February 2008
Schloss Suresnes
a castle with many names and a seesaw past
On February 2, Reinhard Marx will assume office as archbishop of Munich and Freising, succeeding Cardinal Wetter and Cardinal Ratzinger (better known as Pope Benedict XVI these days). Unlike his predecessors, Marx will not move to the traditional archbishop’s residence at Kardinal-Faulhaber-Strasse. Renovation work has required that Marx’s first domicile will be a little further north in the heart of Schwabing. Framed by Werneckstrasse, Mandlstrasse, and Seestrasse Marx will occupy three floors of Schloss Suresnes—a petite château that looks back upon 300 years of fluctuating history.
Schloss Suresnes was built at a time when Schwabing was still a self-governed village on the outskirts of Munich. In 1715, Elector Max Emanuel returned to resume office from ten years of French exile during the War of the Spanish Succession. Eager to manifest his regained political relevance, Max Emanuel commissioned the construction of numerous properties. Within a few years, he built a hunting lodge in Fürstenried, the Pagodenburg and Badenburg in Schloss Nymphenburg park, and finished work on Schloss Schleissheim, which Max Emanuel had abandoned upon his flight to France.
It was within this atmosphere of fast-paced building activity that Max Emanuel’s secretary of the Cabinet, Franz Xaver Ignaz von Wilhelm, came up with an ambitious plan to build a residence of his own. The project would serve his ambitions of leading the lifestyle of upper nobility, and he had no trouble finding a name: Just as Wilhelm’s ruler had remodeled Schloss Nymphenburg after Versaille, he modeled Schloss Suresnes on Château Suresnes. There, west of Paris, Max Emanuel and his secretary had lodged during their exile.
The identity of the castle’s architect is as uncertain as the actual time of construction. The historical record only offers that Suresnes became Wilhelm’s official residence in May 1718. With Schloss Suresnes, Wilhelm had created an illustrious façade for his feudal lifestyle, the fragility of which did not become apparent until the parvenu’s death in 1741. Wilhelm’s widow had to deal with the financial disaster her husband had left behind. For fifteen years, she fought against creditors and urges to sell her home until she finally capitulated.
Since then, the proprietors of Suresnes have changed 28 times within the last 250 years. Each ownership lasted only an average of eight years. The owners’ names also give evidence of the dramatic social change during those times. After a row of aristocrats had called Suresnes their home, the castle fell into the hands of merchants and manufacturers in the early 19th century. As much as their social status may have differed, most occupants had one thing in common: They all were overburdened by Suresnes’s running expenses. Ferdinand von Dollinger was the first to counter the problem with a business idea. He divided his estate and built a public bath, a pub, a ballroom, and a bowling alley. Objectors accused Dollinger of selling overpriced beer and investing purely for profit. Indeed, Dollinger soon sold the recreational facilities. To rid himself of the remaining section and the château itself, he chose a rather unusual proceeding. With official approval, Dollinger organized a lottery. Of 30,000 tickets, 16,378 were sold, and the jackpot went to Lieutenant Johann Dillmann. Yet, the “lucky winner” wrote a desperate letter to King Max I. Joseph in December 1822 asking for help to sell his gained property. Instead of wealth Dillmann had just won expenses and repair costs, which almost caused his financial ruin.
In the following years, Schloss Suresnes changed hands and names almost every year. Creations ranged from Surenne, Sourain, and Syrenen, to Seraphinenschlössl. To avoid the French pronunciation, Schwabinger started calling Schloss Suresnes “Werneckschlössl”—a synonym that has lasted until today. For a while, the baroque castle was also known as Steinheilschlössl in honor of temporary landlord Carl August von Steinheil, a professor of mathematics and physics and a European celebrity as a scientific researcher. Mirroring the upcoming technological and industrial era, Steinheil built an observatory on Suresnes’s estate. After Steinheil sold Suresnes, the merry-go-round of bargain and sale started once again. The castle experienced a short romantic episode around 1880, when a bacchanalian circle of young artists—bestselling Munich author Ludwig Ganghofer among them—held their meetings here. Then years of dramatic changes ensued. Schwabing lost its autonomy and was incorporated into Munich, and the industrial era steamed into full bloom, followed by the eruption of World War I. By 1919, Schloss Suresnes was a ruined palace: deteriorating from roof to cellar, surrounded by a shabby park. Apparently, it was just this atmosphere of decay that prompted painter Paul Klee to rent one of Suresnes’s ample rooms as his studio. It might also interest future resident archbishop Marx—who of course has to live with frequent allusions to his famous communist namesake—that the persecuted red revolutionary Ernst Toller went into hiding next to Klee’s studio. After just three weeks, however, the police found him behind a door concealed by pictures.
Suresnes lived through more ups and downs. Just after the palace was renovated and extended with a side wing, World War II bombs damaged large parts of the building. After the end of the war, Schloss Suresnes was taken over by the Catholic Church and has been under the institution’s custody since then. But it was only in the 1960s, after all rights of ownership were resolved, that the Bavarian Catholic Academy started extensive reconstruction work. Since then, the Werneckschlössl’s shaky existence has finally stabilized. The château has been host to numerous Catholic conferences, has opened up for the public on the occasion of many classical concerts, and houses an extraordinary theological library, which will surely be a great delight to Schloss Suresnes’s new resident. Unfortunately, during Archbishop Marx’s stay no public events or guided tours will be offered. <<<
