Residential and Administrative Building

6 Templiner Strasse

This 1913 neo-baroque building was erected by Dietlof Graf von Arnim, whose objective was to provide apartments (on the upper floor and side wing) for the castle’s senior employees, as well as offices for the Count’s forestry administration. Previously located here were the  ‘bleaching grounds’ for the nearby washhouse of the castle.

The left wing of the building was reserved for long-time forester Curt Schmidt and Walter Schwebke, the chief accountant of the Count’s forestry operation.The right wing was rented to master fisherman Erich Mangelsdorf. The upper floor was occupied by several employees of the forestry administration and the attic by a rotation of eleven* interns and service personnel. On the first floor were the offices of the forestry service and the cashier.

Shortly before the invasion of the Red Army in 1945, the inhabitants of the house set off on a “journey” towards the West. Only the fisherman Mangelsdorf remained in his apartment. In the first years following the war, many refugees and displaced persons found housing in the building.

 

From 1949, the building was assigned to the newly founded state police school, which took up residence at Boitzenburg Castle. After a fire in the castle on December 12, 1949, and subsequent clean-up and rebuilding, the construction management moved into the corner building. The police school in Boitzenburg closed four years later.

From January 18, 1956 onwards, ownership of the house transferred to the NVA recreation home Boitzenburg. Administrative offices were again set up on the ground floor, and the head of the home, Major Herrmann Löffler, later moved to the upper floor, and the service personnel to the attic. The last vacation occupancy took place on New Year’s 1989, after which the house was vacated by the Bundeswehr and has stood vacant ever since.

In May 1991, Boitzenburg Castle and the administration building became an asset of the Treuhand Immobiliengesellschaft (TLG) of the Federal Republic of Germany, until a new owner was found seven years later in 1998. Work is currently underway to find new subsidies and possible uses for the property.