II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

III.
Fig. 3: Bathhouse, Elector
Carl Theodor’s study (From:
Carl Ludwig Fuchs/Claus
Reisinger, Schloß und Garten
zu Schwetzingen, Worms 2001,
p. 153).
124
III. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
and after WWII, attempts at stocktaking
revealed an urgent need for action. It was only
in the 1970s, however, that it was decided to
work out a consistent presentation strategy
based on the historic layout.
The plan to recreate the palace’s original
appearance sparked a lengthy and hard-fought
discussion in the 1980s. However, the intended
use of the palace as a museum was never
in question. The intention was to present
historic events and processes in their authentic
setting, and the presentation of these
settings had to be worked out accordingly. It
was decided that the fi rst fl oor would provide
a context for the Palatine heyday in the
days of Carl Theodor and Elisabeth Auguste
(around 1775), and the second would serve as
a fi ne background for the furnishings from
the times of the Princes of Pfalz-Zweibrücken
(c.1775) and the Elector of Baden (c.1804).
Original pieces were recovered from museums
and palaces all over Baden; other suitable
items were purchased as replacements. In this
way, life in the summer residence of Schwetzingen
could be recreated for visitors.
As the historical overview has shown, in
the course of the centuries, massive changes
were made to the interior of the palace.
Nevertheless, the garden, the building and
its interior decoration combine into a unifi ed
whole. Once this was the setting for the gay
festive life of the electoral court 62 , and today
it provides both an invaluable heritage site
and an equally invaluable source of knowledge
and insight. This is what the palace of
Schwetzingen represents.
For the near future, plans are underway to
recover or replace items of furniture and
interior decoration, among them the sets of
Frankenthal porcelain, listed in the inventories.
Suitable sets, produced by the electoral
manufactory, are available on the art market.
The original collection of seventeen paintings,
depicting hunting themes, once displayed
at Schwetzingen and currently in storage, 63
will be displayed again in suitably renovated
rooms on the third fl oor.
(Wolfgang Wiese)
3. The Palace’s fortunes in the
19th and 20th Centuries
The 19th Century
Besides the evidence gained from restoration
work and building analyses, it is archival documents
that provide information about the
work done at Schwetzingen, its palace and
gardens, in the past. The number of surviving
documents is very large, and it includes the
correspondence between the local administration
and its superiors, as well as letters to and
from tenants and craftsmen. 64 Nevertheless,
these documents frequently provide only circumstantial
evidence of the condition of buildings
or the work being planned and executed.
Very often there is no precise detail. For
62 Rentsch 1987, p. 3.
63 Anna Hierl-Linzer, “Die Schwetzinger Jagdgemälde”, in:
Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg,
Vol. 35, München 1998, pp. 105-123.
64 Most of the relevant archival documents are at the main
archive of Baden-Württemberg, the Generallandesarchiv
Karlsruhe (GLA). They are listed in an inventory, “Verzeichnis
der im Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe verwahrten Archivalien
über die Stadt Schwetzingen”, 1958.