Villa Möllering

Entrance side of the Villa Möllering

The Villa Möllering (also: Waldhaus Häcklingen ) is a villa in the Lüneburg district of Häcklingen in Lower Saxony . The building was built in 1906 by the Berlin architects Konrad Reimer and Friedrich Körte in the homeland security style.

Building construction and maintenance

Overall view

The single-storey villa with a gable roof is located in Häcklingen, Am Wischfeld 16. After a change of ownership in 1935, the house was rebuilt in the style of the time and the portal of the entrance was redesigned into a round arch. In 1938 a stable and a house were added. The building, which is now privately owned, was used until 2007 and then classified as a cultural monument due to its architectural quality and history . Since then, after a long period of vacancy, it has become dilapidated and its preservation is at great risk due to the pollution. The renovation costs were estimated at two to three million euros. The “Waldhaus Häcklingen” project group was formed to maintain the building. Despite the existing monument protection , the owner requested the city of Lüneburg to demolish it because of the economic unreasonableness of renovation. The Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation removed the building from the list of cultural monuments in June 2020, as the structural testimony value was no longer considered sufficient due to the changes. The city of Lüneburg then suggested a compromise between demolition and renovation. According to this, the historic entrance area with the exposed gable is to remain and the building behind the facade will give way to a new building. In addition to apartments, there is also an exhibition room to commemorate this place of surrender negotiations in World War II .

history

The building as a school, around 1920

After the construction, a girls' school was set up in the building in 1907, in which young rural women were taught “women's professions”. From 1917 to 1923, the home and agricultural training business was apparently assigned to the Reifenstein Association . Since 1935 the house has belonged to the director of the Lüneburg Kronen Brewery, Alexander Möllering, who gave it its new name.

At the end of the Second World War, Lueneburg was captured by British troops under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on April 18, 1945 . Montgomery initially used Farmer Knacke's property in Oedeme as his headquarters . On April 30, 1945 he moved the headquarters to the Villa Möllering, which was also occupied by the commander of the 2nd British Army , Miles Dempsey . Since May 1st, Montgomery and his closest staff stayed at the "Tactical Headquarter" on the Timeloberg near Wendisch Evern , where his caravan was set up. On May 3, 1945, a delegation headed by General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg , sent by Grand Admiral Dönitz , who had left the last Reich government in Flensburg - Mürwik , met at Villa Möllering . Friedeburg was accompanied by combat commander Alwin Wolz , among others . Talks about a partial capitulation offered by Dönitz first took place in the villa. Wolz also signed the conditions for handing over the city of Hamburg in the villa . Since the tactical headquarters of the British troops with Montgomery was on the Timeloberg near Wendisch Evern, the delegation under Hans-Georg von Friedeburg was forwarded there. The partial surrender of the Wehrmacht for north-west Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands was signed on May 4, 1945 on the Timeloberg .

After the war, a psychiatric clinic moved into the villa, which has been located in Uelzen since 2007 .

literature

Doris Böker: Hanseatic City of Lüneburg with Lüne Monastery. (= Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany , architectural monuments in Lower Saxony , Volume 22.1.) Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-86568-563-6 .