Britz Castle

The Britz Castle is the former mansion at the historic manor of the former village Britz in the town district of Berlin . Today it is the seat of the Kulturstiftung Schloss Britz and houses a museum for the living culture of the early days in the faithfully reconstructed rooms from the 19th century and also offers space for changing special exhibitions, readings and concerts. The 300-year-old manor park is characterized by its old trees and a winding network of paths from 1890. In 1997 the extensively reconstructed and restored park received the Gustav Meyer Prize. The castle is a protected cultural asset under the Hague Convention .

The adjoining estate with its historic farm buildings from the 19th century now offers space and space for various other cultural institutions in Neukölln , such as the Museum Neukölln and the Paul Hindemith Music School , after a phase of renovation .

history

Britz manor around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

Britz manor around 1880, Alexander Duncker collection

in 1237 Britz was first mentioned as the village Britzig, the land book of Charles IV. 1373 listed it as Briczik . The von Britzke family, who had been knighted, had been fiefdom owners and residents of the manor since the 13th century . There is evidence that in the 16th century there was a half-timbered house in place of the castle in the style of that time. The Thirty Years' War with its devastating effects and repeated inheritance divisions forced the widowed Katharina von Britzke to sell the property to the Prussian elector in 1699.

The later Prussian King Friedrich I favored his electoral or royal chamber president Samuel von Chwałkowski with this property, who acquired it for 30,000 thalers . After his death in 1705, his son-in-law completed the construction of a solid, nine-axis, two-story stone house. In 1717 under the owner Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Schwerin (1678-1727) the property was declared an allodial property. In the 18th century, Britz Castle was still owned by Heinrich Rüdiger von Ilgen and Count Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg, among others . Ilgen owned Britz Castle from 1719 to 1728 and served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs under the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I. Hertzberg was a budget, war and cabinet minister from 1763–1791, one of the leading foreign policy figures in Prussia under Friedrich II. Hertzberg did not judge only started silk production in Britz, from 1770 to 1772 he had the interior of the manor house completely redesigned by the painter Bernhard Rode with wall and ceiling paintings.

In the 19th century the property came into the possession of bourgeois manufacturers. The silk merchant and fuel manufacturer Johann Carl Jouanne lived in the manor house all year round with his family from 1824 to 1857 and had it rebuilt according to these requirements, so that much of the 18th century decor was lost. The manor and farm yard was also fundamentally rebuilt around 1840–1850, with models such as the Bornstedt Crown Estate near Potsdam being the inspiration for the buildings that are still preserved today; their exposed brick construction in the Italian rural villa style of the Schinkel School is typical . Jouanne also built the first distillery on the estate to produce potato schnapps to increase his agricultural productivity and as an additional income opportunity. Jouanne was a brother-in-law and cousin of the Friedrichsfeld squire Carl von Treskow , who worked closely with the agricultural reformer Albrecht Daniel Thaer and had founded an agricultural reform school in 1822. Many reform ideas to improve agriculture in Britz were taken over from Friedrichsfelde, at times both estates were managed together. In the next generation, too, two sons of family v. Treskow in Friedrichsfelde in Britz her cousins Jouanne and continued the close economic community. Under the last private owner, the beet sugar producer, trader and spirits manufacturer Wilhelm A. J. Wrede , the house was given its current castle-like appearance. It was rebuilt from 1880–1883 by the Berlin architect Carl Busse into a bourgeois country house in the neo-renaissance style, received a stair tower, representative interiors in the style of historicism and a bathroom extension.

In 1924 the heirs of the last landlord, the factory owner Wrede, sold the property to the city of Berlin. After the Second World War , Britz Castle served as a refugee home and later as a children's home. In 1971 Britz Castle was placed under protection of cultural assets and monuments . After a comprehensive restoration 1985–1988, which restored the state of the last renovation from 1883, it was made accessible to the public for the first time and has been the site of numerous cultural events since then. In addition, overnight rooms on the upper floor serve the Neukölln district as guest rooms and are used by the Hotel Estrel as a training hotel .

Surroundings

The neighboring former manor now serves as a cultural site, on the grounds of which, among other things, the Museum Neukölln , the Paul Hindemith Neukölln music school as well as an open-air stage and an outdoor enclosure with historic domestic animal breeds are housed. In the immediate vicinity of the palace and manor, the Hufeisensiedlung , which was built between 1925 and 1933, is a pioneering urban development of modern architecture and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 .

Manor park

The park, which is around 1.8 hectares in size today, has a continuous history of over 300 years, which can still be traced in many of the garden's elements. At the beginning of the 18th century, the park presented itself as a typical baroque utility and pleasure garden of a noble mansion based on the Dutch model. The central lime tree avenue has been preserved from the rectangular network of paths at that time. The remains of an aha (or ha-ha ) ditch that still borders the park in the east today probably date from the middle of the 19th century . The current appearance was largely designed by the royal garden inspector Wilhelm Nahlop, commissioned by Wrede in 1888, who was responsible for the park as head gardener for over 25 years. The curvy system of paths has been expanded further, flower beds, exotic potted plants and a fountain decorate the park again today, as it was then. As early as 1900, articles in various horticultural magazines described the design of the park as an outstanding example of garden art . The original old trees of the Britzer Gutspark now include robinias , linden trees , horse chestnuts , maples , plane trees , beeches and the oldest ginkgo tree in Berlin, which has certainly adorned the park since the last decades of the 19th century and perhaps even under Jouanne in the middle of the century 19th century was planted. A copy of the bust of Minister Rüdiger von Ilgen, which Rudolf Siemering created for the imperial Siegesallee in 1902, can also be found in the park ; From 1954 the original had even found a location in the park and was only replaced by the copy in the course of the restoration in 1985–1989.

Milkmaid

The milkmaid in the manor park of Britz Castle

In the park there is still a copy of the famous bronze figure of the milkmaid , which Pavel Petrovich Sokolov created in 1816 for the park of the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg . The story of the milk girl goes back to the fable The Milk Pot from the 17th century by Jean de La Fontaine , which in the 18th century inspired Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim to create his own version.

Quote

“One of the park residents is particularly sad this afternoon - the ' milkmaid '. At the edge of a park path, the bronze beauty weeps over her broken milk jug. She has been doing this there since September 1998 - when the sculpture 'The Milk Maiden' from Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, created in 1807 by the sculptor Pawel Petrovich Sokolov, came to Britz as a copy. Also as a 'milestone of friendship' - Britz Castle has been cooperating with the former Tsar's court since 1989. "

- Britz Castle: The last raspberries have been picked.

literature

Matthias Barth: mansions and country estates in Brandenburg and Berlin. From the Renaissance to Art Nouveau. Würzburg 2008, pp. 26-29. ISBN 978-3-87057-292-1
Anton F. Büsching : Description of his journey from Berlin via Potsdam to Rekahn not far from Brandenburg, which he made from June 3rd to 8th, 1775. Frankfurt and Leipzig 1780.
Friends and sponsors of Schloss Britz e. V. (Ed.): 300 years of Britz Castle. Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg and the Berlin Enlightenment. Berlin 2006. ISBN 978-3-00-018846-6 .
Kulturstiftung Schloss Britz / Friends and Sponsors Schloss Britz e. V. (Ed.): The garden at Britz. Its development history from the beginning until today. Berlin 1998.
Friedrich Nicolai: Description of the royal residence cities of Berlin and Potsdam, of all the peculiarities located there and the surrounding area. Berlin 1786.
Material on Rittergut Britz (part 1) in the Duncker collection of the Central and State Library Berlin (PDF; 222 kB)
Material on Rittergut Britz (Part 2) in the Duncker Collection of the Central and State Library Berlin (PDF; 221 kB)
Klaus Dieter Stefan (Ed.): Friedrichsfelde. The place. The lock. The story , Berlin 2014.