Schönfeld Castle (Kassel)

Schönfeld Palace in Kassel was built in 1777 as a private summer residence. Its numerous owners

included the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, the Kingdom of Prussia, the city of Kassel, and several private individuals. Today, it is owned by the Schloss Schönfeld e. V. association. The palace is located at Bosestraße 13 in the Wehlheiden district of Kassel, on the Lengberg, in the Schönfeld Park named after it.

Schönfeld Palace was built in 1777 by Nikolaus Heinrich von Schönfeld as a summer residence. In 1790, Landgrave Wilhelm IX took it over. In 1793, Andries Hendrik Thorbecke bought the palace with the plan to establish a tobacco factory there. However, he did not receive permission for the necessary extensions.

By 1806, Schönfeld Palace changed hands twice more, until it finally became a meeting point for some of the most important Romantics under its new owner, the Frankfurt banker Carl Jordans ("Jordis"), who had married Maria Ludovica Katharina Brentano, known as Lulu, in the same year. Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim, and the Brothers Grimm met at the palace.

In 1807, after the Napoleonic conquests, the Kingdom of Westphalia with its capital Kassel had been created. In 1809, Jordis was forced to sell the palace to King Jérôme. He had it further expanded by the renowned architect Leo von Klenze and celebrated lavish parties there.

With the end of the Kingdom of Westphalia and the restitution of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, Schönfeld Palace returned to the possession of Landgrave Wilhelm, who had been Elector Wilhelm I since 1803. His son Wilhelm II gifted the palace to his wife Auguste in 1841, with whom he was estranged and had lived in formal separation since 1815. She had already lived here before and gathered around her the Schönfeld Circle, which was close to Romanticism and opposed her husband. Under Auguste, another construction phase took place under the direction of court architect Johann Conrad Bromeis. The central pavilion and the connecting wing were built. When Auguste died in 1841, her daughter Caroline took over the palace. During her time as owner, both the palace and the park fell into disrepair.

After Hesse became Prussian, Count von Kalkreuth lived in the palace between 1866 and 1879. In 1880, Prussia gifted the complex to the collateral line of the House of Hesse, Hesse-Philippsthal. It was inhabited by Prince Karl until 1888. Afterwards, it stood empty until it was leased in 1891 by Karl Kreibe, who established a zoo around the palace, which, however, only existed for a short time.

In 1906, the city of Kassel acquired the palace, renovated the buildings, and made the park accessible to the public. A garden restaurant, a shooting lodge, and a music stage were built by the city garden director Karl Justus Engels. During the First World War, the palace served as a military hospital and a military prison. After the war, a restaurant and a garden inn were again housed in the palace. Extensive renovation work took place in 1933.

During the Second World War, in the major air raid on Kassel on the night of October 22nd to 23rd, 1943, the west wing was destroyed and the central wing damaged by aerial bombs. Some reconstruction work only took place in 1965. In 1985, a restaurant was again opened in Schönfeld Palace.

In 1989, the Schloss Schönfeld e. V. association took over the buildings from the city of Kassel, and the palace was fundamentally renovated through private initiative until 1992. Today, the "Restaurant Park Schönfeld" and the association's club are located in the palace.