Mannheim Palace

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The Mannheimer Schloss, or Mannheim Palace, is one of the largest baroque palaces in Europe (second only to Versailles) and a landmark of the City of Mannheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Originally, it wa the main residence of the Kurfürst (Elector) von der Pfalz, today it is used primarily as university building.

The Mittelbau of Mannheim Palace, as of December 2006, seen from West.

Contents 1 Origins 2 History 3 Use as University 4 Structure

[edit] Origins

The City of Mannheim was founded in 1606. The city was fortified and at the present site of the castle there was a fortress called Friedrichsburg, sometimes serving as alternative residence for the Elector, one of the most important territorial princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

But the actual palace dates from the 18th century. When Elector Carl Philipp got trouble with the inhabitants of his capital Heidelberg out of confessional controversies, he decided to make Mannheim the Kurpfalz's new capital in 1720. But a capital needed an appropriate residence and so Carl Philipp decided to construct a new palace on the site of the old Friedrichsburg. There was a general trend among the German princes to create new residence in those years, but Carl Philipp's Mannheim Palace was to become the greatest of them all.

[edit] History

Construction was commenced solemnly on June 2nd, 1720. The whole building processe was intended to cost abot 300,000 Gulden, financed by an extraordinary “palace tax”, but in the end, the Palace costed about 2,000,000 Gulden and severely worsened the Kurpfalz's financial situation. The first administrative institutions began using the palace in 1725, but only in 1731 Elector Carl Philipp was able to transfer his court to the new residence, that was not to be completed until 1760.

But Carl Philipp couldn't see the conclusion of his work, because he had died in 1742 and was succeeded by a distant relative, the young Carl Theodor. During his reign, the palace and the City of Mannheim saw their zenith. The glamour of the Elector's court and Mannheim's then famous cultural life lasted until 1778, when Carl Theoder became –by inheritance- also Elector of Bayern (Bavaria) and he moved his court –regrettingly- to Munich. Although Mannheim kept the title of “residence”, the palace was used merely as accommodation for several administrative bodies.

Things worsened further during the Revolutionary Wars, when Mannheim was besieged and during Napoleon´s times, when Germany was reorganized, the Kurpfalz was split up and Mannheim became part of the Grand Duchy of Baden, thus losing its capital/residence status. Some glamour returned to Mannheim Palace, when Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Napoleon's adopted daughter, resided here after 1806 (her husband being Grand Duke Carl of Baden). But for most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Palace served no uniform purpose, being used as representative building and museum for the city.

In World War II, the palace was heavily bombed and partly destroyed, so there were many people who pledged for pulling it down after the war, to create space for a more modern city architecture. Fortunately, these plans came to nothing and the palace was reconstructed.

[edit] Use as University

Elector Carl Theodor founded the Kurpfälzische Akademie der Wissenschaften as early as 1763, and although there was no continuous existence of a scientific college in Mannheim, the Wirtschaftshochschule, or business college, founded in 1907, saw itself in the tradition of Carl Theodor's earlier college. Even more so when the college expanded its subjects programme in 1967, thus gaining “university” status. The University of Mannheim still uses the Mannheim Palace as its central building complex and although many university buildings are dispersed all over the city centre, key institutions such as the rectorate or the main library are accommodated in the Palace, besides countless lecture halls and offices.

[edit] Structure

The site of the palace is an impressive one (although the construction of roads and railway tracks has diminished its dominating look). To the South-West, it faces the River Rhine and opposite Ludwigshafen. To the North-East the Palace presents its magnificent, 450 meters long, front to the Mannheim city centre. The Breite Straße runs from the palace to Mannheim's central square, the Paradeplatz.

The central part of the palace is the Mittelbau with its representative halls. Today, the Mittelbau holds university library halls and the Rittersaal hall. A Palace museum is intended to be opened here in 2007. The Mittelbau is flanked by the Ehrenhof West and Ehrenhof Ost wings, which include the Ehrenhof yard in front of the Mittelbau. In those two wings, there are mainly lecture halls and offices of the university's humanities section. Below the Ehrenhof, there is a massive bunker dating from World War II.

The northern wing includes the impressive Schlosskirche (palace church) and the law section, as well as Mannheim's lower district court.

The southern/eastern wing is much larger than the northern one, including the Schneckenhof yard (a popular university party ground) and holding most of the university's central institutions, as well as the largest lecture halls.

The heating costs for all the palace are nearly two million Euros annually.

Currently, there is a lot of building activity in the palace, due to Mannheims's anniversary in 2007. All the palace has been painted in a bright ocher/yellow, the Mittelbau has been thoroughly rebuildt (including a new roof construction) and the Ehrenhof yard is to be restructured and paved with granite.