Hotel Fürst zu Stolberg

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Location of the hotel in town, around 1910
Exterior view
Indoor shot

The Hotel Fürst zu Stolberg , from 1946 to 1994 Hotel Heinrich Heine , was a luxury hotel and monument in Schierke in the Harz district in Saxony-Anhalt .

history

1900–1946: The beginning as a luxury hotel

The hotel was built from 1898 according to plans by the architect Ernst Niewerth from Wernigerode as a luxury hotel in the typical Harz landscape, reform style and opened in 1900. As early as 1904, the capacities were expanded to include another residential wing. The hotel had its own pastry shop, a Viennese restaurant with billiard tables, central heating, electrical lighting and a gas station. There were numerous tennis courts and a toboggan run on the site.

Among other things, Queen Juliana (Netherlands) and her German Prince Consort Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld are said to have been guests here in 1936 . Field Marshal General and later President Paul von Hindenburg is said to have stayed here occasionally in the 1920s. In 1939 the hotel was furnished with wooden inlays, wooden columns and paneling by a shipbuilding company from Kiel.

When the owner Georg Schwarz died in 1938, the house was foreclosed and subjected to a redesign by the new owner, during which many decorations disappeared.

During the Second World War until 1945 the hotel was used as a maternity hospital. After the Second World War, the hotel was initially requisitioned by Soviet officers.

1946–1990: Development during the GDR

In 1946 it was renamed the Hotel Heinrich Heine . The former property of the Deutsche Hypothekenbank in Weimar was nationalized and subsequently became a "Dorado for East Zone Ministers and high party officials". When rumors arose among the population about the luxury life of the party officials, the hotel manager was arrested. In 1950, Der Spiegel wrote about the redesign of the hotel:

“Large banners were stretched across the wide hotel facade. The picturesque forecourt was garnished with fluttering red flags and pictures of Stalin. FDJ activists held morning sports and roller-skating exercises in the large common rooms, which were lined with lavage carpets and parquet. After five years of tolerance of bourgeois comfort, a revolutionary wind was made ”.

The last major renovation of the hotel began in 1968. After that, eighty percent of the rooms had indoor toilets, bath or shower and two sinks. During the GDR, the hotel was a popular vacation spot for the "GDR celebrities" and was almost always fully booked. Prominent guests during this time were u. a. the then GDR President Wilhelm Pieck , Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler , Willi Schwabe and Peter Przybylski .

1990–1995: closure and decay

After the reunification , the hotel no longer lived up to the growing demands. The then director Hans-Jörg Sauerzapfe complained that the guests now criticized "for example the predominance of cisterns with cables in the rooms and the lack of modern mixer taps".

The hotel was sold in 1993 by the Treuhandanstalt to the property company Resort Hotel GmbH & Co.Objects Harz KG . The operating company was the Travel Charme Hotels as the successor to the GDR travel agency. The basis was a priority investment decision in which around 60 jobs were promised. Since the Travel Charme hotel chain mainly invested in five-star hotels, the Heinrich-Heine-Hotel was not taken into account. There was no interest in redevelopment, which was probably also due to the fact that all of Schierke was at the "GDR level" at the time: "A five-star hotel needs a five-star infrastructure in the vicinity," so Sauerzapfe. Publicly in 2002 the accusation was raised in the Harzer Volksstimme that the hotel had been acquired in 1993 “only as a precautionary measure as a speculative property”.

The hotel was closed at the turn of the year 1994/95. After the closure, the hotel was acquired by a Spanish buyer who let the hotel fall into disrepair for years, leading to a foreclosure sale in 2013.

1995–2016: vacancy, rescue attempt and demolition

The already badly dilapidated hotel shortly before the demolition in April 2016

After years of vacancy, the city administration of Wernigerode (Schierke has officially been part of Wernigerode since 2009 as a result of an incorporation ) bought the hotel in the foreclosure auction in July 2013 and decided in December 2013 to adhere to provisional maintenance measures by reallocating funds for the urban redevelopment funding program . The aim of the local development concept is to create new modern attractions in Schierke and at the same time to preserve a piece of the historical identity of the Brockenort. This decision was criticized by the representative of the Left Party . An expert opinion in August 2014 came to the conclusion that half of the hotel complex was ready for demolition. According to the Wernigerode Construction Department, there were now three options: demolishing the ruin, partial preservation or reconstruction of the dilapidated building structure. However, the project should not be abandoned from the outset, as the architecture of the building has a strong design reference to the Harz region and the townscape has been decisively shaped by houses like this one.

In September 2015 the newspaper Volksstimme reported that the Hildesheimer Lüder group of companies , which is also involved in a project to develop the ski area on the Wurmberg from Schierke, has expressed interest in the hotel complex, but has made the purchase of the hotel dependent on the realization of this project .

Demolition work in September 2016

In February 2016 the city council of Wernigerode approved the demolition of the hotel in order to make way for a holiday home complex called “Heinrich-Heine-Resort” . According to those responsible for the urban properties, the condition of the building is "seriously bad" and the listed building can no longer be saved. 37 wooden houses with around 180 beds are planned, plus a central reception building with reception, utility building, a boiler room and a separate district heating network.

The previously decided demolition work began at the end of June 2016 and was completed in September of the same year. In April 2017, the inauguration of the holiday complex was announced at the end of 2017. The project has an investment sum of 14 million euros. On December 15, 2017, the holiday complex was opened under the name “Das Schierke” with the addition “Harzresort am Brocken”.

Web links

Commons : Hotel Fürst zu Stolberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the hotel on a private website ( Memento from January 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g A feudal luxury hotel. In: Neue Nordhäuser Zeitung. November 13, 2012.
  3. ^ A b Ivonne Sielaff: Memory of a hotel legend. In: volksstimme.de. March 1, 2017, accessed March 1, 2017 .
  4. ^ History of the hotel on a private website ( Memento from January 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b c d Proles in the cellar. In: Der Spiegel. June 15, 1950.
  6. ↑ a b The former Heinrich Heine in Schierke. February 1, 2017, accessed December 13, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Burkhard Falkner: What will happen to the Heine Hotel? "I see no business there ..." In: Harzer Volksstimme from July 12, 2002.
  8. ↑ a b "Heinrich Heine" is half ready for demolition. In: Volksstimme. 29th August 2014.
  9. ^ Hotel "Heinrich Heine" - rescue in installments? In: Volksstimme. December 12th 2013.
  10. ↑ A resin Resort Schierke popular vote of 23 September 2015 called on September 24, 2015.
  11. ↑ Green light for new Heine houses , Volksstimme from February 12, 2016
  12. ↑ Last walk through the former grand hotel in Schierke ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. MDR Saxony-Anhalt from February 27, 2016, accessed on February 27, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mdr.de
  13. ^ Ivonne Sielaff: Farewell to the Heine Hotel. In: volksstimme.de. June 29, 2016. Retrieved July 4, 2016 .
  14. ^ Ivonne Sielaff: Das Heine is now called Das Schierke. In: volksstimme.de. April 12, 2017. Retrieved April 12, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Ivonne Sielaff, Regina Urbat: A historic day for Schierke. In: volksstimme.de. December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2017 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 42.1 "  N , 10 ° 40 ′ 22.2"  E