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Friedrichsthal Hunting Lodge

Friedrichsthal is a north westerly district of the capital "city" of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin. In 1790, the government official August Georg von Brandenstein built a simple half-timbered summerhouse there, which, after various changes of owner, was acquired in 1797 by Grand Duke Friedrich Franz 1 for 4,000 Taler (silver coins).




On October 5, 1798, the whole of the district took on the Grand Duke's name. To make the most of the abundance of game in the surrounding woodland, Friedrich Franz I had the summer house converted into a hunting lodge. Two side wings were added to the main house in 1798, and in 1805 a second storey was built. Opposite the lodge, two "cavalier" houses (to accommodate staff and guests) and some stables were built. Despite the work that went into it, the lodge was rarely used by the Grand Duke himself, so he opened it up to the public. Various attempts to sell the property over the next few years failed. In 1914, convalescing soldiers were accommodated here, and the west wing was used as an orphanage throughout World War I. In 1936 the property  was given to the Kyffhäuser League (an umbrella organisation for war veterans' and reservists' associations in Germany) for use as a home for veterans. Post-1945 it was used as a hospital for tuberculosis patients and, then, up until the fall of the Berlin Wall, as an old people's home.

A listed building, Jagdschloss Friedrichsthal is in dire need of restoration and is currently up for sale. It has been empty since 1993.

Its landscaped grounds extend to the lakeside of Neumühler See, but the woodland at the southern end of the park was cleared in 1945, and from 1948 onwards put to agricultural use as part of a package of land reforms.


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