Braunshardt Castle

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Braunshardt Castle seen from the park

The rococo castle Braunshardt is located in the Braunshardt district of the town of Weiterstadt in southern Hesse .

In 1760, Landgrave Ludwig VIII gave the Braunshardt estate to his son Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt . There he had the castle built based on the French model by the architect Johann Jakob Hill . His wife Countess Maria Luise Albertine zu Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg gave the financial support.

A special feature of the castle is that each room has a different color. In 1885, the British Queen Victoria visited the castle. She later called it a “colorful box of chocolates” in her diary.

After around 250 years of eventful history, the city of Weiterstadt bought the castle in 2006.

history

Postcard around 1900
Braunshardt Castle with its garden.

18th century

Braunshardt Castle was built by Prince Georg Wilhelm in 1760. He received the Braunshardt estate as a gift from his father, Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt. With the financial support of his wife, Lieutenant Engineer Johann Jakob Hill had the castle with a Dutch mansard roof built on a ground floor . A garden in the style of the Petit Trianon of the Palace of Versailles was created at the palace . The cavalier's building and the kitchen building joined at right angles on the south side.

In 1772 Prince Georg Wilhelm set up a distillery . He was given permission to do so for ever. Sixteen years later he died and his son, Prince Georg Karl , inherited the legacy. He worked as a physicist and technician, doing experiments with steam power . In 1786 he built an oil mill for which he brought in a specialist. It was the experienced miller Johann Georg Bernhard from Nieder-Modau who was given the management of this mill. A few years later, the gardener Schneeberger from Braunshardt took over the supervision of the oil mill.

A very special guest at the palace was Luise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz , who later became Queen of Prussia. She was a granddaughter of the builder of the castle. In 1793 she stayed in the castle with her fiancé, the Crown Prince of Prussia.

The steeple of the castle. It was built in 1926.
Braunshardt Castle at night. You can see the Luisenflügel and the church tower.

Change of ownership

When Prince Georg Karl lost his entire fortune in 1819, creditors took over the property in Braunshardt. Three years later the court attorney Karl Weidenbusch bought the castle after some negotiations. When he died two years later, the property passed to the Darmstadt merchant Johann Heinrich Fuhr . When he died unmarried in 1840, his nephew, the farmer Georg Ludwig Heinrich Fuhr, inherited. In 1865 he sold it to the Frankfurt banker Achilles Andreae for 60,000 guilders. But this only had it on behalf of Grand Duke Ludwig III. bought, which it finally went to. Most of the meadows and fields were sold to farmers from Braunshardt in the same year. The Grand Duke renovated the palace and it was re-inaugurated on May 30, 1867. During this time, Princess Alix , who later became Tsarina, often stayed in Braunshardt Castle as a child. However, the castle only stayed in the grand ducal family for a few decades.

In 1898 Ernst von Hohmeyer took over the castle, who repeatedly rented it out. On May 15, 1904, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig visited the palace. He built the Marienhof girls' home on a site next to the park . Between 1907 and 1911 the palace was rented by the widowed Princess Karl von Hanau. In April 1912 the new tenant, a Fraulein Lemp, moved into the castle. The castle blossomed once more with the tenant. She moved the German women's school she ran into the castle. However, after two years the school was relocated near Kassel. From then on, the owner only used the castle as a summer residence. In 1915 Eduard von Bamberg bought the castle, which housed his collections and library there. He had today's dining room built. He was also the builder of the little garden hall, which is now used as a Chapel of Our Lady . After the armistice in 1918, French troops destroyed almost the entire library and collections.

The Caritas Association of the Diocese of Mainz acquired the castle in 1926 and carried out a renovation. The appearance of the castle was not changed, but the outbuildings were brought to the same height and shape and connected to the castle. A year later, the facility was expanded threefold to the west. In the middle of the castle was the St. Ludwig chapel with the church tower. It was the Bishop of Mainz Ludwig Maria Hugo in 1929 consecrated . The garden was temporarily transformed into a large vegetable patch. Only the lime tree avenues have been preserved. Since the renovation work, Benedictine women have been running the girls' home and cultivating the land themselves. Shortly afterwards the English ladies work in the same place . They offered their students a wonderful stay in the country school in Braunshardt. They also supervised the voluntary labor service.

The Johannesbund Leutesdorf looked after the property from 1936 . They put the whole home at the service of the retreat and the care of the elderly. But this was not easy in the Third Reich, and the National Socialists dissolved the home as early as 1941. In 1950 the Johannesbund got the property back.

The splendid inventory of the castle, which is still left after this time, is now in the Prinz-Georg-Palais and in the Darmstadt Castle Museum . In the castle itself only the marble chimneys and the stucco work have been preserved. A small part of the castle park has been provided with residential houses since the 1970s. This part was sold in order to use the proceeds to renovate and restore the castle. However, the proceeds were not used for the castle, but the Johannesbund decided in 1984 to build a new old people's home in the south-western part . Part of the castle was demolished, but not the historical part. The retirement home has been in operation since 1985. The castle itself was sold to a private person, renovated and restored.

Braunshardt Castle today

In 2006 the city of Weiterstadt bought the castle to open it to the public. This intention was never realized. To date, the castle is only open to the public on request and on certain occasions. B. for guided tours, events and weddings.

In 2008 the city had the fountain in the park renovated. In the same year, the city bought a large part of the castle park from the Johannesbund Leutesdorf.

literature

  • Claudia von Gélieu: The educator of Queen Luise: Salomé de Gélieu. Pustet, Regensburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7917-2043-2 .
  • Günther Hoch: Chronicle of the community of Weiterstadt and its districts Braunshardt, Graefenhausen, Riedbahn, Schneppenhausen. Community council, Weiterstadt 1988, ISBN 3-924803-08-0 .
  • A jewel sparkles in Braunshardt. Friends of Braunshardt Castle, Weiterstadt 2008.
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , pp. 364–365.

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 54 ′ 54 ″  N , 8 ° 34 ′ 2.6 ″  E