Schwerinsburg Castle
Schwerinsburg Castle was a mansion in the Schwerinsburg district of the Ducherow municipality in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district . The castle-like mansion, built in the first half of the 18th century, was the largest baroque building in Pomerania until it was destroyed in 1945 . The listed ruin consists of a few remains of the wall and a tree-covered rubble hill.
history
In 1708, Kurt Christoph von Schwerin received a share of the then named Kummerow by dividing the estate and, by exchanging several farms, took possession of the entire village. Between 1720 and 1733 he had a residence-like mansion built in Kummerow. The name of the builder has not been passed down. Among other things, because of its resemblance to the baroque Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, Philipp Gerlach , the builder of the Potsdam Garrison Church , is believed to be the architect. The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I had the place renamed Schwerinsburg after a visit to the manor house . His son Friedrich II appointed Schwerin Field Marshal General in 1740 and elevated him to the rank of count. On May 6, 1757 he was killed in the battle of Prague . Around 1790, the descendants had a statue of Kurt Christoph made of sandstone by the Berlin sculptor Heinrich Bettkober , which was placed in front of the palace. It is now on loan from the Schwerin family in the entrance hall of the German Historical Museum in Berlin.
In 1815, at the request of the squire Heinrich von Schwerin, Hans Ferdinand Maßmann laid out Pomerania's first gymnastics area. In the middle of the 19th century the park was transformed into an English landscape garden.
The maintenance of the elaborate structure became a great burden for the subsequent owners from the von Schwerin family . Nevertheless, a conversion or renovation must have taken place in the middle of the 19th century, for which the Berlin theater builder Eduard Titz provided plans. Count Karl (1844–1901) married Luise Freiin von Nordeck zur Rabenau (1849–1906), who in 1892 inherited the Hessian Castle Friedelhausen with the Hofgut Appenborn as well as Burg Nordeck and the Oberburg Rabenau ; From then on the family lived mainly on the Hessian estates (until today).
The art historian Udo von Alvensleben noted in his diary in 1938:
“Despite the size, it is a fine, French-influenced building from the Berlin School. The huge mansart roofs tower over the bare land like mountains. The long window fronts are black and desolate, the portals are closed, the inside has been devastated by rats, only the wings are alive. ... The sublime monument of great ancestors perished in the hands of the descendants. To set such a huge palace in a desolate, remote area, however, was a crazy idea and the heaviest burden for future generations. "
At the end of the 1930s, the Pomeranian Monument Preservation Office set up a program for a thorough overhaul, which was not carried out because of the outbreak of World War II . During the war, holdings from the Stettin State Archives were relocated to Schwerinsburg, most of which could be saved. This included the entire inventory of the Swedish Land Survey of Western Pomerania .
After Schwerinsburg was captured by the Red Army , the mansion burned down to the ground between April 29 and May 1, 1945. The entire historical equipment including the painting collection was lost. The bricks were taken away as building material for the houses of new farmers . The new administration had a silo and an extinguishing water pond in the area of the courtyard, and allotment gardens in the landscape garden.
investment
The three-winged, two-storey building complex, broad on the park side, was dominated by the central thirteen- axis corps de logis , which was structured by pilasters . On the courtyard and park sides, there was a three-axis central risalit with arched windows and an outside staircase. A balustrade with a heraldic cartouche was located on the park-side risalit . The following inscription was located above the central portal on the courtyard side, surmounted by a crown:
“Under the glorious government of FRIDERICI WILHELMI Koenig von Prussen, I have Curd Christoph von Schwerin, Knight of the Black Eagle Order, Sr, Majesty Governor General of the Veste Peiz, colonel over a regiment of infantry, governor of Jerichow and Alten Platen, of the Archduchy of Western Pomerania Hereditary kitchen master, in the company of my wife the Freyin Ulrica Eleonora von Krassow, this building of my posterity in memory of MDCCXXXIII ended by God's grace. "
In alignment with the central building there were two four-axis, square corner pavilions, which were connected to it via five-axis, drawn-in side wings. Like the main part, the corner pavilions were structured by pilasters. The actual side wings, which flanked the main courtyard , connected to the pavilions in a north-westerly direction . Above their entrances were reliefs of the coat of arms of the von Schwerin families, as well as von Krassow and von Wackenitz - for the two wives of Kurt Christoph von Schwerin.
The main building closed off at the top with a mighty mansard roof with bat dormers . The corner pavilions and the side wings also had mansard roofs, but a little lower. The connecting wings had gable roofs. To the east there is a partially preserved, extensive English landscape garden , which is closed to the place with a brick wall.
Furnishing
Schwerinsburg Castle had around 100 rooms. Italian plasterers had designed a large ballroom. The left, northern wing housed utility rooms and a theater hall. On the right there was the chapel, which spanned two floors and had several galleries around it, without any special decoration.
At the end of the 19th century there were tapestries in four rooms on which, among other things, hunting scenes, allegorical figures and scenes from the Trojan saga were depicted. There was a large collection of paintings in the house, most of which had been acquired by Kurt Christoph von Schwerin. A considerable part of the pictures were works by Antoine Pesne . These included life-size full portraits of Friedrich Wilhelm I and Friedrich II as well as portraits of Kurt Christoph von Schwerin and his parents. It also included a self-portrait made on site by Pesne, who had often stayed in Schwerinsburg. There was a pesne room in the house .
In the middle of the courtyard was a life-size sandstone sculpture of Kurt Christoph von Schwerin made by Heinrich Bettkober , which is attributed to Johann Heinrich Dannecker in older literature . Heinrich Bogislaw Detloff von Schwerin, a nephew of the Field Marshal General, had it installed in 1790. After the memorial was willfully damaged around 1950, it was moved to the garden of the Greifswald City Museum, where it remained until 2005. The von Schwerin family made claims. After restoration, it has since been on permanent loan to the German Historical Museum .
literature
- Hugo Lemcke : The architectural and art monuments of the administrative district of Stettin. Book 2: The district of Anklam. Leon Saunier, Stettin 1899, pp. 239–243.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinrich Berghaus : Land book of the Duchy of Pomerania and the Principality of Rügen . Part 2, Vol. 1, W. Dietze, Anklam-Berlin 1865, p. 347 ( Google books ).
- ↑ a b Harald von Koenigswald (ed.), Udo von Alvensleben : When they still existed ... noble seats between Altmark and Masuria. Ullstein, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-548-35641-9 , pp. 286-287.
- ↑ Eduard Angerstein: Theoretical manual for gymnasts, for an introduction to gymnastics teaching. Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, Halle 1870, p. 163 ( digitized version ).
- ↑ a b c d e f g Eckhard Oberdörfer: Ostvorpommern. From the Amazon in the north to the imperial baths - a travel and reading book. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2006, ISBN 3-86108-917-3 , pp. 55–56.
- ↑ Eduard Titz on bildindex.de ; accessed on January 10, 2014
- ^ A b Paul Viering: Preservation of monuments in Pomerania 1936–1945 . In: Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology (Hrsg): Baltic studies . New series, vol. 46, von der Ropp, Hamburg 1959, p. 120 ( digitized version ).
- ↑ Hans Branig : Pomeranian historical research after 1945 . In: Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology (Hrsg): Baltic studies . New series vol. 43, von der Ropp, Hamburg 1955, p. 17 f ( digitized version ).
- ↑ Ivo Asmus: The geometric survey of the country of Swedish Pomerania 1692–1709 . In: Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology (Hrsg): Baltic studies . New series vol. 82, NG Elwert, Marburg 1996, p. 92 f ( digitized version ).
- ↑ a b c Hubertus Neuschäffer: Western Pomerania's castles and mansions . Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, 1993, ISBN 3-88042-636-8 , pp. 180-181.
- ↑ Jürgen Guhle: Lost cultural values. ( Memento of December 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) p. 31 (PDF file; 344 kB)
- ^ Heinrich Berghaus : Land book of the Duchy of Pomerania and the Principality of Rügen . Part 2, Vol. 1, W. Dietze, Anklam-Berlin 1865, p. 369 ( Google books ).
Coordinates: 53 ° 44 ′ 10.7 " N , 13 ° 40 ′ 50.7" E