Rathsfeld hunting lodge
The Rathsfeld hunting lodge is a former hunting lodge completed in 1698 in the middle of the wooded low mountain range of the Kyffhauser in Thuringia . As a result of decades of vacancy , vandalism and arson , the existence of the castle in the Kyffhäuserkreis is threatened. In 2012 the facility was removed from the list of cultural monuments of the Free State of Thuringia .
history
In the Middle Ages, there was a farm yard of the Walkenried monastery on the site, which passed to the Counts of Schwarzburg after the Reformation in 1534 . From 1697 to 1698 Albert Anton Graf von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt had the hunting lodge built by the builder Moritz Richter the Younger as a two-storey three-wing complex with a courtyard opening to the south to the park. An almost identical wing was built parallel to the west wing, creating a farm yard open to the north. All wings were connected by rectangular, slightly different pavilions. On the park side, the central wing was given an arcade made up of twelve arches. In the western pavilion, a three-storey church was built as a central building with an oval interior and a circumferential gallery on twelve colossal pillars. The facility had a living and ancillary space of around 5000 square meters. The palace park was around 250,000 square meters. It contains a baroque round fountain house.
During the wars of liberation 1813-1815, the facility served as a hospital . In 1908 the Corps de Logis was completely renewed in the style of historicism .
The last ruling Prince of Schwarzburg, Günther Victor von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , lived mainly on Rathsfeld after his abdication from 1918 to 1925, after which the right of residence for the family expired.
In 1925 the castle came to the German Reichskriegerbund "Kyffhäuser" , which set up a rest home for soldiers there under the name Kyffhäuserheim . In the summer of 1943 it became the alternative quarters of the Reich clan office in Berlin and the office for clan research of the NSDAP .
After the Second World War , the buildings were initially converted into a large bakery. During the GDR era, the castle was used as a vacation home and training academy for VEB Robotron Optima Büromaschinenwerk Erfurt and as a pioneer vacation camp. In this context, among other things, the castle chapel was divided by false ceilings. In 1951 the central pioneer holiday camp Thomas Müntzer was built south of the hunting lodge with up to 1200 places and partly for semi-military use by the Society for Sport and Technology . After 1990 it became known that the GDR authorities had planned to detain opposition members in the holiday camp in the event of a " tension ".
In the course of the fall of the Wall in 1990, the castle came to the Free State of Thuringia via the Treuhandanstalt . In 1997 he auctioned it for 60,000 DM to a private owner who has since continued to deteriorate and leave it to vandalism. In 2005, the Corps de Logis, built in 1908, was ruined by arson. In 2007 the owner received the Black Sheep of the Thuringia Monument Association . The castle is now for sale again.
literature
- Dehio Handbook of German Art Monuments: Thuringia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-422-03050-6 , p. 263.
- Ingolf Gläser: Rathsfeld hunting lodge remains in ruins. In: Thüringer Allgemeine , local part Artern, from June 18, 2012
- Heiko Laß: Hunting and pleasure castles of the 17th and 18th centuries in Thuringia. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2006, ISBN 3-86568-092-5 , p. 124 f.
- Florian Scharfe: Revitalization of the Rathsfeld hunting lodge. unpublished diploma thesis, Bauhaus University Weimar , 2005/2006.
- Mara Martin: Gem in the Kyffhäuser Mountains is abandoned to decay . In: Thüringer Allgemeine , local part Artern, from March 2, 2013
Web links
- Castles-and-Schlösser.net
- Florian Scharfe: floor plan, section and other pictures
- Rathsfeld youth forest home
- Video on YouTube
- Rathsfeld Castle - Bad Frankenhausen Regional Museum
Coordinates: 51 ° 23 ′ 42.2 " N , 11 ° 4 ′ 29.5" E