Germanys Hearst Castle: A Dream of Stone and Concrete

A wall rises along the country road between Ballenstedt and Gernrode; a few archways are visible, half-overgrown with ivy, and above the treetops, a picturesque castle tower with battlements and a flagpole reigns supreme.

A narrow road leads up the mountain, past a dilapidated farmstead where the remnants of times gone by stack up like layers of rock: a car wreck, presumably from the era of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A pile of roof tiles from the socialist era. A rusted air rifle. A pair of worn-out rubber boots.

A fairytale beside the street

Yet what at first glance looks like one of those abandoned "lost places"—a site once inhabited and used by humans, but later deserted—transforms behind the next curve into a very lively fairytale. Here stands the Roseburg, by no means abandoned or forgotten, but rather a place built specifically to preserve history in a very special way.

Nothing, or almost nothing, is authentic here. The stone walls feign an age they do not possess. Battlements on the tower and decorations on the buildings are made of concrete. Appearance dictates reality—and that was precisely the intention of the architect and master builder of this extensive and labyrinthine complex.

The Dream of a Man

Bernhard Sehring, born in Edderitz near Köthen, fulfilled a lifelong dream with the Roseburg: 115 years ago, the graduate of the Berlin Architecture Academy—creator of the "Theater des Westens" in Berlin, the Schauspielhaus in Düsseldorf, and the Walpurgishalle on the Hexentanzplatz in Thale—had this fairytale castle built on the muschelkalk ridge where, a thousand years earlier, the long-vanished Rudeloffsburg had once stood, complete with a Sleeping Beauty garden, residential tower, rampart, and palas.

A wild idea for a summer residence, which the son of a Ducal-Anhalt building inspector—praised by his contemporaries as a "painter-architect"—pursued with persistence after managing to acquire the sprawling grounds opposite the deer park of Ballenstedt Castle in 1905 on the recommendation of Prince Friedrich of Anhalt-Dessau.

Strange combination of styles

Sehring, honored with the Schinkel Prize even as a young architect, gave free rein to his imagination here. His Roseburg features the Middle Ages and Romanticism, Baroque and concrete, Art Nouveau and English gardens, alongside Roman statues, a Venus grotto, and a Fortuna fountain complete with a bronze woman playing a trumpet.

The father of the castle, who grew up in Dessau and was a great admirer of the Wörlitz Garden Realm, denied himself nothing on the grounds along the Bicklingsbach stream. Winged lions, water-spouting birds, a Virgin Mary on the facade, and kissing cherubs on a balustrade that opens up to a view over the countryside.

Germanys Hearst Castle

Years before publisher William R. Hearst built his "Hearst Castle" in California in the 1920s, Bernhard Sehring mixed everything he liked into his castle of dreams. It even has a mausoleum, where Sehring (1855 to 1941) and his wife were laid to rest.

The tragedy of the Roseburg, whose construction is said to have cost 2.5 million Reichsmarks, began after the war, when the fantasy fortress was temporarily used as an apprentice dormitory and poultry breeding facility. Trees were felled, art objects from Sehring's collection vanished, and the GDR declared the artist a "fabulously wealthy big-shot" who had built the "pleasure castle just for himself."

A lost place

Back then, the architectural treasure belonged to an agricultural cooperative (LPG); later, the Cultural Association took over, turning the site into a local recreation area. Following German reunification, a complex legal process for the property's restitution to Sehring's heirs began, lasting over 20 years.

Subsequently, a couple from Berlin—both avid Sehring fans—bought the castle, which has since been taken over by a local holiday home landlord. Meanwhile, a dedicated association works tirelessly to preserve Sehring's dream castle, which can be visited, toured, and admired. Not a lost place like so many others, but a place that is even more special.