http://www.gmd.de/GMD/Schloss.en.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
Birlinghoven CastleIn the Middle Ages, the Birlinghoven seat was a two-part moated castle located in the Lauterbach valley before the mouth of the Pleisbach. Shortly after 1900, a residence was built in place of the manor house on an island. One of the two post-medieval wing structures of the gatehouse was extended in the 19th century.
The new Birlinghoven Castle was designed after the fashion of an English country mansion in the years 1900 to 1902. It was erected above the old castle in a commanding position, with a view of the Siebengebirge hills and liberally appointed with old works of art. It was built by Theodor Damian Rautenstrauch, and the plans were supplied by Cologne architect Edwin Crones.
The red clay bricks required for the construction work were imported especially from England. They were shipped up the Rhine, reloaded onto horsedrawn carts at Beuel, north of today's Kennedy Bridge, and then brought to Birlinghoven. Other material for the castle building was obtained from a stone factory of the day at Birlinghoven.
Following Theodor's early death, the property passed to his brother Eugen von Rautenstrauch, Cologne banker and sponsor of that city's Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum for Ethnology.
In 1917, the castle was bought by Privy Councillor of Commerce Dr. Louis Hagen of Cologne and extended to include a chapel, which was dedicated in 1920. In 1932, the castle passed to his daughter Elisabeth, who was married to Clemens Freiherr von Wrede at Melchede Castle, Arnsberg district.
In 1953, the premises were acquired by a health resort company in Boppard, which planned to set up a sanatorium at Birlinghoven Castle. However, in 1959 already, they were sold to Deutsche Shell AG, Hamburg. Shell erected three large new buildings for laboratories on the grounds and ran an institute for basic research there.
In December 1967, the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by Federal Minister for Scientific Research Dr. Gerhard Stoltenberg, purchased the castle and grounds from the Shell company for DM 9.5 million. The "Gesellschaft f}r Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung mbH Bonn" started operations at Birlinghoven Castle on 23 April 1968.
The Castle and the Arts
Birlinghoven Castle was endowed by its builder with numerous old works of
art, some of which can still be seen there today.
This is true of the collection of paintings in the big Central Hall (Mittelsaal). The works are hung tier upon tier in the Great Hall (Grosser Saal). Other paintings are on display in the Red Hall (Roter Saal) and elsewhere in the castle.
The curving staircase is bordered by a wrought-iron lattice railing, mid-18th century, said to be from Berlin.
The high octagonal Great Hall has two fireplaces with heavy chimney pieces in red marble, featuring angel's heads in white marble, certainly Italian work of the 17th century. Mounted behind the fireplace are two identical 17th century cast-iron plates depicting the Judgement of Paris.
In the wall niches opposite we find two figures from Late Antiquity, Minerva and Mercury, which have been extensively restored and retouched. They are from the Palazzo Giustiniani Bandini in Rome. The room adjoining on the south, the Green Hall (Grüner Saal) has a marble basin with a dolphin in white marble, 62 cm high, certainly 17th century Italian.
The Eastern room, the Red Hall, has some exquisitely carved panelling, dated 1699, presumably the back of the choir stalls from a church in the Belgian province of Limburg. Set between pilasters with ornamentally framed cartouches are angel's heads in full relief.
Importance of Castle and Collection
The castle structure is built of brick with decorative elements in hewn
stone and has Late Gothic components on the entrance side and Baroque forms
on the garden side. It has been ideally fitted into the landscape, for the
site relates to, and also accentuates the natural features.
Thus, the garden facade of the Castle, rising above a terrace, is preceded by gently sloping gardens, which are set between tree-lined walks and lead to the woods in the valley. Behind the trees we see the summit of the Mount of Olives as "point de vue". Terrace and gardens are in the Baroque tradition of 17th and 18th century palace structures. The overall composition of castle and park, employing the repertoire of various historical styles, is heightened by the scenically enhanced landscape features. Castle and park form a complete work of art typical of the late 19th century, able to stand up as an artistic solution in its own right despite the older styles "quoted" here.
The interior fixtures are entirely free of the Late Gothic forms occurring in the exterior. Inside, account is taken of the periods and styles of the precious original appointments, a trend that is characteristic of a number of new castle constructions and of conversions in the 19th century. In Birlinghoven Castle, the decor of the vestibule containing the staircase matches the style of the original Rococo railing. One feature of great charm is the integration of the large traceried window, which is the central source of light and recalls the Late Gothic forms that mark the exterior. In the Great Hall, the splendid neo-Baroque stucco ceiling relates to the original Italian 17th century fireplaces that dominate the room and to the tiers of paintings from the period between the late 16th and the 18th centuries. The result is an ensemble of astonishing artistic unity, quite unparalleled in the Rhineland and reminiscent of Italian palace architecture, recalling the Palazzo Pitti in Florence with its admittedly incomparable precious collection of select paintings and fitments. At Birlinghoven Castle, we find such an Italian ensemble excellently stage-managed.
The programme of the central Great Hall, however, also includes the adjacent rooms, the one on the East with Baroque panelling, the one on the West with a marble wall fountain and paintings.
The subsequently added castle chapel contains a delightful series of small-format cabinet panes from the 16th and early 17th centuries.
Of the works of art formerly installed in the park, only a few have survived. Represented were Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages as well as the Baroque period. What has survived includes, inter alia, a Romanesque font and a Romanesque porch lion in the area of the castle chapel.
The castle has a number of Stauffer capitals from Rhenish churches, though of unknown provenance. In addition, there are fragments of Gothic building sculptures, apparently of Cologne origin, as well as damaged marble dolphins related to the dolphin on the wall fountain in the Green Hall. Two marble reliefs with trophies and a marble tondo showing Louis XIV of France in profile are now stored separately.
Collection of Paintings
The collection of paintings is primarily of Italian and Dutch work from the
16th to the 18th century. There are also a large number of portraits. The
paintings do not appear to have any underlying theme. Alongside cycles like
those from the Heisterbacher Hof in Königswinter and the illustrated months
belonging to the work of Peter Candid and the four Italian ruin landscapes
in the Great Hall, we find mythological and Biblical representations, like
the fiddling Orpheus, probably from Genoa, 1610 to 1620, Venus and Adonis,
presumably a French copy based on Titian, as well as the representation of
Bathseba, close to Guercino, in the Red Hall, and the Massacre of the
Innocents in the Great Hall.
Among the portraits, there are a number of older and possibly also younger copies after famous representations of princes painted by well-known court artists like Joseph Vivien or Georges Demarés. The gallery of celebrities depicted centres round the temporal and spiritual princely courts of the Rhineland. We find Electoral Prince Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz (Jan Wellem) and his consort Maria Louisa of Tuscany and their relatives, alongside portraits of Electors and Archbishops of Cologne, Trier and Mainz in the 18th century. Figures from each family and members of the court concerned are also on hand. Thus, there are portraits of Cologne Electors and Archbishops Joseph Clemens and Clemens August von Bayern, Electors Max Emanuel von Bayern, Elector Karl Albrecht von Bayern, later Holy Roman emperor as Karl VII. Also worth mentioning are portraits of Johann Hugo von Orsbeck, Elector and Archbishop of Trier, Franz Lothar von Sch|nborn, Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, as well as Electors Karl Theodor von der Pfalz and his consort. Then, there is a likeness of Roman Emperor Karl Vl, father of Maria Theresia, as well as a portrait of Maximilian Franz, youngest son of Maria Theresia and the last Elector and Archbishop of Cologne. Obviously, this collection originated in a need for prestige and representation, in line with a tradition of Rhenish Baroque palaces and definitely the product of those upper middle-class ambitions that also had their impact on such castle structures.
Of the collection of paintings as a whole, it can be said that its status depends not only on the quality of individual paintings, but even more so on its composition and in particular on the way it is integrated into the castle architecture, above all in the area of the Great Hall. Here, an ensemble has survived that features valuable and not so valuable paintings which have presumably been included on account of their subject-matter. The castle and its art collection are of particular artistic merit precisely as a unity.
Restoration of Castle and Coach-House
In the 1970s and 80s GMD, in conjunction with the Rhenish Office of
Conservation, took a number of structural measures to make a contribution
toward preserving Birlinghoven Castle. The slate roof of the castle was
re-covered, the external facade jointed, the stucco ceilings in the Great
Hall and in the staircase re-hung and retouched. The Diana group was
repaired and installed in the castle park. Damage to the wrought-iron
lanterns on the castle terrace was dealt with and the castle chapel
restored.
The coach-house in the GMD grounds, which had been built along with Birlinghoven Castle and had fallen into decay during recent years, was restored between 1984 and 1986. The roof and whole sections of the walls of the former carriage and toolshed had to be torn down, however, before the coach-house could be built up again in its original style down to the last historical detail. In September 1986, the GMD canteen was opened in the renascent coach-house. The southern wing now houses the kitchen and the northern wing the dining hall. The middle tract, extended into the inner courtyard by a glass and wooden structure, contains the meal counter.