Schlössel (Dossenheim)

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The Schlössel in Dossenheim in the Rhein-Neckar district was a representative baroque building from the 18th century, surrounded by a park, southwest of the Evangelical Church . It changed hands several times before it was used as a poor house from around 1920 and was acquired by the community in 1929. During the Nazi era, a kindergarten was set up in the building and a HJ home in an outbuilding. The building remained a kindergarten until 1968 and was demolished in 1970. The Stadthäuser Schlössel housing estate is located on the site of the building . The building, which is sometimes referred to as the "old castle", should not be confused with the old castle , which is also located in Dossenheim , a traditional name for the so-called Kronenburg .

history

There are different details about the origin of the building. One source cites a Dr. Israel as a possible builder and indicates the year of construction 1722, while in the 1930s it was assumed that the building was built by a wealthy Huguenot . The first Huguenots in Dossenheim after the Thirty Years' War are documented in 1654. In the early 19th century, the building was owned by the married couple Albert (1776–1856) and Maria Lorenz (1763–1850), who were wealthy in Dossenheim and from whose estate donations were made for a new church organ and for the construction of the neo-Gothic cemetery chapel . The tombstones of those married couple today form the oldest tombstones in the Dossenheim cemetery. Subsequently, the building was owned by a Mr. Schmich from around 1870. This is either a hussar major or one of the two mayors Jakob Schmich and Johann Philipp Schmich. From that Mr. Schmich the building came to the council clerk Karl Weiss and from this in 1919 to a Major Freyer. The Dossenheim Housing Office confiscated rooms in the "Freyer property" for residential purposes in accordance with the Housing Shortage Ordinance and accommodated socially disadvantaged people there. In January 1929, the Dossenheim community acquired the property.

The people who were quartered in the castle were put on record several times. For example, in a neighborhood dispute in March 1930, one resident was shot at by another with a shotgun. Often the rent was not paid or garbage and rubbish was stored in the house. As early as September 1929, the municipality was therefore considering selling the property again and subdividing the associated large house garden into building lots. However, the Baden land surveying office in Heidelberg was of the opinion that the building would represent one of the most beautiful local scenes in Dossenheim if it were to be repaired and colored, and that the garden should therefore not be built over with non-essential structures. The district office also agreed with the land surveying office and prohibited parceling. The building remained a poor house, meanwhile new expansion plans for the historic barns and sheds were discarded.

The poorhouse was a thorn in the side of the Nazi mayor of Dossenheim from 1933 on and he tried to find other accommodation for the residents, which initially did not succeed. Instead, the woodshed belonging to the Schlössel was converted into a Hitler Youth home in 1935 . The castle itself was converted into an NSV kindergarten in 1937 after the previous residents had been relocated. The kindergarten essentially only occupied the ground floor, while the upper floor was also prepared for the purposes of the Hitler Youth and the BDM . The basement was converted into an air raid shelter . In the annex to the side of the building there was a kitchen below, and two apartments for Nazi sisters on the upper floor. The open spaces were provided with terraced lawns, a lounge area, sandpit and paddling pool. In May 1938 the building was given its new purpose in the presence of Kreisleiter Seiler, Gauamtsleiter Dinkel and other dignitaries.

The building survived the Second World War unscathed. In 1945 the parish offered it to the Deaconess Association, which continued to use it as a kindergarten, especially since the building and open spaces had only recently been extensively renovated. With the development of new building areas after the Second World War, the number of kindergarten children increased, at the same time Dossenheim expanded far from the Schlössel , so that many children had to cross the entire place to get to the Schlössel . The Protestant parish therefore planned a new, centrally located kindergarten at the Kronenburger Hof . When the company moved into it in 1968, the kindergarten in the Schlössel was given up. The municipality released the building for demolition in the course of the expansion of Dossenheimer Hauptstrasse in the same year. It was then torn down in 1970.

The demolition of the castle was not only intended to create the possibility of widening the main street, but also to create building sites for modern residential buildings. However, the development failed for almost two decades due to neighborhood interests. Instead of residential development, initially only a parking lot was created on the site of the building. It was not until 1989 that the current development of the Schlössel townhouses in the corner of Hauptstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse was built according to plans by the architect Ludwig Kletschke . The inner courtyard of the quarter was called Kirchplätzl .

description

Together with the Evangelical Church and the Baroque rectory, the castle once formed a representative ensemble in Dossenheim.

The castle was a single-storey, seven-axis building with a mansard roof . The main facade facing west was not symmetrically structured, so that the front door and window on the ground floor were not in a regular relationship to one another. The seven windows of the mansard roof facing west were also arranged asymmetrically. There were six rooms each on the ground floor and the attic. The building was heated with tiled stoves at the latest when it was converted into a kindergarten in 1937/38.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dossenheim (1966), p. 102.
  2. ^ Volksgemeinschaft - Heidelberger Beobachter, April 14, 1938.
  3. ↑ Mayor's report from 1937, quoted from Burkhart 1996, p. 51.
  4. ↑ a b c Burkhart 1996, p. 51.
  5. ↑ Dossenheim (1929), p. 52; Volksgemeinschaft - Heidelberg observer from April 14, 1938
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Gauß 1996, p. 60.
  7. ↑ Gauß 1996, pp. 63/64.
  8. ↑ a b c Burkhart 1996, p. 54.
  9. ↑ Burkart 1996, p. 55.
  10. ↑ Gauß 1996, p. 64.
  11. ↑ Gauß 1996, p. 65.
  12. ↑ a b Gauß 1996, p. 66.
  13. ↑ Burkart 1996, p. 49; Gauß 1996, p. 60.
  14. ↑ Gauß 1996, p. 68.
  15. ↑ Gauß 1996, p. 59.

literature

  • Heimatverein Dossenheim (ed.): Dossenheim. A traditional mountain road community in the course of its history , Dossenheim 1984, p. 101.
  • Christian Burkhart: Documentation on the Dossenheim “Schlössel” during the Third Reich , in: Heimatverein Dossenheim, Heft 15 (1995), Dossenheim 1996, pp. 49–58.
  • Werner Gauß: Housing complex "Stadthäuser Schlössel" - the older and more recent history of a special residential area in the center of Dossenheim , in: Heimatverein Dossenheim, issue 15 (1995), Dossenheim 1996, pp. 59–69.