The early days of Bergedorf Castle
Documents first mention the castle in the 14th century. However, it’s estimated that the protective building might have been built as early as the 13th century. There are no records, however, of what the original castle looked like, so experts can only speculate as to its appearance. A model of what the early castle by the Bille river could have looked like is exhibited in the museum inside the stronghold.

Dukes and public officers 

Until the year 1420, Bergedorf Castle was the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg. After Bergedorf and the surrounding villages were conquered by Hamburg and Lübeck, the fortress remained an administrative seat for the two city states. In 1867, Hamburg bought Lübeck’s shares and thus became sole owner of the castle. Communal administration bodies like the police and court were housed within the castle’s walls in subsequent decades. Both the courtroom and the Domestic Revival-style Landherrenzimmer recall the estate’s past as an administrative seat.

A museum for Bergedorf and Vierlande

Since 1953, the castle has housed the Bergedorf and Vierlande museum. The exhibition there presents artifacts from the cultural history of the region. Age-old stuccos, inlaid works and ceiling frescos add to the experience. Visitors learn about early settlement in the region and the development of the two villages into suburbs of Hamburg. The museum fosters understanding of life in past centuries while also hosting a variety of special exhibitions on topics from local history. A café on the ground floor invites you to reflect on the newly learned information in a cozy, authentic setting.

Castle and parks

After the French rule of the first years of the 19th century, the castle grounds were turned into a vast park. At first, the green areas were off limits to visitors. Half a century later, industrialization sparked people to voice their need for a recreational area, turning the gardens into the park of today. In 1926, the gardens were put under monument protection. Along with the lake, they are the perfect place for a short hike that might lead eager walkers to other Bergedorf sights, like the mill, the city hall or the observatory. In winter, the Bergedorf Christmas market is atmospherically arranged around the castle. 

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Wellingsbüttel Manor (German: Rittergut Wellingsbüttel, since Danish times: Kanzleigut Wellingsbüttel) is a former manor with a baroque manor house (German: Herrenhaus) in Hamburg, Germany, which once enjoyed imperial immediacy (Reichsfreiheit). Wellingsbüttel was documented for the first time on 10 October 1296. Since 1937 it has formed part of the suburbs of Hamburg as the heart of the quarter of the same name, Wellingsbüttel, in the borough of Wandsbek. The owners of Wellingsbüttel Manor from the beginning of the 15th until the early 19th century were consecutively the Archbishops of Bremen, Heinrich Rantzau, Dietrich von Reinking, the Barons von Kurtzrock, Frederick VI of Denmark, Hercules Roß, the Jauch family, Cäcilie Behrens and Otto Jonathan Hübbe. In the early 19th century it was the residence and place of death of Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, the penultimate duke, who was an ancestor inter alia of the present-day British royal family. Wellingsbüttel Manor was elevated to the status of a Danish "chancellery manor" (Kanzleigut). It was then acquired by Grand Burgher of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Johann Christian Jauch junior (1802–1880), becoming a country estate of the Jauch family. The manor house is together with Jenisch House (Jenisch-Haus) one of Hamburg's best conserved examples of the Hanseatic lifestyle in the 19th century and jointly with the manor gatehouse a listed historical monument. The estate is located on the banks of the Alster River in the middle of the Alster valley (Alstertal) nature reserve.

Wellingsbüttel was first mentioned in 1296. In 1412 Wellingsbüttel became the property of the archbishops of Bremen. In the 16th century the first Lusthaus was built on the site. In 1643 it became a fiefdom of the chancellor of the last archbishop, Dietrich Reinking. After the Peace of Westphalia (1648) Wellingsbüttel came to Sweden but remained in the possession of Reinking, as confirmed in 1649 by Christina of Sweden. Reinking was a count palatine and claimed imperial immediacy for Wellingsbüttel, which lasted until 1806.

In 1673 Baron (Freiherr) Theobald von Kurtzrock acquired the property. A Roman Catholic, he was imperial privy councillor (Kaiserlicher Reichshofrat), imperial ambassador to Lower Saxony (residierender k. k. Minister am Niedersächsischen Kreis) and master of postal services for the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post (Thurn- und Taxischer Postmeister). Theobald Joseph von Kurtzrock erected the present manor house (Herrenhaus) in 1750 next to the Alster River. In 1757 Georg Greggenhofer designed the gatehouse. In 1806 Wellingsbüttel was occupied by Danish troops and Clemens August von Kurtzrock was forced to sell it to Frederick VI of Denmark, when the king picked a quarrel over his alleged right to levy a toll on everyone crossing over the lands of the estate, which was at that time encircled by Danish territory.

In 1810 the king enfeoffed his relative General Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, with Wellingsbüttel, which he elevated to a "chancellery manor" (Kanzleigut), that is, a manor directly subordinated to the royal chancellery at Copenhagen and permitted to operate its own manor court. At the same time the manor was separated from the small village of the same name, substantially reducing the number of poor people for whose support the lord of the manor was responsible. Duke Friedrich Karl Ludwig, by his only son Friedrich Wilhelm, the last Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck and the first of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was an ancestor to both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as well as to the royal houses of Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Greece, including Queen Sofía of Spain, thus making Wellingsbüttel Manor in some respects a point of origin of nearly all today's European royal dynasties. During the Napoleonic Wars the duke had to leave Wellingsbüttel. At first two squadrons of the Lützow Free Corps were stationed there. At the end of 1813 it became the headquarters of the Russian Lieutenant-General Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy.

In 1846 the Grand Burgher of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Johann Christian Jauch junior (1802–1880), a member of the Jauch family, became Lord of Wellingsbüttel. As a result of the Second Schleswig War, when Denmark fought Prussia and Austria, Wellingsbüttel was annexed by Prussia in 1868 and became a part of the Province of Schleswig-Holstein but remained in the possession of the Jauchs. Johann Christian Jauch junior and his son Carl Jauch (1828–1888), who was Lord of Wellingsbüttel conjointly with his father, enlarged the area of the manor's grounds up to 1876 from 115 to 250 hectares by buying in numerous smallholdings of the impoverished rural population, demolishing all buildings and adding the lands to the manor's pleasure-grounds. The former proprietors were offered places in the almshouse in the nearby village of Wellingsbüttel, which was erected in 1858, and to which the Jauchs contributed fifty percent of the costs. However, a considerable number of dispossessed people left Wellingsbüttel entirely, in such numbers that the royal chancellery at Copenhagen intervened to ask the Jauchs to keep at least the farmsteads on the land they acquired, when the teacher in Wellingsbüttel village complained that the continuing reduction in the number of paying pupils was costing him his livelihood.

Instead of farming, Wellingsbüttel reached its zenith by becoming a place of social life and hunting. During the time of the Barons von Kurtzrock the Danish statesman Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann had already been a hunting-guest. The Jauchs established a deer-park which became a major attraction for summer visitors from Hamburg. Wellingsbüttel and its park had already become an attraction for visitors from Hamburg earlier: the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, for example, had mentioned his visit on 11 July 1756, and directories of the parks surrounding Hamburg listed the park of Wellingsbüttel Manor as belonging to "the most beautiful". Friedrich Johann Lorenz-Meyer described it as "Elysian abundance"  The hunting-grounds were expanded by leasing the adjoining Duvenstedter Brook ("Duvenstedt swamps"), at that time part of the district of Stormarn. Today, after an interlude as the hunting-ground of Hamburg's Nazi Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann, the swamps are the town's largest and most beautiful nature reserve. The cooks and servants employed by the Jauchs became ancestors of a number of the present-day families of Wellingsbüttel. Wellingsbüttel was also the birthplace of the Freikorps leader during the German Revolution of 1918–19, Colonel Hans Jauch (1883–1965).

In 1888 Robert Jauch of Krummbek Manor (1859–1909) and his siblings sold Wellingsbüttel Manor to Cäcilie Behrens, the widow of a Hamburg banker, a partner in L. Behrens & Söhne. She had the manor house heightened by one storey by the architect Martin Haller, but died soon after the completion of the works in 1892.

In 1910 the then owner, Otto Jonathan Hübbe, a Hamburg merchant, made Wellingsbüttel part of a limited company (Aktiengesellschaft), jointly with the owners of the manors of Poppenbüttel and Sasel, in order to subdivide the land and to develop the Alster valley for housing. After World War I the company went into bankruptcy. With the Greater Hamburg Act Wellingsbüttel became part of Hamburg in 1937 and gave its name to the district of Hamburg-Wellingsbüttel, today a suburban villa development.

The city of Hamburg sold Wellingsbüttel Manor in 1966. The Hansa Kolleg, co-owned by the states of Bremen, Hamburg, and Schleswig-Holstein, used the manor house as a student hall of residence from 1964 till 1996. Today the house contains a private nursing home and a restaurant.

Since 1957 the Alstertal Museum (Alstertalmuseum or "Museum of the Alster Valley") has occupied the left wing of the gatehouse (seen from the entrance to the manor). The museum, set up by the Alsterverein e.V., a society founded in 1900 for the preservation of the Alster Valley, presents a number of exhibitions, both permanent and changing, on aspects of the area of the Upper Alster. The permanent displays cover Wellingsbüttel, not only the estate and manor house but also the old village, including (with the permission of the Danish Crown) the only copy of the 1810 deed of enfeoffment of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (see image above).

Wellingsbüttel Manor

Die Burg Henneberg ist die Nachbildung der Burg Henneberg im südlichen Thüringen im Maßstab 1:4. Die Nachbildung steht an der Alster in Hamburg-Poppenbüttel in unmittelbarer Nähe der Poppenbüttler Schleuse.

Geschichte

Die Ära der Familie Henneberg

Die Burg Henneberg wurde von 1884 bis 1887 von dem Gutsbesitzer Albert Henneberg (* 1818, † 1896) auf dem „Park Marienhof“ an der Alster nach den Plänen des Architekten Pieper gebaut. Sie ist ein Nachbau der Burg Henneberg in Thüringen, des Stammsitzes der Grafen von Henneberg, im Maßstab 1:4. Ein Motiv für das gewählte Vorbild war die Namensverwandtschaft, obwohl eine verwandtschaftliche Verbindung der Hennebergs zur Grafen-Familie nicht bestand. Der Bau neugotischer Burgen entsprach dem damaligen Zeitgeist großbürgerlicher Familien, wie sie auch an anderen Stellen in Hamburg, z. B. an der Elbchaussee im Baurs Park, errichtet wurden.

Der „Park Marienhof“, ein zur Alster leicht abfallendes, 3,5 ha großes Gelände, wurde von Albert Henneberg im Stil eines englischen Landschaftsgartens (Arboretum) mit exotischen Gehölzen aus verschiedenen Regionen aus Europa, den USA, China und Japan angelegt. Der Park besteht heute noch.

Das von Wilhelm Heuer gemalte Bild (siehe rechts) zeigt die Poppenbütteler Schleuse mit dem oberen und unteren (heute Bäckerbrücke) Schleusenwehr aus dem Jahr 1856. Auf dem rechtsseitigen Alsterufer, am oberen Schleusenwehr, befinden sich der „Park Marienhof“ und das Schleusenmeisterhaus (heute Restaurant). Der Hügel mit der Burg Henneberg existierte zu der Zeit noch nicht.

1855, als die Alstertaler Gemeinde noch zu Dänemark gehörte, erwarb die Familie Henneberg große Landwirtschaftsflächen in der Gemeinde. Mit der Gründung der Provinz Schleswig-Holstein durch die Preußen im Jahr 1867 gehörte die Alstertaler Gemeinde mit dem Dorf Poppenbüttel zum Landkreis Stormarn. Der Gutsbetrieb der Hennebergs war bis Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts als Milchlieferant mit etwa 150 Rindern überwiegend auf den Absatzmarkt Hamburg ausgerichtet.

Für das Ansehen der „Ritterburg“ wurde eigens ein felsiger 15 Meter hoher Burgberg in drei Jahren Arbeitszeit aufgeschüttet. Die Burg besteht aus einem Hauptgebäude, einem 12 Meter hohen Turm, einem Nebentürmchen sowie einem nach Süden gerichteten, terrassenförmigen Vorbau. Im Hauptgebäude befinden sich ein 23 m² großen „Rittersaal“ mit einer 20 m² großen Empore, einer 7 m² großen Burgkammer sowie der Aufgang zum Turm. Über eine Wendeltreppe gelangt man auf den Turm, von dem die Hennebergs einen weiten Blick bis zu den Kirchtürmen Hamburgs hatten. Heute ist dieser Blick durch die hoch gewachsenen Bäume der Stadt verstellt. Der Zugang zur Burg erfolgt über einen um die Burg herumlaufenden schmalen Gang. Um dem Bau ein antikes Ansehen zu verleihen, wurden im Mauerwerk des Turms Risse vorgetäuscht.

Die Burg diente der Familie Henneberg bis 1907 als Familienarchiv, das auch von Braunschweiger Geschichtsforschern genutzt wurde. Mit der Auflösung des landwirtschaftlichen Besitzes der Hennebergs im Jahr 1930, im Zuge der Aufschließung von Wohnsiedlungsgebieten in Poppenbüttel, standen die Räume der Burg einer Liedertafel als Proberaum zur Verfügung. 1942 wurden die Burg und ein Teil der Parkanlage an die Stadt Hamburg verkauft. Die Ära der Familie Henneberg endete 1986 mit dem Tod von Otto Henneberg-Poppenbüttel, da er keine Nachkommen hatte.

Die neuen Besitzer

Der Burgnachbau verfiel im Laufe der Jahrzehnte durch die fehlende Nutzung. 1988 bestand Einsturzgefahr, die angrenzende Straße musste gesperrt werden. Ein Abriss des Bauwerks wurde in Erwägung gezogen, sollte sich kein Käufer finden. 1990 erwarb ein privater Investor den Bau unter der Verpflichtung einer umfassenden Restaurierung.

1991 wurde das Bauwerk unter Denkmalschutz gestellt, mit dem Eintrag in die Liste der Kulturdenkmäler in Hamburg-Poppenbüttel: „Burgruine Henneberg mit künstlicher Topografie, Typ Folly (Nachbau einer Burgruine), Marienhof 8.“

2002 und 2013 wechselten erneut die Besitzer. 2014 wurde die Nutzung der Burg in eine gemeinnützige Stiftung „Burg Henneberg“ überführt. Sie dient der Erhaltung und Nutzung des Bauwerks für kulturelle Zwecke und ist in diesem Rahmen auch erstmals öffentlich zugänglich.

Burg Henneberg

Schloss Ahrensburg (Ahrensburg Palace) is a former Herrenhaus (mansion) and is today referred to as a Schloss. It is located in Ahrensburg in southern Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, not far from the city of Hamburg.

In the 13th century, there was a mansion with a moat and defensive towers known as Burg Arnesvelde, about three kilometers south of today's Schloss Ahrensburg. In 1327, the fortified mansion was owned by the church. During the Reformation the property came into the hands of the Danish King Frederick II, and in March 1567 Arnesvelde was transferred to Daniel Rantzau as compensation for work done and debts the king had run up. After Rantzau's death in 1569 during the Siege of Varberg his brother Peter (de) took over the mansion. He tore down parts of the castle and started building what was to become today's Schloss Ahrensburg.

The original structure on the island in the artificial pond/moat was built after 1585 at the initiative of Peter Rantzau, of the Rantzau family (de). Even at that time, the moat only served artistic rather than defensive purposes.

Ahrensburg was a representative of the short-lived Mehrfachhaus-type of Renaissance mansion, in which a rectangular building was doubled (Wahlstorf) or trebled (Ahrensburg, Schloss Glücksburg). As this type had architectural disadvantages it was soon replaced by others. The four corner turrets were not part of the original design but added only later during construction.

In 1594-96, the nearby chapel was built, together with some residential outbuildings which served as an infirmary for the old and sick.

Ahrensburg remained with the Rantzau family for seven generations. In 1759, they were forced to sell it, however. It was purchased by Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann, a merchant from Hamburg. He transformed the local economy, the appearance of the nearby village and the interior of the castle, turning it into a late-Baroque court. He also removed the outbuildings (stables, coach house, etc.) from the castle's island and filled in the innermost of the two moats. It is likely that the use of white paint also dates to this period and that the castle previously featured unplastered brick walls with sandstone ornaments.

From 1759 to 1778, Ahrensburg served as Schimmelmann's summer residence and remained his family's main seat in the 19th century. However, it was only under Ernst von Schimmelmann (1820-1885), that it once again became the focus of family life. He had the Marstall (stables) built along with the bridge and a gatehouse (the latter demolished around 1960). In addition, he expanded the English park to its current size. In 1855, the ballroom was added to the castle, the last major addition to its interior.

In the late 1920s, the Great Depression affected the Schimmelmann family and they were forced to sell the castle in 1932.

The Verein Schloss Ahrensburg e.V., supported by the state, the local savings bank and the town of Ahrensburg, took over maintaining the property. The castle museum opened in 1938. After being closed in the war, it reopened in 1955.

In 1960-61, the exterior of the castle and its outbuildings was used as "Garre Castle" in the film The Green Archer.

In 1984-6, the castle was renovated, including a recreation of the inner moat. Further interior work followed in the 1990s. In 2002, the castle and the six hectares of park were transferred to a private foundation that since 2007 had to operate without public subsidies.

The castle and its museum are open to the public. It can be rented for weddings and hosts concerts and children's events.

Schloss Ahrensburg

Jenisch House (Jenisch-Haus) is a country house in Hamburg built in the 19th century and an example of Hanseatic lifestyle and neoclassical architecture. As of 2008, Jenisch House is the home of the Museum für Kunst und Kultur an der Elbe. It is located within the Jenisch park in the Othmarschen quarter.

The house was built by Franz Forsmann and Karl Schinkel for Martin Johann Jenisch between 1831 and 1834. Jenisch used it as a country house.

Jenisch House is located in Jenisch Park, Hamburg's oldest landscaped park and a protected area of 43 ha (110 acres). The park was landscaped by Caspar Voght as a model farm and arboretum about 1800. It is located in the former independent locality of Klein Flottbek, now part of the Othmarschen quarter of Hamburg with a view toward the Elbe river, often described as "magnificent". In 1828 Jenisch bought the farm and gardens from Voght and redesigned the area with the construction of his house. Jenisch Park participated in the Tag des offenen Denkmals ("Day of the Open Heritage Site"), a national annual event of the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, opening cultural heritage sites to the public, in 2007 and 2008.

The house is designed as a large cube, with a basement, two main floors and an attic floor. The windows are in a 1-3-1 ratio and focus on the center. On the main floors the windows reach almost completely from the floor to the ceiling. The front of the house toward the park and Elbe river has a Doric portico, supporting a balcony. The large windows, the balcony, and the house opening into the park represent the relationship between architecture and nature.

The ground floor has prestigious salons, while the first floor contained the living areas and the attics were for the servants. As of 2008, the Museum für Kunst und Kultur an der Elbe is located in Jenisch House, using it for exhibitions, marriages and other events. A terrace is occupied by a café for the museum.

Jenisch House is located on the parks west-side at Baron-Voght-Straße, a small residential street and off Elbchaussee. The park itself reaches all the way down to the right bank of the Elbe river, at the other end somewhere near the Botanischer Garten Hamburg. The Elbchaussee has many listed buildings; Jenisch House and Park are listed as well. The Ernst Barlach House, located in the park, is a museum for the work of the expressionist sculptor, printmaker and writer Ernst Barlach (1870–1938).