Castle Berge

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Berge Castle in the Evening (2004)

The Berge Castle , also called Haus Berge , stands on the south side of the Buerchen Berg in the Gelsenkirchen district of Buer in North Rhine-Westphalia . It was built as a moated castle to protect today's Gelsenkirchen district of Erle and was the ancestral seat of the von Berge family until 1433. 1521 was local mountains owned by the family of Boenen, whose member Ludolf Friedrich Adolf von Boenen in the imperial counts rise. His daughter Maria Anna Wilhelmine , a lover of Beethoven , was born on the mountains.

Rebuilt into a castle in the first half of the 16th century and changed again in the last quarter of the 18th century, the manor house of the complex presents itself in the late Baroque style on the threshold of classicism . Today it is used as a hotel restaurant.

history

View over the moat from Haus Berge: The round pavilion on the southwest corner of the castle island (today a terrace for hotel guests) is the remnant of a round tower that still existed until the late 18th century.

In 1248, with the knight Dietrich († 1272), the noble von Berge family from the von Strünkede family appeared for the first time as owners of the castle at that time . However, it can be assumed that the origins of the facility go back further into the past.

Built as a permanent house surrounded by moats , it was probably a multi-part system that was surrounded by a roughly rectangular system of moats. As an allodial property of the family, the castle was passed on from father to son for six generations. The last representative of this family on Berge was Gerlach, who died childless in 1433.

His widow sold the house and the surrounding goods to the knight Heinrich von Backem von Haus Leythe . When the male line of this family with Jörgen von Backem died out, his heir daughter Hartlieb (also Hartlief) brought Haus Berge to her husband Georg von Boenen in 1521.

Around 1530 he had the fortified complex expanded and converted into a castle. A 10.75 × 26.25 meter part in the main wing of the manor house , whose 1.30 meter thick walls are much more massive than the others, dates from that time . Another building on the site of today's north wing completed the existing structure. In the following 250 years, during which the von Boenen family lived in the castle, Berge achieved the dominant manorial position north of the Emscher and, with it, a corresponding social reputation. The von Boenen were even raised to the status of imperial barons.

The French garden was restored in the 1920s

Around 1700 a cellarless extension was added to the main wing of the manor house. In addition, a first park was created in the south of the main island. In line with contemporary tastes, this was a geometrically designed baroque garden based on the French model.

Under the baron Ludolf Friedrich Adolf von Boenen, the family rose to the rank of imperial count on August 17, 1790. The marriage of Adolf to Wilhelmine Franziska von Westerholt-Gysenberg , the heir to the counts, on October 6, 1769 made it possible. From then on, the castle owners called themselves "Counts of Westerholt". The elevation to the rank of count also required a more sophisticated lifestyle, which the old mansion from the 16th century was no longer sufficient. In the years 1785 to 1788, the old building was therefore partially demolished and rebuilt under the master builder of Werden Abbey , Engelbert Kleinhansz, in the early classical style with an additional wing, the south wing. The park was also extended to include an English landscape garden extending to the west . After the renovation, illustrious personalities such as Emperor Napoleon and Marshal Blücher stayed at the castle as guests .

After Countess Jenny von Westerholt-Gysenberg, Countess Jenny von Westerholt-Gysenberg, died on March 20, 1900, the last noble resident of Schloss Berge, a business enterprise was set up in the castle, which the city of Buer leased from 1920.

Planting of the central round bed of the garden in the form of a swastika emblem in the 1930s. Today this bed is planted in the form of the Gelsenkirchen city arms.

On March 15, 1924, the city acquired the castle including the 102 hectare site at a price of 1.4 million gold marks and set up a people's recreation center with restaurants and utility rooms there. For this purpose, the house was rebuilt and expanded between 1926 and 1933, during which the neo-Gothic chapel from 1879 was demolished in 1927 . The palace park was enlarged to around 73 hectares and restored in the old style. At the same time, the baroque garden was restored to its original condition from around 1700. However, the statues that can be seen in it today are only reproductions of old originals. At the same time, the Berger See, which was dammed in 1930, was built between 1927 and 1929 opposite the main entrance of the castle.

During the time of National Socialism , a district training castle of the NSDAP was to be built on the Vorburginsel . For this purpose, the majority of the farm buildings there, built between 1876 and 1878, were demolished. Only the west wing, known as the Remise , in which horse stables were formerly housed, stood until 1983, but was then closed to make room for a planned hotel building.

After the Second World War , the city of Gelsenkirchen had Berge Castle restored in 1952/53 . At the same time, a comprehensive interior renovation was carried out in order to provide space for a hotel-restaurant. After extensive modernization in 1977 and 1978, renovation and restoration work followed again in 2003 and 2004.

The castle today

Castle Berge from the west
Aerial photo 2016

The palace complex consists of undeveloped today former forecastle, the main castle island and a garden island.

From the outside, the main house still looks essentially the same as it did after the redesign in the period from 1785 to 1788. The coat of arms of the imperial counts of Westerholt-Gysenberg on the main wing indicates its last builders. The representative three-wing building is open to the west and stands on a square island about 40 meters long. Its two storeys are closed off by a mansard roof. The high basement of the building was built on pile gratings , which were given a supporting corset made of reinforced concrete during the restoration work in the 1950s to counteract mining damage. A round tower stood on the south corner of the Herrenhausinsel until 1784 , of which only the foundation remains today.

The entire complex has been a listed building since July 1988 . Together with the hotel and restaurant located in the castle building, the two gardens of the castle as well as the Berger See and the Gelsenkirchen city forest, it now serves as a local recreation area.

literature

  • Klaus Gorzny: Emscherschlösser. A companion. Piccolo, Marl 2001, ISBN 3-9801-7765-3 , pp. 83-87.
  • Gustav Griese (Ed.): Castles and palaces in Gelsenkirchen . 2nd Edition. Gelsenkirchen 1960, pp. 84-95.
  • Cornelia Kneppe: Haus Berge. In: Kai Niederhöfer (Red.): Burgen AufRuhr. On the way to 100 castles, palaces and mansions in the Ruhr region. Klartext Verlag , Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0234-3 , pp. 206-209.
  • August Kracht : Castles and palaces in the Sauerland, Siegerland and on the Ruhr. Knaur, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-426-04410-2 , pp. 288-292.
  • Gustav August Spürk (Ed.): Haus Berge. Documentation of monuments of the city of Gelsenkirchen. Volume 2. Gelsenkirchen 1981.
  • Gustav August Spürk: Haus Berge. In: Contributions to the history of the city. Volume 10. Recklinghausen 1980, pp. 45-129.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Berge  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Gregor Spohr (Ed.): Romantic Ruhr Area. Castles, palaces, mansions. 2nd Edition. Pomp , Bottrop 1996, ISBN 3-89355-110-7 , p. 74.
  2. ↑ Cornelia Kneppe: Haus Berge. 2010, page 207.
  3. ↑ a b Anno 1264. (PDF; 236 kB) Schloss Berge (Haus Berge). Archived from the original on August 10, 2013 ; accessed on January 14, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Newspaper report of March 20, 1930, Archives for Orts- und Heimatkunde, Gelsenkirchen-Buer; see. [1] .
  5. ^ A b Gustav Griese: Castles and palaces in Gelsenkirchen. 1960, p. 94.
  6. ↑ a b gelsenkirchen.de , accessed on January 6, 2020.

Coordinates: 51 ° 34 ′ 7 ″  N , 7 ° 4 ′ 9 ″  E