Waldthausen Castle
Waldthausen Castle is a representative villa in the Lenneberg Forest between Mainz and Budenheim in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate . The villa and some outbuildings were built between 1908 and 1910 by the architect Hans Bühling on behalf of Baron Martin Wilhelm von Waldthausen (1875–1928) . Architecturally, the castle villa is in the style of a Hohenstaufen palace building and it has a striking, keep- like square tower .
history
construction time
The owner of Waldthausen Castle, Martin Wilhelm von Waldthausen, came from the respected Essen patrician and industrial family Waldthausen and was captain of a hussar regiment stationed in Mainz . In 1907 he decided to have a castle-like villa built for himself and his family on a prominent mountain ridge above the left bank of the Rhine in the Lennebergwald near Budenheim. One of the reasons for the strikingly splendid execution of the building is said to have been Waldthausen's urge to assert himself towards the German Emperor Wilhelm II , who had various castle projects implemented at the same time: the new construction of the Hohkönigsburg (1901–1908), the renovation of the Marienburg Ordensburg (1896–1918) as well as the establishment of the naval school Mürwik (1907-1910) for the navy based on their model . From 1905 to 1913, the emperor also had the Posen residential palace built. According to this model in Posen, von Waldthausen is said to have instructed his architect Hans Bühling if the villa should be built.
In 1908 von Waldthausen bought around 95 hectares in the Lenneberg Forest from the Budenheim community for a good 161,000 marks . Construction work on the villa began in December of the same year. It was ready in January 1910 - as was a machine building with a workshop, a porter's house, a stable building, a carriage hall, a laundry room and residential buildings for staff. Waldthausen Castle is architecturally modeled on a Hohenstaufen palace building and is crowned by a keep-like square tower. With its historicizing style, the entire complex is characteristic of the late phase of the German Empire .
Not only the buildings were lavishly designed, but also the interior of the building. Numerous craft businesses in Mainz and Rheinhessen benefited from the construction and interior fittings of Waldthausen Castle. Several nurseries were involved in clearing the building site, creating a spacious park and designing a large terraced castle garden with a fish pond . The total costs for the plant are said to have reached the very high sum of 18 million marks for the time.
In 1913 von Waldthausen acquired further parts of the Lenneberg Forest in the vicinity so that his property could no longer be seen from the outside. This also included the "Ludwigshöhe" forester's lodge built around 1840 , which had developed into a popular excursion restaurant. The baron had the forester's house demolished and rebuilt next to the two Wendelinus chapels in the Lenneberg Forest. However , he and his family left Germany as early as 1914 at the beginning of the First World War and from then on lived in Switzerland and Liechtenstein . The baron never visited his villa again.
Time after the First World War
After the First World War, French troops were quartered briefly in Waldthausen Castle in 1919. However, they cleared the facility again in the same year after von Waldthausen, with diplomatic support from Switzerland, had reached the end of billeting.
After the deaths of Martin Wilhelm von Waldthausen (1928) and his wife Klara (1940), the heirs sold the villa including the outbuildings and a large part of the forest area to the National Socialist People's Welfare in January 1941 . During the Second World War , war-endangered mothers and children were housed on the property as part of the so-called Kinderlandverschickung .
Time after World War II
After the Second World War, Waldthausen Castle was seized first by US and then by French troops. The military governor for the French occupation zone in Germany, General Marie-Pierre Kœnig , had Waldthausen Castle converted into his residence at great expense, but could no longer use the villa because he was recalled in 1949.
After the French left, the Federal Property Office took over the property in 1955 . From 1956 to 1978 it was used by the Federal Air Defense School, and the Bundeswehr used the area for a supply warehouse and for exercises by the NBC defense forces . In 1978, the city of Mainz acquired the castle villa and the surrounding area, and use by the Bundeswehr ended. Waldthausen Castle was placed under monument protection and the entire complex was declared a monument zone .
In December 1982 the entire property was then sold to the Sparkassen- und Giroverband Rheinland-Pfalz, which was then based in Mainz, which renovated the palace villa and set up the Sparkassenakademie Rheinland-Pfalz as an education and meeting center there from 1988 . In addition, the association relocated its headquarters and administration to a new office building in the palace gardens. The gardens and parks around Waldthausen Castle have been freely accessible to the public since then. Public events such as exhibitions, readings and concerts take place in the villa itself.
There is also a house of the International Police Association on the premises .
literature
- Paul-Georg Custodis: Waldthausen Castle near Mainz. The more recent history from 1920. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . Volume 57, No. 3, 2020, ISSN 0342-1805 , pp. 209–224.
- Heiko Laß: The Rhine. Castles and palaces from Mainz to Cologne (= castles - palaces - mansions. Volume 1). Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-937251-64-2 , pp. 22-23.
Web links
- Waldthausen Castle on the website of the Sparkassenverband Rheinland-Pfalz
- The savings bank association on the history of Waldthausen Castle
- Waldthausen Castle, regionalgeschichte.net
- Another website on the history of Waldthausen Castle
Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 31 ″ N , 8 ° 10 ′ 25.3 ″ E