Plön Castle, Germany

 

Location: Plön, Schleswig-Holstein  Map

Constructed: 17th century

 

Description of Plon Castle

Plön Castle or Plöner Schloss is situated in the town of Plön, Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. It was constructed in 1633- 36 by Duke Joachim ernst von Sonderburg- Plön on a site of a destroyed medieval castle that stood here since 11th century. Duke was fond of physics and especially optics. He used his residence as a personal lab for various experiments. Plon Castle served as his family's private residence until 1761. Between 1761 and 1864 it served as a Royal House of Denmark. It was around this time when the King of Denmark Christian VIII increased his residence and gave it a more Classicist style. Christian along with subsequent Danish monarchs used this residence as their summer retreat house. In 1868- 1920 it was transferred into a Prussian Cadet School. During years of World War II it was housed Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt (NAPOLA) or National Political School under Nazi regime, but after Germany lost the war it was transformed into a Boarding School. In 2002 it became known as Fielmann Akademie Schloss Plon.

 

History

Prehistory of the castle grounds

The first Wagrian castle fortification called Plune dates back to the 10th century and was located on the island of Olsborg in Plöner See. The complex was destroyed in 1139. The castle was rebuilt under Count Adolf II of Schauenburg and Holstein. It served as a base during the colonization of the once Slavic territory. In 1173 the castle was moved to the Bischofsberg next to the Flecken Plön - on the site of today's Plön Castle. In the 12th century, Plön slowly developed into a market location and received city rights in 1239. From 1290 to 1390, the hilltop castle was the seat of the Schauenburg line from Holstein-Plön and came into the possession of Duke Gerhard VI of Schleswig after it died out. Four generations later, the small fortress came to the Danish royal family via the Dukes of Schleswig (Christian I was Duke of Schleswig and King of Denmark in personal union). However, Plön and its castle did not play a significant role in the history of the country at this time.

In the course of the feud between the counts of Lübeck and Denmark, the castle was burned down in 1534 during a Lübeck raid. A first, larger new building was then erected on the castle grounds, which in part still date from the Romanesque period. In 1564, in defiance of the Treaty of Ribe, King Frederick II of Denmark transferred a third of his share in Schleswig and Holstein to his brother John the Younger, with the brother establishing the partitioned Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg. He also owned Plön and the castle. Under the early mercantilist Duke Johann, the town and castle experienced an economic boom. After Johann's death in 1622, the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg was divided among the six male heirs and new sub-duchies were created; one of them was the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Plon.

 

Residence of the Dukes of Plön

The first duke of this line was Joachim Ernst of Schleswig-Holstein-Plon, the second youngest son of Duke Johann. On the occasion of his marriage to the Gottorf Princess Dorothea Augusta, the new sovereign decided to build a representative palace for himself and his family. The construction was financed, among other things, by the considerable dowry of the bride. In 1632 the old castle in Plön was demolished at the behest of the duke and today's Renaissance-style castle was built in its place. The new residence was completed in just three years during the Thirty Years' War.

The palace was the residence of the ducal family, but it did not become as important a place in state politics as, for example, Gottorf Palace. Since the Plön dukes owned other castles and summer residences, such as the castle in Traventhal and the castles in Ahrensbök, Rethwisch and Reinfeld, the Plön residence was not continuously inhabited. Nevertheless, the building was one of the cultural centers of the Duchy. Joachim Ernst founded a library in the castle, which was expanded to up to 10,000 volumes by his successors. In addition, the duke was very interested in physics and optics and collected various optical devices and measuring instruments in the Plön residence. After Duke Joachim Ernst, the castle served his son Hans Adolf, who, however, rarely stayed in Plön as a general in the service of the emperor and was largely represented in the duchy by his wife and mother. Joachim Friedrich, who followed Hans Adolf, also resided here. After he died in debt without male descendants in 1722, the castle stood empty for seven years and some of the furnishings were handed over to his creditors.

The castle experienced its cultural heyday under the last Duke Friedrich Karl from 1729. He led a baroque court and had the interior of the castle furnished in the rococo style. Friedrich Karl expanded the complex with the still existing buildings of the palace square, the royal stables and the riding house, as well as the small garden palace, now known as the Prince's House. The castle was the residence of the Plön dukes until the death of Friedrich Karl, who died without a male heir in 1761. With his death, the fief expired and the duchy reverted to the Danish royal family. The building was occupied by his wife Christiane Armgardis as a widow's residence until her death in 1779. It then served as the seat of the bailiff and also from 1777 to 1823 as a residence for the mentally deranged son of Friedrich August I of Oldenburg, Peter Friedrich Wilhelm. The young man, who was incapacitated of his ducal duties, was assigned the castle by his guardian, the Danish King Christian VII, and was allowed to dispose of a large court here. After his death, the use of the palace as a courtly residence came to an end for the time being. From 1833 a scholar school was established.

 

Danish summer residence

From 1840 the castle was the official summer residence of the Danish King Christian VIII. For this purpose, the Plön Castle was renovated and some of the furnishings were renewed in the style of classicism. It was also at this time that it received the white plasterwork reminiscent of Danish castles such as Gravenstein and Fredensborg.

 

Cadet Institute and "Napola"

After the German-Danish War of 1864, the castle came into Prussian possession. In 1868 the interior was removed and most of it was taken to Kiel Castle, where it burned down in an air raid in 1942. The interior of Plön Castle was converted into barracks and was then used as a cadet establishment in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. The sons of the German Emperor Wilhelm II received their education in Plön from the end of the 19th century, and for this purpose the pleasure palace in the garden was expanded into the so-called "Prince's House", on the Prince's Island an educational farm was set up and in front of the palace for the newly laid railway line of the "Prinzenbahnhof" built. At the suggestion of Empress Auguste Viktoria, the palace chapel received a new painting.

After the First World War, military schools were banned by the Treaty of Versailles, and from 1920 the palace served as a state educational institution (“Stabila”). From 1933, Plön Castle and the area around it were used as a National Political Educational Institution (officially: NPEA, colloquially: "Napola"), like the former cadet institutions in Potsdam and Köslin, for an "elite school" of the National Socialists. The Napola in Plön was the first of its kind when it opened on May 1, 1933 and was named after SA leader Ernst Röhm. After his murder in 1934, it was renamed NPEA Plön. The school was headed by former police major Hermann Brunk, who now held the rank of SA Standartenfuhrer. On April 23, 1945, before the British took over, the Napola closed.

In 1945, Karl Dönitz stayed in Plön for a few days, maintaining a short-term command post here. Before fleeing to Flensburg-Mürwik, the castle was the administrative headquarters for parts of the Dönitz government for a day on May 2, 1945. The castle survived both world wars without any war-related damage. After that, British occupying troops in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, combined in the VIII British Army Corps under General Evelyn Barker, took up their headquarters in the castle.

 

Boarding school

The Plöner Gymnasium has always been in the castle and was called Kaiserin-Augusta-Viktoria-Gymnasium until 1933. In the post-war period, the Plön Castle boarding school for boys and girls was established in 1946 with the approval of the British military government. It extended over the entire castle grounds. The castle itself was used to house the male students and the "prince's house" to house the female students. The boathouse and other outbuildings were moved into by the administration. Classes took place in the neighboring boarding school Schloss Plön, today's Gymnasium Schloss Plön, on Prinzenstraße.

The use as a residential building left traces on the old castle building, which was increasingly in need of renovation. Reports from the years 1986/1988 showed that the plant had a high investment requirement and could only be saved from decay with amounts in the tens of millions. From 1992 the sale of the castle was sought and from 1995 the outbuildings were sold. The sale became necessary because the state did not see itself in a position to carry out a renovation of the house in accordance with the monument requirements in addition to the uneconomical operation of the boarding school. In 2001 the boarding school was closed. The former students, teachers and employees are still organized in the "Association of Butenplöner".

 

Film set

Even when I was still at boarding school, the castle was used as a film set on several occasions, for example in the 1969 film Seven Days Deadline and others. with Joachim Fuchsberger and Horst Tappert and from 1997 in the television series Die Schule am See, which was shown in the first. The students of the boarding school often acted as extras in the series. The castle played a similar, albeit brief, role in 1994 in the film Charlie & Louise, Joseph Vilsmaier's film adaptation of Erich Kästner's novel The Double Lottie.

 

Sale and remodeling

After several unsustainable plans for the castle, an offer was made by the optics company Fielmann. The possible sale to Fielmann was discussed controversially in the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament. After the submission of a comprehensive usage plan, which also provided for public participation in the castle, it was finally approved. The castle was sold to the non-profit “Fielmann Academy” in 2002 for a purchase price of 3.6 million euros. Günther Fielmann reported:
"When we took over the castle in 2002, it was in a deplorable state. The spacious Baroque corridors had been converted into student rooms with lightweight walls, the floor plan and room layout could no longer be experienced, advanced structural damage wherever you looked."

The facility was restored over a period of four years in accordance with the requirements of the monument. The total costs for this amounted to more than 35 million euros, the state funded the project with 11.8 million euros. With the conversion, the castle became a modern training center that can also play a public role again, taking into account its historical significance.

 

Academy and current use

The work on the castle has been completed since 2006 and after several days of opening celebrations, the operation as an educational center was fully resumed. After the master classes had already begun in 2002 during the construction phase, since the 2005/2006 winter semester, the course in ophthalmic optics/optometry has been offered in cooperation with the Lübeck University of Applied Sciences, leading to the Bachelor of Science degree, which is recognized throughout Europe. In addition, trainees in the optician trade are trained and seminars are held for specialists and managers. The academy is open to the entire optical industry. More than 6,000 opticians are to be qualified and 45,000 participant days are to be held every year. In 2006, 13 lecturers taught here. On the occasion of the reopening, Günter Fielmann said:

"Plon Castle is not a museum, but a living educational institution under monument protection."

The castle is now mostly used by the Academy. Some of the ducal state rooms in the east wing with rococo furnishings have been extensively restored and can be visited as part of guided tours by prior arrangement. The castle is also made available for various public and semi-public events. For example, the Schleswig-Holstein cultural committee met in the knight's hall, the SPD invited to a conference of officials and the television council of ZDF to a conference. There was also talk of renting it for the 2007 G8 summit. The Knights' Hall is also a frequent venue for classical concerts.

 

Buildings

Castle building

Building description

Plön Castle combines several special features: It is one of the few major buildings from the time of the Thirty Years' War, it is the only surviving castle in Schleswig-Holstein at a high altitude and it is considered the first castle in Germany to have a conscious connection to the surrounding area landscape received. The location on the castle hill was chosen for purely representative reasons and not for reasons of fortification. The courtyard terrace with a view over the Plön lake landscape is a dominant component and the center of the building ensemble, the sober facades are primarily designed for long-distance effects. The castle can be seen from afar from the countryside or from Lake Plön. It was planned purely as a residential palace and has no fortifications such as walls, ramparts or bastions. The building was constructed in just three years from 1633 to 1636. The designs probably came directly from Duke Joachim Ernst, who based the simple facades on the Habsburg models of the Linz Palace and the Escorial.

The mighty building dates from a stylistic transition: at a time when Renaissance art was still alive in the country, characteristic features of the early Baroque were already being incorporated into the new palace. It is a three-wing complex around a court of honor with a horseshoe-shaped floor plan, which opens to the south towards the Great Plön Lake. The largest wing of the building is the central north wing, which is adjoined by the shorter side wings to the east and west. The three-storey castle has little architectural decoration, its facades are clearly structured and the most striking adornment is a ring of gables that runs around the outside and the courtyard facades. The roof of the main building is decorated with two lantern-like ridge turrets, a clock turret above the central gable of the courtyard was demolished in 1789. From the time of the cadet school there is a neo-Renaissance stair tower on the outer wall of the east and west wings from the 19th century. The castle stands on a base made of field stones and was built from brick, which was popular in Schleswig-Holstein at the time. The outer fronts were originally covered with a brown-red brick slurry; the brick walls were not - as previously assumed - exposed. The roof was covered with red pans. It received the white plaster visible today and the gray slate roofs in the middle of the 19th century.

The Plön Residence is the second largest castle in the federal state, only Gottorf Castle is larger. The Plön Castle District is the only largely preserved castle complex from the building activities of the Plön Dukes. Their other residences, hunting lodges and summer palaces in Ahrensbök, Reinfeld, Rethwisch and Traventhal were gradually demolished from the end of the 18th century due to a lack of interest on the part of the Danish royal family.

The layout of the castle followed the usual order of the time: the rooms on the ground floor were used for the administration of the duchy (under the west wing there were also four prison cells), the castle kitchen and the servants' quarters were also housed here. The first floor was used by the ducal children, while the second floor was occupied by the duke and his wife and also contained the state rooms. Under the roof there were more rooms for the servants. The interiors were originally divided into a ducal wing to the east and a duchess wing to the west, although this structure was not permanently retained. A central ballroom already refers to baroque spatial arrangements, as do two symmetrically arranged shaft staircases, which replaced the stair towers that were still common in the country at the time. The palace chapel was placed on the ground floor of the east wing.

 

Use as an academy

The premises of the castle are now mostly occupied by the academy. In addition to the actual training and study rooms, conference rooms and optical laboratories were also set up. There are 123 guest rooms on the castle grounds, most of them in the west wing of the castle. A company restaurant has been opened to cater for training guests. The building received two wheelchair-accessible elevators in the vicinity of the historic shaft staircases.

 

Restored castle rooms

Due to the centuries of external use, only a few of the original features of the castle have been preserved. Some of the furniture and paneling of the rooms, which were decorated in the Rococo style in the 18th century, were given to the Schleswig-Holstein State Museum around 1930. Today they are put together as the so-called Plön Hall in Gottorf Castle, where they represent the style of the 18th century in the duchies.

Since the castle was not only to be used as a training center, but also to be made accessible to the public again, several of its historical rooms and halls were reconstructed. Some rooms - the ducal parade rooms - were largely restored true to the original, while for other rooms - such as the garden or the knight's hall - compromises had to be found between an almost historical furnishing and modern use. Since most of the castle's furniture has been lost, the rooms were supplemented with stylistically appropriate inventory from private collections and public loans.

 

Gallery and garden room

Two portals located in the corners of the west and east wings, as well as the central main portal, lead to the gallery, a long corridor that connects both side wings. The gallery is directly connected to the neighboring garden hall via an arcade and is furnished with furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries.

The garden hall had to be completely recreated during the restoration of the palace. As early as the time of the Plön dukes, there was a garden hall here, from which one could step through large French doors into the garden parterre behind it, which has not been reconstructed. After the castle had lost its old function as a residence, the room was remodeled and given other functions by means of partition walls. At the time of the boarding school, there were washrooms and showers here.

Today's room follows the dimensions of the garden salon originally located here, but there is nothing left of its former decoration. The garden hall serves as the reception room for the academy. The furnishings and tapestries come from Günther Fielmann's private collection. Furthermore, there are paintings that depict the Plön dukes and belonged to the former furnishings of the castle.

 

Knight's hall

The knight's hall was originally the baroque ballroom in the middle wing of the castle. At 12 × 26 meters, it is the largest room in the palace and is located between the stairwells in the middle of the upper floor, the entire depth of which it occupies. Its wooden barrel vault extends to the top floor. It is lit on each side of the central building by seven lower windows and three upper windows in the gable rows.

The hall got its current name in the 19th century, when the castle served as a summer residence for the Danish royal family. There was never a knighthood in Plön Castle, the name is based on the knights' halls in Danish castles. The current furnishings correspond approximately to those under Christian VIII. It is a sparsely decorated ceremonial room with classical motifs. At the front of the hall there are musicians' galleries, the large chandeliers were newly made for the knight's hall according to old models. There is no longer any furniture of its own, instead pieces from Günther Fielmann's collection are on display here. Modern seating is also available for public events.

 

Ducal State Rooms

The suite of rooms for the ducal state rooms is on the second floor of the east wing. They are among the few rooms in the castle in which remains of the former furnishings can still be found. They were originally used for representation purposes and were generally uninhabited state rooms arranged en filade in which receptions and audiences took place. As part of the conversion of the palace into an academy, the rooms were restored and stylistically contemporary furnishings were added. The rooms date from the reign of Duke Friedrich Karl and are largely furnished in the Rococo style. Today they are the highlight of the castle tours and convey an image of the castle in the 18th century.

The ducal antechamber is the first room in the baroque series of rooms; it once served as a waiting room. Here is the only preserved stucco ceiling of the castle, which dates back to the 17th century. The overdoors show representations of the Plön residence from the 18th century and, like the large mirror, are part of the original furnishings of the palace. The large faience oven is the work of a workshop in Kiel and was made available to Plön Castle as a permanent loan from the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts. The niche in which it is located was designed by Bartholomeo Bossi, who was also responsible for the stucco work on the garden house.

In Plön, too, people in the 18th century were guided by the French court ceremonies, which provided for different preferential treatment for different social ranks. The small audience room behind the antechamber was once used to receive people of lower rank. In the course of the restoration of the castle, the original colors of the panels were uncovered and these were newly gilded. The silk wallpaper was newly made for this room based on an 18th-century template. The pieces of furniture shown here also come from Günther Fielmann's collection. The large mirror secretary comes from an Altona workshop.

The royal bedroom marks the end of the state rooms. It served as a second reception hall for guests of higher social status. This, too, followed the French ceremonial in which receptions in the bedroom were part of the order of the day. It is the most lavish room in the suite, and the most striking adornment is a large alcove that houses the bed. The bed niche, decorated in cheerful rococo forms, has survived the years in the castle almost undamaged; during the boarding school this room housed the music room and a grand piano took the place of the bed. The magnificent bed itself is not an original piece of furniture from the castle, but it is similar in style and construction to a four-poster bed that used to be here.

The ducal library is a little off the baroque suite of rooms and was used to store the book collections of Duke Friedrich Karl. The volumes were once in closets behind the original preserved panels and were auctioned off after 1763. Above the doors of the library room are aphorisms in Latin, referring to the room's didactic purpose: Curis curarum suavi levamento - For the pleasant relief and healing of sorrows and Delectando pariterque docendo - Equally pleasing and instructive.

 

Castle chapel

The chapel is located in the east wing of the castle and its floor level reaches down to the basement. It is a two-nave space divided into two bays by a central pillar, which has been there since the castle was built. At the time of the educational institution, an intermediate ceiling was installed and the hall was no longer recognizable in its original form. During boarding school, it served as a bicycle storage room. The upper floor created by the false ceiling served as a so-called Remter for student assemblies. In the course of the renovation of the castle, the chapel was restored, in which the German Foundation for Monument Protection contributed 75,000 euros. With the restoration, the chapel hall regained its 19th-century appearance, when it was decorated with historicist paintings in 1897 at the behest of Empress Auguste Viktoria. The castle chapel is not currently used as a place of worship, and there is neither an altar nor an organ. It is part of the guided tours and is occasionally used for concerts.

Behind the chapel is the crypt of the castle, in which thirteen sarcophagi from the time of the Plön dukes have survived. The most elaborate tomb is the coffin of Duke Friedrich Karl from 1766, which comes from a Copenhagen workshop and is designed in rococo forms.

 

Castle Square and outbuildings

West of the Schlossberg were the buildings of the outer bailey. This farmyard was destroyed by a major fire in 1745, creating the conditions for the construction of a riding school. The adjoining buildings such as the royal stables and the large riding hall are from the time and the representational needs of Duke Friedrich Karl and together with some other buildings form today's palace square. Since the castle was renovated, there has been an underground car park under the site that served as a parade ground for the 19th-century cadet establishment.

The indoor swimming pool is located directly below the castle, an Art Nouveau building from 1908. Originally built for Kaiser Wilhelm's sons as a swimming and sports pool, it retained this function even during the boarding school period. The swimming pool was closed in 1994 before the end of the boarding school, and the building was subsequently renovated. The former bathing hall and the other rooms are now used by the city of Plön as a cultural forum for changing exhibitions, and a restaurant has also found its place here.

South of the castle driveway is the so-called commander's villa, the home of the commander of the cadet establishment. The building in the neo-Renaissance historicist forms was erected between 1895 and 1897 and its design is based on the 19th-century staircase towers at the castle. After its renovation, the commander's villa now houses apartments.

The elongated royal stables were built by Johann Gottfried Rosenberg between 1745 and 1750 and are considered the most artistically valuable building of this type in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. The late baroque building, made of unplastered brick, offered space for 56 horses; the sculptural decoration refers to this purpose. The stables served as a gym during the boarding school, today the classrooms, secretariat and library of the master school are housed here. The former hospital is located to the right of the Marstall. The brick building, erected in Wilhelminian style in 1896/97, served as a hospital for the cadet institute. Today it also houses privately used apartments.

The riding house at the western end of the square – sometimes also called the clock house because of the clock in the gable – probably also comes from Rosenberg. Built in 1746, the wide building with a high central projection was originally used for tournaments and other equestrian events. The building was reconstructed in 1892 and apartments were furnished inside. After renovation, the house is currently used as an information center for the Holstein Switzerland Nature Park and presents various exhibitions on the subject of nature in Schleswig-Holstein.

 

More buildings

The so-called gatehouse is located on the castle terrace, in front of the east wing. The small villa from 1895 was the residence of the castle gatekeeper, who controlled the main entrance to the then cadet academy from here. On the upper floor of the building there were rooms that were used as a detention center. The house housed a gallery. There is now a café and a bar here.

 

Park

Today's castle park was created from several previous gardens that were laid out over the centuries and later neglected. The first gardens of the castle were located directly below the castle hill. After the start of construction of the residence, the southern slope was laid out as a vineyard, taking the hillside gardens of the Villa d'Este in Tivoli as a model. This hillside garden existed until 1729. A garden parterre on the north side of the palace, originally located in front of the garden hall, also no longer exists.

A baroque garden was laid out in the 18th century, which took into account the need for representation at the time. Since the castle is located at a high altitude and is also surrounded by the town of Plön on two sides, it was not possible to plant a plant designed around the castle as a focal point. Instead, the area behind the riding school was chosen as the location for the new park, which was aligned with a central pavilion, a maison de plaisance, which later became the prince's house. The spacious garden was laid out by Georg Dietrich Tschierske on behalf of Duke Friedrich Karl between 1730 and 1748 and, along with the gardens in Jersbek and Eutin, was one of the most important gardens of the 18th century in the states of Schleswig and Holstein. Tschierske also laid out the equally important park of the palace in Traventhal for the duke. The Plön Garden consisted of ornamentally designed parterres in front of the garden house, which merged further into a bosquet zone. The forest to the west of the park served as a hunting ground and was opened up by the so-called Siebenstern. This hunting star is still preserved today, but is hardly recognizable as such due to the growth of trees in recent centuries.

After the end of the duchy, the garden became overgrown due to lack of care and was later partly used as a kitchen garden. In the 19th century, the park was redesigned by the landscape architect Christian Schaumburg, in line with the fashion of the time, into an English-style landscape garden. The large avenues of linden trees were not felled, they have been preserved to this day and frame the area of the otherwise lost baroque garden, the basic features of which can still be seen from the air. In 1930 a sports track was built in the rear third of the park.

 

Prince house

The Prince's House is a small pleasure palace that, with its curved garden side and interior decorations by Bartolomeo Bossi, is one of the few Rococo buildings in Holstein. It was built between 1747 and 1751 for Duke Friedrich Karl, also by J. G. Rosenberg, based on the model of the Falkenlust hunting lodge. At the end of the 19th century, three window axes were added to the sides, with the additions being designed as flat, protruding projections. The house received its current name when it served as a school for his sons during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. During the First World War it housed a military hospital, during the boarding school period it served as a residential building for the students.

Concerts and similar events take place in the Prince's House all year round. The registry office of the city of Plön also offers weddings in the garden or marble hall. The Prince's House can be visited as part of regular guided tours.