Weißwasser hunting lodge
The Weißwasser hunting lodge was a small palace complex 5 km west of Weißwasser in the forests of the Muskauer Heide . Until 1945 the castle belonged to the Muskau class . It was demolished in 1972 due to dilapidation. Today a memorial stone reminds of its existence. In the immediate vicinity there were structures belonging to the forestry chief "Waldschloss", which were demolished in 1998.
The Jagdschloss site belonging to Mühlrose will be dredged over by the Nochten opencast mine until the first half of the next decade .
description
The Weißwasser hunting lodge was a three-wing complex with strict symmetry. The construction was carried out in different architectural styles of historicism . The defining components were based on the Tudor Gothic and Norman style elements .
The castle was one story. The wings of the building had gable roofs. The central wing faced south. It had a two-story, tower-like, square central building. Its crenellated wall crown with corner turrets gave a defensive impression. The roof platform of the central building was accessible via a ladder.
The main entrance was on the north side from the palace courtyard. The portal was protected by an arched porch decorated with battlements. On the south side of the central building was a wide viewing terrace with two staircases.
The central building of the south wing was equipped with a hall on each floor. The building sections of this wing, which leaned on the left and right of the central building, each contained a large lounge. These could be heated via chimneys. Therefore, these rooms were intended as a ballroom for the hunting parties as well as accommodation for the ruling families and important hunting guests. The side wings each had four rooms. These could not be heated and were only used for temporary accommodation.
A decorated wall was attached to the left and right of the central wing. In this one was to the east, between the hunting lodge and the chief forester, the so-called Norman Gate. This was provided with crenellated turrets. To the east of the gate was a crenellated gatehouse.
Ownership history
The hunting lodge was always owned by the Muskau rulers until 1945 . On April 25, 1945, the Red Army troops took possession of the hunting lodge. They set up a briefing point here. With the expropriation letter of July 11, 1945, the castle became public property . In September 1945 resettlers were quartered as part of the use by the Rothenburg district administration.
After the founding of the GDR, the hunting lodge was handed over to the state forestry company Weißwasser for use. From 1957 the west wing of the VEB Geological Research and Exploration Freiberg used. Until the demolition in 1972, the hunting lodge remained in the use of these two companies. The land became the property of Lausitzer Braunkohle AG in 1998 and in 2002 to Vattenfall Europe Mining AG .
Building history
Documented sources for the documentation of the building history and equipment are not available. Exact knowledge of the nature of the hunting lodge is only available for the construction phase since the last third of the 19th century, because only these buildings have survived into the 20th century. Statements about earlier buildings are mostly based on a comparison of topographic maps and the research of Countess Sophie von Arnim-Muskau .
It can be assumed that Kurt Reinicke von Callenberg had a hunting lodge built around 1650 in the wooded area west of Weißwasser. Nothing is known about the size, location and features. But it will only have been a simple wooden structure. His two successors expanded this structure and expanded this first building. The last owner from the Callenberg family, Count Hermann von Callenberg, had the wooden structure replaced by a solid building at the beginning of the last third of the 18th century.
We know from his diary that he had to pause for several days in the hunting lodge due to ailments during an inspection trip in 1779. So the building was already set up for a longer stay. However, there are no further statements about its nature. We have written information about this building from Nathanael Gottfried Leske , who passed the forest areas of the Muskau Heath on July 12, 1782 on his research trip through Saxony. He describes this first massive building as a hunting lodge.
From the map of Lieutenant von Putzky from 1823 we can see a rough floor plan of the building. The map shows three U-shaped buildings standing next to one another. The inner courtyard of the building faces north. This is probably the construction that Hermann von Callenberg had carried out around 1774, because the von Pückler family did not have any structural changes made to the outdoor facilities between 1785 and 1823. In his correspondence of June 10, 1817 to Lucie von Hardenberg , Count Hermann von Pückler names the hunting lodge as a construction that has yet to be carried out. The construction work from 1820 in the area of the hunting lodge involved the construction of auxiliary buildings and renovations to the palace.
The map made by forester Dittig around 1830/31 shows a three-wing building at the same location. To the north of this are two other buildings that are L-shaped to one another. The building complex bears the name Jagdhaus on the map. These buildings can only be the hunting lodge built by Heinrich von Callenberg and the forestry structures built under Prince Pückler . Because already in 1840 Heinrich Laube described the hunting lodge as an old dilapidated castle with only a few habitable rooms. Pückler probably never realized his dream of redesigning the hunting lodge.
It was not until the prince of the Netherlands that , from 1854 , in the jungle near Weißwasser , created the representative building that lived up to the name hunting lodge. In the general map of the state rule of 1868/69, these buildings are named Jagdschloss. A three-wing system can be seen. The buildings north of the castle no longer exist. Instead, the newly created forestry complex can be seen to the east of the hunting lodge. The following maps from 1888 and 1927 show no further changes in the floor plans of the buildings.
In the years 1925/26, the last structural changes were made under the direction of the Berlin architect Otto Meyer. These had the goal:
- The extension of the terrace on the south side of the central wing,
- Renovation of the facade plaster,
- Redesign of the porch as a balcony and
- Interior renovations.
Around 1955 there were ideas about converting the no longer used hunting lodge into a children's holiday camp. In 1961 the building was listed as a historical monument. However, the reconstruction was slow. As early as 1963, the Norman Gate, damaged after 1945, and the castle wall were torn down due to the risk of collapse. When the area was declared a mining protection area in 1964, all construction work was stopped. The hunting lodge fell into disrepair and was blown up in 1972. Only the gatehouse of the Norman Gate remained until 1998.
The forester at the hunting lodge
The first forestry buildings in the primeval forest near Weißwasser were built in the time of the Callenbergs. In his diary entries from 1779 Heinrich von Callenberg mentions an oak shed for storing seeds. During the time of Prince Pückler, the outbuildings at the hunting lodge were used by forest staff from the class.
The Prince of the Netherlands then had the old forest buildings demolished in the second half of the 19th century as part of the reorganization of the forest administration and the sizable forestry complex built to the east of the castle. The buildings were constantly being expanded and most recently provided space for the forestry office and accommodation for several forest families. The last residents left the building in the early 1980s. After the fall of the Wall, these quickly fell into disuse. In 1998 the remains of the building were demolished due to disrepair. Today a retaining wall made of turf iron ore cinder blocks reminds of the former location.
Muskau Forest Railway
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The Muskau landlord, Count Hermann von Arnim , had a horse-drawn railway with a gauge of 600 mm built in 1895 to develop the forests and raw material deposits in the area around Muskau and Weißwasser . In addition, the resulting industrial operations (lignite mines, brickworks, sawmills, paper factories and glassworks) should be connected to the rail network. The first two steam locomotives were purchased as early as 1895. By the turn of the century, the track network had grown to around 50 km. A branch of the route from Weißwasser to Ruhlmühle led to the hunting lodge.
Individual evidence
- ^ André Micklitza: Primeval forest with expiry date. Relics of Pückler's hunting park near Weißwasser threatened by the Nochten open-cast mine. New Germany, May 7, 2012
- ↑ Lutz Stucka: An ancient forest with its stories and legends. Cottbus 2008, p. 47 f.
- ^ Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation, Ed .: Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weißwasser in the Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007, p. 25 f.
- ^ Hermann Graf von Arnim, Willi A. Boelcke: Muskau - Standesherrschaft between Spree and Neisse. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin 1992, p. 642 f.
- ^ Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation, Ed .: Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weißwasser in the Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007, p. 29.
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↑ Maps that were used for comparison: (All published in: Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation, Ed .: Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weisswasser in Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007.)
- 1. Military map 1: 100,000 after Leutnant von Putzky from 1823, p. 31. 2. Map 1: 50,000 from forester Dittig from 1830/31, p. 11. 3. General map of the class rule Muskau 1: 40,000 after LBBrotke von 1868/69, p. 12. 4. Reproduction of a map approx. 1: 5,000 from 1888 according to G.schicht , p. 21. 5. Map of the Waldgutstiftung Standesherrschaft Muskau 1: 40,000 from 1927, inside cover page.
- ↑ Your research results have appeared in three small volumes under the title Pictures from Muskau's Past .
- ^ Sophie Countess von Arnim: Pictures from Muskau's past. The three Counts Callenberg, Prince Pückler, Prince Friedrich of the Netherlands. Munich 1973, p. 33.
- ^ Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation, Ed .: Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weißwasser in the Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007, p. 19.
- ^ Sophie Countess von Arnim: Pictures from Muskau's past. The three Counts Callenberg, Prince Pückler, Prince Friedrich of the Netherlands. Munich 1973, p. 53.
- ^ Hermann Graf von Arnim, Willi A. Boelcke: Muskau - Standesherrschaft between Spree and Neisse. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin 1992, p. 161.
- ↑ Lutz Stucka: An ancient forest with its stories and legends. Cottbus 2008, p. 49.
literature
- Hermann Graf von Arnim, Willi A. Boelcke: Muskau - civil status between the Spree and the Neisse. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-549-06695-3 .
- Sophie Countess von Arnim: Pictures from Muskau's past. Vol. I and II. Görlitz 1934/35, Vol. III, Munich 1973.
- HH Houben, Ed .: Heinrich Laubes collected works in fifty volumes. Leipzig 1909, Vol. 40, Recollections 1810-1840, pp. 351-373, Vol. 41, Recollections 1841-1881, pp. 3-24, Vol. 42, Jagdprevier.
- Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau: Hints about landscape gardening combined with the description of their practical application in Muskau. Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-421-01795-6 .
- Lutz Stucka: An ancient forest with its stories and legends. Cottbus 2008, ISBN 978-3-939656-60-9 .
- Vattenfall Europe Mining & Generation, publisher: Lausitzer Forstgeschichte. The zoo near Weißwasser in the Muskauer Heide. Cottbus 2007.
Web links
- Picture gallery of the hunting lodge on a private homepage. The gallery shows the buildings and a. shortly before the demolition and the situation shortly after it.
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 22 ″ N , 14 ° 33 ′ 52 ″ E