House of the Wannsee Conference
The von der Heydt family
Freiherr Eduard von der Heydt was among the first to buy an estate in Colonie Alsen from Wilhelm Conrad in 1870. He originated from a family of dignitaries in Elberfeld, the most prominent member of which was his father, the Royal Prussian State Minister August von der Heydt. Eduard von der Heydt had spent a long time in New York. After the death of his mother in 1865 he returned to Berlin with his wife and lived in his father's villa in Tiergarten. He commissioned the architects Kyllmann and Heyden to build a villa in Italian renaissance style on the site he purchased in 1870. The gardens were linked with artistic twisting paths.
The von der Heydt villa in Tiergarten, 1864 The von der Heydt villa in Wannsee, around 1875
The park and suites of rooms gave a magnificent view over the lake and the countryside opposite.Karl von der Heydt, a major patron of the Prussian museums, was the last member of the family to live in the villa up to 1919. After his death the imposing building in Kaiserstraße was sold and in 1926 it was converted into an exclusive hotel and restaurant, the "Haus am See" (House on the Lake). In 1934 the villa became a "Holiday Residence for Trade and Industry". In 1939 the Nazis housed the Wagner training centre für the "German Labour Front" (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) in the building. The name referred to Adolf Wagner, one of Hitler's military comrades trom Munich. The house suffered same damage in the war but already in the 1950s was back in use as a holiday residence for traders. The Federal Insurance Company for Employees had it demolished in 1994 and replaced it with the Reha Clinic, which has been empty since 1997.
Interior of the von der
Heydt villa
The final member of the family, Baron Eduard von der Heydt (1882-1964), sold the family property in the Colonie Alsen but was often resident in Wannsee in a modem bungalow on the Golfplace, which he commissioned trom the Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer. Before the First World War Eduard von der Heydt had established himself as a banker in London. In 1918 he took part in the secret German-English negotiations in The Hague. In 1920 the Baron moved his residence to Amsterdam where he founded his own bank. He formed close business relations with Stinnes and Thyssen and was the financial trustee of the Hohenzollem family living in exile in Holland. Eduard von der Heydt was one of the most important patrons of his time. His collection of Asian art in particular was world famous. He loaned large parts of his art collection to public museums throughout the world. In the 1930s he moved to Ascona on Lake Maggiore, where he had acquired the renowned Monte Verita in 1926.
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As well as artists his circle of friends included academics, industrialists and members of the former court society of Berlin. The political stance of this patron was ambivalent. On the one hand he was a liberal, cosmopolitan man, but on the other hand felt bound to the monarchy throughout his life. As of the late 1930s it was also suspected that von der Heydt had carried out fmancial transactions for the Nazis in Switzerland. |
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Update: 20 August 2004
