Poznan Residential Castle
The residential palace in Posen , now known in Polish as the Imperial Palace (Zamek Cesarski w Poznaniu), was one of the last major palace buildings in Europe, commissioned by the German Emperor Wilhelm II and built in the neo-Romanesque style from 1905 to 1913 according to plans by the architect Franz Schwechten .
During the German occupation of Poland after 1940, the National Socialists expanded the Poznan Palace into a "Führer residence".
Royal or Imperial Palace?
The name "Royal Palace" referred to the King of Prussia . In this capacity he was also Grand Duke of Posen and German Emperor . In Poland the term "Imperial Castle" is used. This not only emphasizes the German background (Kaiser Wilhelm II), but also avoids possible confusion with the older (Polish) Poznan royal palace.
The first and only captain of the castle was Bogdan Graf von Hutten-Czapski, of Polish descent from 1906 to 1918 .
Planning and Political Motivation
At the beginning of the 20th century, Kaiser Wilhelm II had various castle projects realized: the reconstruction of the Hohkönigsburg in Alsace (1901–1908), the renovation of the Marienburg Ordensburg (1896–1918) and, based on its model, near the border with Denmark , the construction of the Mürwik Naval School (1907–1910) for the Navy . At the inauguration of the Hohkönigsburg, Wilhelm II also mentioned the Marienburg and its special status with the words: “May the Hohkönigsburg here in the west of the empire, like the Marienburg in the east, as a symbol of German culture and power into the most distant times remain."
The idea for a residential palace in Poznan was born in 1902 with the demolition of the city's fortifications. In the former Polish city in the east of the empire, they wanted to visualize the presence of German rule with a new city center. And so they planned the Kaiserforum, which was to consist of the residential palace, opera house , post office, settlement commission , Royal Academy , the Music Academy in Poznan , the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer and the Bismarck Monument . The plans for this forum were drawn up by Joseph Stübben as early as 1904. However, construction only began in 1905 and lasted five years. The total cost of building the castle was five million marks . The palace was inaugurated on August 21, 1910 on the so-called Poznan Imperial Day with the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II. On August 27, 1913, Wilhelm II traveled again to celebrate the completion of the chapel of the Residenzschloss.
architecture
The castle is modeled on a medieval royal palace and was built from concrete, brick and Silesian sandstone . The main building in the south of the palace complex consists of a larger west wing, in which the living rooms are housed, and a smaller east wing, in which the representative rooms are located. The rooms of the military court and the imperial court were housed on the ground floor of the west wing.
The private rooms of the emperor and empress were set up on the first floor. The private chapel was designed in the large castle tower of the west wing by the architect August Oetken in the Byzantine style . It is modeled on the Cappella Palatina in Palermo , the mosaics designed by Oetken were supplied by Puhl & Wagner . Under the chapel on the west side of the tower was the private entrance of the emperor, which was reserved for him only. From there, stairs could lead directly to the first floor. The hallway that led to the bedrooms of the emperor and empress was decorated with four figures; they represented the Margrave Gero , Otto the Great , Friedrich Barbarossa and Wladyslaw II .
The rooms on the second floor were intended for the Crown Prince and were therefore called the Prinzenzimmer. Most of the rooms are connected to a central foyer . The most magnificent room in the palace was the Byzantine throne room. The hall was illuminated from three sides by very large window arches. Between these niches were let into the wall, in which eight statues stood, which represented emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. The oriental-looking throne was placed under the central arched window.
There was a gallery above the window arches that was supposed to provide space for the orchestra and the guests. The main entrance to the representative rooms was on Walowa Street. The northern part of the palace complex was on Berliner Strasse, now Fredry Strasse. It housed the servants' rooms, the stables and garages as well as the coach house. There is a courtyard in the palace that contains a copy of the Alhambra's lion fountain in Spain.
Further history of the castle
As a result of the Versailles Treaty , Posen was ceded by Germany to Poland. In the interwar period, the castle served as a residence for the President of the Republic of Poland ; Part of the premises was also used by the Poznan University . The Protestant chapel was converted into a Catholic one and the pictures of the emperor were painted over.
After the occupation of Poland, Adolf Hitler arranged for the Poznan Palace to be expanded into a representative "Führer residence". This was intended to manifest the German claim to rule in the annexed Reichsgau Wartheland . Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer entrusted his young colleague Franz Böhmer with this task. In the spring of 1940, the extensive redesign of the building began, which was also intended to be the official residence of the “ Reichsstatthalter ” (and Gauleiter ) Arthur Greiser . Speer and Hitler's suggestions were repeatedly incorporated into the planning of the renovation. The executing architect Franz Böhmer volunteered for the Eastern Front in February 1943 (after the Battle of Stalingrad ), which was probably also due to personal disappointment about the progress of the construction work and criticism of the construction. More than 600 workers were employed on the construction site, including forced laborers. Initially, the planning was based on a two-year construction period. After all, Greiser was only able to move into his official residence on the "Gauleiter floor" in December 1943. The interior work on the magnificent rooms continued until the summer of 1944. One of the changes made concerned the conversion of the former private chapel of Wilhelm II into Hitler's marble-lined study. It had a floor area of about 130 square meters. In terms of design, it was a combination of the study in the Munich Führerbau and the New Reich Chancellery .
Occasionally it is claimed that Heinrich Himmler gave his infamous Poznan secret speeches about the extermination of the Jews in front of SS leaders in the palace on October 4 and 6, 1943 . The location of the event was probably the Poznan City Hall , which houses the “Golden Hall”, which is often mentioned in this context. At the time in question, the castle was also practically unavailable due to construction work.
At the end of the war, the castle was quite damaged during the Battle of Poznan , but its basic structure was hardly damaged. After the city was encircled, it was converted into a military hospital, which is estimated to have housed an estimated 2,000 wounded inside. When it was occupied by Russian soldiers on February 2, it served as a collection point for German wounded until March 1945. These could only be insufficiently cared for and cared for by their war opponents, who also had to take care of a large number of their own wounded. As a result, the dysentery broke out, which is estimated to claim up to 30 victims a day at its peak. In 1947/48 the Polish authorities exhumed 765 German soldiers buried in a mass grave in the palace gardens alone.
Due to the enormous lack of space in the heavily destroyed Poznan, the Polish authorities decided to continue using the castle. In the course of the restoration work, the tower destroyed by the war was shortened by twenty meters. The university and the city administration first moved into the repaired castle before it served as a cultural center from the 1960s onwards. The originally restored rooms - including the Nazi renovations - have recently been used for various purposes, including by newly founded companies.
In 2007 the cryptologist memorial was erected in front of the main entrance to the west wing in honor of the three Polish cryptanalysts Marian Rejewski , Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski , who succeeded in breaking the German rotor key machine Enigma for the first time in 1932 .
literature
- Heinrich Schwendemann , Wolfgang Dietsche: Hitler's castle. The “Führer Residence” in Poznan. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-289-1 .
- Wolfgang Reinhard : Historical Anthropology of Political Architecture , in: ders., History as Anthropology , ed. by Peter Burschel. Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2017. pp. 91–95.
Movie
- Mysterious places. Hitler's Castle in Poznan. Documentation, 2008, 45 min., Script and direction: Daniel and Jürgen Ast, production: rbb , first broadcast: December 2nd, 2008.
Web links
- Information about the castle on the Poznan City website
- "Centrum Kultury Zamek". Information on history and opening times
- Heinrich Schwendemann: The Poznan Castle - From the “Kaiser” - to the “Führer Residence” (PDF; 6.43 MB) pp. 119–132
Individual evidence
- ↑ Viktoria Luise of Prussia : In the shine of the crown . Braunschweig 1967, p. 316 and Oberrheinische Studien, Volume III., Karlsruhe 1975, p. 382
- ^ Heinrich Schwendemann, Wolfgang Dietsche: Hitler's Castle. The “Führer Residence” in Poznan. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-289-1 , p. 129 f. Böhmer was soon wounded and died on September 22, 1943 in the military hospital in Erlangen. His wife then nominally continued to run the construction office.
- ^ Heinrich Schwendemann, Wolfgang Dietsche: Hitler's Castle. The “Führer Residence” in Poznan. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-289-1 , p. 133.
- ^ Heinrich Schwendemann, Wolfgang Dietsche: Hitler's Castle. The “Führer Residence” in Poznan. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-289-1 , p. 146.
- ^ Heinrich Schwendemann, Wolfgang Dietsche: Hitler's Castle. The “Führer Residence” in Poznan. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-289-1 , p. 104, 133. Heinrich Schwendemann: Late unmasking of a liar . In: Die Zeit , No. 19/2005
- ^ Heinrich Schwendemann, Wolfgang Dietsche: Hitler's Castle. The “Führer Residence” in Poznan. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-289-1 , pp. 158-160.
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 28.4 ″ N , 16 ° 55 ′ 9 ″ E