 it hosted the workers of the Preussag company who laid gas pipelines in the Eschwege district.
On April 1, 1969, the Soblick company from Hamburg acquired the castle in order to operate it as a hotel . The plan was not implemented and the company sold the property in 1981 for three million DM to an unknown investor who passed the castle on as an ashram to the sannyasins of the Indian guru Bhagwan in 1982 . Around 80 adults and 30 children lived and worked in the so-called "Rajneesh city" until 1985. They ran a publishing house with a printing shop , a carpenter's shop , and a car repair shop, and in 1983 they received statutory health insurance approval for a general medical practice. Mainly self-discovery groups were carried out with partly external therapists. From 1984 there were differences with a citizens' initiative in the neighboring town of Grebendorf . In 1985 the community sold the property to the Familienheim GmbH group of companies from Munich. Economic difficulties of the new owner led to the transfer to the company Karl Heckel Immobilien GmbH in Munich. This led a makeover by and told the lock up in hotel suites. Under the leadership of Stadler GmbH, the new apartment owners invested approx. DM 12 million in further hotel expansion and then bought the castle for DM 2 million. The Hotel Schloss Wolfsbrunnen opened at the end of 1989. This attempt was also unsuccessful, and the castle subsequently experienced several vacancies and new owners.
Todays use
In 2009 there was another change of ownership with the stipulation that the building, which is now in a desolate condition with its 86 rooms, was renovated and reopened as a hotel. The entire roof structure and the castle tower were renovated and given a new slate roof. This was followed by the renovation of all facades and the restoration of the outside terrace and stairs with their balustrades in their historical state. In 2011, the repairs to the interior began, and on September 1, 2011, the first part of the hotel was reopened. In parallel to the ongoing hotel operations, the gradual renovation and modernization of the entire facility has been carried out since October 2011, which was completed in 2015. The Schlosshotel Wolfsbrunnen currently (as of 2020) has 55 guest rooms, a restaurant and six event rooms or halls. Civil weddings are possible.
description
Today the castle presents itself as a compact but richly structured structure, which consists of a three-winged U-shaped part of the building with a gatehouse and a courtyard , which is adjoined by a five-story castle tower with a half-timbered upper storey and a baroque stepped hood, which in turn adjoins the compact, almost adjoining square, three-story main castle. The main building has a three-story pyramid roof with stepped front gables with volutes on each side, corner towers and smaller dormers . The castle is surrounded on two sides by a castle terrace with suggested bastions. One side is raised with another terrace, which is connected to the main terrace by stairs.
literature
- Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 248.
- Peer Zietz, Thomas Wiegand et al. (Editing): Werra-Meißner district I: old district Eschwege. (= Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany , cultural monuments in Hessen , volume 10.) Vieweg Verlag, Braunschweig 1991, ISBN 3-528-06240-1 , pp. 231-233.
Web links
- Wolfsbrunnen Castle, Werra-Meißner district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of January 31, 2014). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- Website Hotel Schloss Wolfsbrunnen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karoline Rittberger-Klas: Church partnerships in divided Germany , therein: The diaconal works of the regional churches and the "partnerships" , Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-525-55746-4 . Pp. 46-48