Lopshorn hunting lodge

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Lopshorn hunting lodge around 1900

The Lopshorn hunting lodge was a summer residence of the Princes zur Lippe and was located east of Augustdorf on the southern slope of the Teutoburg Forest in the Senne . The stud where the dairymen's horses were bred was in the immediate vicinity . On June 11, 1945, Lopshorn was destroyed by arson and the ruins fell into disrepair over time, so that today hardly anything of the former complex can be seen. However, efforts are being made to rebuild the castle and stud according to the original plans at the old location.

history

Hunting lodge

The hunting lodge in 1875. Drawing by Ludwig Menke

In the middle of the 16th century, the rulers moved the Senner Gestüt to an area on the northern edge of the Senne that had been known as Lopshorn or Lobshorn for centuries . In 1657 Count Hermann Adolf zur Lippe had a hunting lodge built there. In 1685, Count Simon Heinrich replaced the hunting lodge built by his father with a castle, the main features of which remained unchanged until 1945.

A copper engraving by the Senner Gestüt from the end of the 18th century shows that the stud buildings were on both sides of the castle. On one side was the "horse house", on the other the " armory ", of which Baroque coats of arms of Count Friedrich Adolf , his wife and the wife of Count Simon Heinrich still exist today. In addition to the stud farm and hunting lodge, a dairy was maintained, which was responsible for supplying the residents with food. The entire complex was symmetrical and surrounded by a simple fence with a gate in the middle.

Lopshorn with outbuildings around 1851. Pencil drawing by Emil Zeiß

The armory apparently fell victim to a fire at the beginning of the 19th century, but was soon rebuilt and remained in this form until 1945. Around this time, an octagonal baroque well house was built in the garden with a 216 foot (around 65 m) deep well, the scooping device of which was operated by a treadmill operated by people walking . During the reign of Prince Leopold II (1802-1851) the palace was renovated and around 1850 the palace was presented as a two-storey baroque building with a portal dominated by four classicist columns. In a picture from 1880, the hunting lodge has a small tower with a jumping horse as a weather vane and a clock in the front gable. The entrance gate is flanked to the right and left by two resting deer and between the four pillars in front of the castle are three sandstone figures, a hunter with a dog and two wolves. The tower received a bell to strike the hour. Prince Woldemar later had the interior of the hunting lodge redesigned in the neo-renaissance style.

From the beginning, the lack of water in Lopshorn proved to be a serious problem, even after the well was built. Often the necessary amount of water had to be brought from Detmold or from the Donoperteich with horse-drawn vehicles. A planned water line from the Donoperteich to Lopshorn could not be realized for reasons of cost. The rainwater was collected in three cisterns .

Prince Leopold IV was first installed as regent of the principality in 1904 . On October 25, 1905, he received the news in Lopshorn that the controversy for the succession to the throne in Lippe was over and he was now the ruling prince. Within a short time, a large crowd of people from Detmold set out on the nine-kilometer route to Lopshorn to pay homage to the new prince at Lippe. In order to increase the living space for family members and servants, the roof structure of the castle was expanded. Large wood-fired tiled stoves on the first floor and iron stoves on the second floor and in the attic provided the necessary warmth in winter.

On November 12, 1918, Leopold IV had to renounce the throne. In the domanial contract of 1919 the division of the princely possessions was regulated and the prince was granted the residence palace, the Lopshorn hunting lodge including the stud and the Berlebeck chief forester under certain conditions. In 1920 the head hunter Schulz received a license and opened a small inn in his house. In 1932, the Kuhlmanns took over not only the dairy but also the inn in Lopshorn.

The stud

Senne landscape with Senner horses. Oil painting by Carl Rötteken and Gustav Quentell around 1860

The Senner horse is one of the oldest known horse breeds in Germany. Wild horses in the Senne heathland were first mentioned in a document in 1160. In the Middle Ages, dairy farmers were a coveted cultural breed. When in 1493 the number of wild horses was recorded on behalf of the wife of Count Bernhard VII von Lippe , the number of animals was 64, including 23 broodmares and 18 foals.

The history of the princely dairy farm is inextricably linked with Lopshorn. In 1684, Count Simon Heinrich moved the stud farm buildings from the higher forest area to the immediate vicinity of the newly built Lopshorn hunting lodge. The horses lived in the Senne for centuries, the browsing of the animals prevented the area from being completely forested and shaped the landscape. The horses had to look for their own food in every season of the year, only when there was a lack of feed in very severe winters did they come independently to the open stables of the stud and let themselves be fed. There is also a report from the stable master Prizelius:

... as it is a rule that has been fixed at this stud farm, not to give the mares food either in summer or in winter, except in extreme emergencies, nothing remains but for them to look for food in the forest and in the dairy farm in winter and summer have to. One can best compare these mares with the wild, as with which they have a lot in common, even that they stick together in certain packs or heaps like them and never part ... the snow has fallen so high that the tips of the Heather would be covered, then they will be fed in the stable at Lopshorn ...

In 1864 the horses' free stay in the Teutoburg Forest and the Senne was restricted to a fenced area of ​​38,000 acres in order to prevent damage to the forest and the fields. The yearling mares were brought to the zoo near Detmold during the grazing season, and the yearling stallions to the Weser pastures in Varenholz near Rinteln . When the mares were two years old, they were returned to the herd in Lopshorn, the stallions stayed in Varenholz for rearing until they were transferred to the Detmold stables. In 1919, Prince Leopold IV had to hand over the Senner horses to the newly founded Free State of Lippe and, according to the domain agreement, undertake to make the Lopshorn stud buildings available to the Lippischer Horse Breeders Association for breeding purposes, as the latter continued the Senner horse breeding on behalf of the Lippe State . The lease agreement was canceled just six years later and the remaining horses were brought to the zoo on Büchenberg, where the Westphalian Open-Air Museum in Detmold is now located. In 1935 the last 16 Senner horses were auctioned. In 1937 the Dutchwoman JM Immink resumed breeding with some Senner horses for a short time, but after the end of the Second World War , the final liquidation of the stud could no longer be prevented.

The destruction

The hunting lodge, located in the forest, seemed to be safe from the war. The Lippisches Landesarchiv therefore relocated part of its holdings there towards the end of the Second World War. In addition, the Biesterfeld archives of the Princely House were moved from the residential palace in Detmold to Lopshorn. In March 1945 the prince received news from the district administrator that the SS would confiscate the hunting lodge. On March 12th, a command of the SS appeared under SS-Sturmbannführer Hase, who prepared the defense of Lopshorn against the advancing Americans. One-man holes were dug in the vicinity and Hase announced to all residents, including a number of refugees from the Ruhr area: “Whoever shows the enemy the white flag will be shot!” When the noise of the battle approached the front on April 1st, they were the SS men suddenly disappeared.

The retreating German troops had orders to defend the road between Lopshorn and Detmold at the so-called Mordkuhle in the area of ​​the Teutoburg Forest by all means. On April 2, the US tankers reached Lopshorn and stayed there for three days before advancing to Detmold on April 4. The hunting lodge subsequently suffered great damage from the looting of prisoners of war released from the Augustdorf Stalag . However, some valuable items and the Biesterfeld archive were saved. On June 11, 1945, more than a month after the armistice, Lopshorn burned to the ground as a result of arson. Since the castle was located within a restricted area, the volunteer fire brigade was not given permission to extinguish it. The entire area, around 100 hectares of agricultural land belonging to the dairy alone , was confiscated by the British occupying forces in 1947 to expand the Senne military training area and has been British territory ever since . The ruins that remained from the fire were used as targets for target practice, so that today there is hardly any remains of the wall to be found.

The initiative

The reconstruction of the castle and the revitalization of what is probably the oldest stud in Germany is an ambitious project that was launched in 2003 by a group of well-known citizens of Lippe. The reconstruction of Lopshorn Castle was founded in May 2003 as a non-profit limited company. The Fürstenhaus zur Lippe has issued the binding declaration that no private property claims exist or will be made in the future.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lopshorn in the 19th century
  2. ↑ a b c Volker Wehrmann: The herdsman in old views and descriptions. Publisher: Lippischer Heimatbund and Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Oesterholz-Haustenbeck, Detmold 1978
  3. ↑ Lopshorn in the 20th century
  4. ↑ After the First World War
  5. ^ A b Arnold Ebert: When the tanks rolled over Lippe , in Heimatland Lippe, April 1985. Publisher: Lippischer Heimatbund e. V.
  6. ↑ The end of Lopshorn
  7. ^ Lopshorn reconstruction initiative

literature

  • Lippischer Heimatbund (Ed.), Burkhard Meier: Lippische Residences. Palaces and castles between the Teutoburg Forest and the Weser. Verlag Topp and Möller, Detmold 1998, ISBN 3-9806101-2-8 .
  • Karl Meier-Lemgo : Hiking trips through Lippe. Verlag FL Wagener , Lemgo 1922.
  • Karl-Ludwig Lackner: The dairymen. Kramer-Verlag, Borgholzhausen 1996, ISBN 3-929653-03-6 .
  • Armin Prinz zur Lippe : Lopshorn. A chronicle . Topp + Möller, Detmold 2004, ISBN 3-936867-08-9 .
  • Lippischer Heimatbund and Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Oesterholz-Haustenbeck (ed.), Volker Wehrmann: The Senne in old views and descriptions. Detmold 1978.

Web links

Commons : Jagdschloss Lopshorn  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 54 '9.3 "  N , 8 ° 47' 16.2"  E