Chapter 2
The royal capital grows and Berlin’s bourgeoisie forms an elite with enormous financial resources, shaping its own salon culture. Summer residences with elaborately designed parks, formerly reserved for the nobility, become status symbols of the bourgeoisie. In the early 19th century, the estate in Wilmersdorf, with its lakeside location, is transformed into a prestigious country residence and grows steadily through additional purchases.
In 1802, Etienne Benecke acquires the estate as a summer house and venue for parties. The garden was redesigned in the style of an English landscape garden, with a greenhouse and a bowling alley. In 1819, Benecke’s widow also bought the property of her neighbor Johann Christian Peters – formerly the property of the cottager George Kotze (XII). Now the Beneckes‘ property encompassed the entire eastern end of the village meadow.
Biedermeier romanticism!
No images of the house and its furnishings from the early 19th century have survived, but written records of a “pink cabinet with Rococo table”, “mirror made of a hundred pieces” and “boiserie on the walls” give us an idea of what it looked like.
Biedermeier-style interior, Else Müller-Kaempff, around 1900, Stadtmuseum Berlin
„With […] Benekes to Pichelsdorf. Walked around the area. Went with them to Wilmersdorf for lunch. Stayed there until quarter to eleven in the evening. There was a lot of gymnastics and boating on the lake. While playing cricket, the ball hit me. Putting vinegar water on the affected area helped completely. Bowling and swinging. Playing music in the evening.“
From the diaries of Carl Knoblauch from 1840, R. Knoblauch: „175 Years of the Knoblauch House“, Zeitschrift des Vereins für die Geschichte Berlins, 1936
The owners changed frequently, but the use remained the same:
In 1826, banker and city councilor Zacharias Friebe bought the house and garden. Over the next 30 years, the gardens became a tourist attraction full of exotic plants, which were increasingly available from the colonies. From 1857 to 1868, the Friebes‘ youngest daughter, Wilhelmine Mathilde von Thielmann, lived with her family in the summer residence, which now covered more than three hectares of land with spacious water basins on the lake. Over the next 25 years, during which spirits manufacturer August Kahlbaum owned the summer residence, the transformation from village to suburb in Wilmersdorf gained significant momentum.
Image of the Victory Bench, postcard, late 19th century
In the landscaped park of the Elisenhof, as August Kahlbaum named the estate after his wife, the industrialist had a so called Victory Bench erected to commemorate the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. Emperor Wilhelm I inspected the bench in 1885; in 1905 it was moved to the Tiergarten.
Tile from a stove, early 19th century
King Frederick William III is said to have been among the Benecke family’s guests. The stove that used to be in the house, bearing his initials, crown, and guard star, may have been his gift to them. Emperor Alexander of Russia, for whom the banker Benecke is said to have arranged loans, also visited.
Communal Gallery Berlin
Baroque house
Measuring 24.77 x 9.57 meters, the new Baroque building is larger than the former half-timbered structure, but has a similar orientation and ground plan. Stylistic parallels fuel the assumption that Friedrich Wilhelm Dieterichs, who designed the Ephraim Palace and the Hesse family residence on Unter den Linden, is the architect.
Site plan of the village of Wilmersdorf before 1868
This map clearly shows the further expansion of the estate to the east and north. It is said that Cavalry Captain von Thielmann got on well with the village population and had his favorite horse buried in the park.
Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
Site plan showing the Deutsch Wilmersdorf manor, around 1840
The Deutsch Wilmersdorf manor included the village of Wilmersdorf. At the end of the 1840s, Wilmersdorf was home to 626 people and 1,000 sheep. The fresh milk from the sheep became increasingly popular beyond the village boundaries.
Landesarchiv Berlin