Ludwigslust Palace

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View across the basin to the city facade of the castle

The Ludwigslust Castle is a classical ensemble of a castle with outbuildings and a landscaped garden in the same city in the southwestern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern .

From 1763 to 1837 it was the main residence of the (grand) dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . The large-scale complex with the castle building as the center and the court church as an architectural counterweight goes back to the core of the Klenow hunting lodge, designed by Johann Friedrich Künnecke , with its surrounding gardens and was later expanded by the architect Johann Joachim Busch . The castle and church are integrated into a planned city, the main street of which leads to the castle square. Together with the city and the garden area, the facility forms an overall ensemble that is unique in Mecklenburg in this version. Ludwigslust is therefore often referred to as the Mecklenburg Versailles or, more rarely, as the Sanssouci of the North .

The museum housed in the castle is one of the locations of the Schwerin State Museum . The castle is owned by the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; The palace and the collection are administered by the State Authority for State Palaces, Gardens and Art Collections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania .

In terms of its regional cultural and historical significance, Ludwigslust Castle is comparable to the residential castles of Güstrow , Schwerin and the former Neustrelitz residence .

historical overview

A hunting lodge as the origin

The later residence Ludwigslust goes back to a manor village called Klenow or Kleinow , which was first mentioned in the 14th century and which Duke Friedrich Wilhelm I gave to his younger brother Christian Ludwig II in 1708 as an apanage . The prince, who lives in neighboring Grabow , first planned a hunting seat in the game-rich area around Klenow in 1721 . After Grabow Castle was destroyed in a city fire in June 1725, the expansion plans for Klenow progressed, but initially failed due to a dispute with the now ruling Duke Karl Leopold . As the middle of the three surviving brothers, he had succeeded the childless Friedrich Wilhelm I on the throne in 1713 and demanded that the construction of the hunting seat be stopped, which he regarded as an affront to himself. Components that had already been started had to be removed again on his instructions. Karl Leopold had fallen out with the Kaiser a few years earlier during the Great Northern War , which in 1728, after further arbitrary acts, led to his impeachment by the Reichshofrat even in his territory . The construction in Klenow could therefore be continued for the now employed Christian Ludwig from 1731, the construction site was initially under the protection of imperial soldiers. Duke Christian Ludwig commissioned the architect Johann Friedrich Künnecke , who presumably came from Hanover as the master builder for the new hunting lodge, who built Bothmer Castle in northwest Mecklenburg for Count Hans Caspar von Bothmer at the time .

The new building in Klenow initially only served as a hunting lodge for Christian Ludwig, who resided in Neustädter Schloss after the Grabower fire , but was redesigned in the following years. From 1748 the duke had the French garden expanded by the Schwerin court architect Jean Laurent Legeay , and from 1752 the hunting lodge was expanded. In 1754, the Duke announced the new name of the hunting lodge in the Mecklenburgische Nachrichten :

“On Wednesday, August 21st, your ducal highness, our most gracious sovereign, with the whole princely family and most of the royal family and the greater part of the royal family rose to Kleinow, and on the same day ordered that the said place be called Ludwigs-Lust from now on and for the future should be! "

The main residence of the ducal family remained in Schwerin in those years. After Christian Ludwig's death in 1756, the outbreak of the Seven Years' War initially prevented further construction work in Ludwigslust.

From the residential palace to the summer residence

Duke Friedrich in front of the Ludwigsluster cascade, holding a building plan in his hands - painting by Georg David Matthieu

The subsequent Duke Friedrich (the Pious) spent most of the war years in Lübeck. Although he had the court builder Jean Laurent Legeay submit drafts for an initial enlargement of the palace as early as 1756, the plans were never implemented and Ludwigslust mainly served as a secondary residence for his younger sister Ulrike Sophie during this time . The only major construction project was the Great Canal, which would later form one of the main axes of the new garden.

With the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, Duke Friedrich took up the idea of ​​expanding the palace area again. The original idea, which provided for modest conversions, no longer met his requirements. As a young man he had made a grand tour through Europe and got to know the court of Versailles in France, which at that time served as a model for most European royal courts. For the hunting seat in the former Klenow, which, like Versailles, was outside the actual capital, the duke wanted a palace complex based on the French ideal. There he wanted to pursue government business on the one hand and indulge in his scientific and musical inclinations on the other. The castle should also provide the right setting for the art collection that his father had founded. The project for a contemporary residence was supported by his wife, Duchess Louise Friderike von Württemberg, who, as the granddaughter of Duke Eberhard Ludwig from Württemberg, was used to the lavish courtship that she missed at her pious husband's pietistic, sober court.

View from the church construction site to the old hunting lodge, engraving by Findorff, 1767
Johann Joachim Busch

Duke Friedrich asked master builder Legeay for new designs, and at the same time the Schwerin court master builder Johann Joachim Busch began building a city complex based on a baroque floor plan and a large court church as a counterweight to the castle. The first construction work began in 1763 with the houses on Bassinplatz and around the later churchyard; As early as 1764 Duke Friedrich moved the court from Schwerin to Ludwigslust. In 1765, under Busch's direction, the foundation stone of the court church was laid and after its completion in 1772, construction of the new residential palace began, which could be moved into in 1777. The numerous simultaneous construction sites employed several hundred bricklayers, carpenters and other craftsmen, the farmers in the area had to do manual and tensioning services, and Duke Friedrich regularly supervised the work. The expenses for the construction project could be limited by largely avoiding expensive materials such as marble and fine woods and using paper mache , the so-called Ludwigsluster Carton , instead . The costs were borne by the ducal rent chamber , whose income increased the proceeds from the forest treasury of the wooded area. When Duke Friedrich died in 1785, the palace district was largely complete. Ludwigslust had developed from a manor village to a small royal court, which for a period of around 80 years formed the cultural and political center of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin region.

Ludwigslust Palace 1806, gouache by Wilhelm Barth

With Frederick's death the new residence of the childless Duke went to his nephew and successor I. Friedrich Franz through. He had the baroque garden, which was barely completed, expanded in the now contemporary style as an English landscape garden , and from 1809 the city was expanded by Johann Georg Barca . After Friedrich Franz's death, his following grandson, Paul Friedrich, moved the court back to Schwerin in 1837, which reduced Ludwigslust to the status of a summer residence. Friedrich Franz II had the gardens reworked by Peter Joseph Lenné from 1852 to 1860 , but the palace was rarely inhabited in the second half of the 19th century. Large parts of the Ludwigslust art collection came to Schwerin from 1879. The castle once again gained importance as a permanent residence at the end of the First World War , when it was occupied by Friedrich Franz IV in the course of the abdication and expropriation of the Mecklenburg Grand Dukes . Some of the interiors were open to the public for the first time from 1922. The ducal family lived in Ludwigslust until the end of the Second World War , and the palace building survived the war without any structural damage. Ludwigslust, which was initially occupied by Western Allied troops at the end of the war , also escaped the devastation caused by the Red Army on numerous palace and manor houses in eastern Germany . However, parts of the movable equipment were subsequently lost through looting and neglect.

From the administration building to the castle museum

The castle in the post-war period, photograph from 1949

In the first post-war years, the castle housed the local command of the Red Army . The ducal family was expropriated during the land reform in 1947 and the palace was finally taken over by the Ludwigslust district . Initial plans to set up a museum in the building were not pursued; some of the art treasures that had remained in the castle until then ended up in Schwerin or were stored in the castle. The former ducal residence served as the seat of the district authorities during the GDR era; State organs of the GDR moved into the historical interior for several decades.

In 1986 the palace and the gardens were placed under the administration of the State Museum in Schwerin and major building security measures were taken, and rooms were opened to the public for the first time. The castle became a museum for courtly art and home decor . The district administration stayed in the castle until 1991, since then it has been gradually used as a museum and renovated in stages until the end of 2015. The restoration was partly financed with EU funds. The renovation of the facade cost 4.8 million euros , the restoration of the interior a further 12 million euros. Work on the Grand Cascade began in 2007 and completed in 2010; they cost around 450,000 euros. The castle and park can be visited; Until 2005, the castle museum had between 50,000 and 60,000 visitors annually. In addition to a few special exhibitions, a sponsoring association organizes castle concerts and a regular baroque festival, and the small festival takes place every year in the large park . In autumn 2017, however, large parts of the old trees in the gardens were devastated by storms Xavier and Herwart ; it will take decades to close the gaps.

The castle is one of the branches of the State Museum Schwerin and has served as the baroque museum of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since the completion of the renovation work. The castle's exhibits include, for example, the cork architectural models by the phello sculptor Carl May , busts by Jean-Antoine Houdon and pictures by the painters Jean-Baptiste Oudry and Georg David Matthieu . Among the most unusual parts of the exhibition are life-size portraits of members of the ducal family, painted by Matthieu on wooden figure panels.

Ducal collection

A large part of the palace's furnishings come from the Christian Ludwig Herzog collection of Mecklenburg . This is how after 1990 the parts of the private art and movables possessions of the former Mecklenburg dynasty that were expropriated in 1945 were named.

In an amicable agreement in 1997, the family granted the country free usufruct for 266 works of art until December 1, 2014. She kept 152 works for herself, most of which were auctioned off in the following years.

On the recommendation of the Kulturstiftung der Länder , the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania entered the remaining 266 pieces from the Christian Ludwig Herzog zu Mecklenburg collection in the register of nationally valuable cultural assets.

After long negotiations coordinated by the Kulturstiftung der Länder, a purchase agreement for the usufruct objects was reached. 252 objects passed directly into state ownership, as did the loft find of Ludwigslust Palace , which was only inventoried from 2011, with a total of 323 objects. The family kept another eight works of art as mementos , but made some of them available to the state free of charge as permanent loans for a further ten years and granted the state a right of first refusal. The contract was signed on June 26, 2014 in Schwerin Castle .

The collection is to be called the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Ducal House Collection in the future . In the winter of 2014/2015 around half of the collection was shown in the State Museum in Schwerin . In March 2016 the collection returned to Ludwigslust.

Castle complex

The castle district including gardens and outbuildings

overview

The axially aligned palace complex with its ancillary buildings was the result of an artistically uniform overall concept. In the south stands the courtyard or town church, surrounded by a square with low residential buildings, which forms the starting point of the more than one kilometer long main axis. The church square is connected by an avenue with the oval pool square, which is bordered by the curved aristocratic palace following the course of the square. The Bassinplatz and the Great Cascade form the southern boundary of the Schloss Freiheit . The paved courtyard is followed by the residential palace as the center of the complex, to the north is the park area, which begins in the immediate vicinity of the palace with a large tapis vert and whose end point is the long Hofdamenallee.

The complex, strictly geometrical in the sense of the Baroque, has largely retained its original shape south of the palace around the palace square and the court church to the present day, while the north-west garden area was extensively expanded from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century and has been remodeled.

The old hunting lodge

The architect Künnecke built the first hunting lodge for Christian Ludwig II in 1731–1735. It was a single - storey half-timbered building with fifteen window axes , the middle three axes were raised to form a two-storey risalit . To the east and west of the building were low, right-angled side wings, which ended in two-storey pavilions and, together with the main building, enclosed a wide courtyard. The basic shape of the hunting lodge was similar to that of Bothmer Palace, which was also built by Künnecke, while the simple half-timbered construction corresponded to other Mecklenburg hunting lodges, such as the later Friedrichsthal and Friedrichsmoor palaces . In 1752/1753 the French architect Jean Laurent Legeay extended the hunting seat with an arbor and a clock tower, the clockwork of which was moved to the Hotel de Weimar on Schlossstrasse after the old hunting lodge was demolished . During the reign of Duke Friedrich, the palace increasingly turned out to be in disrepair, and plans presented by Busch for further reconstruction were not considered. The English scholar Thomas Nugent , who temporarily stayed at the Mecklenburg court, described the hunting lodge in one of his travel letters in 1766:

“Because it was never intended for a residence, the building itself is not in the least splendid; it is only one storey high and has two wings which are inhabited by the ladies and gentlemen of the court [...] However, all these rooms are, of course, much too small for the gentlemen who pass through; the Duke wants to have a splendid palace built in his favorite place soon too. "

Since the hunting lodge was not sufficient for a larger court after the residence was moved, it was given up in favor of the new building and demolished in 1777. The wing buildings used as service wings were preserved until the middle of the 19th century.

Castle building

The castle on an engraving around 1830, left and right the farm wing of the old hunting lodge
Fridericus Dei Gratia Dux Megapolitanus / Ædificium hoc ædificare incepit / Anno Dominatus Sui Decimo Sexto / Consummauit Anno Vicesimo
Friedrich, by the grace of God, Duke of Mecklenburg / began the construction of this building / in the sixteenth year of his reign / and completed it in the twentieth year
(Inscription on the castle facade)

The castle in its current form was built from 1772 on behalf of Duke Friedrich according to plans by the court architect Busch. The construction site was located immediately north of the old hunting lodge, which was only demolished after the new building was completed. The basement of the new castle was already in place in November 1772, the two main floors could be completed by 1774, the mezzanine a year later. The actual construction work was completed by 1776, and the interior furnishings continued into the 1780s. The core of Ludwigslust Castle is made of brick , a building material typical of northern Germany, the facades are clad with Elbe sandstone, which is unusual for the region . The brick came from the ducal brickworks in Schwerin, Kummerow and Ludwigslust, the sandstone was imported from Pirna by water across the Elbe .

Courtyard facade

The castle building has three full floors and a mezzanine , a protruding cornice leads into the roof zone , the actual roof is hidden behind a final attic decorated with figures . The lowest floor with its simple rustication serves as the base floor of the building, the two middle floors with the ducal living and state rooms are structured by circumferential pilasters in a colossal Ionic order . The central wing with the large halls is emphasized by banded Corinthian pilasters in addition to its height above the eaves . The block-like, around 70 meters wide city facade is structured by seventeen axes. The two outer axles act as risalits apparent from the building volume and highlight in its width at the same time the position of the underlying, long seven axes, side wings. The central wing, crowned by a heavy attic, protrudes from the corps de logis in three axes and is accentuated on the courtyard side by a portico made up of Tuscan columns . The exterior of the piano nobile on the first floor is emphasized by the window crowning consisting of triangular and segmented gables , the sculptural decoration of the facades was created by the stone sculptor Martin Sartorius.

Garden facade

The floor plan of the palace is E-shaped, the wide facade is oriented towards the palace square, while the two side wings and the pavilion-like central wing face the park. The building thus deviates from the usual scheme of baroque residential buildings, which usually provides for an expansive facade in the direction of the garden parterre and an opening of the courtyard - which is missing in Ludwigslust due to incomplete plans - towards the city. The lock is a torso. Busch planned symmetrical, semicircular wing buildings on the courtyard side, which for financial reasons never went beyond the planning. Instead, the side wings of the former hunting lodge remained in front of the castle. They served as farm and kitchen wings and were demolished between 1846 and 1848.

The roof zone of the castle is crowned by 40 larger-than-life allegorical sandstone figures, 18 decorative vases, a coat of arms cartouche as well as a sun and a mechanical clock. The sculptures were created by the Bohemian sculptor Rudolph Kaplunger according to the specifications of the scientifically interested Duke. They represent personifications of the virtues, the sciences and the arts, but do not follow a strict iconographic program. In addition to the usual allegories of music or poetry, there are also extraordinary depictions, including chronography, hydraulics and diopters . The statues are all shown dressed in robes, erotic allusions - which were quite common - were rejected by the pious Duke Friedrich.

The east wing of the palace has been fully restored since March 2016. In 2017, the restoration of the rooms in the west wing began with the inventory. a. with the apartment of the Duchess and the apartment of Alexandrine of Prussia (1803-1892), which is characterized in the classical style . The reopening of the west wing with its 40 rooms is planned for 2022.

Ludwigsluster Carton

Ludwigsluster Carton from the inside

Duke Friedrich's limited financial possibilities meant that expensive types of stone such as marble or granite, precious metals and woods, porcelain or even stucco could only be used to a limited extent. A curiosity of the Ludwigslust palace complex is the almost continuous use of paper mache - popularly known as carton - as a material for imitating high-quality materials. The use of painted paper mache was not a new invention, but was promoted in Ludwigslust by the duke and promoted and refined by the expansion of the residence. The ducal offices even sent outdated files and scraps of paper on instructions to support the paper deliveries. The court painting workshop mainly used a technique in which layers of paper were pasted in the desired shape, then dried, carved, sanded, painted and coated with a kind of varnish . The workshop was so successful that it was able to manufacture most of the equipment it needed itself. The decors of the church and the multi-dimensional painted altar wall, the ceiling rosettes , frieze ribbons , console tables, sculptures, clock cases and even everyday objects such as candlesticks and centerpieces were made by the manufactory, which emerged from the paper workshop, initially for the court and from 1765 also supplied the series production of the Ludwigsluster cartons to other customers . In 1828, the writer Karl Julius Weber expressed himself amused at the art of paper mache:

"The busts are also strange - neither made of metal nor marble, neither wood nor stone, but rather cardboard covered with varnish, even the candlesticks in the chapel are made of silver-coated paper."

In addition to furnishing the castle district, the Ludwigsluster Carton-Fabrique, housed in what would later be the town hall, gained national fame as a workshop for inexpensive art reproductions that were easy to transport and based on well-known models. The products offered through contemporary sales journals and commission business were at times successfully sold abroad. In the 19th century, however, the demand for cardboard art gradually declined, and from 1823 sales finally plummeted. In 1835 the unprofitable manufacture ceased its business.

inside rooms

Floor plan of the first floor

The castle contains around a hundred interior rooms on four floors. The largely symmetrical floor plan was based on designs by Jacques-François Blondel . The main floor of the Duke and Duchess were on the first floor, also found themselves since the beginning of the 19th century the rooms of the heir to the throne. The ground floor and the mezzanine floor accommodated guest apartments, the mezzanine will in future accommodate the palace administration. The narrow wing buildings accommodate cabinets in the western area of ​​the main floor, and a large gallery in the eastern area, the structure of which was, however, changed by a number of renovations in the 20th century. In the east wing of the castle, the living room and parade room of the duke were on the first floor, in the west wing that of the duchess. They are divided according to the type of apartment double into an official, garden-side area with audience rooms adjoining the stairwells and adjoining salons and into the southern private living room and bedroom facing the courtyard. The palace does not have a court theater, and acting was forbidden as "immoral" during the reign of Duke Friedrich.

Some of the interior furnishings came from the castles in Güstrow and Dargun , which were barely inhabited at the time . Additional furniture was made in Ludwigslust workshops based on English and French models. Some pieces were given to the court as gifts, for example a bronze table based on Schinkel's designs with a mirror plate from the dowry of Princess Alexandrine of Prussia and several magnificent vases made in St. Petersburg for the Russian Tsar's court. Two cabinets owned by Queen Marie Antoinette of France were lost after the Second World War.

View through the hunting parlor

In the pavilion-like central section of the building are the large social rooms, which are flanked on both sides by the main stairwells and the apartments. The main access of the lock is of a supported by Tuscan columns arbor formed directly in the vestibule leads. This is the central connecting room of the basement, through which the stairwells and the hunting room can be reached. The hunting hall, decorated with trophies, is the large social room in the basement. Its conception goes back to a sala terrena , a garden room that was given its present form after renovation work in 1878. The salon, in which court services were also held on festive days, now houses the palace restaurant.

Golden Hall 2016

The center of the building and the highlight of the sequence of rooms is the Golden Hall above the hunting salon . The festival room, accessible through the upstream Gardessaal, occupies both main floors and its vaulted ceiling extends into the upper floor of the central pavilion, which can be seen in the exterior. The ceiling was originally supposed to be provided with a large painting by Christian Ludwig Seehas , but was finally given a white ceiling mirror with decorations made of gold-colored carton . The approximately 300 m², typically classicist room is divided by twelve Colossal Corinthian columns reaching up to the ceiling and is decorated in white and gold tones. Some elements of the décor, such as the ornaments on the ceiling and mirrors, still correspond to the late rococo, while the decor of the adjoining living rooms of the duke couple is completely based on classicism via the plait style .

The living rooms underwent several redesigns during the time when the castle was inhabited, but their decorative furnishings and basic structure have been retained over the centuries. When the castle was used by others as an administrative building, it was mainly chimney tops, wallpaper and movable furnishings that were lost in the second half of the 20th century. During the renovation work after the fall of the Wall , the castle received modern heating and air conditioning technology, which created the conditions for the restoration of the interior. As part of the museum's operation, some of the living rooms to be visited are presented in their original furniture - if available - and some of them serve as themed showrooms. The ducal anteroom is adorned with portraits of the family members, the living room presents a clock collection, the anteroom to the gallery houses a collection of architectural models made of cork and a statue of Venus made from Ludwigsluster carton based on ancient models . One of the most unusual interiors is the Small Cabinet , in which 125 small-format paintings and numerous Pietra dura works are on display.

  • Duchess's bedroom

  • Ducal anteroom

  • Dining room

  • Staircase and stairs

Stylistic classification

With the Ludwigslust residence, one of the last palace complexes in the sense of absolutism in the German-speaking area was created. On the outside, the building with its richly decorated figures, the staging of the church and castle as well as the multifaceted structure still has some reminiscences of the Baroque era, but overall, especially with the wide, less sweeping courtyard facade, it is already clearly characterized by classicism . The turn to the new art epoch can be felt even more clearly in the interior of the castle, where there are hardly any rocailles or lively elements to be found, especially in the living rooms , and the salons with their discreet furnishings are clearly classicistic.

There are no direct models for the Ludwigsluster Palace, apart from Versailles, which was omnipresent in the 18th century. There was a correlation between the court architect Jean Laurent Legeay, who was trained at the Académie royale d'architecture , and his successor Johann Joachim Busch. The court sculptor had already worked under the French architect in Klenow. Little is known about his education, but he was able to use the Duke's extensive library with the most important works of contemporary architectural history for his work. The later designs by the self-taught Busch can in part be traced back to plans by Jean Laurent Legeays, who left Mecklenburg around 1756. After retiring from the service of the Duke, the former Schwerin court architect stayed temporarily at the court of the Prussian King Friedrich II , where he was involved in the construction of the Communs at the New Palace . He later moved to London , from where, at the request of Duke Friedrich in 1766, he sent in his second drafts based on the unfinished renovation plans of 1756. These were ultimately rejected in favor of his successor Busch; whether they had any influence on its conception is unknown, as the plans have not been preserved.

Similar to Güstrow Castle, which was also built by the Mecklenburg dukes 200 years earlier, Ludwigslust Castle is an exception within the northern German architectural landscape. There is no such complex in the northern Elbe region and with its classicist stone facade the building is more reminiscent of Palladian- inspired English ones Palaces like Chatsworth House or Castle Howard instead of the brick Baroque mansions of the region, like Bothmer Castle . The building erected for the Counts of Bothmer around 30 years before Ludwigslust can best be compared with the ducal palace in its consistently baroque overall layout - the architect was Johann Friedrich Künneke there as in the previous Ludwigslust building - but it is in terms of the size of the corps des lodgings and the restrained design more closely related to the mansions of Mecklenburg and Holstein than to a princely residence.

Courtyard and outbuildings

and display information about the image
View of the castle and the court church

In front of the city facade of the castle, the castle courtyard, the basin square and the churchyard in the south form an almost contiguous area over a distance of around 500 meters. The basic structure of the squares goes back to Busch's designs; the numerous outbuildings belonging to the palace district date from the 18th and 19th centuries and were built by Busch and his successors.

Castle courtyard and pool

Large canal (built 1756–1760), 28 km long
Large cascade in front of the castle

The paved courtyard was the location of the former hunting lodge. It forms the intersection between the city and the residential district, into which the town's main street joins at an oblique angle. The design highlight of this area is the 70 meter wide cascade fed by the water of the Great Canal with the adjoining basin. Its origins can be traced back to a wooden cascade that Busch built at the beginning of the expansion work in Ludwigslust, which was decorated with several large obelisks . It got its current shape from 1780 after the wooden components were replaced by more durable granite elements . The sculptural decoration of the cascade was created by Rudolf Kaplunger, the figures in the middle group are allegories of the rivers Stör and Rögnitz . The castle bridge to the north, adorned with sandstone vases, also goes back to Kaplunger. Since no water was available in this area, a 28-kilometer canal was built between 1756 and 1760. Its water feeds the cascade, the ponds and all the water features in the park. You get the necessary pressure exclusively from the natural slope of the sewer.

Prince's Palace on the Basin

In the south-western area of ​​the courtyard is the Alte Wache , a pavilion built by Ludwig Wachenhusen (1818–1889) in the late Classicist arched style. The building, erected in 1853, served as the administration building for the castle guards and currently houses a restaurant. A few steps behind the Alte Wache is the Small Marstall , which Johann Georg Barca built in 1821, also in the arched style. The former ducal stable building is the seat of the castle archive. It had a counterpart with the more extensive Great Marstall at the eastern end of Schloßstraße, which had to be demolished after the end of the Second World War due to structural neglect. On the north-eastern edge of the Schlossplatz is the Spritzenhaus, a building from 1821 that goes back to Barca and originally served as an orangery for collecting garden plants.

Houses for the court officials

The oval pool area follows the castle courtyard, the center of which is a large water basin. The adjoining rows of houses and the east and west streets follow the curve of the course of the square, the buildings were erected under Busch as townhouses for court officials. The eastern building complex, the multi-wing Prinzenpalais , served the ducal family as additional living space. The early classical building was damaged by fire in March 2011, after the renovation the palace will accommodate age-appropriate apartments. To the south of the basin, the square narrows into a lane of view planted with avenues, on which a memorial was erected in 1953 in memory of the victims of the Wöbbelin concentration camp .

City Church

The wide portico hides the narrow nave of the court church

Across from the secular building of the castle, about 500 meters away, is the sacred building of the Protestant town church in Ludwigslust, which today belongs to the Parchim parish . The previous building of the church was located further north on today's Schloßstraße; it was a medieval village church that was demolished in order to expand the residential town. After the court services were held temporarily in the hunting hall of the old castle, Johann Joachim Busch received the order to build a new church on the occasion of the relocation of the residence from Schwerin to Ludwigslust. His first drafts envisaged an unusual structure in the form of an Egyptian pyramid , which the duke rejected as too exotic, as did a free-standing bell tower based on the model of the Roman Trajan column . The court church, which was finally built in more traditional forms, was the first major construction project in the course of the transfer of the residence; it was built from 1765 to 1770. During the construction period, the church, surrounded by flanking town houses, still stood opposite the old hunting lodge, which was only demolished a few years later.

The chancel of the church, in the foreground the sarcophagus of Duke Friedrich

The axial alignment with the castle made it necessary to dispense with the east-facing of the church. From the castle the view falls straight to the gigantic vestibule of the church. The wide, classically influenced portico gives the impression of the castle in size evenly matched temple, actually hides the hall building of the church just behind the middle three yokes , while the outer two yokes only scenes to increase the overall efficiency are. The gable field bears a Latin dedication, which refers to the builder Duke Friedrich and the construction dates of the building. The larger than life sandstone statues by Johannes Eckstein represent the four evangelists . A tall, free-standing Christ monogram towers above the gable. The church does not have a bell tower, the bell chambers of the church are located a few hundred meters east in the cemetery portal, which was built under Duke Friedrich Franz I from 1791 to 1792. The building consists of two Egyptian-looking pylons made of lawn iron stone flanking the gate opening . Like that of the church, the concept goes back to Johann Joachim Busch, who was able to realize his Egyptizing designs, which Duke Friedrich had rejected almost 30 years earlier, on a smaller scale.

In the interior, the painting of the chancel, which covers the entire south wall with an area of ​​350 m², is particularly striking. The depth effect of the picture painted on Ludwigsluster Carton is reinforced by various backdrop-like levels. It represents the announcement of the birth of Christ to the shepherds by the angel Gabriel . Started in 1772 by Johann Dietrich Findorff , the work was completed around 30 years later by Johann Heinrich Suhrlandt . Behind the upper part of the painting is the organ built in 1876 by the Friese workshop . The altar stands several meters above the parish room and can be reached via two side stairs. The pulpit is inserted centrally into the railing. A staircase leads down to the door of the princely crypt laid out in the manner of a confessio . Opposite the altar wall are the chairs of the Mecklenburg Dukes, designed in the form of a theater box , which, like the rest of the church furnishings, are decorated with paper mache.

Castle Park

The palace gardens were created over a period of just over 100 years. A modest garden north of the hunting lodge developed into a formally designed French garden by the end of the 18th century , which was converted into a landscape park in several sections from 1785 to the middle of the 19th century . The castle park has remained unchanged in its basic structure since then, only smaller areas such as the special gardens around the Schweizerhaus or the so-called flower garden have been lost over the decades and have only been partially reconstructed in the present. Today the park is the largest of its kind in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with an area of ​​around 127 hectares.

The original baroque garden

Unexecuted design by JL Legeay, 1766

Duke Christian Ludwig II had his first modest pleasure garden laid out by Johann Friedrich Künnecke around 1735. It consisted of a rectangular ground floor surrounded by hornbeam corridors, avenues of lime trees and a fairground decorated with pavilions. From 1747 to 1750 a pump house was built to the north-east of the castle to operate the water features, which today serves as a natureum for museum purposes and is the oldest surviving building in the city of Ludwigslust. The extensive expansion of the palace park took place in Duke Friedrich's reign from 1764 to 1776 under the direction of Johann Joachim Busch. The designs came from Busch himself as well as from his predecessor Legeay. Legeays plans saw numerous boskets , planted flowerbeds and mazes before that would have to lock area included literally. The space between the palace and the court church was designed as a gigantic star-shaped path flanked by gardens, and the green spaces north of the palace were to be framed by four-fold avenues. However, the drafts turned out to be too costly for the financial possibilities of the Mecklenburg Duchy, and Busch had meanwhile become the first court architect and had ousted his predecessor.

In order to have enough water available for the fountains and cascades in the actually dry region of the Griesen area , the 28-kilometer Ludwigsluster Canal from the Stör to the Rögnitz was dug from 1756 to 1760 . It also served as a transport route for the building materials required for the work that began in 1764.

To accommodate a water tank and pump equipment for the fountain was built 1751-1753 in the rear parking area, a fountain house , designed by Legeay. The fountain house is the oldest building in the city of Ludwigslust and was renovated in 2004/2005.

As can be seen from plans from 1763/64, the garden area, based on the model of French palace parks, consisted of a central main axis and several secondary axes. Two boulingrins adjoining the castle were followed by the Broderieparterres and the Hofdamenallee, which was possibly to be supplemented by a ditch as a branch of the Great Canal and as a central line of sight with the castle and the court church formed a continuous line. The garden was adorned with sculptures based on the ancient models of Roman emperors , made from Ludwigsluster carton and impregnated to make them weatherproof . East of the castle, to the pump house bordering, there was the formal garden designed kitchen, west of the natural, of cuts through early and with a vierzehnstrahligen hunting lodge provided ducal hunting ground. Thomas Nugent wrote about the gardens in 1755:

“I have to admit, this place far exceeded all of my expectations. I spent the whole morning looking at all of the enchanting beauties of it. Truly, the sight of all these rarities carried me away so much that afterwards I looked at them every day anew and thought to myself that I always found something new again and again. "

When the gardens were redesigned into a landscape park from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, the late Baroque appearance of the complex was lost, but parts of the basic structure have been preserved to the present day. From the former radial lines of sight, the Hofdamenallee, the Great Canal and the Johannisdamm, which is surrounded on two sides by water, are the main axes of the garden; With Friedrich-Naumann-Allee, another line of sight has opened up in the Ludwigsluster city area.

Remodeling into a landscape park

View from the landscape park to the garden side of the castle

The barely completed rococo garden had gone out of fashion at the end of Duke Friedrich's reign and no longer corresponded to the taste of the late 18th century. In the year of the Duke's death, his successor Friedrich Franz I had Johann Joachim Busch undertake the first redesigns in the then new style of English landscape gardens from 1785 . The court architect cleared the groups of trees on both sides of the Hofdamenallee, had natural depressions in the area extended to lakes and ponds, and connected the northern garden areas with winding paths. The resulting park was supplemented by numerous staffage structures such as the grotto built from 1788 and the Schweizerhaus built from 1789 in the interests of sensitivity .

In the 1840s, the now ruling Duke Friedrich Franz II wanted the gardens to be renewed and in 1843 had the Ludwigslust gardener Franz Wilhelm Benque draft plans for a redesign. The drafts were not taken into account, but from 1850 the Duke had the Schwerin court gardener Theodor Klett laid out the flower garden to the west of the palace around the tea pavilion. In 1852 the Prussian landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné presented redesign plans which were approved by the Grand Duke and which are considered to be masterpieces from Lenné's late phase. Lenné combined the old and new garden areas, which were previously separate from one another, by means of an overarching concept. He created a landscape that appeared to have grown naturally by creating extensive lawns and connecting the individual water areas in the park with artificial streams. He integrated the existing fragments of the old baroque garden such as the fountain called Lonely Monk or the 24 water jumps into the visual axes and added rare trees such as bald cypresses , tulip trees and wing nuts .

Garden architectures and monuments

Swiss house
Artificial grotto from 1788

The entire garden is adorned with numerous larger and smaller buildings, some of which are hidden in the gardens as a surprise element, and some of which serve as eye-catchers, visible from afar. There were already smaller pavilions and a summer house in the baroque garden of the hunting lodge , of which, however, no traces are left. By war damage and deterioration of the went to 1945 also Chinese-style built Monkey Temple from 1770 and the Rose temple from the 19th century lost. One of the oldest preserved garden architecture objects is the grotto from 1788 east of Hofdamenallee. It is a building made of lawn iron stone built under Johann Joachim Busch , which is an artificial ruin to remind of the transience of man in the sense of Rousseau and to arouse sentimental feelings. In addition to its romantic and decorative function, it also served practical purposes as an ice cellar . To the west of Hofdamenallee, at the level of the grotto, is the Schweizerhaus, a cottage- style building built around 1790 that Busch built as a summer home for Duchess Luise . The Schweizerhaus was temporarily rented out in the 19th century, later it served as a conference building and in the 20th century it was temporarily used as a youth hostel . The nine-axis building is emphasized by triaxial Mittelrisalite, with its simple execution in half-timbered and with reed covered roof but deliberately kept simple. Inside, the old room structure has largely been preserved. A large banqueting salon is located on the top floor and is decorated with alpine scenes and the coats of arms of the Swiss cantons. With its simple construction and materials, the Schweizerhaus refers to the ferme ornée typical of the late 18th century in the style of the Hameaus of Versailles and Chantilly . In order to perfect the romantic staging of a rural country estate, cattle were temporarily kept on the lawns around the summer house. The writer Stephan Schütze described the rural idyll in a travelogue from 1812:

“The wooded area is occupied by Swiss huts, fat and beautifully colored Swiss cows graze under the trees, guarded and tended by shepherds [...]. There is not much to see, but much that is pretty; appropriate to the rural nature of the place and its destination. "

About 200 meters south of the Schweizerhaus is the Louisen mausoleum , in which the duchess, who died in 1808, was buried. The building, completed in 1810, is based on Barca's designs and is an Empire style temple based on similar buildings by Friedrich Gilly .

The mausoleum and the pond are followed to the south by the flower garden, which was designed as a private pleasure garden for the ducal family in the mid-19th century. After this area had been used differently for many decades and lost its original shape, it was reconstructed in 2009. An open octagonal tea pavilion forms its center. The flower garden is bordered to the west by the southern end of the castle pond, on whose artificial island is the Catholic Church of St. Helena . The church, built between 1804 and 1808 under Busch's successor Johann Christoph Heinrich von Seydewitz, was the first neo-Gothic church in Mecklenburg. The building became necessary after numerous artists and musicians from southern Germany found employment at the court, and later some members of the ducal family also converted to the Catholic Church. Some stained glass from the demolished Mariendom in Hamburg have been inserted into the windows, and the west-facing entrance facade serves as the point de vue of the Johannisdamm. The picturesque church standing in the water has a solitary bell tower on the mainland on the other side of the pond. The tower, built in the brick Gothic style , was completed by the builder Barca in 1817. Another church is located in the southern area of ​​the palace park, behind the small stables. The Helenen-Paulownen-Mausoleum was built from 1804 to 1806 for the Grand Duchess Helena Pawlowna , wife of the Hereditary Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Mecklenburg and daughter of Tsar Paul I and also contained a small Russian Orthodox chapel. It is a classical temple building, which the French architect Joseph Ramée was probably responsible for building.

Monument to Duke Frederick the Pious in the northern palace garden

There are numerous monuments and statues outside of the castle. The monument to Duke Friedrich the Pious, made by Rudolf Kaplunger around 1788, north of the grotto, is a sandstone group on a pedestal surrounded by a wrought iron fence . The monument once stood on a small island surrounded by poplars , whose moats were later filled in. A to Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III. The reminiscent bust of Hugo Berwald has been located at the transition from the lawn parterre to the flower garden since 1936, a bronze statue of his great-great-grandfather Friedrich Franz I is on the palace square in front of the arbor. The horse monument at the forester's house is a tomb built before 1785 for Duke Friedrich's favorite horse; a memorial by Hugo Berwald, consecrated in 1922, commemorates the fallen members of the Jäger battalion.

  • Sights in the castle park

  • 24 water jumps

  • Louis pond and Swiss house

  • Monk and Stone Bridge

  • Louisen Mausoleum

  • Prince Reuss' grave in front of an old oak

  • Helenen Paulownen Mausoleum

  • Artificial grotto

  • Forest house from 1790

1 mark - special stamp of the GDR Post 1986 with the Ludwigsluster castle

Philatelic

On January 2, 2015, Deutsche Post AG issued a postage stamp worth 80 euro cents with the view of Ludwigslust Castle in the castles and palaces stamp series . The design comes from the graphic artist Nicole Elsenbach from Hückeswagen . As early as 1986, the castle had delivered the subject for a special stamp for the GDR Post .

Web links

Commons : Ludwigslust Palace  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • State Museum Schwerin (ed.), Heike Kramer: Ludwigslust Palace. Schwerin 1997, DNB 986911666 .
  • Heike Kramer: The baroque residence Ludwigslust. Kai Homilius Verlag , Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-931121-18-6 .
  • Dieter Pocher: Castles and mansions in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. L&H, ISBN 3-928119-90-7 , pp. 69-73.
  • Joachim Skerl, Thomas Grundner: Palaces and gardens in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Hinstorff-Verlag, Rostock 2003, ISBN 3-356-01001-8 . (Edition cultural landscape Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
  • Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments / Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2000, ISBN 3-422-03081-6 , pp. 316–321.
  • Sabine Bock : Grand Ducal Art in Ludwigslust Palace. Compensation for princes, expropriation and restitution. Thomas Helms Verlag Schwerin 2014, ISBN 978-3-940207-98-2 [1]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. P. 316.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 7.
  3. ↑ a b c d State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 8.
  4. ↑ Hartmut Brun: Ludwigslust. Hinstorff, 2001, ISBN 3-356-00891-9 , p. 13.
  5. ↑ a b c d e State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 12.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 9.
  7. ↑ a b c Rolf Tomann (Ed.): The art of baroque. Könemann, ISBN 3-89508-991-5 , p. 189.
  8. ↑ a b c State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 14.
  9. ^ State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 38.
  10. ↑ a b c State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 15.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 21.
  12. ↑ a b c d e State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 35.
  13. ↑ a b c d e State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 20.
  14. ↑ a b c d State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 44.
  15. ^ A b State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 45.
  16. ↑ a b On the history of Ludwigsburg Palace and the buildings in the complex on the information boards opposite; As of August 2016.
  17. ↑ Restoration of Ludwigslust Palace takes longer . In: www.abendblatt.de, May 7, 2010; Retrieved May 17, 2011.
  18. ↑ Renovation of the cascade on Schlossplatz Ludwigslust ( Memento from September 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Article on www.bbl-mv.de from September 30, 2007, accessed on May 28, 2011.
  19. ↑ Visitor numbers on www.landtag-mv.de , report from May 29, 2006 (.pdf), accessed on May 17, 2011.
  20. ↑ Website: Barockfest in Ludwigslust ( Memento from May 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 24, 2011.
  21. ↑ Website: Kleines Fest im Großer Park , accessed on June 24, 2011.
  22. ↑ Ludwigsluster Stadtanzeiger No. 285 v. November 17, 2017, p. 10
  23. ↑ See critically Klaus Graf : Gone with the Wind: Castle furnishings from Ludwigslust (Mecklenburg) and Niederstotzingen (East Württemberg). In: Kunstchronik 52 (1999), No. 11, pp. 521-525. ( Digitized version )
  24. ↑ Press release of the Kulturstiftung from June 26, 2014, accessed on February 2, 2016; Entry , accessed August 2, 2014.
  25. ^ The Ducal Collection remains in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , press release of March 25, 2014, accessed on March 27, 2014; Press release of the Cultural Foundation of June 26, 2014, accessed on February 2, 2016
  26. ↑ list .
  27. ↑ Items not acquired in 2014 .
  28. ↑ Press release ( memento of August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) of the Cultural Foundation of June 26, 2014, accessed on August 2, 2014.
  29. ↑ Secured! Exhibition shows art from the ducal collection , Die Welt from December 4, 2014, accessed on December 6, 2014.
  30. ^ A b c Dieter Pocher: Castles and mansions in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. P. 69.
  31. ↑ Illustration of the castle in the digitized yearbook of the Association for Meclenburg History and Archeology - The old castle in Kleinow by Dr. phil. Gerd Dettmann , accessed on May 28, 2011.
  32. ↑ Hartmut Brun: Ludwigslust. Hinstorff, 2001, ISBN 3-356-00891-9 , p. 19.
  33. ↑ a b c Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. P. 317.
  34. ↑ a b c d e f g h Dehio: Handbuch deutscher Kunstdenkmäler. P. 318.
  35. ^ State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 23.
  36. ↑ Reopening of the east wing of Ludwigslust Palace after many years of renovation and complete redesign. Retrieved July 19, 2016 .
  37. ↑ Ludwigslust Castle: West Wing opens well in 2022 , NDR -Meldung of 4 January 2018. Retrieved on January 5, 2018
  38. ↑ a b c d Dieter Pocher: Castles and mansions in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. P. 72.
  39. ↑ Hartmut Brun: Ludwigslust. Hinstorff, 2001, ISBN 3-356-00891-9 , p. 65.
  40. ↑ History of the town hall of Ludwigslust ( memento from September 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on June 25, 2011.
  41. ^ Heike Kramer: The baroque residence Ludwigslust. P. 13.
  42. ^ State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 36.
  43. ^ State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 37.
  44. ↑ a b c Heike Kramer: The baroque residence Ludwigslust. P. 17.
  45. ^ N. Krauss, E. Fischer: Castles, manor houses and parks in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Hinstorff, 2002, ISBN 3-356-00947-8 , p. 61.
  46. ^ State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 49.
  47. ^ State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 30.
  48. ↑ http://www.bbl-mv.de/parse.php?id=2506,1000279,1003291,,eF9QSUNUX05SWzBdPTA= (link not available)
  49. ^ State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 46.
  50. ^ Heike Kramer: The baroque residence Ludwigslust. P. 18.
  51. ^ A b Heike Kramer: The baroque residence Ludwigslust. P. 9.
  52. ^ Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. P. 226.
  53. ↑ a b Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. P. 284.
  54. ↑ a b c d Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. P. 321.
  55. ↑ a b Götz Eckart (Hrsg.): Fates of German architectural monuments in the Second World War. Henschel Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 3-926642-24-6 , p. 96.
  56. ↑ Arsonists set fire to the historic old town ( Memento from August 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  57. ↑ www.prinzenpalais.de , accessed on May 29, 2011.
  58. ↑ Parchim church district website , accessed on May 26, 2011.
  59. ↑ a b c d e State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 16.
  60. ^ A b State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 17.
  61. ↑ a b c State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 18.
  62. ↑ a b c d e f g Dehio: Handbuch deutscher Kunstdenkmäler. P. 319.
  63. ↑ Schlosspark Ludwigslust at www.mv-schloesser.de , accessed on June 2, 2011.
  64. ^ State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 55.
  65. ↑ The Natureum on stadtludwigslust.de ( Memento from July 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 25, 2011.
  66. ^ A b State Museum Schwerin (ed.): Ludwigslust Palace. P. 13.
  67. ↑ Hartmut Brun: Ludwigslust. Hinstorff, 2001, ISBN 3-356-00891-9 , pp. 18, 19.
  68. ^ N. Krauss, E. Fischer: Castles, manor houses and parks in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Hinstorff, 2002, ISBN 3-356-00947-8 , p. 64.
  69. ↑ History of the Schweizerhaus at www.schweizerhaus-ludwigslust.de , accessed on June 18, 2011.
  70. ↑ Schweizerhaus ( Memento from April 21, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
  71. ↑ a b c d e Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. P. 320.
  72. ↑ Hartmut Brun: Ludwigslust. Hinstorff, 2001, ISBN 3-356-00891-9 , p. 57.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on July 23, 2011 in this version .

Coordinates: 53 ° 19 ′ 29.4 ″  N , 11 ° 29 ′ 17.6 ″  E