Branitz Park

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Branitz Castle: former residence of Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, 2009
Branitz Castle, 2015

The Fürst-Pückler-Park Branitz is a landscape park near Branitz designed by Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau and the most important of the Cottbus parks . In the center of the zoned landscape garden is Branitz Castle , Prince Pückler's retirement home. The landmarks of the park are the two earth pyramids - the land pyramid and the sea pyramid, also known as the tumulus , which Prince Pückler staged as his final resting place.

history

Line of sight from Hermannsberg with a view of the Schlangenseebrücke and the land pyramid, 2008

The Branitz rule came into the possession of the Count Pückler family in 1696 . In 1785 the family moved to Muskau, Branitz was leased . The design of the Branitz Park began in 1845, when Hermann von Pückler-Muskau sold his former residence Schloss Muskau and the park there due to financial problems and moved to Branitz . At the age of 60 he began to create this landscape park based on the English model. Up until the 1850s, the pleasure ground and the inner park were designed around the castle, after which the pyramid level with the two earth pyramids was created. Under Prince Pückler's successor, his step-cousin Heinrich Graf von Pückler, the park was redesigned and refurbished.

After the Second World War, the von Pückler family was expropriated and the park and castle Branitz became public property. As a result of the land reform, parts of the land, especially in the outdoor park, as well as the estate economy and castle gardening were then transferred to private property or nationally owned goods. Since 1995 the inner park with the pleasure ground and castle has been managed and maintained by the communal foundation Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Park and Schloss Branitz . Little by little, parts of the former manor house and the palace gardening were renovated.

Thanks to his park creations, especially in Muskau and Branitz, Hermann Fürst von Pückler-Muskau is one of the most important German gardening artists of the 19th century alongside Peter Joseph Lenné and Friedrich Ludwig Sckell .

Since 1995 the park has belonged to the Fürst-Pückler-Museum Park und Schloss Branitz Foundation established by the City of Cottbus. The Branitzer Park is a garden monument on the list of monuments of the state of Brandenburg. In addition, there are efforts to have the facility included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site .

In 2010, the Fürst-Pückler-Park Branitz became one of four founding members of the European Park Association Lausitz from Graf Brühl to Fürst Pückler . Further members are the Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau , the East German Rosengarten Forst and the Schlosspark Brody / Pförten . Five more parks have been part of it since 2017. On May 27, 2019, Branitzer Park was included in the European Garden Heritage Network .

For 2012, around 200,000 visitors to the parks and 63,000 visitors to museums and other events were determined. At the end of August 2015, the restoration of the tumulus, Prince Pückler's grave pyramid, was completed.

Structure and design

Pyramid lake with a view of the lake pyramid, burial place of Prince Pückler and his wife Lucie, 2017
Water landscape within the landscape garden, 2017

Prince Pückler had Branitzer Park laid out as a zoned landscape garden based on Humphry Repton's models . The design and maintenance intensity of the facility increases from the outside inwards, with the lock in the center of the facility. Around the castle, the prince laid out a pleasure ground with flower beds, sculptures and ornamental trees . As he writes in his specialist book Allusions about landscape gardening , this was designed with several special gardens as a continuation of the rooms of the castle under the open sky. It was reserved for the prince, his family and his guests, while the adjoining inner park was open to the public from the start. The Pleasureground was surrounded by a multiform enclosure to separate it from the inner park. This is no longer available today, but should be restored.

In contrast to the richly decorated Pleasureground, the so-called inner park represents a “contracted, idealized nature”. Pückler had lakes and canals dug and hills modeled from the excavation so that a natural-looking relief emerged from the originally flat plain. The inner park extends from the Parkschmiede and the Gutsökonomie in the east to the Branitzer Torhaus in the south and the Cottbus Torhaus in the north to Kiekebuscher Strasse and Pyramidenstrasse in the west. The pyramid level, which was laid out in the 1850s, is located in the western inner park. In 1856 Prince Pückler had the sea pyramid, which he called the Tumulus , built as his grave. The tumulus is planted with three types of grapevines, which mostly turn bright red in autumn. After a fire in March 2018, the future of wine is unclear. After Prince Pückler's death on February 4, 1871, his remains were doused with chemicals at his request and then buried in the sea pyramid on February 9, 1871. A little south of it is the 1860–1863 built on an artificial hill and originally twelve-tiered land pyramid. It was originally intended to serve as a burial place for Pückler's wife Lucie von Pückler-Muskau . Since Lucie died in 1854 and was buried in the old Branitz village cemetery, the land pyramid never became a grave. Princess Lucie's mortal remains were reburied in the tumulus in 1884 under Count Heinrich Pückler.

The indoor park with pleasure ground and castle covers an area of ​​around 112 hectares. Prince Pückler also included the surrounding agricultural areas of the Branitz estate in his concept. He designed this so-called outdoor park as an ornamental farm , a decorated farm. In total, the designed Branitz park landscape encompassed an area of ​​approx. 622 hectares.

Today, part of the outdoor park has been redesigned or converted, for example by the Branitz settlement, the Stadium of Friendship , the Eliaspark, the Spreeauenpark and the Cottbus zoo . Other areas are used for agriculture and forestry.

Branitz Castle, exhibitions

Prince Pückler-Muskau's coat of arms on the Kavaliershaus
Visitor center on the former estate, 2017

In the center of the park is the baroque style palace, which was built between 1770 and 1772 and rebuilt around 1850. It shows the living environment of Prince Pückler in numerous historically designed, restored rooms. In addition, a collection of paintings by the Cottbus-born landscape painter Carl Blechen is presented.

Exhibitions on the life and work of Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, the exhibition In search of the petrified prince and regularly changing special exhibitions are shown in the visitor center on the estate and in the stables . In 2017, for example, the exhibition Augusta of Prussia - the Queen as a guest in Branitz .

Events in the park and palace

Concerts, lectures, readings, conferences and other events take place regularly in Branitz Castle and in the visitor center. The garden festival is held in May on the grounds of the palace nursery, and the Advent market in December on the grounds of the estate economy. Every year, the presentation of the new place on the last Sunday in August the game board of the State Theater Cottbus in Branitzer Park.

Panoramic view from Branitz Castle to the pergola garden, 2006

literature

sorted alphabetically by author

  • Berthold Ettrich, Foundation Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Park and Schloss Branitz (ed.): Discoveries in the Park zu Branitz, an ideal walk for Prince Pückler. A “boy scout” with two overview maps . Maxroi Graphics, Görlitz 2004.
  • Thomas Kläber , Matthias Körner , Gisela Tobianke: Park and Branitz Castle, on the trail of Prince Pückler. Regia, Cottbus 2001, ISBN 3-936092-32-X
  • Axel Klausmeier (Hrsg.): Fürst-Pückler-Park cultural landscape, the Branitz outdoor park in the focus of conflicting interests . Westkreuz, Berlin / Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-929592-89-4 .
  • Arielle Kohlschmidt, René Beder, Jürgen Heinrich (eds.): Branitz. Park & ​​Schloss, a companion through Pückler's masterpiece . CGA, Cottbus 2006, ISBN 3-937503-14-5 .
  • Andreas Pahl: The Branitz outdoor park - an indispensable part of the Pückler park creation . In: Die Gartenkunst  16 (1/2004), pp. 85–92.
  • Rolf Schneider: Prince Pückler in Branitz. be.bra verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86124-641-1 .
  • Foundation Fürst Pückler Museum, Park and Schloss Branitz (ed.): In the mirror of memory - the Branitzer Park - garden paradise of Prince Pückler. 21 articles from 1804 to 1939 . Edition Branitz, Volume 2. Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Branitz 1997.
  • Foundation Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Park and Schloss Branitz (Ed.): 150 years of Branitz Park. Garden art work, change and preservation. Colloquium of the Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Park and Schloss Branitz Foundation. Cottbus / Branitz, October 10 - 12, 1996. Edition Branitz, Volume 3. Cottbus 1998.
  • Foundation Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Park and Schloss Branitz (Ed.): Princely pictures. Pückler's Park and Branitz Castle in photographs from three centuries . Alfa, Cottbus 2004, ISBN 3-935513-12-7 .
  • Foundation Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Park and Schloss Branitz (Ed.): Fürst-Pückler-Park Branitz - Park and Castle Guide. Cottbus 2013, ISBN 978-3-910061-22-4 .
  • Claudius Wecke: "... my tumulus will remain as long as the earth stands." The lake pyramid in Fürst-Pückler-Park Branitz: history and restoration . be.bra verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95410-070-5 .

Movies

  • The splendor of Babelsberg. Pückler's paradise on the Havel. Documentary film, Germany, 2017, 44:20 min., Script and direction: Grit Lederer, production: rbb , first broadcast: May 30, 2017 on rbb television , table of contents by rbb, with online video, available until August 29, 2018.
  • The pyramid of the green prince. Pückler's grave in Branitz. Documentary, Germany, 2015, 28:54 min., Script and direction: Wolfgang Albus and Donald Saischowa, production: rbb , first broadcast: May 24, 2015 on rbb television , synopsis by ARD , online video .
  • The tumulus. Documentary film, Germany, 2015, 60 min., Camera, script and director: Donald Saischowa, cinema film and purchase DVD, a Dosfilm production in cooperation with the Foundation Fürst Pückler Museum, Park and Branitz Castle

Web links

Commons : Branitzer Park  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Branitzer Park with 200,000 visitors in 2012. In: Niederlausitz aktuell , December 16, 2012.
  2. ^ Christian Taubert: Branitzer Park fights for the world cultural heritage. In: Lausitzer Rundschau , December 29, 2012.
  3. Regina Weiß: Park Association draws larger circles in: Lausitzer Rundschau June 14, 2017, Weißwasser edition, accessed on March 3, 2018
  4. Rolf Ullmann: Four became nine ( memento from September 8, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) in: Sächsische Zeitung February 26, 2018, accessed on March 3, 2018
  5. (hnr.): Lausitzer Parkverbund grows from four to nine . In: Der Märkische Bote , March 3, 2018, Senftenberg and surrounding area; accessed on March 3, 2018
  6. Michael Helbig: Branitz is now a member of the European garden network. In: Lausitzer Rundschau , May 27, 2019, accessed on June 9, 2019.
  7. Anna Ringle: Last resting place as a landmark: Pückler pyramid has been restored. In: Sächsische Zeitung , August 26, 2015.
  8. a b Hermann Fürst von Pückler-Muskau: Hints about landscape gardening, combined with the description of their practical application in Muskau. Stuttgart 1834, p. 52 f.
  9. After a fire on the Pückler pyramid, the amount of damage remains unclear. Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 5, 2018, accessed on August 25, 2020 .
  10. ^ Exhibition: Augusta von Prussia. The Queen visits Branitz . ( Memento from September 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Fürst-Pückler-Museum Foundation, May 14, 2017 to October 31, 2017 in Branitz Castle, accessed on September 29, 2017.

Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 33.9 "  N , 14 ° 21 ′ 47.9"  E