Oberhausen Castle

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View from the gasometer to the castle
West side of the manor house with the "showcase"

The Oberhausen Castle is a neo-classical palace complex in Oberhausen district Alt-Oberhausen -Mitte. The property gave the name to the train station, which was built nearby in 1846 and opened in 1847, and thus to the later town of Oberhausen.

A predecessor system from the 12th / 13th centuries Century was about 200 meters away from today's location and has now completely disappeared. After the estate was transferred from the von Dücker family through the von der Hovens to the von Boenen family at the beginning of the 17th century , a new one was built on the property between 1804 and 1818 according to plans by the court architect of Count von Bentheim-Steinfurt , August Reinking Castle built for Maximilian Friedrich von Westerholt-Gysenberg and his wife Friederike Karoline von Bretzenheim .

After severe damage in the Second World War , the mansion was rebuilt in the late 1950s according to old original plans. Today it houses the Ludwiggalerie, an internationally renowned art museum; the castle park with its leisure activities is a popular destination for the people of Oberhausen. Under the name “Schloss Oberhausen and Kaisergarten”, the buildings and the park have been a stop on the Oberhausen themed route since the beginning of 2011 : Industry makes city the route of industrial culture .

description

Floor plan of the castle
1 mansion, 2 glass porch, 3 restaurant, 4 small castle, 5 memorial hall

The palace area is located south of the A 42 on the Rhine-Herne Canal . The Konrad-Adenauer-Allee ( B 223 ), the main road connecting the districts of Sterkrade , Osterfeld and Alt-Oberhausen, runs on its east side . The gasometer to the west and the CentrO are within walking distance, as is the site of the former Gutehoffnungshütte , the former headquarters of which is located to the south-east about 900 meters away.

and display information about the image
Inner courtyard of Oberhausen Castle with a view of the small castle

building

West front of the small castle (photographed from the direction of the Kaisergarten)

The classicist complex consists of two building complexes which delimit a square inner courtyard measuring around 50 by 50 meters. The facades are painted pink, cornices and window and door frames are set off in white.

On the east side of the courtyard is the simple, three-winged mansion, which was only rebuilt in 1958/59. Its three-storey middle section is divided into five axes by windows and is closed off by a mansard roof. A flat, three-step staircase leads on the east side of the house to the entrance, which is covered by a small balcony . The top floor of the building is a mezzanine floor with a low attic above its eaves with the alliance coat of arms of its builder Maximilian Friedrich von Westerholt-Gysenberg and his wife Friederike von Bretzenheim. The central building is followed by lower, wing-like additions to the north and south, each with two storeys, which - like those of the central building - are optically combined by pilaster strips . The three building structures are connected to one another by means of a surrounding light main cornice. The space on the west side of the mansion, framed by the wing structures, is taken up by a modern glass and steel construction by the architects Eller & Eller , which is called the "showcase" and is as high as the three storeys of the central building.

Opposite the main house on the west side of the inner courtyard is the so-called Small Castle, a single-storey building with rectangular windows and semicircular skylights . On the side facing the manor house, it has a slightly protruding central projection with three arched doors. The mansard roof of the building has several dormers and a centrally seated roof turret in the form of an obelisk with a weather vane .

The north and south sides of the castle courtyard are bordered by two wing structures that are connected to the small castle by single-storey, round-arched tracts. The entire building complex previously served as a farm yard, the northern wing was used as a horse stable. In front of the southern wing, which is now used as a memorial, is the basalt statue of The Mourners made by Willy Meller . An inscription embedded in the ground in front of her commemorates the victims of both world wars.

Kaisergarten

Kaisergarten in winter
In the Kaisergarten

The Kaisergarten is the oldest park in the Oberhausen city area. The young industrial city wanted to "create a pleasant, refreshing stay in the great outdoors by creating a public garden" for its citizens. On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm I , the park was named in 1898. It is located southwest of the palace buildings and extends from Duisburger Strasse to the Rhein-Herne Canal and from Konrad-Adenauer-Allee to the Oberhausen Hbf.-Sterkrade railway line. The area is a protected landscape area . Some of the park's plane trees are natural landmarks due to their age .

Of the approximately 29 hectares of the Kaisergarten, 7.5 hectares are forest and 9.5 hectares are lawns and meadows and 2.5 hectares are a 360 m long remnant of the old Emscher bed and a large pond. The rest of the area is taken up by trees, hedges, shrub beds and flower beds as well as paths. There is a zoo with local wild animals and domestic animals on part of the site. The former perennial garden of the nursery is now a cottage garden and a show garden .

The Emschergenossenschaft had a pedestrian and cycle path bridge built over the Rhine-Herne Canal based on a design by Tobias Rehberger , which connects the Kaisergarten with the neighboring sports park on Lindnerstraße and the adjoining landscape of the Emscher. The bridge, an accessible sculpture called Slinky springs to fame , was a contribution to the EMSCHERKUNST: 2010 project as part of RUHR.2010 - European Capital of Culture . It is designed as a colored, twisted and curved ribbon, wrapped in a spiral with ribbons. It should be illuminated at night. The bridge was not completed in time for the exhibition opening in May 2010, but could only be inaugurated in June 2011.

history

Until early modern times

Oberhausen Castle goes back to the fortified knight's seat "Oberhaus" (also Overhus, Overhuysen, Averhus), which was probably founded in the late 12th or early 13th century. To this day it is controversial whether the Henricus Dukere de Overhusa mentioned in 1220 was actually its first owner. Wilhelm Joseph Sonnen assumes in his essay that the property was built by one of the bailiffs of Essen and Werden from the house of the Counts von Berg and von der Mark . It was located at a ford about 200 meters up the Emscher from its current location and secured the very important Emscher crossing there. The facility at that time was completely surrounded by a wide moat that was fed by the Emscher. Their buildings looked very modest and were built in half-timbered construction. The main house was separated from the outer bailey by a second moat, over which a bridge led.

The first documented mention of the upper house dates back to the middle of the 15th century, when it came into the possession of the von der Hoven family, feudal men of the Kleve dukes , in 1443 from the lower noble von Dücker family . The childless Rosier Duyker made sure that “dat Averhus, located in dem kerspel van Becke” was transferred to his brother-in-law Derich von Vondern, known as von der Hoven, from his Klevian liege lord. From the von der Hovens, the Wasserburg came to Conrad von Boenen in 1615 after long disputes over inheritance. Since he and his family preferred the Berge Castle in today's Gelsenkirchen-Buer as their residence, the upper house was only inhabited by a tenant and probably also a rentmaster in the following period. At that time, the small complex was in a poor structural condition, because it was looted by Spanish troops during the Eighty Years' War in 1598 during the so-called Spanish winter , and the outer bailey burned down. Only poorly rebuilt, the upper house was devastated a second time in the same year. In the first quarter of the 17th century, the buildings deteriorated more and more due to a lack of use and repairs that were not carried out. To make matters worse, the facility was plundered by Hessian troops during the Thirty Years' War in 1624 and 1634.

New building

Their owner, Freiherr Ludolf Friedrich Adolf von Boenen zu Berge , married Wilhelmine Franziska von Westerholt-Gysenberg , the heir to this wealthy family, around 1770 and adopted the name and coat of arms of this family in 1779 before he was elevated to the rank of imperial count by the emperor in 1790 . But he too let the buildings of the Upper House fall into disrepair and instead renewed the family seat at Schloss Berge. It wasn't until the beginning of the 1790s that something about this situation changed. The former rent master of the neighboring Vondern Castle , Bertram Philipp Greve, who had leased part of the upper house, had a new residential and tavern with barn, brewery and distillery built at the current location. The old main castle , lying in ruins, was largely demolished in 1791 in order to use the usable material for the new building. A contract stipulated that the count's family, when they stayed in Oberhaus, could have two bedrooms and a dining room in the new building for the duration of their stay.

Painting of the castle as it was built in 1858

In 1801 Ludolf Friedrich Adolf assigned his eldest son Maximilian Friedrich and his wife Friederike Karoline von Bretzenheim , an illegitimate daughter of the Bavarian-Palatinate Elector Karl Theodor , the upper house as a leasable estate and family seat. Maximilian Friedrich had previously had to forego all of Westerholt's goods in favor of his younger brother, because the provisions of the family affidavit stipulated that the main heir from Westerholt had to marry a woman whose mother came from the nobility. However, since his love marriage in 1796 had brought him a mother-in-law of bourgeois origin, he had to be content with what his father assigned him. During a first visit to his new domicile in the winter of 1801/1802, he discovered that the previous buildings did not represent a proper residence for him and his wife, and he made the decision to have a new castle built. Since he himself had only limited financial means and could not dispose of his wife's assets, he did not have a magnificent castle designed, but a rather modest country house. The plans for this were provided by the court architect of Count von Bentheim-Steinfurt, August Reinking, who presented his first draft in the summer of 1803. Change requests from the client, financial constraints and lengthy interruptions to construction work ensured that Reinking made numerous other construction drawings over the next 15 years, over 60 of which have survived today. The construction invoices that have been received include the Essen architect Heinrich Theodor Freyse , according to whose plans the renovation of Heltorf Castle was carried out. However, to what extent he was involved in the Oberhausen project is not clear from the documents. Construction management on site was in the hands of an architect named Bracht. At the beginning, the farm buildings were built, because the functional buildings, which were only built in 1792, had to be partially relocated to make space for the new main building. Only then did the construction of the classical manor house follow from 1812, in which the building fabric of the existing, spacious residential and tavern was included. A short side wing was added to it in the south - contrary to Reinking's design, which provided for two symmetrical wing extensions. For the design of the palace gardens, the client was able to engage the renowned Düsseldorf court gardener Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe , according to whose plans the gardens were built east of the manor house from 1808, in line with contemporary tastes in the style of an English landscape garden . Construction work on the entire complex lasted until around 1818.

Only 40 years later the castle was deserted again. Maximilian Friedrich von Westerholt-Gysenberg died in 1854. His younger son Friedrich Ludolf had already moved to Bad Hönningen in 1848 with the purchase and renovation of Arenfels Castle . After the death of Countess Wilhelmine (Minzi) von Westerholt, a sister of the builder, in September 1858, the main building remained unused. The farm belonging to the castle was continued by an estate manager until 1884. From 1891 onwards, the Westerholtschen Rentei managed to rent out part of the castle buildings, at least temporarily.

In municipal ownership

The manor house of the castle around 1900, south-east view

In 1896 the city of Oberhausen bought a 19  hectare , as yet undeveloped part of the palace area at a price of 122,700  gold marks and from 1897 redesigned it into a publicly accessible park. On March 22, 1898, on the occasion of Wilhelm I's 100th birthday, it was christened “Kaisergarten”. In 1903, a donation from Gutehoffnungshütte on what was then Sterkrader Chaussee (today Konrad-Adenauer-Allee) resulted in the so-called multi-storey car park in the Kaisergarten, which was Oberhausen's “parlor”. In 1908, the Emschergenossenschaft acquired the castle and the 600  acres of land belonging to it, which it sold on to the city of Oberhausen in 1911. By straightening the Emscher, the Kaisergarten could be extended to the Rhine-Herne Canal and was redesigned as a public park. But the straightening did not only have advantages: The resulting lowering of the groundwater allowed the large castle pond to gradually dry out, so that it had to be deepened in 1924 so that it was again watered. The excavation was used to fill an artificial hill, now called "Ottoberg", in the park.

The tradition of keeping animals in the Kaisergarten began in the 1920s, as animals were kept in the park as early as 1927. However, it was discontinued shortly after the start of the war in 1939 because the area was needed for growing vegetables to supply the local population. The proximity to the industrial facilities around the palace area was the doom of the building during the Second World War: the roof of the manor house was badly damaged and the small palace was badly hit. The other parts of the farm yard also suffered damage. The parking garage was completely destroyed by bombs.

The appearance of the small castle results from reconstruction work in 1953.

On August 17, 1947, the “Städtische Galerie” celebrated its opening in the manor house, making it one of the first museums to be founded in North Rhine-Westphalia after the war . Works by Max Liebermann , Max Slevogt and Lovis Corinth were exhibited there. Two years later, animal husbandry was resumed in the Kaisergarten, initially with just one donkey, which the gardeners used as a pack animal. From these humble beginnings, today's animal enclosure gradually developed. In the 1950s, work began to repair the war damage to the castle buildings. The restoration of the farm buildings was completed by 1953. A catering business moved into the northern wing of the Small Castle. However, it turned out that the structure of the manor house was irredeemably dilapidated. The building was so dilapidated that it had to be closed and demolished. Donations from the Oberhausen economy, in particular the Gutehoffnungshütte on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the St.-Antony-Hütte , made it possible to rebuild the manor house in 1958/59 according to Reinking's original plans, this time with both side wings planned by the architect. Inside, the house was given a modern interior design appropriate to the time, which is particularly noticeable in the stairwell, for example.

After the construction of the Oberhausen town hall , the castle's gastronomy was closed again in 1962. The city archives used the rooms in their place from 1965 to 1995. In September 1962, the Oberhausen Memorial Hall, the first memorial in the Federal Republic of Germany for the victims of National Socialism, was opened in the opposite south wing of the commercial courtyard. In 1988 their exhibition was revised for the first time and reopened on November 9th of that year. The collector couple Peter and Irene Ludwig had already exhibited part of their art collection in the manor house since 1983 . In the mid-1990s, it suggested a concept change for the museum, which was implemented by 1998. The permanent exhibition gave way to changing exhibitions with exhibits by internationally renowned artists. For this purpose, the main building was renovated and rebuilt from May 1996 for 10.7 million DM , including a modern glass extension with the so-called "showcase". At the same time, the inner courtyard and parts of the gardens were redesigned. The reopening of the art museum took place in January 1998 under the name "Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen".

Todays use

A café-restaurant with adjoining beer garden , event rooms, exhibition areas, a memorial for the victims of National Socialism and an art museum are housed in the two building complexes of the palace . In the northern arch of the former farm building is the wedding hall of the Oberhausen registry office, which is one of the most popular places in the city as a backdrop for marriages. The castle courtyard is used as a venue for concerts, theater performances and readings in summer.

Art museum

Peter and Irene Ludwig founded the Ludwig Institute for Art of the GDR in Oberhausen in 1983 with the permanent loan of over 500 works on art in East Germany . After the institute was dissolved due to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991, the couple initiated a redesign of the house, which was reopened in 1998 as LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen. Since then, museum visitors can expect changing exhibitions of fine art from the international holdings of the Ludwig Collection, the Popular Gallery , which shows illustrations, poster art, caricatures, comics and photographs, and the so-called Landmark Gallery , which is dedicated to the structural change in the Ruhr area.

Memorial hall

Memorial hall

The southern side wing of the Small Palace has housed a municipal museum since 1962, which deals with the history of Oberhausen under National Socialism and is also a memorial to the victims of National Socialism. The permanent exhibition Resistance and Persecution 1933–1945 in Oberhausen can be seen , which is supplemented by temporary exhibitions. Since its redesign and reopening on December 12, 2010, one of its focuses has been on the subject of forced labor in the Ruhr area .

Kaisergarten

The Kaisergarten is a popular destination for the people of Oberhausen and offers the opportunity for various leisure activities. Around 5.5 hectares of the area are taken up by an animal park with around 60 different species and around 500 animals. The focus is on breeding and conservation of rare domestic animal breeds such as the White Unhorned Heidschnucke or Sumatran fighting chicken, as well as native wild animals such as the lynx and eagle owl . The visit is free. Oberhausen has the largest zoo in the Ruhr area, for which no entrance fee is charged. There is also a mini golf course and two children's playgrounds.

literature

  • Christiane Brox: Oberhausen Palace . In: Kai Niederhöfer (Red.): Burgen AufRuhr. On the way to 100 castles, palaces and mansions in the Ruhr region . Klartext Verlag , Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0234-3 , pp. 306-309.
  • Ludger Fischer : The most beautiful palaces and castles on the Lower Rhine . Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, ISBN 3-8313-1326-1 , pp. 64-65.
  • Karlheinz Haucke: August Reinking. Life and work of the Westphalian architect and officer . Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History, Münster 1991, ISBN 3-88789-100-7 , p. 65ff.
  • Wilhelm Joseph Sonnen: Knight's Seat and Castle Oberhausen . In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine . Volume 166. Düsseldorf 1964, pp. 285-298 ( digitized from De Gruyter (subject to a charge)) .

Web links

Commons : Schloss Oberhausen  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Description of this sight on the route of industrial culturehttp: //vorlage.rik.test/~4~10421

Oberhausen Castle as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b C. Brox: Oberhausen Castle. 2010, p. 309.
  2. ↑ a b c Kaisergarten and Rehberger Bridge on the Route der Industriekultur website , accessed on December 24, 2012.
  3. ↑ Quoted from RuhrTour 2016 , Park and Garden Route, p. 16.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Description of the Kaisergarten on the Oberhausen building management website , accessed on February 23, 2011.
  5. ↑ Location: 51 ° 29 ′ 19.3 ″  N , 6 ° 51 ′ 33.9 ″  E
  6. ↑ Klaus Stübler: Lively steps over a new landmark . In: Ruhr-Nachrichten of June 26, 2011 ( online ).
  7. ↑ a b W. J. Sonnen: Knight's Seat and Castle Oberhausen. 1964, p. 286.
  8. ↑ rheinruhronline.de , accessed on January 7, 2017.
  9. ↑ See Kleve, Lehen Specialia 5, Certificate 1 in the main state archive in Düsseldorf, illustrated in Wilhelm Wolf: Siedlungsgeschichte Alt-Oberhausen . In: Heimatbuch 75 years Oberhausen . Oberhausen 1397, pp. 42-43.
  10. ↑ a b c d G. J .: Schloss Oberhausen ( Memento from June 22, 2001 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 24, 2011.
  11. ↑ WJ Sonnen: Knight's Seat and Castle Oberhausen. 1964, p. 291.
  12. ↑ The information fluctuates between 1769 and 1771.
  13. ^ C. Brox: Oberhausen Castle. 2010, p. 307.
  14. ↑ K. Haucke: August Reinking. 1991, p. 65.
  15. ↑ WJ Sonnen: Knight's Seat and Castle Oberhausen. 1964, p. 297.
  16. ↑ WJ Sonnen: Knight's Seat and Castle Oberhausen. 1964, p. 293.
  17. ↑ See WJ Sonnen: Rittersitz and Castle Oberhausen. 1964, p. 297, footnote 37. However, the author incorrectly states that it is a daughter of the builder.
  18. ↑ a b c osterfeld-westfalen.de , accessed on February 23, 2011.
  19. ↑ Location approx. 51 ° 29 ′ 22.9 ″  N , 6 ° 51 ′ 37.7 ″  E
  20. ↑ WJ Sonnen: Knight's Seat and Castle Oberhausen. 1964, p. 298, footnote 40.
  21. ^ C. Brox: Oberhausen Castle. 2010, p. 308.
  22. ^ Günter Born: The memorial hall at Oberhausen Castle. Memorial sites in NRW - Part 2 . In: Lotta . No. 29, winter 2007/2008; P. 48 ( PDF; 180 kB ( Memento from August 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )).
  23. ^ Günter Born: The memorial hall at Oberhausen Castle. Memorial sites in NRW - Part 2 . In: Lotta . No. 29, winter 2007/2008; P. 50 ( PDF; 180 kB ( Memento from August 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )).
  24. ^ Oberhausen: The Ludwig Gallery after the renovation. With popular concept . In: Handelsblatt No. 18 of January 27, 1998, p. 51.
  25. ^ Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen , accessed on February 25, 2011.
  26. ↑ Information about the animal enclosure on the Oberhausen building management website ( Memento from August 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ Description of the Kaisergarten on ruhr-guide.de , accessed on February 23, 2011.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 1, 2011 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 31.7 "  N , 6 ° 51 ′ 37.2"  E