Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

VI.
Fig. 1: Excerpt from a map,
c. 1700. The vignette shows
the “new road” leading from
Heidelberg straight towards
the palace at Schwetzingen
(Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe,
H Oftersheim/3).
144
VI. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
3. The Genesis of the Palace Square
Development until 1720
The land between the two medieval
settlements, Oberdorf to the south and
Unterdorf to the north, and the area occupied
by the palace to the west were for centuries
devoted primarily to agricultural use and
contained very few buildings. The “New
Road”, which Elector Carl Ludwig started
building in 1658 as a direct link from the
“Dicker Turm” (Squat Tower) at his castle in
Heidelberg to his residence in Schwetzingen 32 ,
crossed this land, joining Oftersheimer
Weg (now Schlossstrasse) where the home
of the Schwartz family once stood. 33 The
only buildings on Oftersheimer Weg to face
the palace were the aforesaid home of the
Schwartz family, the property belonging to
butcher Johann Michael Renkert and the
old Catholic school between the two. The
Schwetzingen “Schatzungsregister”, begun just
after 1705, reveals that the Reform Church
had also owned a building there. It burned
32 Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe (GLA) 221/Schwetzingen no.
441 and no. 447.
33 Stadtarchiv Schwetzingen B5. “Item a burnt-out house plot the
school to one side the new road to the other. This plot with the
newly built house has been sold to Ludwig Schwartz”.
down in the Palatinate War of Succession
(1688-1697) and was not rebuilt. 34 The school
survived the ravages of war, but it was in
such poor condition by the dawn of the 18th
century that Burgrave Franz Joseph Count
von Wieser, director of the Elector’s works,
applied to the Court Chamber in 1718 for
it to be demolished “because it obstructs
the view from the palace, adding little to its
embellishment, and is also too close to the
road”. Soon after he became Elector, Carl
Philipp decided that the old school should
be torn down but rebuilt on the same site.
During its construction von Wieser intervened
to argue that the land in front of the palace
should remain empty. We do not know what
ultimately prompted the Elector to pull down
the partially constructed school despite the
costs he had incurred. 35 Quite possibly, his
need to receive visitors in ceremonial style
and promote Schwetzingen to the status of
a summer residence resulted in a change of
plan and he wished to use the land made
available by this demolition to widen the New
Road into a 56-foot avenue. Now planted with
white mulberries to assist the production
of silk 36 , the mulberry avenue built around
1720 became a straight axis leading from the
“Königstuhl”, an elevation near Heidelberg,
to the court of honour at the palace in
Schwetzingen. The sight line continued in
virtual form to the “Kalmit”, the highest peak
in the southern hills of the Palatinate Forest. It
was to be the defining feature in the layout of
the summer residence.
34 Stadtarchiv Schwetzingen B5. “A burnt-out house, up in the
village, Hans Ritter to one side, the new road to the other”.
35 Hermann Blank, Wilhelm Heuss: Schwetzingen – eine
Geschichte der Stadt und ihrer Häuser. Schwetzingen 1979,
vol. 2, p. 50. The school, completed up to the roof structure,
was pulled down and in rebuilt in 1719 as the oldest section of
today’s Hotel Adler-Post on Schlossstraße 3. The school garden
stayed where it was until 1748.
36 GLA 221/Schwetzingen no. 37. In 1733 Bauintendant Johann
Baptist Graf von Celini reports repairs to the neglected
mulberry avenue.