Usinger Castle

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The main building of the Usinger Palace (today the Christian Wirth School)

The Usinger Castle is a former castle in Usingen in Hochtaunuskreis in Hesse , which today as school is used.

history

View of the former castle around 1905, still with a mansard hipped roof
Building plans for the school and castle from 1877

In the center of Usingen city center was the Usingen Castle until the 19th century. The exact origins are not clear; the first fortification at this location is a castle house built under Johann I von Nassau-Weilburg from the 14th century. Prince Walrad von Nassau-Usingen had a new castle built on the site of the old castle between 1660 and 1663. In the town fire of Usingen in 1692 the castle was not destroyed. The architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel (1694–1787) had it converted into a baroque residence from 1733 to 1738 on behalf of Princess Charlotte Amalie, the widow of Prince Wilhelm Heinrich I of Nassau-Usingen .

On January 5, 1873, a major fire destroyed the castle. Only the " Krumme Bau ", an outbuilding of the castle, in which teaching continued. In its place, a Prussian clinker brick building was built according to plans by the architect Gustav Knoblauch , which has been used as a teachers' seminar since it opened in 1879 and is now used as a high school (Christian Wirth School). The new building was controversial in Berlin. A withdrawal of the teachers' seminar from the remote Usingen was discussed in the capital. After clear protests from the city, the new building was approved. Contrary to the original plans, the " Krumme Bau ", which was originally built in 1730 by foreman Jost Bager as a coach house , pastry shop and bakery , was demolished in 1877 down to the cellar. The Usinger Schlossgarten is directly adjacent to the school . The Schlossplatz separates the lower town in the south from the upper town in the north.

Use as an educational institution

Seal of the royal Prussian teachers' college
Side view with bridge to the extension
New school building in the palace garden
The attached staircase in the side wing

The Christian Wirth School (CWS) housed in the palace is named after the Prussian state director and member of the state parliament Friedrich Christian Wirth , who has made a name for himself with his commitment to defining Usingens as the district town of the Usingen district .

The castle was used as a school as early as 1851. At that time, a teacher training institute for Protestant seminarians was set up as a forerunner of today's Christian Wirth School. During the First World War, the castle was used as a hospital. In 1922, after a dispute about the type of school, the first advanced class was set up. Since 1950 the school has offered classes from the 7th grade onwards. In 1960 the funding level was established. In the 1970s, students and teachers resisted the plans of the Hessian Minister of Education, Ludwig von Friedeburg , to compulsorily establish a comprehensive school . In 1976, the CWS merged with the secondary and secondary schools to form an additive comprehensive school . The individual school types were retained; they were merely summarized in organizational terms. According to the SPD state government, this should represent a preliminary stage for the formation of an integrative comprehensive school. After the state elections in Hesse in 1987 , the CDU enforced its demand for freedom of school (i.e. the freedom to choose between comprehensive school (here the ARS in Neu-Anspach ) and a structured school system (here the CWS / KLS in Usingen)). In the 1988/89 school year, the grammar school area became an independent school again. In 2007 G8 ( Abitur after the 12th grade ) was introduced; G8 and G9 have been offered in parallel since the 2013/14 school year. Today the school is a high school with special musical support and has around 1,400 students.

School expansion

In addition to the actual palace building, additional extensions were built in the former palace garden.

The CWS has been extensively expanded in several stages. After the number of students increased massively in the 1970s, additional classrooms were housed in pavilions in the school garden in the mid-1980s. With the abolition of the support level in Hesse, 5th and 6th grades were set up. The associated space requirements made extension buildings inevitable. The toilet building in the school yard was demolished and a new building was erected, which was connected to the old central building by a bridge. The former specialist rooms for natural sciences were reopened by adding a staircase. Instead of the pavilions, a new building with classrooms was built. The sports facilities have also been massively expanded. While physical education used to take place in the former royal stables (disrespectfully but appropriately called "Bruchbude" by the students), a new gymnasium was built at the end of the 1980s and a second modern sports hall below the Taunus baths 15 years later .

In March 2010, the new canteen with a small auditorium was opened. There is also a building made up of modules, which was intended as a temporary measure, but is used permanently in school operations. Every two years at the end of November the so-called winter festival takes place, to which the former students and teachers are invited.

Former students

Former students are u. a.

literature

  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 346 f.
  • Heinrich Lewin: The royal parity teachers' seminar in Usingen, formerly the ducal state seminar in Idstein in Nassau. Festschrift to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the institution on September 20, 1901 . Full text at Archive.org
  • Heinrich Nitschke: From the Latin school in Usingen to the CWS (until 1922). In: Ingrid Berg (Ed.): Heimat Hochtaunus. Wagner, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-7829-0375-7 , pp. 355-358

Web links

Commons : Usinger Schloss  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Bierwirth: Successful search for traces in Berlin - New knowledge about the crooked building and the new palace in Usingen. In: Yearbook of the Hochtaunuskreis. 2005, ZDB -ID 2580038-3 , pp. 221-227.
  2. ↑ usingen.de
  3. ↑ 75 years of the Christian Wirth School in Usingen. Usingen 1997, quoted from Christian Wirth School .
  4. ↑ CDU - State Parliament Group Hesse: CDU Group in the Hessian State Parliament 47 members of the CDU State Parliament & Office - Board of Directors. In: www.cdu-fraktion-hessen.de. Retrieved November 3, 2016 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 2.7 ″  N , 8 ° 32 ′ 17 ″  E