*NEW* 175 IS A GOODLY NUMBER

175 IS A GOODLY NUMBER

SCHLOSS WERNIGERODE DOMINATES THE

"CHOCOLATE BOX" TOWN IN THE HARZ 

 MOUNTAINS OF GERMANY

 

       KAISER WILHELM opens the Reichstag in 1878. Count Otto Von Bismarck in            the  foreground, Count Von Stollberg is among the other worthies.

 

Twenty five years before Chancellor Bismarck launched the "KULTURKAMPF"    (Culture Struggle) primarily aimed at the Catholic Church, Conrad Beckmann was  born in beautiful Hannover to his parents Benedict Georg BECKMANN and  Charlotte Elisabet BECKMANN (nee SPIEL) they were quite young at age 17 years.

 

                                  Great Grandfather Conrad Beckmann(1846-1902)
 

The marriage of these two young Lutherans , and the birth of little Conrad were to be further connected to the Kulturkampf  which came to an end in 1878. By that time, Conrad himself had fathered two children and, in that very year the second of those children - another Son Edward Toby BECKMANN was born.

But Conrad's association with the KULTURKAMPF went beyond his Nationality and his Lutheranism. In 1883 he began painting a series of paintings, several of them of heroic size, to adorn the Banquet Hall of the Schloss. They all had a rather pro Lutheran triumphal intent. The reason for this triumphal tone was the fact that the owner of the Schloss, Count Von Stollberg - who was the  Hereditary owner of the Schloss and Prime Minister of Germany, was hoping to entertain at the  at the Schloss the Chancellor Count Otto  Von Bismarck  the driving force behind the KULTURKAMPF, and , perhaps even the Kaiser himself. 

     The  Lutherans are received by the Count of the day.
 

 

 The Count receives the keys to the former 

                                                Augustinian monastery nearby
 

 

 After defeat in battle, the Catholics seek the

 

 

 

 

                          return of the former monastery and are refused.

    Apologies are due for the poor quality of the three images - the huge windows of the Banqueting Hall flooded it with sunlight.          

The paintings include one in which the Lutherans are received in audience by Count of the day, another in which the keys of an Augustinian Monastery are handed to the then Count, and yet another in which the Catholics - defeated in battle- seek from the then Count restoration of the monastery and are firmly refused.

               

                                 Great great Grandfather Carl Dopmeyer, 

                                                Sculptor and Wood Carver.

Further to all this, Conrad Beckmann's Father in Law, Carl Dopmeyer(who I would imagine had secured the commission for Conrad Beckmann, was a the time, famous in Germany. He was a Sculptor and Wood Carver, many of his woks have survived the destruction of the two World Wars. Both of these talents were employed at Schloss Wernigerode. In the large Chapel, he had carved the Altar which was very Catholic in design save for the absence of a Tabernacle. He also carved the outsized (in the Protestant manner) Pulpit. Not content with these works , he was commissioned to do the wood carving of the friezes around the courtyard of the Schloss. 

These are just a sample of the wood carvings - the smaller ones - the total body of the work is very extensive.

                               Schloss Chapel - the Protestant size Pulpit
   

             Schloss Chapel the Protestant disproportion between the 

          almost Catholic Altar (but no Tabernacle) is clearly evident.
 

So my ancestral association with the Catholic history of the Schloss is substantial. It was a humbling experience to see the grand achievements of my Great  Great Grandfather and my Great Grandfather, and to see the regard and respect in which they are maintained.

More information is freely available on my Blogs:

 

edwardbeckmann.blogspot.com/2020/01/an-innocent-abroad-my-memoir-page-1.html

conradbeckmann.blogspot.com/2020/01/imagine-surprise-my-great-grandson-who.html

carldopmeyer.blogspot.com/2019/12/great-great-grandfathers-works-martin.html