Friedrichstein Palace
The palace was located in Löwenhagen, twenty kilometres east of Königsberg, nowadays Kaliningrad, in the valley of the Pregolya river.
On 2 September 1666, Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, approves that count Friedrich von Dönhoff (1639–1696) acquires the estate.
Friedrich will be succeeded by his eldest son, Otto Magnus von Dönhoff (1665–1717), who will become a lieutenant general and diplomat for the Prussian king, Frederick I of Prussia (1657–1713).
There was talk of the guilt of "fiery spirits" believed in by the inhabitants of East Prussia, but it is assumed that the cause was set on fire by neighbours who felt hostility towards the ‘haughty aristocracy’.
In the middle of the 19th century, August Heinrich Hermann von Dönhoff (1797–1874), a diplomat and foreign minister of Prussia, lived at Friedrichstein.
He was succeeded by his son, August von Dönhoff (1845–1920), a diplomat and member of the Prussian House of Lords and German Reichstag.
In 1896, he married the 24 years younger Maria von Lepel (1869–1940), lady in waiting to the Queen of Prussia and German Empress, Augusta Victoria (1858–1921), wife of Wilhelm II (1859–1941).
Within the palace, he amassed an impressive array of valuable musical instruments, ornamental weaponry, exquisite carpets, and more.
He modernized the estate management according the latest standards, the palace was renovated in the 1930s, and the park was restored to its former baroque structures.
August Karl and Maria von Dönhoff had eight children, who – as young people – took different positions towards Nazism, the problems of World War II and its consequences, i.e. the decisions of the Potsdam Conference of the Big Three.
The daughter, Marion Dönhoff (1909–2002), joined the resistance movement, which led to questioning by the Gestapo after a failed assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944.
Although many of her fellow resistance activists were executed, she was released reportedly because her name was not found in any of the documents seized by the Nazis.
[2] In January 1945, as Soviet troops rolled into the region, Dönhoff fled East Prussia, travelling seven weeks on horseback before reaching Hamburg.
They made special efforts to destroy "fascist Venus and stags" (statues and bas-reliefs were blown up with dynamite).
In 1944, Marion had it transported (with the consent of the Königsberg authorities) to Friedrichstein to protect it from the expected Allied bombings on the city.
When in 1989, Marion Dönhoff visited the constantly remembered and loved place of her birth, she found only traces of foundations (some farm buildings have been preserved).
[1] An expansive view was provided from the windows of both longer walls; from the garden side – to an elongated pond (probably the Pregoła oxbow lake).
Friedrichstein housed a valuable series of tapestries dating back to around 1630, depicting scenes from the life of Alexander the Great, designed by Jacob Jordaens.
