House Kolk

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Haus Kolk, north-east view of the manor house

Haus Kolk is a monument ensemble that is located near the Roman town of Xanten in the municipality of Uedem on the Lower Rhine . The oldest structures of this former moated castle go back to the beginning of the 14th century, the current mansion is essentially a 17th century building in the style of Dutch baroque classicism . House Kolk is located since its founding more than 650 years of uninterrupted family owned and has been employed since March 13, 1986 under monument protection .

history

Beginnings

The Kolk property goes back to a younger family line of the original noble family von Holthausen from Uedem, who named themselves “von Kolk” after the newly founded property. With Diderich de Collich is found in 1319 in the Urbar of the counts of Kleve the first written reference to the property, as there Nyenhuyss is mentioned. The complex began in a water-fenced aristocratic court, the roots of which go back to the Holthausen times of the 14th century. On the northwest corner of today's mansion island a simple, dated around 1340 protected gatehouse of brick access to grabenumwehrten courtyard. The island was walled. On its southwestern edge, right next to the current manor house, there was a rectangular half-timbered building from the 14th century. This building was later destroyed by fire and then largely removed. In 1484 the originally aristocratic Kolk court came to the von Egeren family  as a dowry from Elisabeth von Holthausen - at this point, however, it had long had the status of a manor .

From Egeren to Hertefeld

View of Haus Kolk

The daughter from this connection, Ida von Egeren, brought Haus Kolk into her marriage to Stephan VI in 1531. from Hertefeld. The line of ancestors of this Lower Rhine-Klevian nobility family can be traced back to the year 1179 and has its origin in the Hertefeld House in Weeze . As early as 1484 the family had split into two lines. As head of the older line, Stephan VI. the manor Kolk became their headquarters and in 1531 gave it a correspondingly sophisticated appearance as a late Gothic castle house with elaborate natural stone work from Drachenfels - trachyte . At the same time, further moats , which have been restored today, were built , which surrounded the castle island in a double moat system. The client Stephan converted to Protestantism early on.

Stephan von Hertefeld and the Brandenburg Heritage

Stephan Hertefeld's grandson, Stephan VII von Hertefeld zum Kolk (1560-1636), stood as a Protestant in the Dutch struggle for freedom on the side of the Dutch against the Spaniards and thus against the Habsburgs , which gave him the personal enmity of the Spanish general Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke entered by Alba . As early as 1604, Stephan, as electoral Brandenburg councilor, was commissioned by his co-religionist, the Reformed Prince Elector Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg , in a secret agreement to exercise Brandenburg's legitimate claims to the Klevian hereditary lands from the emperor .

When the last Catholic Duke of Kleve died in 1609, Johann Sigismund was his successor as Elector of Brandenburg. Stephan von Hertefeld took possession of the city and castle of Kleve and the other Klevian cities for the elector . For the House of Kolk, Stephen's side-taking had immediate consequences on the part of the Habsburg party, the opponent of the Brandenburgers. In the course of the Dutch struggle for independence, Habsburg-Spanish troops were stationed in Xanten, which were immediately used for retaliation. Spanish soldiers raided the moated castle and killed the gatekeeper, set fire to the house and tried to arrest the master of the house. Theodor Fontane , who at the end of the 19th century compiled the historical context with the then heir and owner of the Kolk House, Count Philipp zu Eulenburg , at Liebenberg Castle in Brandenburg, described this incident in detail in his hikes through the Margraviate of Brandenburg . Stephan successfully escaped arrest by escaping into the swamp surrounding Kolk. The permanent house was rebuilt before Stephen's death in 1632 and destroyed again in the Thirty Years War , as evidenced by layers of fire and rubble, but also layers of collapse of the wall in the southern and eastern moats.

Two Kurbrandenburg Oberjägermeister

Immediately after the end of the Thirty Years' War, Jobst Gerhard von Hertefeld zum Kolk (1594–1659) built the manor house in the strict Dutch baroque classicism style over the foundations of the Gothic castle house in 1648. Parallel to the entrance side of the manor house, he dug a ditch running west-east, which cut the castle island in two. This suggested that the aristocratic residence was divided into two parts, thus securing the seat in the state parliament .

In 1649, Jobst Gerhard reunited the family lines by repurchasing the Hertefeld parent company, which had been pledged from a distant cousin, and then relocating it to Brandenburg. Very experienced with every type of drainage based on the Dutch model, he transferred this knowledge to the conditions in Brandenburg and thus earned the greatest merit in the recultivation of the land, which was almost deserted after the enormous devastation of the Thirty Years War. As Churbrandenburg's chief hunter from Kleve to East Prussia provided him with a high income, he owned extensive land that totaled around 18,000  hectares . In 1652 he also acquired the Liebenberg estate as the new headquarters with a further 5000 hectares, in the immediate vicinity of the electoral court in Oranienburg .

Jobst Gerhard's nephew, Samuel von und zu Hertefeld (1667–1730), like his childless uncle, became chief hunter in Brandenburg and successfully continued his work. He became the best known of all Hertefelds, whose numerous honorary and property titles Theodor Fontane lists in detail. In view of his elevation to the hereditary baron class , Samuel also expanded the Gothic core building of the Hertefeld headquarters to a puristic, Dutch-influenced manor house in 1700. Haus Kolk, however, went unnoticed - as it did in the following century and a half.

Decline in the French era

Moved barn from the beginning of the 19th century

Samuel's grandson, Freiherr Friedrich Leopold von und zu Hertefeld (1741–1816), was the first family member after a long time to make the Lower Rhine the center of his life again. As the district administrator of Kleve, he lived on his homes in Hertefeld and Boetzelaer . In 1806, however, as the head of the official opposition, he had to leave the Rhineland on the run from the French, only to be overtaken by them again in Brandenburg on Liebenberg. He suffered the same fate as his ancestor Stephen VII two hundred years earlier. The absence of the owners led to the temporary decline of the property in Kolk. Because if the family had to keep the knight's seat in good condition for the duration of the old empire in order to maintain the eligibility for the state parliament, this need no longer existed without replacement. Rather, Haus Kolk was adapted to the requirements of an agricultural farm. The house and a barn from the early 19th century have been preserved from the development on Castle Island . In 1730 there was a bakery and another barn next to this barn , both of which came from around 1810 and burned down in 1868.

Friedrich Leopold's son, Freiherr Karl von und zu Hertefeld (1794–1867), Lord of Liebenberg, Häsen, Hertefeld, Kolk, etc. was finally the last of his name and died in Liebenberg in 1867. His great niece Alexandrine Freiin von Rothkirch-Panthen, who had been married to Count Philipp Conrad zu Eulenburg since 1846, inherited him . He came from the youngest East Prussian line of the Counts of Eulenburg and was a long-time adjutant and friend of the Prussian Field Marshal Friedrich von Wrangel .

The Counts of Eulenburg and the reconstruction

The Eulenburgs previously had no ties to the Lower Rhine. They come from Eilenburg an der Mulde in Saxony , where they owned the castle and town and were first mentioned in 1170. Philipp Conrads and Alexandrine's son Philipp zu Eulenburg (1847–1921) received his doctorate in law , went into the diplomatic service and was most recently ambassador to Vienna. He was very committed to preserving the memory of the Hertefeld family, was allowed to add their names to his from 1898 and, as an adviser and friend of Kaiser Wilhelm II, was elevated to the rank of prince with other Prussian counts in 1900 . Philipp took care of his holdings in the Lower Rhine region again and was the first to prepare the history of the von Hertefeld family with great historical awareness. At that time, however, the Kolk house had already been greatly reduced. At the beginning of the 20th century, the building was finally converted into two simple apartments for deputate forest workers and divided lengthways. In addition, various additions and came plaster from concrete added.

Aerial view of the mansion from Haus Kolk

In 1945 the Brandenburg family property was lost, and Philip's son, Prince Friedrich Wend zu Eulenburg (1881–1963), returned to Hertefeld's origins on the Lower Rhine. In contrast to Hertefeld, which was completely burned out, Kolk remained largely undamaged during World War II . Friedrich Wend's grandson, Philipp Graf zu Eulenburg and Hertefeld, carried out the first restoration from 1979 to 1982 . In 1995 he finally transferred Haus Kolk to his younger son Siegwart, while the older son Friedrich took over Haus Hertefeld.

At Haus Kolk, the preliminary planning considerations for a reconstruction began in 1999. In 2000, the property and its history were extensively researched by archaeologists , historians and art historians . The results formed the basis for the subsequent complete reconstruction of the facility, which was closely based on the buildings by Jobst Gerhard von Hertefeld from 1648. The extensive work, in which almost exclusively traditional building materials and techniques were used, covered all areas of the knight's seat in the years 2001 to 2005, i.e. manor house, barn, ditch system and park . Since the completion of the work - after an absence of around 350 years - the house has again been the center of life of part of the family, today the younger line of the Lower Rhine Eulenburgs.

description

The monument ensemble is located on a natural elevation in the Uedemerbruch . It consists of a mansion from the middle of the 17th century, a barn from the beginning of the 19th century and a moat and rampart system that dates back to the 16th century. The square island formed in this way was protected by a second, right-angled island off the coast to the northeast. The island is accessed from the west side via a wooden bridge that was dendrochronologically dated to around 1340.

The mansion has two high main floors above a basement and nine window axes under a steep, slate-covered hipped roof . The white plastered building is vertically structured by pilaster strips and, along with its proportions, has similarities to the Borghees castle .

literature

  • Günther Elbin: Stephan von Haertefeld . In: On the Lower Rhine. The Klevian lands between the Rhine and Maas . Prestel, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-7913-0471-2 , pp. 326-332.
  • History circle in the Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Uedem: Haus Kolk near Uedemerbruch. (= Series of publications of the historical circle in the Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Uedem eV Volume 18). Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Uedem, Uedem 2013.
  • Siegwart Graf zu Eulenburg: Restoration of a historical moat. House Kolk. In: Bund Heimat und Umwelt (Ed.): Water - the soul of a garden . BHU, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-925374-93-7 , pp. 29-37.
  • Harald Herzog: House Kolk in Uedemerbruch. In: Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz (Hrsg.): Der Niederrhein. Natural and cultural heritage. Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-86526-060-4 , pp. 145–153.
  • Wilhelm Thomas: Uedemer noble courts. Gravenhorst, Kolk House, Holthuysen. (= Series of publications of the historical circle in the Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Uedem eV, Volume 1). Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Uedem, Uedem 1995.
  • Jens Wroblewski: House Kolk . In: Joachim Zeune (Ed.): Theiss Burgenführer Niederrhein. Theiss, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 90-91.
  • Jens Wroblewski, Joachim Zeune: From the noble court to the knight's castle. The history of the development of Haus Kolk. In: Archeology in the Rhineland 2001 . Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1751-3 , pp. 101-103.

Web links

Commons : Haus Kolk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of monuments of the municipality of Uedem (PDF; 575 kB), accessed on April 9, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b J. Wroblewski: Haus Kolk , 2001, p. 90.
  3. ↑ a b J. Wroblewski: Haus Kolk , 2001, p. 91.

Coordinates: 51 ° 39 ′ 48.5 ″  N , 6 ° 18 ′ 1.3 ″  E