Projekt CHARME

Schloss Hundisburg

So for the summer of 2015 I'm working at Schloss Hundisburg, an ostensibly Baroque era castle complex and parkland estate adjoined by a small village situated in the pastoral German countryside about a 2 hours drive west of Berlin. However, I'll save the specifics of my work for a subsequent post and first discuss a little about how I arrived here with a brief history of Haldensleben-Hundisburg and the fascinating project called CHARME.

Haldensleben-Hundisburg

The area of Haldensleben and Hundisburg have evidence of established human occupation dating back some 5,000 years. However, the "modern" period of continuous occupation with the associated names for the towns date back a millennia, to the establishment of what is now known the Straße der Romanik or "Romanesque Road" along which many medieval communities were first introduced to Christianity and a vibrant culture of trade ensued.

A fortification was established in Hundisburg, a walled enclosure and tower keep overseen by knights  swearing fealty to the archbishop of nearby Magdeburg. The left tower of the current castle is original to this medieval period. In 1452, ownership transferred into private hands of the Alvensleben family who continued to develop the grounds, first as a Renaissance castle and subsequent to the 30 years war, greatly expanded them into a majestic Baroque castle and gardens by the early 18th century.

Ownership of the castle transferred once again in 1811 to Johann Gottlob Nathusius, a most successful early German industrialist. Johann acquired about the same time the nearby Althaldensleben Monastery as his personal residence and over the course of the 19th century he and his sons developed the land between the castle and monastery into a 271 acre country park.

During WWII occupying Russian troops accidentally set fire to the castle, causing significant though not total destruction. During the period of the communist East Germany the castle lay abandoned; however, upon German unification ownership transferred to the public realm, the city of Haldensleben, its current trustee. With municipal funds and support from the European Union the castle was largely restored in the 1990's with smaller projects ongoing.

CHARME

CHARME stands for "Charleston Haldensleben-Hundisburg - American Restoration Art Meets Europe". As the name implies the emerging non-profit it is a vehicle for cultural collaboration, specifically in the area of hand craftsmanship between citizens of Charleston, SC and the towns of Haldensleben-Hundisburg, Germany.

After German unification, the Nathusius family returned to Haldesleben and local industrial production with the acquisition/merger of IFA Rotorion, growing it into one of the world leaders in the automotive supply industry. While establishing an additional production facility in Charleston, SC current CEO of IFA Rotorion, Felix von Nathusius and his wife Caroline, befriended John Paul Huguley, founder of the American College of the Building Arts and the idea of cultural collaboration between the communities of Charleston and Haldensleben-Hundisburg through the medium of architectural craft blossomed.

An initial project in the summer of 2012 had then recent ACBA graduate Emily Fairchild Gillett creating pilaster bases in plaster as part of the interior castle restoration. In the summer of 2014 a more ambitious project was taken on, to construct a folly in traditional german rubble masonry upon the foundations of a 19th century orangerie that had fallen to ruin. Under the guidance of ACBA Professor Simeon Warren, Juniors Samuel Friedman and Charles Shuler proposed designs and carved quoins and door surround pieces for the folly using traditional German stone tooling techniques. Now in the summer of 2015 it is up to rising Junior student Jackie Urgo, recent graduate Cody James and myself to build the structure using traditional German methods of rubble masonry construction.

The CHARME project has been getting notable press in the German news with a number of articles in print, radio and television broadcasts. We look to take the results of our summer effort back to Charleston and ensure we get a similar recognition of this burgeoning collaboration stateside. Could this be the start of Charleston and Haldensleben-Hundisburg establishing a sister city relationship complete with an annual festival of craft, music, art and culinary delights? We would like to think so!

Next steps for Projekt CHARME are to establish perhaps an even more ambitious restoration project for the summer of 2016 as well as creating internship opportunities for German students in Charleston to fully reciprocate the cultural exchange.

2015 participants, advisors and sponsors of Project CHARME

Contributed by Patrick Webb