Carinhall

Carinhall was the country residence of Hermann Göring. It was built on a large hunting estate northeast of Berlin in Schorfheide forest, between the lakes Großdöllner See and Wuckersee in the north of Brandenburg.

Göring greeting an SS officer at Carinhall.
Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring at the head of Carin Göring's funeral procession at Carinhall, 19 June 1934.
Carinhall in ruins, 1947.
Franz von Stuck: Kämpfende Amazone (1897) formerly at Carinhall, now at Eberswalde.

History

Named in honour of his Swedish first wife, Carin Göring (1888–1931), the residence was constructed in stages from 1933 on a large scale, but in the manner of a hunting lodge. The main architect was Werner March, designer of the Olympic stadium in Berlin. Carin Göring's remains had first been interred in Sweden following her death, but were moved to Carinhall in 1934 and placed in a mausoleum on the grounds.

On 10 April 1935, Carinhall was the venue for Göring's wedding banquet with his second wife, Emmy Sonnemann.

Carinhall became the destination for many of Göring's looted art treasures from across occupied Europe.

Emmyhall

The Reichsjägerhof, Göring's smaller hunting lodge at Rominten in East Prussia (now Krasnolesye), in the Rominten Heath, was known as "Emmyhall" after his second wife.

Fate

To prevent Carinhall from falling into the hands of the advancing Red Army, the compound was blown up on 28 April 1945 at Göring's orders by a Luftwaffe demolition squad. The art treasures were evacuated beforehand to Berchtesgaden.

Only the monumental entrance gates, a few foundation structures, and decorative stones remain from the building. A bronze statue by Franz von Stuck, Kämpfende Amazone (1897), once at Carinhall, is now at Eberswalde. Another statue, Kronenhirsch by Johannes Darsow, can be found at Tierpark Berlin in the district of Friedrichsfelde.


Entrance gate to Carinhall

Legacy

In 1999, new interest was sparked by the book Görings Reich: Selbstinszenierungen in Carinhall[1] which led to treasure hunters visiting the ruins, and concerns raised about the site becoming a neo-Nazi "shrine".[2] The state government of Brandenburg ordered the remains of the tomb of Göring's wife to be demolished.

See also

References
  1. Volker Knopf and Stefan Martens - Görings Reich: Selbstinszenierungen in Carinhall. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1999.
  2. "Berliners open treasure chest of evil" in The Times, 28 September 1999.

Sources
  • Roger Manvell - Der Reichsmarschall. 1983. ISBN 3-8118-4370-2
  • Leonard Mosley - The Reich Marshal: A Biography of Hermann Goering. 1975. ISBN 3-420-04727-4
  • Carlos Díaz Domínguez - Tres colores en Carinhall 2011. ISBN 978-84-666-4192-0

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