School
CastleWieck
Wieck Castle
Wieck Castle is a former manor house in the Wieck district of the town of Gützkow in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district. Already used as a school before the Second World War, it is now part of the Gützkow Castle Gymnasium.
Franz Heinrich Erich I von Lepel had a new manor house built in Wieck near Gützkow between 1793 and 1797 on the site of a previous building. From 1845 to 1859, Franz Heinrich Erich II von Lepel (1803–1877) and his wife Mathilde, daughter of Johann Christoph Rodbertus, had the building modernized and rebuilt with the significant involvement of the architect Richard Lucae. The park located south and east of the manor house was redesigned into an English landscape park in 1859, and a burial chapel was erected in the southern part of the park.
In the second half, the writer Bernhard von Lepel, who married his cousin Hedwig von Lepel (1827–1893) here in 1847, frequently stayed in Wieck. From here, he corresponded with Theodor Fontane and repeatedly met with Karl Rodbertus. Pastor Magnus Böttger, who worked for the "Association of Friends of the Inner Mission in New Pomerania and Rügen," repeatedly led church gatherings at Wieck Castle.
Between 1910 and 1912, the manor house was rebuilt and refitted internally by the architect Emilie Winkelmann. After Wilo von Lepel (1896–1968) had to file for bankruptcy for the estate in 1931, the town of Gützkow acquired the manor house with the park. A school was established, for which conversion work took place in 1932. In the following decades, repeated alterations took place, during which the majority of the decorative elements were removed. An old people's home was built on the southern edge of the landscape park. In 1972, the building's use as a school initially ended, and it then served as a cultural center and apprentice dormitory for the Gützkow branch of VEB Reparaturwerk Neubrandenburg until 1990.
The town received the house back in 1991 and had a gymnasium established here. For this purpose, further school buildings were erected west of the manor house. The park, which had been a protected monument since 1984, and the burial chapel of the von Lepel family were also renovated. Some of the 19th-century farm buildings were demolished after 2000 to make way for the construction of a discount market.
Layout+
Heinrich Berghaus described the manor house around 1868 as a two-story, sixteen-axis plastered building on a high basement on the park side. The north and south gables are designed as transverse buildings with hip roofs and probably date from the mid-19th century. The previously existing battlements, turrets, window surrounds, and other decorations were largely removed in the 20th century. In the middle of the park side is a three-axis central risalit with a triangular gable. In front of it, a balcony-like projection supported by columns and a grand staircase, attributed to Emilie Winkelmann, are preserved.
Wieck Castle stands on the western valley edge of the Swinow stream. On the grounds sloping eastward towards the watercourse is the English-style landscape park with a pond. Various sculptures have been placed in the park since the 1990s.
Of the farm buildings erected north and west of the manor house between 1825 and 1860 and from 1880 to 1900, two are still partially preserved.
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Source: Wikipedia · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
This description draws on the facts documented in the linked Wikipedia article; Wikipedia content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wording and editing: Mobile History.
Location: 53.9410, 13.4031