Schloss Freudenberg

Last updated
Schloss Freudenberg
Schloss Freudenberg in Wiesbaden von Suden.jpg
View from the park
Schloss Freudenberg
General information
StatusEducational facility
Location Wiesbaden-Dotzheim, Hesse, Germany
Coordinates 50°03′58″N08°10′51″E / 50.06611°N 8.18083°E / 50.06611; 8.18083 Coordinates: 50°03′58″N08°10′51″E / 50.06611°N 8.18083°E / 50.06611; 8.18083
Construction started1904 (1904)
Design and construction
Architect Paul Schultze-Naumburg

Schloss Freudenberg is a large villa in Wiesbaden, the capital of Hesse, Germany. It was built as a private residence in Dotzheim, and completed in 1904. The house and the large garden have been open to the public as an educational facility from 1993. Its exhibitions inside the building and outside in the park are devoted to the experience of sensory perception.

Contents

History

Schloss Freudenberg was built in 1904/05 on designs by architect Paul Schultze-Naumburg in a park, on a commission by the painter James Pitcairn-Knowles and Marie Eugénie Victoire Guérinet (1870–1959). [1] The couple lived there until 1908. After World War I, the residence was made a casino of the French army, and then a summer location of the Palast Hotel in Wiesbaden. [1]

Around 1920, the Landkreis Essen started running a home for children, Kinderheim Taunusblick, in Schloss Freudenberg, which was later run by Essen, and closed in 1931. From 1933, the building served as the headquarter of the Frauenschaft Essen (Women's Association of Essen) as a Mütterheim (Mothers' Home), an institution of the Lebensborn. The place was sold to the Heeresstandortverwaltung (Garrison Administration) Wiesbaden in 1939. After World War II, the U.S. army ran an officers' mess there for the Camp Pieri barracks nearby. The U.S. army transferred the run-down property to the Institute for Federal Real Estate in 1973. [2] It was used by the United Pentecostal Church as a seminary for pastors with a library, a tea room and a church room from 1977 to 1984. It then was abandoned and remained empty and in disrepair, due to destruction, vandalism and fire. [2]

In 1993, the Gesellschaft Natur & Kunst (Association for Nature and Art), an initiative of Matthias Schenk and Beatrice Dastis Schenk, with a group of artists, craftsmen and pedagogues, restored the building and the park. Following the motto Sanierung = Heilung durch Kunst und Kultur (Renovation = Healing through art and culture), they created the first Erfahrungsfeld zur Entfaltung der Sinne (Zone of experiences for the development of the senses) to foster the experience of the senses and of thought. [1]

Restoration and exhibition

At the beginning of the restoration in 1994, Emil Hädler, professor at the Fachhochschule Mainz (Mainz University of Applied Sciences) and an expert for the restoration of historic buildings (Altbauinstandhaltung), coined the motto "Sanierung = Heilung durch Kunst" (Restoration = Healing through Art). While traditionally all use of a structure is interrupted during restoration, the Schloss Freudenberg would be restored in several phases so that there would always be some areas in use. Hädler thought that the resulting provisional itineraries would create opportunities for novel sensory experiences. The concept became a model for other buildings and parks in Europe and the world. [2]

The development of artistic activities is based on the Erfahrungsfeld zur Entfaltung der Sinne (Field of experiences for the development of the senses) by Hugo Kükelhaus, of 160 stations, instruments and experiments. This permanent exhibition has been named a Gesamtkunstwerk by the founders, in the sense of the Soziale Plastik by Joseph Beuys. [2] It is financed by entry fees, seminars and cultural events. The exhibition is devoted to experiences of the senses, such as a botanical theatre based on Paul Klee, a Windharfe, Goethe's Theory of Colours (Farbenlehre), and a Tastgalerie with objects to touch without seeing them. It includes the building and the park. [3]

The project is run by around 80 women and men of 15 nationalities who take care of the building and the park, organise a shop, seminars, vacation programs, a cafe and a Dunkelbar, an unlit bar in which visitors experience what it feels like to be blind. [4] [5] [6]

Related Research Articles

Marburg Town in Hesse, Germany

Marburg is a university town in the German federal state (Bundesland) of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (Landkreis). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximately 76,000.

Aschaffenburg Town in Bavaria, Germany

Aschaffenburg is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative seat.

Sensory garden

A sensory garden is a self-contained garden area that allows visitors to enjoy a wide variety of sensory experiences. Sensory gardens are designed to provide opportunities to stimulate the senses, both individually and in combination, in ways that users may not usually encounter.

Paul Schultze-Naumburg German architect (1869–1949)

Paul Schultze-Naumburg was a German traditionalist architect, painter, publicist and author. A leading critic of modern architecture, he joined the NSDAP in 1930 and became an important advocate of Nazi architecture.

Eltville Town in Hesse, Germany

Eltville am Rhein is a town in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. It lies on the German Timber-Frame Road.

Geisenheim Town in Hesse, Germany

Geisenheim is a town in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hessen, Germany, and is known as Weinstadt, Schulstadt, Domstadt and Lindenstadt.

Hugo Kükelhaus was a German carpenter, writer, pedagogue, philosopher and artist. Kükelhaus is best known for his infant toys "allbedeut" and the "Erfahrungsfeld zur Entfaltung der Sinne." Throughout his life, he presented his views for a human-scaled living environment in talks and publications. He is also regarded as a harbinger for infant toy designs that fulfil the requirements of pedagogy and developmental psychology. He gained international recognition for his design of 30 "Experience stations" at the German Pavilion of the Expo 1967 in Montreal. His ideas are relevant for contemporary theories of intelligence, educational technology and the design of learning environments.

Wiesbaden-Dotzheim Borough of Wiesbaden in Hesse, Germany

Dotzheim is a western borough of Wiesbaden, capital of the state of Hesse, Germany. It is the second largest borough of the city by area and, with over 27,000 inhabitants the second-most populated of Wiesbaden's suburban boroughs. It was the largest village in the former Duchy of Nassau. The formerly independent village was incorporated into Wiesbaden in 1928.

Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hesse, Germany

Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe is a landscape park in Kassel, Germany. The area of the park is 2.4 square kilometres, making it the largest European hillside park, and second largest park on a hill slope in the world. Construction of the Bergpark, or "mountain park", began in 1689 at the behest of the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel and took about 150 years. The park is open to the public today. Since 2013, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Margret Hofheinz-Döring German artist

Margret Hofheinz-Döring was a German painter and graphic artist.

Hessian Ludwig Railway Transport company

The Hessian Ludwig Railway or HLB with its network of 697 kilometres of railway was one of the largest privately owned railway companies in Germany.

Georg Moller

Georg Moller was an architect and a town planner who worked in the South of Germany, mostly in the region today known as Hessen.

Rüdesheim (Rhein) station

Rüdesheim (Rhein) station is in the town of Rüdesheim am Rhein in the German state of Hesse on the East Rhine Railway. It is on the western edge of the town, separated from the Rhine only by federal highway B 42. The entrance building is a double storey stucco building in a neoclassical style. It is now one of the cultural monuments listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.

Lindheim Castle

Lindheim Castle is a former medieval castle in Lindheim, in the municipality of Altenstadt, Wetteraukreis county, in the German state of Hesse. In the Middle Ages the castle became a large joint inheritance or Ganerbschaft of lesser noble families, who were an important local power in the eastern Wetterau. In 1697, stately home, Schloss Lindheim, was built. Only a few remnants of both buildings have survived today.

Michael Post German painter

Michael Post is a German painter, Object artist and curator. He is an exponent of concrete art.

Achim Zeman in Stuttgart) is a German painter and installation artist. He is a representative of Op-Art and is based on the rules of Concrete Art.

Buchenau (Eiterfeld) Ortsteil of Eiterfeld in Hesse, Germany

Buchenau is a district of the market town Eiterfeld in the district of Fulda and has around 350 inhabitants.

Erfahrungsfeld zur Entfaltung der Sinne

The Erfahrungsfeld zur Entfaltung der Sinne is an interactive exhibition that stimulates all the senses, designed by Hugo Kükelhaus. The different exhibits are intended to inspire the visitor to experiment with them, to explore them, like in a park of the senses or a science center. Kükelhaus constructed 32 pieces of playground equipment for schools in the city of Dortmund and demonstrated some of these equipment at the Expo 67 world exhibition in Montreal. His holistic concept for a large open-air exhibition was shown in the exhibition Phenomena, shown in Rotterdam, South Africa, and Bietigheim, among others.

Schlosspark Biebrich

The Schlosspark Biebrich is a park at Schloss Biebrich in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Hesse, Germany. First designed as a French formal garden, it was expanded changed to an English landscape garden and expanded 1817 to 1823, the last project of Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell. The public park extends north of the building in the valley of the Mosbach creek for around 1,200 m and is 250 m wide. It is the venue for the annual horse show Internationales Pfingstturnier Wiesbaden.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Schloss Freudenberg" (in German). Wiesbaden . Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Schloss Freudenberg" (in German). urlaub-in-hessen.com. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  3. ↑ "Schloss Freudenberg" (in German). stadtleben.de. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  4. ↑ "Schloss Freudenberg" (in German). Wiesbaden . Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  5. ↑ "Erlebnis Hessen: Schloss Freudenberg" (in German). Hessischer Rundfunk. 14 April 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  6. ↑ Maus, Robert (2 January 2019). "Eiskammer in Wiesbaden : Der Spaß, der aus der Kälte kam". FAZ (in German). Retrieved 3 February 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.