Brunswick Palace: Residence of the Dukes of Brunswick
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History
Brunswick Palace in Germany was the residence of the Dukes of Brunswick and the principal seat of the senior Welf line from 1753 to 1884. The Welfs were a German ruling dynasty whose Brunswick-Lüneburg branch governed Brunswick and related territories. The palace stood on Schlossplatz in central Brunswick and developed through several construction phases from the early 18th century.
From monastic establishment to ducal residence
Since the Middle Ages, the site had contained an urban commercial and economic establishment belonging to the Cistercian monastery of Riddagshausen. Before Brunswick lost its independence in 1671, the complex also provided accommodation for Welf dukes when they visited the city. Their principal residence was transferred from Wolfenbüttel to Brunswick in 1753.
Plans for an urban secondary residence began around 1715 on the orders of Duke August Wilhelm of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Under the Brunswick master builder Hermann Korb, extensive construction started in 1717 after the former monastic buildings were demolished. Additional land was acquired from owners to the north. The inner wings and chapel were finished in 1724, work on the inner south wing continued into the 1730s, and the outer north wing was built from 1752 to 1754 under Martin Peltier de Belfort, following Korb’s plans.
Although the palace was still unfinished, the ducal residence moved to Brunswick in 1753. Its central block was completed between 1783 and 1791 during the rule of Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand. The court architects Christian Gottlob Langwagen and Wilhelm von Gebhardi directed this phase.
Napoleonic remodelling and destruction in 1830
During the Napoleonic occupation and annexation of Brunswick from 1806 to 1813, Peter Joseph Krahe remodelled the palace in the Empire style, the monumental classical style associated with Napoleonic rule. The work prepared it as a royal winter residence for Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon’s younger brother and King of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813. In 1811, Krahe proposed creating an external court of honour, but the proposal was not carried out.
The Brunswick uprising of 7 and 8 September 1830 brought the ducal residence to an abrupt end. Citizens stormed, plundered, and burned the palace. The north wing and central block were destroyed to their foundations, while the south wing was damaged. Duke Karl II fled the city and never returned. His brother Wilhelm became regent two days later and was recognised as Duke of Brunswick in 1831.
Ottmer’s palace
Court architect Carl Theodor Ottmer was commissioned to design a replacement. The plans were accepted on 15 May 1831, and construction began when the foundation stone was laid on 26 March 1833. The new residence was completed on 21 March 1841. The ducal private rooms in the north wing were ready in 1837, followed by the representative rooms in the main and south wings between 1838 and 1841.
The project remained incomplete in its larger planned form because Duke Wilhelm halted further expansion in 1839. Colonnades intended to connect the palace with Bohlweg, arcades around the eastern palace garden, much of the western ornamentation, and a planned four-horse chariot group were not initially executed. The building later became known as Ottmer Palace in memory of its architect, who died in 1843.
A technical defect caused another fire during the night of 24 February 1865. The blaze destroyed the north wing and the northwestern part of the main building. Carl Wolf, assisted by Constantin Uhde, reconstructed the damaged sections by 1868 according to Ottmer’s original designs.
The ducal residence and the end of the monarchy
Equestrian statues of Dukes Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand and Friedrich Wilhelm were erected on Schlossplatz in 1874. After Wilhelm died without a legitimate heir in 1884, Brunswick was governed first by a ministerial council and then by foreign regents. Albrecht of Prussia served until 1906, followed by Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg from 1907 to 1913. Duke Ernst August III entered the palace in 1913 after the Welf and Hohenzollern houses were reconciled.
The palace remained the seat of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg until 8 November 1918. On that date, during the November Revolution, the German upheaval that ended the monarchy and led to republican government, Ernst August was forced to abdicate. The building became the headquarters of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council headed by August Merges. Former ducal furnishings were sold or transferred between 1919 and 1922, and some items were stolen while the council occupied the palace.
The first palace museum was established on 7 March 1920 to preserve valuable furnishings from the former ducal rule. After a 1925 settlement with the former ducal house, valuable furniture and almost all paintings were transferred in 1926 to Richmond Palace and Blankenburg Palace, entering Welf ownership.
Changing uses and wartime damage
During the interwar period, the palace housed a museum, the Little House of the Brunswick State Theatre, the Natural History Museum, institutes of the Technical University of Brunswick, a modern-art gallery, parts of the public library, and the state tax office. National Socialist organisations held marches in front of the building in 1931. After administrative functions were removed and the interior was remodelled, an SS Junker School opened there on 29 June 1935 for the military and ideological training of future SS officers.
Allied bombing during the Second World War heavily damaged the palace. After the war, the ruins were enclosed by a fence but were not protected from the weather. In 1955, Lower Saxony transferred them to the City of Brunswick on the condition that they be repaired within five years or demolished.
Demolition, park, and reconstruction
Public support for rebuilding led to proposals for a civic hall with cinemas and restaurants, but the city council voted for demolition on 21 December 1959. Demolition began on 18 March 1960 and ended by the close of July, despite protests from citizens, preservationists, professional organisations, scholars, and public figures. Contemporary structural assessments had concluded that the ruins could be rebuilt and that about two-thirds of the building fabric could be recovered.
A public park was created on the former palace and garden grounds and opened in 1963. The remaining coach house was removed in 1967. The park was enlarged in 1973 and 1974 to nearly four hectares, while its later form was altered by an underground garage and the Georg-Eckert-Straße road breakthrough in 1976.
On 5 July 2004, the city council approved the sale of the approximately 25,000-square-metre site to ECE Projektmanagement for a shopping centre combined with a palace reconstruction. The proposal renewed opposition because it replaced the park and was criticised as an unsuitable commercial use of a reconstructed historic facade.
Construction of the third palace began with a groundbreaking ceremony on 13 July 2005, followed by a foundation-stone ceremony on 2 November. The building reached its topping-out ceremony on 27 June 2006, and the portico and western facade were inaugurated on 26 August that year. The Schloss-Arkaden shopping centre opened on 29 March 2007, and the reconstructed palace and cultural facilities were handed over to the public on 6 May 2007.
The reconstruction stands on the historic site but was shifted several metres north so that one corner would not stand too close to Georg-Eckert-Straße. It combines the palace facade with the Schloss-Arkaden shopping centre and a modern commercial building extending northward. The city uses 80 percent of the reconstructed palace ground-plan area for cultural purposes, including the city library and palace museum. The reconstruction received the Peter Joseph Krahe Prize for Architecture in 2009.
The palace museum opened to the public in 2011 in the left side wing. Its ten rooms contain original furnishings from the former residence and reflect court apartments associated with Duke Wilhelm’s period between 1840 and 1870. The museum is operated by the Foundation of Brunswick Residence Palace, established in 2010. The equestrian statues, damaged during the war and repeatedly restored, were moved to Löwenwall in the early 1970s and returned to the palace forecourt on 3 July 2007.
Remains
Brunswick Palace now preserves a reconstructed west-facing, three-wing classical composition integrated with a modern commercial complex. The facade is 116 metres wide and 20.9 metres high, with a raised central section. Each side wing is 60 metres long. The reconstruction retains the three-wing arrangement and the principal exterior elevations, while the former rear elevation and its characteristic rotunda were not recreated.
The palace structure
Courtyard and wings
The first palace grew from the former monastic and commercial complex along Bohlweg. Its buildings extended through several courtyards into the depth of the plot. Inner side wings formed a U-shaped court of honour, while outer wings widened trapezoidally toward the exterior. The side wings were approximately 100 metres long, and the head building containing the state rooms was about 50 metres long. The first palace opened toward the city through its outer wings and ended directly at Bohlweg.
The side-wing facades of the first palace used half-timbering, a construction method associated with Hermann Korb’s work. The later central facade, built between 1783 and 1791, was probably made from Hils sandstone, also called Lutter sandstone, quarried in the area around Lutter am Barenberge. The first central block had two storeys and a mezzanine, with flattened-arch arcades on the ground floor.
Ottmer’s facade and entrance elements
Ottmer’s replacement palace was a three-wing classical building facing west. Its reconstructed scheme has five principal facades. The portico, a columned entrance porch, forms the principal entrance to the shopping centre, while the projecting corner sections, known as risalits, lead to the cultural centre. The palace and shopping centre are joined on the eastern sides of the palace wings by short transition facades. Two narrow suggested eastern facades were added at the junction to emphasise the palace’s independent appearance.
The reconstruction used about 60 plans from Ottmer’s architectural office dating from 1833 to 1835, together with historical photographs and illustrated palace postcards. The facade was built as a self-supporting structure in front of a core, as in the 19th-century building. The modern core is concrete rather than brick, and stainless-steel anchors replace the earlier iron anchors.
Salvaged and new stone
About 650 salvaged stones recovered from different locations in Brunswick, including private holdings, were reused according to the 1960 demolition plans. Recovered stone makes up approximately 90 percent of the central block with its portico and triumphal gate, and about half of the corner risalits. Damaged pieces that could not be reused were stored at Querum.
New ashlar elements were made mainly from Reinhardtsdorf sandstone from Saxony, with some Hohenzollernpark sandstone from Poland. The portico and corner risalits consist largely of original elements from Ottmer’s palace.
Commercial and cultural interior
The reconstructed palace retains the historic three-wing outline while incorporating commercial space into its body. The shopping centre occupies the covered courtyard and part of the ground floor, and a three-sided retail zone projects halfway into the palace structure. The original courtyard dimensions and the interlocking volumes of palace and shopping centre remain perceptible above the courtyard’s glass roof.
The complex contains 16,500 square metres of usable space, including 13,300 square metres used by the city for cultural purposes. Retail and food-service areas occupy the vestibule, the covered former courtyard, and the modern rear extension. The palace contains the city library, palace museum, city archive, and the city’s cultural department. The Red Hall in the north wing is used for regular cultural events.
Quadriga and statues
The Brunswick Quadriga stands above the central risalit. A quadriga is a four-horse chariot group used as an architectural crown or triumphal monument. This group represents Brunonia, the female personification and patroness of Brunswick and its state, and follows Carl Theodor Ottmer’s design.
The first quadriga, 9.8 metres high, was made by sculptor Ernst Rietschel and Brunswick bronze caster Georg Howaldt. It stood above the palace from 1855 until it was destroyed in the fire of 23 February 1865. A second quadriga, 8.3 metres high, occupied the roof from autumn 1868 until the beginning of the 1950s. It survived the Second World War almost undamaged but was later destroyed by thieves seeking non-ferrous metal. Its iron skeletal frames were scrapped during the 1960 demolition.
A third quadriga was produced between 2006 and 2008 from an original one-third-scale model by Rietschel preserved in Dresden’s Albertinum. It was cast at the DBA Emil Kosicki foundry in Komorniki near Poznan, measures 9.5 metres in height, and was unveiled on 23 October 2008. With the quadriga in place, the palace reaches approximately 37 metres. The equestrian statues in front of the building depict Dukes Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand and Friedrich Wilhelm and date from 1869 to 1874.
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