Hohenbuchau Castle

The "castle" in 1903 on a postcard

Siegfried monument in the pond of the castle

Hohenbuchau Castle was a castle-like mansion in a park that was built in 1895 and replaced a country estate built there in 1869. It was in Georgenborn (community Schlangenbad in the Rheingau-Taunus district in Hesse ) and was demolished in 1963 for new buildings. The outbuildings and the park have been preserved.

The first country estate

In 1863 the Prussian Rittmeister Constantin von Zachau acquired a 50  acre piece of land in Georgenborn and began to build a country estate. This was completed in 1872. Because of gambling debts, Zachau had to sell the property again in 1879.

It came into the possession of Ferdinand Krauskopf. Krauskopf had initially earned his living as a traveling salesman, then produced rubber boots and other rubber goods in Germany using the process developed and patented in America by Charles Goodyear and then, due to punitive tariffs, moved to the Russian sales area, the factory now in American, German and Russian ownership Relocated to St. Petersburg .

Soon after the purchase of the country estate, Krauskopf died. His son, the Russian citizen: Baron Ferdinand von Krauskopf, who had only recently been raised to the nobility, also inherited the property in Georgenborn.

Up until the First World War , the Russian American India-Rubber Co. was the most important rubber shoe factory in the world, producing 150,000 pairs of rubber shoes every day, as well as car tires.

Construction of the castle

The country house was demolished, and from 1895 a building called “Hohenbuchau Castle” was built in its place in a spacious park with a pond, Chinese tea house and Greek temple: “as the dream of a man who was immeasurably rich with 120 million gold marks ”.

Due to the consequences of the First World War and the expropriation in the Soviet Union, von Krauskopf lost his fortune and sold "Hohenbuchau" to his Russian compatriot Salomon Soskin, who, however, spent little time in Hohenbuchau. His wife Katharina Soskin, to whom he gave it as a present, also preferred to stay in Paris .

Decline and end

In the Third Reich , the castle was confiscated as enemy property. It served as accommodation for the Reich Labor Service , as a school for train drivers of the Reichsbahn , for the Waffen SS and the Gestapo .

After the Second World War , Katharina Soskin got her property back, but she did not invest any more money. The castle fell into disrepair, the park overgrown. On December 28, 1947, there was a major fire in the castle. From 1947 to 1952 it was used as a monastery by the " Gray Sisters " who had moved from Silesia .

In 1953 it was used by Victor Vicas as a backdrop for his film Way Without Return .

Pond with modern new buildings in the park

When Katharina Soskin sold the property to GeWoBau in 1961, the end of the castle had come. The architect Richard Neutra was commissioned to design a modern residential area, for which purpose the “castle” was demolished in 1963.

In addition to the surrounding wall with the Chinese pavilion , two ponds, the castle stairs, the guest house (Swiss house), one of the porter's houses, the castle shed and numerous details (walls, sequoias) can be seen today.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joachim Mai: The German Capital in Industry and Trade in Russia from 1850 to 1878 (PDF; 2.7 MB) p. 202f.
2. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.wiesbadener-tagblatt.de/region/untertaunus/schlangenbad/11060308.htm  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Description of a share in Russian American India-Rubber Co.
4. ↑ Volker Koop: In Hitler's hand: the special prisoners and honorary prisoners of the SS . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne Weimar 2010. online p. 29
5. ↑ Ortsbeirat Georgenborn - Georgenborn -einst and now- .
6. ↑ Our club history .

Web links

Commons : Hohenbuchau Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• "Schlangenbad - once the most expensive of the Taunus baths" at hr-online

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 '25.4 "  N , 8 ° 7' 25.2"  E