Hundisburg Castle

Originally stood on the site of another medieval castle, acquired the castle with the villages belonging to it, Archbishop of Magdeburg Ludolph between 1196 and 1205 for the bishopric. In 1452, Hundesburg came into the possession of the Alvensleben family. It developed in the 16th century until the castle in the Renaissance style. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was destroyed, first restored in the usual style. In 1693, the castle and garden were removed and reconstructed in the Baroque style thanks to the Braunschweig master of agriculture German Korb, who returned to the projects of his predecessor Johann Baltazar Lauterbach. They discovered the splendor of gardens and meadows to match the princely residences. Owing to the economic loss of the Alvensleben family, a change of ownership followed: Entrepreneur Johann Gottlob Natusius bought a plot of land with a castle and integrated it into the Altaldensleben- Hundisburg region. Since 1831, the castle was owned by his son German Engelhard Natusius , who was once a well-known agronomist and zoologist. The last owner of the castle was Gotlob Carl von Natusius . After the end of World War II, the castle served as a barracks for Soviet soldiers. They caused a fire, from which the largest part of the main building fell victim.

Origin and archaeological information

The Hundisburg Castle Hill is a significantly expressed “territory spur”, which is formed by the meeting of two valleys. Archaeological finds indicate settlement already in the Neolithic era. The mountain was thus already at an early stage strengthened. The structural origin of the castle takes from the beginning of the 12th century, on an almost round plane at the top of the “spur” built the castle of Hunolddesburg. From this time, most of the surrounding wall and the main tower of the fortress survived. Three more stone buildings can be seen along the inner side of the circumferential wall, clearly visible in the southern part of the castle barn. Until now, the internal structure of the courtyard, as well as the location of the medieval castle chapel, clearly could not figure out. The castle was probably divided by a foundation pit in the area of ​​the later Upper decorative park of the castle's pre-settlement, which was found when the Baroque garden was built in 1704 on the castle hill in the area of ​​the later Upper decorative park.

Functions and Demolition in the 16th Century

The castle was in sovereign possession and served the archbishopric of Magdeburg for the territorial protection and control of the old military road. The sieges took place in 1213 from Emperor Otto IV, in 1278 by Duke Albert I of Braunschweig, and in 1319 by Prince Henry von Mecklenburg ended in both last cases with the capture of the castle. Part of the castle was handed over to bishop inspectors. In 1361, the Hundisburg castle became hereditary, passed to the Alwerich brothers and to Ludwig Wanzleben, in 1452 in the Alvensleben family, Ludolf X began to develop the castle in several building stages before the Renaissance castle.

In 1544, the “Old Castle”, north of the fortress, was adjacent to the main tower of the fortress, in 1568, the concavity of the floors in the main tower of the fortress developed as a residential tower, and from 1571 the “New Work” was built on the south side of the castle courtyard. A new castle chapel was built in 1602. Later architectural studies show that the "Old Castle" consisted of at least two three-story wings of the building and joined to the north and east to the main tower of the fortress. The rooms in the main tower of the fortress have partially preserved remains of a wall color that exposes the classification of wall surfaces with columns and cornices, followed by ornamental circulation of the basement areas. The remains of the “Old Castle”, this means the exterior walls, and also the jambs of the doors there are preserved in the building element of the Baroque castle, as are the two lower floors of the “New Work” on the south side of the castle courtyard, which were integrated into a uniformly designed court building of the edge of 18 century. Also, in the case of the castle, this prevents the multicomponent molding of the entire complex in the Baroque and opens up a complete picture of the view of the Renaissance castle. The presence and position of the old castle gardens, however, is of course known. A decorative park and a vegetable garden lay between the castle mountain, an old decorative park instead of a later backyard and a vegetable garden to the west from there below the castle. For the old decorative park, there is a project stored in the castle’s archive to the first floor of the site, which cannot be further located.

The Thirty Years War and Consequences

The Thirty Years War brought the castle into trouble. Hundisburg suffered especially in 1630, when the castle was headquarters during the siege of Haldensleben. Only in 1654, the necessary repairs were completed with the placement of the existing Franco-Swiss hood on the main tower of the fortress. In 1691, Johann Friedrich II of the Alvensleben family inherited the castle and after 2 years began the reconstruction and construction of the palace and gardens along the Brunswick lines with the summer residence of the castle. The construction of the castle continued until 1712, the garden was completed in 1719. The executive architect was Hermann Korb, master of agriculture of the Duke Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. Planning for the reconstruction took place according to the project, already dead in 1694 by Johann Baltazar Lauterbach, who had already built the main building. Finishing work was done by Jacob Perinzitti on the orders of the Duke.

Garden

A baroque garden was created on the terrace of the castle hill, with the movement of some courtyards from the castle, the new garden has been located since its mid-18th century on its construction. The garden was richly decorated, a statue, a labyrinth and a garden theater, grottoes, fountains and an extensive collection of exotic plants, a castle with a magnificent garden was unique to this region. The master gardener was trained to work in the new garden. The architectural structure of the garden has undergone major changes over the past three centuries, more than the castle building. After the initial construction, the garden was redone in 1811 by Johann Gottlieb Natusius. The garden became the core through which the old city of Haldensleben and Hundiburg were connected by a network of landscape parks and where 19th century style was felt everywhere. Nevertheless, powerful substructures, systems and, consequently, an earthen unit and avenues remained with the main components of the old garden.

After 1945, the garden was completely abandoned. At the base of the upper walking gardens was a football field. Since the initial appearance of the garden, and its history, was well researched and documented, measures for the reconstruction of the castle and garden were taken only in 1991. In addition, after a time, the castle was already abandoned, the main building of the castle was burned in 1945, but was reconstructed along with the north tower in its original form. Today, the castle and baroque garden belong to the Saxony-Anhalt network of gardens.

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  Park Avenue 2010

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  View from the castle, 1st floor, summer 2010

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  View from the castle, 2010

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  View from the castle, 2009

Recovery

In the 1960s, an attempt at reconstruction was unsuccessful. Castle buildings and auxiliary facilities were used by the farm and belonged to state property, until 1991. In 1994, the Haldensleben City Administration acquired a castle and garden, with a 100-acre landscape park, which is also a historical cultural monument. Unlike the baroque castle garden, the park was created in the style of the English landscape garden. The main design element is a series of parallel-mounted, groups of trees separated by meadow space, which are connected by lines of view. From the moment of acquiring the Castle and the park complex in the city, this will restore the general practice of conservation. In 2011 and 2012, the brewery was restored, where they again began to brew beer in a historic place.

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  Castle ruins circa 1980

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  Ruined brewery of Mittelbau Castle, former staircase, circa 1980

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  Partially restored castle, facade in 2005

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  Mittelbau summer 2010

• Udo von Alvensleben: Die braunschweigischen Schlösser des Barock und ihr Baumeister Korb. Braunschweig 1937.
• Udo von Alvensleben-Wittenmoor: Alvenslebensche Burgen und Landsitze. Dortmund 1960.
• Harald Blanke: Schloß und Barockgarten zu Hundisburg 1693-1993. In: Burgen und Schlösser in Sachsen-Anhalt. Heft 3, Halle 1994.
• Marie-Luise Harksen: Die Kunstdenkmale des Kreises Haldensleben. Leipzig 1961.
• Wolfgang Kelsch: Hermann Korb, Barockbaumeister am Wolfenbütteler Fürstenhof. Braunschweig 1985.
• Edzard Rust: Das barocke Schloss in Hundisburg. In: Burgen und Schlösser in Sachsen-Anhalt. Heft 5, Halle 1996.
• Busso von Alvensleben: Hundisburg. Schriftenreihe Schlösser und Gärten in Sachsen-Anhalt. Herausgeber: Deutsche Gesellschaft in Sachsen-Anhalt e. V. Döbbelin 2011.

• Commons: Schloss Hundisburg - Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien (German)
• Offizielle Website des Schlosses (German )
• Offizielle Website des Internationalen Clavierfestivals auf Schloß Hundisburg (German)
• Schloss Hundisburg auf der Webseite der Familie v. Alvensleben (German)