Wilhelmina von Hallwyl

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Wilhelmina von Hallwyl

Wilhelmina Countess von Hallwyl (born October 1, 1844 as Wilhelmina Kempe in Stockholm ; † July 25, 1930 ibid) was a Swedish countess and patron of the arts .

Live and act

Wilhelmina von Hallwyl was the daughter of Wilhelm Heinrich Kempe , the owner of Ljusne-Woxna AB, the then largest Swedish timber trading company. In 1865 she married Walther von Hallwyl; He came from the Swiss aristocratic family of Hallwyl , which can be traced back to the 12th century, but after the collapse of the old system of rule in 1798, it increasingly lost its importance there. In 1874, the couple bought Hallwyl Castle , the headquarters in the canton of Aargau , from Walther's over-indebted brother Hans von Hallwyl .

In the 1880s, the art-savvy and historically interested Wilhelmina von Hallwyl began building up an extensive art collection. In 1893 she gave the architect Isak Gustaf Clason the job at the Hamngatan in Stockholm the Hallwylska palats to build, to house the collection; the construction work lasted five years. She also collected porcelain, antique weapons and other antiques. She made purchases and a. in the Bukowski auction house , especially when Christian Hammer's collections were auctioned there. In 1920 she donated the building and collection to the Swedish state, which then opened the Hallwylska Museum .

Wilhelmina von Hallwyl, who often stayed in Switzerland, began organizing the Hallwyl archive in 1903 and handed it over to the State Archives of the Canton of Bern in 1926 . In 1910 she initiated a comprehensive restoration of Hallwyl Castle. Over the next six years, the archaeologist Nils Lithberg carried out extensive investigations, while the architect Anders Roland restored the castle to its medieval state and in the process reversed Hans von Hallwyl's neo-Gothic renovations.

Hallwyl's couple had four daughters:

  • Ebba (1866–1960), married to Wilhelm von Eckermann (1853–1937)
  • Ellen (1867–1952), married to Henrik de Maré (1860–1937) and later to Johnny Roosval (1879–1965)
  • Elma (1870–1871)
  • Irma (1873–1959), married to Wilhelm von Geijer (1865–1930)

Since she had no male descendants, Wilhelmina von Hallwyl founded the Hallwyl Foundation in 1925 with the consent of her relatives and opened Hallwyl Castle to the public. She donated the archaeological finds to the Swiss National Museum , which set up a special room in the museum building in Zurich in 1927 .

Lundström Castle near Vagnhärad, inherited from her father , was then inherited by her daughter Irma, who in 1936 had the castle-like manor house torn down and replaced with a smaller manor house; this was then inherited by their daughter Signe, who married Björn von der Esch (1930–2010) in 1952. Today's owner is Joachim von der Esch (* 1963), great-grandson of Wilhelmina.

  • Hallwyl Castle , Aargau

  • Hallwylska palatset in Stockholm

  • Lundström Castle

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Familjen von Hallwyl. Retrieved May 29, 2020 (Swedish, German, English).
personal data
SURNAME Hallwyl, Wilhelmina von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish countess
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1930
Place of death Stockholm