Seifersdorf Castle

East side of Seifersdorf Castle

West entrance

South side

Interior view of the castle

Former living space

The Seifersdorf Castle in the same place Seifersdorf in Radeberg north of Dresden's city limits in the district of Bautzen is a 1530s built by the family of Haugwitz Castle , which from 1818 to 1822 by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the style of Gothic Revival was rebuilt. In the beginning there were hilltop castles made of wood and stone that were surrounded by water all around. The manor that belonged to the castle until 1945, with the manor house from 1750, which is privately owned today. The manor, the castle and the Seifersdorf castle park with the following individual monuments are part of the monumental entity: castle, castle garden with pond and moat as well as retaining walls, castle bridge, pavilion and ice cellar as well as manor house, barn, two farm buildings, former garden at the manor house and former kitchen garden and enclosure wall two gates and northeast lime tree avenue.

history

building

As early as the first half of the 12th century, a wooden moated castle was built at the current location of the castle. After it was destroyed by fire, a stone building was built in the area of today's ballroom on the ground floor. This was supplemented in the 13th century with the addition of a gatehouse, which is now the west entrance.

From 1790 Hanns Moritz von Brühl began to rebuild the former Renaissance palace based on drawings by Janus Genelli , the painter and Hans Christian Genelli , the architect. The construction work took a long time. Quote: “Most of the time, he lived and wove the castle renovation, which had been tackled with the house's finances becoming more favorable. Sketches and construction drafts of all kinds by his hand, pretty and skilful drawings by Genelly and his brother, the architect in Berlin for stylish ornaments, and plans by Lolot for the construction of a theater room in one of the wings of the castle filled entire portfolios that are still today available."

In 1817, the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel was a guest at Carl von Brühl's in Seifersdorf, drafted sketches for the facade and gave advice on the renovation to be completed. In a fourth phase, the building was lengthened to the east and later a building was added that is a mirror image of the current south wing.

The renovation by Karl Friedrich Schinkel connected the two parts and added to the outlines in order to obtain an approximately symmetrical floor plan. A U-shaped floor plan was created with a courtyard of honor enclosed on three sides on the east side, which is connected to the palace park by a stone bridge. The palace park was also redesigned in the English style during the renovation.

The east side with the courtyard and the final battlements- crowned gate wall and the flanking turrets have the character of a medieval castle. The west side, on the other hand, with the iron balcony above the entrance gate, the cuboid tower and the circular right of way is based on 19th century English country estates.

“In the autumn of 1824 Brühl went back to Seifersdorf with his family to rest and refresh. With the birth of a third son, Albrecht, the family circle and the happiness of the family had grown, and the expansion of the old castle, which was completed last year, brought joy and satisfaction with it. According to Schinkel's plans and drawings by Genelli, the architect ... an externally extremely stately and beautiful building was now finished, just as it still appears today, and according to the judgment of an art expert as one of the earliest works of neo-Gothic in Saxony Deserves attention. "

owner

In 1460 the Haugwitz family from the Nossen region took over the Seifersdorf patronage. In 1586 ownership passed to Dietrich von Grünrodt from Liptitz near Wermsdorf. His son Wolff Dietrich I von Grünrodt rebuilt the Seifersdorfer church in 1605. After the von Grünrodt dynasty died out in 1747, the Saxon Elector Friedrich August II transferred the property to the Saxon Prime Minister Count Heinrich von Brühl . He had already expressed his interest in 1731. His son Hanns Moritz inherited Seifersdorf after the Brühl children's inheritance comparison and lived together with his wife Christina von Brühl from 1775 and their son Carl von Brühl in the manor on the manor. At that time the castle was not usable for residential purposes for the count's family. Tina used the castle as a place of justice and her many guests were often accommodated there. Hanns Moritz and Tina von Brühl built up a circle of friends with the Weimar Circle, which included Anna Amalia von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . There is evidence that they exchanged correspondence with Goethe from 1782, which their son Carl continued until Goethe's death.

As the next owner, Carl von Brühl had the palace fundamentally redesigned by Karl Friedrich Schinkel . Schinkel was in Seifersdorf in 1817. He knew Carl von Brühl from Berlin. There the count was director of the royal theater. During his time as the artistic director, the Schauspielhaus (Berlin) on Gendarmenmarkt (today's concert hall) was rebuilt according to plans by Schinkel. Carl Maria von Weber was also u. a. in May 1817 in Seifersdorf, where he discussed the performance of Freischütz with Carl von Brühl. This celebrated its premiere in Berlin on June 18, 1821 under Brühl. Originally the Freischütz was called Jägersbraut. Brühl gave the opera its final name. Carl Graf von Brühl and his family moved into the redesigned castle in 1826. At that time, a theater hall was also built on the north side of the palace.

Karl von Brühl-Renard (Karl Andreas Friedrich Wilhelm Moritz Vincenz Graf von Brühl-Renard) was the great-great-grandson of Heinrich von Brühl and the last count in Seifersdorf. He and his first wife, Countess Else, are co-founders of Tobiasmühle and the later epilepsy center Kleinwachau - today: Kleinwachau - Saxon Epilepsy Center Radeberg . During this time there was further construction work on the castle. False ceilings and apartments were built into the former theater hall. In the meantime, a picture of the former theater has appeared in the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden . Count Karl was a member of the Saxon state parliament for many years and died on December 31, 1923 in Groß-Strelitz (Upper Silesia). His second wife Agnes Countess von Brühl continued his work for many years.

After the war ended in 1945, Agnes von Brühl, the widow of the last Count Karl von Brühl-Renard , was completely expropriated. The description of the processes surrounding the original Goethe letters and other correspondence, the so-called Goetheana, shows that not everything was lawful during the expropriation of Agnes Countess von Brühl. In the expertise prepared by the Hannah Arendt Institute on behalf of the Saxon State Chancellery, one of the two must be removed as soon as possible - The death of the Saxon Prime Minister Rudolf Friedrichs against the background of the conflict with Interior Minister Kurt Fischer in 1947, published by the Saxon State Center for Political education, you can read about the dispossession conflict. Like the 46 paintings that are still in the Dresden State Art Collections , the Goetheana belonged to Countess Agnes. She died impoverished in Radebeul in 1952 and found her final resting place in the Seifersdorfer Friedhof. In the following years the Seifersdorf municipal office, a school and a kindergarten were set up in the castle. The school later moved into another building, the municipal office was given up as a result of the municipal reform with Wachau . The kindergarten was closed in 2004 despite public protests. In 2012, the municipality of Wachau had the large hall in the castle extensively renovated. Later, a disabled toilet and an elevator to the hall were installed.

Guests in Seifersdorf

Christina von Brühl and her family had a large group of friends, the “Seifersdorfer Kreis”. Her guests in Seifersdorf included u. a. Hofkapellmeister Johann Gottlieb Naumann , Elisa von der Recke , the writer Wieland from Weimar (1794), Janus Genelly, Bonaventura and Hans Christian Genelly, the Danish painter Darbes and Christian Gottfried Körner .

The Seifersdorfer Tal and the garden of Seifersdorf Castle, also known as the Herrengarten

Christina von Brühl, the former owner of the castle and the manor, who lived in the manor on the manor from 1775 until her death in 1816 and was one of the first landscape architects, had the landscape garden in the Seifersdorfer Tal laid out as a sentimental garden from 1781 . Various monuments and garden scenes in the Seifersdorfer Valley were created there. She continued this program of staffages there in the garden by the manor on the Seifersdorf manor (between the manor and the church grounds). Tina also had a memorial built for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elisa von der Recke and for the Prussian king, who stopped at the manor in Seifersdorf in 1813. As recently as the 1990s, there were remains of a monument that students of the TU Dresden recorded true to size and photographically. Today the monument can no longer be found. The park was also known as the kitchen garden on the manor, for which several development plans are currently on display. 16 row houses are to be built there. Seifersdorf castle and manor are considered to be a historical entity and issues of monument protection are significantly affected.

Memorial plaque for Christina von Brühl

Hirschfeld's memorial consisted of a “lawn mound” on which an urn made of Meissen porcelain was placed on a pedestal, dedicated to Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld , garden theorist of the Enlightenment, propagated the landscape garden with a sensitive and romantic character.
To the left of it was a “niche of living green” with a plaque with a French inscription: “Des jours heureux voici l'image: Les Dieux sur nous versent-ils leurs faveur. Ils offrent sur notre passage Quelques aspects, riant des repos et des fleurs. "
Birdhouse in the shape of a pavilion opposite the “niche of living green”, surrounded by “terraces of lawns”, fruit trees, flowers and bushes.
"A small garden house of a very simple design" with door, windows, arcade with bird cages (with laughing pigeons and canaries ), overgrown with wild wine, inscription: "Between world and loneliness, true wisdom lies in the middle." Interior: light green walls, on it "hangings of Jesmin and cornflowers", a fireplace, a cupboard with a "small garden library", opposite the door a mirror, a "bed", tables, chairs, inscriptions.
Young's grotto, a kind of broken ruin architecture outside "dedicated Young" with the inscription, features: "Betaltar from a dry root composed", decorated with a cross, a skull, a mosaic, a praying saint performing, and the book Night Thoughts of Edward Young lying open on the altar, hourglass with inscription, niches with straw mats.
Bust of Elisa von der Recke , planted around with roses, jasmine etc. a. Flowers, next to it a bank with an inscription.
Small garden overgrown with jasmine and Turkish elder, inscription: "Feel the sweet impulses of nature in your heart, accept what it has kindly given you and think of nothing else."
Dedicated to Young's children Philander and Narcissa, on an island overgrown with poplars in a pond in the castle park, in the center a “grassy hill” with a snake-wrapped urn (duplicate of the countess's father's monument ) on a base made of a rough field stone with an engraved name.
To the left of it “Statue of Cupid”, putto with bow and arrow, inscription.
In addition, arbor covered with honeysuckle, roses, etc. a., aviary with laughing pigeons.
Nearby: Bark house with Göthen's bust, a bust of Goethe in a niche, next to it monuments to Werther and Marie von Beaumarchais.
At the end of the garden, a hedge with an opening onto a still existing avenue of poplars and chestnuts with a view "to a Gothic ruin that lies on a distant mountain".
A “pleasure garden” with fruit trees, flowers and benches, further staffages with busts “Hallers, Jerusalems, Lavaters, Gellerts, Klopstocks, Zollikofers and other men like them” were planned.

Bust of Elisa von der Recke in the Seifersdorfer Schlossgarten
Memorial for Hirschfeld in the Seifersdorfer Schlossgarten
Bark house with Göthen's bust in the Seifersdorf palace garden
Young's Grotto in Seifersdorfer Schlossgarten
Monument to Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld in the garden of Seifersdorf Palace

Seifersdorf Castle Park today

The now known palace park around the palace was only laid out by Max Bertram around 1885 . Before that, the large Seifersdorf castle brewery located between the castle and the iceberg was demolished and rebuilt on today's Brauereiweg. The castle brewer at that time was called Graml and originally came from Bavaria.

Presumably, monument fragments were moved from the former park of the Herrengarten to the Seifersdorfer Schlosspark.

Garden house in Seifersdorfer Schlosspark
Part of the monument to Philander and Narcissa in Seifersdorfer Schlosspark
Monument fragment in Seifersdorfer Schlosspark
Monument fragment in Seifersdorfer Schlosspark
Monument fragment in Seifersdorfer Schlosspark

In 2016, the Friends of Seifersdorfer Schloss e. V. put a memorial plaque for Christina Countess von Brühl on the right fragment of the monument on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of her death.

Seifersdorf Castle today

The castle is now owned by the municipality of Wachau and is used by local associations, in particular for the volunteer fire brigade and the community library. The Friends of Seifersdorfer Schloss regularly offer public tours. The farmyard that used to belong to the castle is privately owned and largely unused. For this purpose, several development plans have been laid out in recent years. It is currently planned to build 16 terraced houses on the former park on the manor.

In addition, the tenders for the 1st construction phase of the Seifersdorfer castle roof will also start in May 2020. For this, the municipality of Wachau receives funding from the federal government and the Free State of Saxony. The development association has started a large fundraising campaign for the castle roof and has already been able to pass 4,000 euros on to the owner, the municipality of Wachau, for their own contribution.

Friends of Seifersdorfer Schloss e. V.

The association was founded in 2004 after the protests surrounding the closure of the Seifersdorfer kindergarten and the planned sale of the castle. He has set himself the goal of ensuring that Seifersdorf Castle remains open to the public. The monthly “Open Castles”, where guided tours are offered, have been taking place regularly for 16 years. There are also numerous other events.

Under the leadership of the association, together with the Seifersdorfer Thalverein and the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, the exhibition “The Saxon Weimar ?! Seifersdorf Castle and the Seifersdorfer Valley in their cultural and historical significance ”. This can be seen as a permanent exhibition in the castle.

On May 6, 2020, the Saxon State Minister for Regional Development Thomas Schmidt announced in an online press conference that the municipality of Wachau had won 200,000 euros in the SIMUL ideas competition with the idea for a “visitor center and adventure museum Schloss Seifersdorf”. The development association worked out this idea and made it available to the Wachau community. This means that the development of Seifersdorf Castle can begin.

Individual evidence

↑ 09301961 Wachau - [Seifersdorf] - Tina-von-Brühl-Strasse, 31; 33 / https://denkmalliste.denkmalpflege.sachsen.de/Gast/Denkmalliste_Sachsen.aspx?Hinweis=false
↑ Hans von Krosigk book: Karl von Brühl and his parents. Page 185/186.
^ Hans von Krosigk: Karl Graf von Brühl and his parents. 1910, page 355/356.
^ Heinrich Graf von Brühl (1700–1763). Builder and patron. Workbook of the State Office for Monument Preservation Saxony, 2020, ISBN 978-3-95755-048-4 .
↑ Goethe-Schiller-Archiv of the Klassik-Stiftung Weimar and SLUB Dresden Mscr. Dresden. App. 514 Estate of the Brühl Seifersdorf family archive.
^ Carl Graf von Brühl to Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden (draft-dictation). Berlin, Wednesday, May 24, 1820. In: Weber-Gesamtausgabe.de. Retrieved April 26, 2020 .
^ Weber letters to Count Brühl. In: Weber-Gesamtausgabe.de. Retrieved April 26, 2020 . .
↑ Lothar Israel: Commentary "Seifersdorf day-care center". In: offen-buergerliste-wachau.de. December 22, 2008, accessed April 26, 2020 .
^ Community Wachau (ed.): Chronicle and home book Seifersdorf near Radeberg. September 2018.
^ Wilhelm Gottlieb Becker: The Seifersdorfer Thal. Voss and Leo, Leipzig 1792 ( digitized version. Accessed April 26, 2020).