A house full of history and stories.
The entire ensemble of the Bärenklau Castle monument was designed by the renowned Berlin architects Alfred Breslauer & Paul Salinger around 1928 and built under their aegis on behalf of the Guben cloth manufacturer Ernst C. Lehmann-Bärenklau in the following years. In the midst of the economic crisis at the end of the Weimar Republic, a country house with around 4,000 square meters of living space was built.
On the trail of the genius loci.
On May 3, 1926, retired Captain Ernst C. Lehmann, who was then living at Beißsch Castle, bought the Bärenklau estate for 450,000 Reichsmarks. For comparison: in 1926, the average gross annual income was 1,640 Reichsmarks. The land of Gut Bärenklau was then 703 hectares (2814 acres) in size and had an eventful history and tradition dating back to the 13th century. The day after the purchase, the estate was put into regular agricultural management, and Lehmann, owner of the most important Guben cloth factory, Carl Lehmann's widow and son, had a country estate built in Bärenklau between 1928 and 1930 and took up permanent residence there. After his death in 1940, his only son Peter became the owner of Bärenklau.
The architect Alfred Breslauer. Representative of traditional modernism.
Alfred Breslauer, born in Berlin in 1866 and a student of Alfred Messel, shaped the architecture of the empire with historical styles. In 1901, he founded an architectural office together with Paul Salinger. After the First World War, they concentrated on exclusive villas such as Bärenklau Castle. After the Nazis came to power, they were persecuted because of their Jewish origins. Breslauer fled to Switzerland in 1939, while Salinger was murdered in 1942. A commemorative plaque on the castle commemorates their fate.
Magnificent rooms.
Alfred Breslauer and Paul Salinger designed not only the architecture but also the interior of their projects, integrating private art collections and historical building materials. Bärenklau Castle, which combined modern technology and historical splendor, survived the Second World War almost unscathed. In the GDR, the opulent interior was replaced by a socialist aesthetic, but the castle retained its splendor, especially as the "Georgi Dimitroff" convalescent home.
Place of remembrance.
Ernst C. Lehmann, a manor owner born in 1880 and former Ulan, died in the war in 1940. His son Peter continued work on the family chapel designed by Breslauer, which was to ring every day in his memory. In February 1945, work was stopped when Peter fled from the approaching Red Army. After the war, the estate was expropriated and handed over to the FDGB in 1946. It opened in 1947 as the "Georgi Dimitroff" convalescent home and later as the FDGB convalescent home. In 1991, the home was closed and the castle was sold privately. Since 2021, it has been partly used privately and operated as the headquarters of Schloss Bärenklau GbR. The castle remains an important place of remembrance for the region.