Klenderhof

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Klenderhof (north-east side)
Klenderhof (west side)

The Klenderhof is a property in Kampen , Sylt ( Germany ).

history

The Klenderhof was planned in 1932 by the Berlin architect Otto Firle on behalf of Charlotte Baldner (1901–1996), a daughter of the Jewish department store owner Leopold Lindemann (1862–1923), who later sold his 17 department stores ( Lindemann & Co. AG ) to the Karstadt Group sold. Firle had sketched the first draft on the back of a menu at the Kampen Kurhaus . The client gave the system to her husband, the renowned cellist Max “Bimbo” Baldner (1887–1946), who had achieved international fame with the Klingler Quartet . On 30 January 1933, the date of the seizure of power by Hitler , the structural work was finished in the fall of the family Baldner moved in.

The landmark of the thatched- roof Klenderhof was the tower with the main entrance, which can only be reached via a wooden bridge, and a round music room above that protrudes into the gable. This was followed by two mighty wings in the north and west, with a sheltered inner courtyard in between. Since the building looked more like a castle than a summer house, it was henceforth called Baldner Castle on the island .

In the year of the National Socialist seizure of power, architect Firle probably had a gloomy premonition when he was the first to sign in the guest book:

“Keep this house that I love so much for me! Low and sorrow are closed to him ... "

One of the first admirers of the house on the Wadden Sea , which the Jewish department store heiress gave to her music-making husband, was Nazi great Hermann Göring , who inspected the property on July 31, 1933. Charlotte Baldner later regretted letting him in. But the visitor was so enthusiastic that he commissioned Firle to build a similar house for him as a hunting lodge in the nature reserve of the Baltic Sea peninsula Darß . The house burned down in 1945.

In the following years, many illustrious guests visited the Klenderhof , including the sports pilot Margot von Opel , the conductor Erich Kleiber and the banker Hermann Josef Abs , who wrote in the guest book:

"You helped make new friends for Kampen."

In 1936 Max Baldner was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Culture (RKK) and was banned from working. His wife received a so-called Jewish stamp in her passport . Their children were expelled from school. Jews were forbidden to stay on Sylt and the Klenderhof stood empty and orphaned on the watt.

During the Reichskristallnacht , SA men wanted to set fire to the "Judenburg", as they called the Klenderhof . Courageous entry of the citizens of Sylt and guests prevented the arson at the last moment.

During the war, Baldner was asked to separate from his wife so that he could appear again. The cellist refused, however, and was sent to a labor camp of the Leuna Werke near Halle, which he left as a seriously ill man. He died in 1946 at the age of 59.

At the end of the war, refugees from East Prussia were brought to the island by special trains and quartered in Baldner Castle, which had been vacant for years .

After the liberation from National Socialism , Charlotte Baldner, now widowed, was able to take over her property again. She initially rented the property to the publisher of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit . The property manager was the writer Ernst von Salomon , who wrote the first bestseller of the post-war period with his book The Questionnaire . He had conceived the novel in the form of an autobiography in Kampen.

After the currency reform , Charlotte Baldner ran the house again on her own and took on paying guests such as the Underbergs , Bertha Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach and Ernst Rowohlt . We ate at a common table.

In the late 1950s, Axel Springer bought the Klenderhof from Charlotte Baldner. He had the house modernized and set up a conference venue for publishing conferences. This was also used for social encounters between politicians, businesspeople, artists and publicists in his papers.

On August 5, 1973, the Klenderhof was on fire. Unknown perpetrators had set incendiary devices in the thatched roof and inside. The magazine Stern had announced three days earlier that the former Federal Minister of Finance Karl Schiller had stayed in Springer's guest house. People were not harmed, and valuable furniture and books could be saved from the flames. The perpetrators who were suspected to be involved in the anti-Springer campaign that was currently in progress were never found. Springer had the Klenderhof rebuilt in its old form. After his death, his widow Friede Springer sold the Klenderhof to the Swiss Theler family and the Munich architect Victor Erdmann, who held lavish parties every summer.

A heart for children

In Klenderhof also one of the most successful German took charities its beginning: Axel Springer heard in 1977 in the kitchen on the radio that year nearly 1,500 children come to Germany in car accidents. A little later, the Bild-Zeitung started a campaign under the motto “ A Heart for Children ” , which has raised almost 150 million euros in donations to date.

Personalities (guests)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Personal details : Axel Springer . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1963, pp. 106 ( online - 25 September 1963 ).

Coordinates: 54 ° 57 '48.9 "  N , 8 ° 21' 0.9"  E