Schloss Dwasieden: A Nineteenth-Century Palace Estate in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- German
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page8 sections
History
Schloss Dwasieden is a former palace estate in Germany, immediately southwest of Sassnitz, built between 1873 and 1877 for Adolph von Hansemann. Designed by Friedrich Hitzig, a pupil of the Prussian architect Friedrich Schinkel, it followed Bäderarchitektur, a resort-oriented style associated with nineteenth-century Baltic seaside towns. The estate belonged to a larger manor complex on the Jasmund peninsula and reflected Hansemann’s wealth and position as the leading proprietor of the Disconto-Gesellschaft, a major Berlin banking institution, during the Bismarck era.
The Hansemann Estate
The property formed part of the purchased Lancken manor complex, which included Dargast and Drodevitz and covered 883 hectares. Chief inspector Paul Beyrich administered the estate. In 1914, a further 201 hectares of the Mukran estate were held in partnership with Baron Oscar von der Lancken-Wakenitz.
Building the palace and laying out its 102-hectare park cost four million marks. When completed, the park was described as one of the finest in northern Germany. The palace also received distinguished guests, including the imperial family in June 1895. After Adolph von Hansemann died, his widow, Ottilie von Hansemann, née von Kusserow, managed the estate’s affairs while maintaining her principal residence in Berlin-Tiergarten.
Municipal and Naval Use
Hansemann’s grandson and heir, Gert von Oertzen, sold Schloss Dwasieden to the municipality of Sassnitz in early July 1934. The Kriegsmarine, the German navy during the National Socialist period from 1935 to 1945, took control of the property in 1935. It incorporated the complex into a naval artillery school, including a range-finding school that trained personnel to determine the distance to targets for ship guns. During the Second World War, a detachment of a naval personnel regiment was also accommodated there.
In 1948, the palace was destroyed by blasting under SMAD Order No. 209. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany issued this order in connection with postwar land reform and the removal or destruction of many former aristocratic residences. The complex’s previous military function provided an additional reason for its destruction.
Unrealized Redevelopment
After German reunification, a plan announced in 1993 proposed a spa district centered on the historic palace. It envisaged a faithful reconstruction of the facade and the integration of the building into a modern spa and hotel, but the scheme was not carried out.
Plans announced in 2007 instead proposed a 3,000-bed spa city incorporating the surviving remains. They did not provide for an exact reconstruction, but envisaged castle-like towers about 50 metres high. Associated with Danish investors Axel W. Lodberg and Steffen Flensborg, the project involved a proposed investment of up to 300 million euros and also failed.
Dolphin Capital acquired Schloss Dwasieden in 2018 for 18 million euros using funds from foreign investors and pledged the property as collateral. The company filed for insolvency in July 2020, with land charges of 117 million euros registered against the property. An insolvency administrator commissioned the marketing of the real estate in April 2021, and the property was sold to a buyer from the real-estate sector in July 2022.
Remains
Palace Ruins and Park
The ruins stand on a hill above the Baltic Sea, immediately southwest of Sassnitz town harbour. The palace avenue branches from the road between Sassnitz and Mukran. The original building was square and two storeys high, with colonnades along its sides ending in open, temple-like pavilions. Two corner observation towers rose above the building and had projecting, pillar-like strips of wall.
The palace’s Bäderarchitektur combined the formal appearance of a resort residence with colonnades, towers, and decorative historicist elements. Its facades used French sandstone, Swedish granite, and genuine marble. The palace park covered 102 hectares and was carefully maintained; a bridge also survives among the associated park features.
Surviving Buildings
Blasting in 1948 left only ruinous remains of the pavilions from the main palace. The former stable building, known as the Marstall, also survives. It burned out in 1997, and the present physical remains therefore consist of the pavilion ruins and the burned-out stable building rather than the original palace.
Interior Ausstattung
The palace contained numerous salons, boudoirs, music rooms, library rooms, and reception rooms. Their furnishings included richly decorated furniture, original oil paintings of landscapes, genre scenes, and animals, painted ceilings, Venetian mirrors, removable chandeliers, ebony carvings, antique white-marble fireplaces, carpets from the Schmiedeberg industry, and other rare works of art.
