Genshagen Castle
The manor house Schloss Genshagen is located in Gutsdorf Genshagen , which belongs to the town of Ludwigsfelde in the Brandenburg district of Teltow-Fläming , southwest of Berlin .
history
Genshagen was first mentioned in a document in 1289 and was divided before the 15th century. The greater part came into the possession of the von Otterstedt, a significantly smaller part to the von Zicker family. Before 1655, the noble von Hake family acquired the Otterstedt share. Zicker's share went to Friedrich August von Thümen in 1677 . In 1700, when Lewin Friedrich von Hake married Maria Dorothea, née Schaefferin, a manor was built in what was formerly Otterstedt's part. Wilhelm von Hake kept the estate over the wars of liberation . His son, Ludwig von Hake, sold it in 1838 for 130,000 Reichstaler to the royal Prussian Privy Councilor Karl Ferdinand Schulz . He entrusted Anton Gebauer with the administration for many decades.
In September 1854, father Karl Ferdinand left the manor house , which is now debt-free , to his daughter Friederike Pauline von Eberstein as a wedding present on the occasion of her wedding to Max Freiherr von Ebenstein , a second lieutenant in the Emperor Franz Grenadier Regiment . On their behalf, a new manor house was built in 1878/1879 under the direction of the Berlin building inspector Lindemann, which was primarily referred to as a palace after the renovation in the 1910s . A single-storey , thirteen- axis plastered building in the neo-renaissance style was built on a high base with studs . Hiltrud and Carsten Preuß describe in their explanations in The manor houses and mansions in the district of Teltow-Fläming a symmetrical facade structure with a "decorative facade decoration". In the middle of the courtyard was a flight of stairs that stretched over three axes. Visitors came through it into a portico with a triangular gable with the coat of arms of the von Eberstein family. On the park side, another flight of stairs led into the park. In the mansard roof there were ten dormer windows on the courtyard side, which were arranged above the window axes on the ground floor. After the von Eberstein family moved in, the manager used the old manor house as a residential and manager's house. A distillery was established in 1888.
A second construction phase began around 1910, in which the building was rebuilt in the neo-baroque style. The structure was increased by a projectile, the gambrel laterally hipped . Since this renovation, a two-story, square tower has risen in the middle. The dormers in the lower attic were retained, while bat dormers were installed in the new upper attic . A Söller was built on the roof of the vestibule facing the courtyard . A central risalit was created on both the courtyard and the garden side , which was structured by pilasters and on which a balcony with a wrought iron grid was placed. Ornate ceilings and a spacious fireplace were created in the interior. The structure is described in the Dehio manual as “magnificent”.
After the Second World War , the von Eberstein family, who had fled to Schleswig-Holstein, were expropriated . The castle was initially used as accommodation for refugees and displaced persons, and from 1948 as an administration school for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the GDR . In 1958 there was a fire in the distillery; the building was restored and partially rebuilt by the VEG. In 1968, the VEG had the old and now dilapidated manor house rebuilt and integrated into the farm buildings. From 1973 to 1991 the advanced training department of the Edwin Hoernle Scientific and Technical Center of the Agriculture and Food Industry of the Potsdam District Council used the building. After the headquarters of the WTZ was relocated to Potsdam in 1973 , the feed testing department with a laboratory and the training department with a library remained in the castle. In 1983 the building was given a new roof, as was the tower.
After the fall of the Wall , the castle became the property of the state. In 1993 the distillery, which until then had been operated by the Berlin City Assets, closed. Until 1996, the State Academy for the structure and work of the then Brandenburg Minister of Social Affairs, Regine Hildebrandt, used the castle as a training academy . At the same time, the Berlin-Brandenburg Institute (BBi) for Franco-German Cooperation in Europe came into being in 1993 . V. as a subtenant. In 1995 the first renovation work was carried out. In 1996 the BBi received a heritable building right for 60 years on the castle. The association then began extensive renovation work, which, under the direction of the Berlin architect Claus Kampmann, included a conversion into a conference hotel with 21 guest rooms. The gardener's house was converted into a youth center. The work was completed in 2004 and in the following year the association was transformed into the Genshagen Foundation .
Use in the 21st century
Genshagen Castle has belonged to the Genshagen Foundation - Berlin-Brandenburg Institute for Franco-German Cooperation in Europe , which is financed by the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Brandenburg - since 2005 . The Genshagen Foundation, which emerged from the BBi, organizes a series of conferences and other events in the castle throughout the year, and the Weimar Triangle is also a regular guest here. In addition to the foundation, the state of Brandenburg and the federal government also use the representative building with its 7.5 hectare park for state visits and political working meetings. The then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the French President Jacques Chirac met here in February 2004 . The first closed meeting of the government coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel took place here in January 2006 .
The institute and today's foundation do not go back to political initiatives alone; support came from German and French companies, foundations and individuals from the start. The names of Brigitte Sauzay and Rudolf von Thadden are inextricably linked with the Genshagen Institute .
Landscape park
In the second half of the 19th century, an approximately 7.5 hectare park was created with a moat-like water course and modeled hills. After the building was rebuilt in the 1910s, the garden was also changed and a ground floor was added . From a communication from the DDG from 1922 it is known that Sophie Freifrau von Eberstein had a broad collection of the woody plants built. Hiltrud and Carsten Preuss conclude from this that “there was an extraordinary, colorful plantation in the 1920s”. The park was supplemented by a nursery with greenhouses and a palm house. After 1992 extensive work began in the park. Under the direction of the Belziger landscape architect Gunnar Lange, the areas near the castle were first redesigned. It was based on the historical templates, while the other areas were modernized.
literature
- Hiltrud and Carsten Preuß: The manor houses and manor houses in the Teltow-Fläming district. Lukas Verlag für Kunst- und Geistesgeschichte, 1st edition, November 29, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86732-100-6 , p. 244.
- Lieselott Enders : Historical local dictionary for Brandenburg: Teltow. (= Historical local dictionary for Brandenburg. Volume 4). Verlag Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1976.
- Georg Dehio (arr. Gerhard Vinken et al.): Handbook of German Art Monuments - Brandenburg. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-422-03123-4 .
Web links
- Entry in the monument database of the State of Brandenburg
- History of the castle on the website of the Genshagen Foundation
Coordinates: 52 ° 18 ′ 51.7 ″ N , 13 ° 19 ′ 5.6 ″ E