Friedrichshof Palace

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Friedrichshof Palace, used as the "Schlosshotel Kronberg", former lordship wing with a driveway to the main entrance, courtyard with parking lot
Main entrance to the castle park with gatekeeper's house in half-timbered style (upper floor)

Friedrichshof Palace is a former imperial residence in Kronberg im Taunus . The Schlosshotel Kronberg - Hotel Frankfurt has been located there since 1954 .

History and architecture

Friedrichshof Palace was built from 1889 to 1893/94 as a widow's residence in Kronberg im Taunus for the former German Empress Victoria (Kaiserin Friedrich) - an English princess - in the neo-Gothic Tudor style, who built it in honor of her late husband Friedrich III. "Friedrichshof" called.

The representative building served as a stimulus for some grand mansions in Germany. The division of a castle or mansion into a mansion wing and an economic wing and the spatial arrangement and design of an “English hall” can be studied here as an example.

History of the construction project

On September 28, 1888, the Empress acquired the approx. 100 acre site including the Villa Schönbusch, which had only been completed 12 years earlier, from the heirs of the Frankfurt banker , tea merchant and honorary citizen of Kronberg , Jacques Reiss, who died in 1887 , and expanded it through several acquisitions. It financed it largely from a bequest of five million French francs , which the important Genoese and Parisian patron Maria Brignole Sale De Ferrari , Duchess of Galliera, left her in 1888. The construction planning was carried out by the later Real Geheime Oberhofbaurat and imperial court architect Ernst von Ihne from Berlin, who combined "elements of the German and Italian Renaissance with those of the English Tudor Gothic and Hessian-Franconian half-timbering" in the widow's residence built from 1889 to 1893. Before the actual Friedrichshof planning began, Ernst Ihne, who grew up in England, undertook various study trips through Germany and England (including to the Prussian-Hessian manor in Neu-Potsdam in Rauischholzhausen near Marburg and to the royal Sandringham House in the English county of Norfolk) to collect suggestions ).

Building structure, outbuildings

Friedrichshof Palace as "Schlosshotel Kronberg - Hotel Frankfurt"; historical subdivision into lordship wing (complete stone facade) u. Utility wing (half-timbered facade on the upper floor), reception courtyard with wings spread by 135 °; Design: court architect Ernst Ihne, Berlin
Friedrichshof Palace, ground floor plan of the entire building around 1895, rotated 180 ° compared to the above photograph of the entire building, clear division into manorial and economic wings, single-storey "English Hall" as a communication and distribution center in the manorial wing, wings spread 135 °
Friedrichshof Palace, single-storey “English Hall” around 1895 as a communication and distribution center in the mansion wing; Stairwell attached to the transverse side of the hall

Victoria Empress Friedrich had the palace built on the structural principle of English mansions. Thus, there was a clear separation between the manor wing and the business wing - with different facade designs (simpler architecture on the business wing) and a lower construction height of the business wing compared to the manor wing.

On old aerial photos you can see very clearly that the entire structure is an elongated, asymmetrical castle complex (multi-leaf complex with two or three angles). The appearance of the manorial wing is clearly reminiscent of English castles or stately mansions of the late Middle Ages. The incoming visitors see the castle from the courtyard side, i. H. from the reception side, as a two-wing complex with a widely spread courtyard corner and a main tower - belonging to the mansion wing - (at the transition area to the service wing).

With the remarkable wing spread of 135 °, the historicist Friedrichshof Palace is quite a rarity among the palaces of the Wilhelmine Empire. Only at the smaller Wiligrad Palace , which was built from 1896/98 on behalf of Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg - a friend of Kaiser Wilhelm II. (Son of Victoria Kaiserin Friedrich) - was built on the high bank of the Schweriner See in West Mecklenburg, one can find this spreading of the wings - among other suggestions.

The facades of the noble mansion wing are completely made of stone. A mixture of Lower Saxony and Hessian-Franconian half-timbering was chosen for the facade of the utility wing on the upper floor and on the transept gables of the attic.

The mansion wing is entered via the single-storey, splendid “English Hall”, which acts as a communication and distribution center, and which is followed by a long hallway on the narrow left side that leads to the other common rooms on the ground floor. On the narrow right side (seen from the courtyard entrance) of the “English Hall” begins in its full width the open, highly representative staircase (see attached illustration) to the former private rooms on the upper floor, which were used by the Empress widow and her guests. Historical photographs of the “English Hall” and other rooms at Schloss Friedrichshof were made by court photographer Hermann Rückwardt from Berlin.

The kitchen rooms and pantries were located on the first floor of the utility wing. The servants' living rooms and bedrooms were on the upper floor above. For the rooms of the female staff and those of the male servants, different sections of the building had been selected in the utility wing.

The cottage (residence of the court marshal) and the spacious stables are also located within the park area . At least the gatekeeper's house has the same facade design as the service wing of the castle. Other farm buildings (gardening, dairy, administration) are located outside the park (in today's Schönberg district ).

Victoria Kaiserin Friedrich also had the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Weg built over the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Brücke as a direct connection from the north gate of Friedrichshof Palace to Bad Homburg.

History of use, notable events

One of the corridors in the castle hotel
The head of the House of Hesse Moritz von Hessen (1926–2013) in front of the castle

The empress played a key role in the design of the monument for her deceased husband in the neighboring city ​​park . She could no longer experience the inauguration of the monument in 1902, in which Kaiser Wilhelm II also took part; she died in 1901 of cancer. The Empress left the palace with the entire inventory, the various art collections and her written legacy to her youngest daughter, Landgravine Margarethe von Hessen, with the condition that Friedrichshof Palace and the parks be left unchanged. In 1928 Schloss Friedrichshof became part of the Kurhessische Hausstiftung in order to avoid the nationalization of princely property .

After the occupation of Kronberg on March 29, 1945, the castle was confiscated by the US Army and initially used as troop accommodation, later as an officers' club and temporarily as the residence of the US commander in chief in Europe , General Dwight D. Eisenhower . The Hessian crown jewels worth several million dollars had been buried in a side cellar by the family. After the war she discovered the club manager Kathleen Nash. Together with her future husband, the American Colonel Jack W. Durant, she stole the jewels in November 1945. They were dismantled into individual parts and then sold in Switzerland . After long and difficult negotiations (in the course of which a US court did not allow the Prince of Hesse's action for the surrender of the jewels because he was not able to take legal action as an "enemy foreigner" in the USA) the House of Hesse received the remaining jewels back, some of which have been lost to this day. Durant was sentenced to 15 years in prison. During the US occupation of the castle, Hans Günter Winkler worked there as a stable boy and as a riding instructor.

In 1953 Schloss Friedrichshof came back into the possession of the Hessian House Foundation.

After necessary alterations and renovations made necessary by the US occupation , Schloss Friedrichshof was opened in 1954 as the "Schlosshotel Kronberg - Hotel Frankfurt". It is operated by Haus Hessen and is now one of the " Small Luxury Hotels of the World " and is categorized as a 5-star hotel. Large parts of the original furniture and works of art from the collection of Empress Friedrich can still be found in the rooms of the hotel . Their extensive library has also largely been preserved.

On March 8, 1967, the upper floor and the roof structure were destroyed by a major fire. The fire broke out in the farm wing at 6 a.m. and slowly spread to the roof. When the slate roof was blown up at one point, the incoming outside air caused an explosive expansion. After extensive changes (adaptation of the rooms to the hotel business), the destroyed parts were rebuilt.

The 18-hole golf course of the “Golf- und Landclub Kronberg eV” is located in parts of the castle park and in the adjoining area beyond Hainstrasse . Here and in the hotel, apart from the hustle and bustle of the capital (whether Bonn or Berlin ), important summit meetings took place.

literature

  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , pp. 222-224.

Web links

Commons : Schlosshotel Kronberg - Hotel Frankfurt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claudia Schneider: “Schloß Friedrichshof”, master's thesis, Frankfurt 1983
  2. ↑ The birth of the park idea for the city park , the 1896 can be viewed, created in the in the Kronberger citizenship of desire "in memory of our most blessed Emperor Frederick, by transformation of the near the Castle Friedrichshof between the castle and the station located [...] Wiesengrund to a public facility to erect a worthy monument. ”(From the minutes of a citizens' meeting of November 15, 1896 according to Wilhelm Jung, 1976), quoted from Andrea Sliwka ( Memento of October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Schlosshotel Kronberg ( Memento from January 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), entry on "Small Luxury Hotels of the World"
  4. ↑ 50 years ago the castle burned; in: Taunuszeitung of March 8, 2017, p. 12
  5. ↑ “Only when Gromyko had said 'yes' on October 30, 1970 on the 14th hole on the golf course of the Schlosshotel in Kronberg zu Scheel [...] and the four-power agreement [via Berlin] was dry, the ratification process for the Moscow and Warsaw treaties are initiated. "(Daniel Koerfer in the FAZ of July 26, 2013)
  6. ↑ G5 Finance Ministers Meeting 8. – 9. December 1982

Coordinates: 50 ° 11 ′ 20 ″  N , 8 ° 30 ′ 36 ″  E