3. - Schlösser-Magazin

3. Justification for Inscription
3 a)
Criteria under which Inscription
is Proposed (and Justification for
Inscription under these Criteria)
The title proposed in the tentative list, “Palace
and Gardens at Schwetzingen”, has been
altered and redefined in the course of the
preparations for nomination of the property.
The new title, “Schwetzingen: A Prince
Elector’s Summer Residence”, takes account
of Schwetzingen’s outstanding status as an
example of an eighteenth-century summer
residence on the one hand; on the other it still
acknowledges the unique status of the garden,
created within a clearly defined, specific time
period and in close connection with this
“summer residence” function and preserved
in this identity as a monument. Moreover,
the spatial layout of the garden embodies
exceptional aspects of a past cultural tradition.
Criterion (iii). Schwetzingen bears an exceptional
testimony to a cultural tradition which
has disappeared.
Under the rule of Elector Carl Theodor of the
Palatinate, Schwetzingen represents a classic
example of the cultural phenomenon of a
summer residence of the Enlightenment era
and inspired by its ideas – ideas expressed
by the iconography of the garden as much
as by the Elector’s fostering of the sciences.
The founding of the Palatinate Academy of
the Sciences, the opening of the library to
the public, the systematic investigation and
documentation of archaeological history
that was in its day unique in Germany,
the founding of scientific institutions like
the “Physics Cabinet”, the astronomical
observatory or a meteorological measuring
station, and the remarkably precise survey
of the Palatinate conducted in Carl Theodor’s
reign are all outstanding accomplishments in
the spirit of an Enlightenment considered to
place obligations on the ruler, too.
With the focus increasingly on learned
institutions, the nature and appearance of
courtly display changed. The number of
holidays and lavish festivities was reduced.
On the numerous occasions when aristocratic
visitors came to stay at the summer residence,
formerly taken as welcome excuses for courtly
pomp and circumstance, “the celebrations
are now no longer ostentatious but tasteful
and well chosen” (Schubart). It was in
the field of courtly music in particular, a
personal hobby of the Elector, that this new
cultural seriousness found its expression:
in the opportunity offered to all children
of the Palatinate domains to attend a music
school, the “Tonschule”; in its trailblazing
for what was to become the culture of the
modern orchestra; in the cultivation of opera
at Schwetzingen, where up to four different
operas per season were performed, each of
them more than once.
In this way the cultural traditions of the
summer residence found their expression
in music, in an extraordinary manner that
was unique throughout Europe. There are
a number of traits that are singular to the
summer residence, with its court orchestra
invariably present for six months every year:
1. A unique circumstance within the culture of
18th-century courtly music is the programmatic
distinction, within the opera repertory, between
the main and the summer residences. The
Schwetzingen season was reserved for comic
opera, performances in German, and subjects
pertaining to the Enlightenment.
In contrast to the formally celebrated
Mannheim operas, magnificently performed
on the name days of the Electoral couple
with much courtly display, the summer stays
at Schwetzingen were characterized not
only by a programmatic difference in the
music that was being played. There was also
a typological variety unique by European
standards (Opera buffa, Opéra comique and
German “Singspiel”), an extraordinary number
of new pieces, a progressive attitude towards
music and the private atmosphere of many
performances – as well as the chief venue
3.
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