Jagdschloss Grunewald

At the beginning of the 16th century Elector Joachim II Hector began building hunting lodges in the Margraviate of Brandenburg in the wooded and wild area around Alt-Berlin and Cölln.

A riding path connected the Residenz Cölln with the hunting area in the Teltower Heide, from 1792 Spandauer Forst, today's Grunewald.

A section of the path, the street Unter den Linden, led from the city palace to the west into the electoral zoo, which was established in 1527.

From there the riding path, which was laid out as a Knüppeldamm (Truncheon Dam) due to the swampy terrain, continued in a southwesterly direction, today's Budapester Straße and Kurfürstendamm.

The fortified castles, formerly built to secure the sphere of influence according to economic and strategic aspects, which served both as a defensive structure and as an administrative and residential residence, offered hardly any protection due to the further development of small arms and cannons and thus lost more and more of their importance.

In addition, the territorial claim to sovereignty of the sovereigns, such as that of the Elector of Brandenburg, whose greatest internal opponent was the landed gentry, had been consolidated.

Influenced by the Renaissance castles of Chambord and Blois of the French King Franz I., a lively building activity developed at the European princely courts.

The architectural style of the Renaissance, which had its origins in Italy, was mainly applied decoratively in northern Europe, with the building retaining the traditional local house form.

With the construction of magnificent castles and representative town houses in the cities, as well as municipal buildings, the wealth and understanding of art could be presented to the public.

[4] Although Renaissance architecture largely dispensed with defensive structures, the entire complex and the embrasures in the entrance area still reveal the fortified house.

However, the moat, the wall, which was probably equipped with battlements and loopholes, and the later added corner wings, which remind one of fortified towers, were only of aesthetic importance.

The today uniformly three-storey building originally consisted of a two-storey main house with the three-storey tower-like corner wings facing the lake, an octagonal staircase tower at the front, a so-called staircase tower and another in the connection between the main house and the western corner wing.

The gables of the house roof, the dormer houses and the entrance building had a half concave, half convex curved outline, the so-called keel arch or donkey's back, a medieval arch form from the late Gothic period, which today only exists in Grunewald at the entrance building.

He received inspiration for the design of his buildings from his cousin, the Saxon Elector Johann Friedrich I, who had Hartenfels Castle built in Torgau in 1533 by master builder Konrad Krebs.

Due to his degree of popularity and his leading role in numerous building projects under Joachim II, it can be assumed that Theiss also designed the Grunewald hunting lodge architecturally.

Except for the corner wings, which were attached to the main building under Elector Johann Georg, no major alterations by the successors of Joachim II are known.

In 1669 he gave the order "to repair the Grünewald hunting lodge which had been destroyed and had fallen into disrepair and to have it rebuilt"[5] The recurring farm maintenance measures continued into the electoral reign of his son Frederick III.

His successor Martin Grünberg was commissioned by Frederick I, the first king to rule Prussia since 1701, to carry out major repair and modernization work, as the "Königl.

Simple stucco ceilings were installed, fireplaces and tiled stoves were built to heat the living rooms, and floors, windows and doors were renewed.

They show how much importance Joachim II attached to the hunting lodge, which was certainly representative of its time, especially since the Elector is regarded as one of the greatest promoters of art among the Hohenzollern.

These garderobe, which were attached to the outer wall of the house above the moat and could be reached from the rooms through narrow door openings, were removed during the reconstruction work in 1705.

The most elaborately designed stucco ceiling in the entire palace has oval and polygonal coffered panels and is richly decorated with shells and foliage.

For his passion for hunting he received several rebukes from his Landstände, which accused him of "always lying in the wood and waiting for the hunter",[6] however, spending little time on government business.

In order to escape the monotony of court life, the second wife of the Elector - Hedwig, daughter of the Polish King Sigismund I - and her entourage took part in the hunting pleasures.

Due to the repairs carried out under the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, the building could be used again, but he had a new hunting lodge built only a few kilometer southwest of Grunewald, near his residence Potsdam 1683 with Klein-Glienicke.

In 1788 Johann Friedrich Nagel commissioned him to create a painting with a view of the castle from the northeast and only one remaining fishing cottage at Grunewaldsee, which was also demolished around 1903.

The annual Hubertus hunt on 3 November was of particular importance; state guests took part in it, including (in 1864) the Russian Tsar Alexander II from the house of Romanov.

In January of 1891, the Kotze Affair, one of the biggest sex scandals in the German Empire under Emperor Wilhelm II, took place at the hunting lodge.

[10] As early as the mid 19th century, Berliners discovered the Grunewald and the Seenkette -- the Hundekehle-, Grunewald- and Schlachtensee as well as Krumme Lanke -- as local recreation areas.

However, fighting in the last days of the war damaged some works of art and seventeen paintings were missing after looting by members of the Soviet occupying power.