Royal Theater Pavilion, Freienwalde Castle Grounds, Bad Freienwalde (Oder)

Listed building, 1790-1798, builder Bauinspektor Dornstein from Wriezen

Client: County Märkisch-Oderland, Building Management Department

Award: Heritage Building of the Month in Brandenburg, July 2010

Services:  General concepts for preservation and new programs, architectural historical research, prospection and documentation, planning and on-site supervision, consultancy for the acquisition of sponsors, 2008-2010.

Concept: The Pavilion is one of the few surviving examples of temporary wooden pavilions (so called „small structures“) of the XVIIIth century in Northern and Eastern Germany. The strategy of preservation was based on intensive historical research and prospection. The main work themes were the salvage of the building remains from 1790-1800, the reconstitution of the original external appearance. Using the historical analysis of paintings, fotos and archaelogical discoveries we were able to reproduce the glass French doors and the roof tiling.

History: Freienwalde Castle was built in 1798 by Architect David Gilly as a summer residence for Queen Friederike Luise, widow of the prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II.. The small wooden pavilion was erected 1790 as a temporary shelter for the Queen´s spa visits in Bad Freienwalde and was progressively extended and converted into a Theater Pavillion until 1798. The jewish industrialist Walther Rathenau acquired the castle grounds from the court in 1909, restored it carefully and adapted into his summer residence. Rathenau became  Foreign Minister of Germany 1922 and was murdered shortly afterwards. His family donated the grounds to the county. During Nazi era they were used as a museum and the pavillion was used by the NSDAP for cultural and political propaganda events. In 1945 the buildings were plundered and depredated by the population. Thanks to some citizens the pavillion could be salvaged and was used by the  „Soviet-German Friendship Society“ and thereafter by the local „Kulturbund“ of the GDR. From 2001 onwards the castle and castellan´s house were refurbished, and in 2005-2010 the former Royal Theater Pavillion was restored thanks to the financial support of the Hermann Reemtsma Foundation.

Initiative: Society Friends of Freienwalde Castle e.V., Castle Administration (Dr. Reinhard Schmook and Karl Friedrich Hinkelmann).

Project participants: Restoration prospections and restauration works of the painting at the north fassade: Marlies Genßler, Heritage Supervision: Angela Schneider, Local Heritage Authority, Dr. Georg Frank, Stefanie Wagner and Hans Burger, Heritage Authority and Archaeological Museum of Brandenburg, Site management and costs controll: Ibs, Ingenieurbüro für Baustatik und Sanierungsplanung, Wood survey: Dipl. Ing. F. Janke, Electrotechnical planning: Ingenieurbüro Schure & Menzel GmbH, other Installations planning: Joachim Knorr, Ingenieurbüro für Haustechnik.

Team NM: Annika Lindberg, Dulcinea dos Anjos Gomes, Johannes Bausch

www.schloss-freienwalde.de

Additional Information
Anna Teut,  "Bürgerlich Königlich: Walther Rathenau und Freienwalde", Transit Verlag, 2017 
Travellin Exhibition „David Gilly - Ein Preußischer Landbaumeister“, by Anna Teut , Catalouge and Exhibition-System  NM-Architekten
"Schloss Freienwalde - Kleinod altpreußischer Landbaukunst", NM withReinhard Schmook, articel in "Restaurator im Handwerk", 12/2018