Home » Entertainment » Castle in deep sleep due to Corona – Schröder Cultural Foundation is in the starting blocks for the season: a visit to the museum turns into a world tour – Höxter district
Castle in deep sleep due to Corona – Schröder Cultural Foundation is in the starting blocks for the season: a visit to the museum turns into a world tour – Höxter district
The moated castle is embedded in the surrounding Egge Mountains in the middle of the cultural center of Neuenheerse. The “Eggedom”, the former collegiate church, is in the immediate vicinity. It forms an important connection to the castle, because for almost a thousand years it was the abbey of the imperial free-worldly noble women’s monastery Heerse. The third bishop of Paderborn, Luithard, founded the women’s monastery in 868 together with his sister Walburga. As early as 871, King Ludwig the German granted the monastery imperial privileges. From then on, so-called canonesses lived in this place under the direction of an abbess. In contrast to monastic life, the ladies often brought their own furniture and servants with them. And one day maybe a nobleman knocked on the gate, took the noble daughter as his wife and a new canon found her place “for a while” in the ladies’ monastery in Heerse.
Boarding school
In the 16th century, the current abbess placed more emphasis on a representative building, and so the castle was created in the form that can still be admired today to a large extent. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the building changed hands several times until it was bought by the missionaries of the Precious Blood in the 1950s and was used as a boarding school for boys for a long time. The small toilets and washbasins in the attic are still a reminder of those times today.
20,000 exhibits
Honorary Consul General Manfred O. Schröder and his wife Helga opened a new chapter in the history of the palace more than 30 years ago. The couple acquired the property in 1989, thus laying the foundation for what is now the United Museums. But beforehand it was inevitable to carry out costly and labor-intensive conversion and renovation work. The renovation work was spread over several years, but even before the extensive exterior renovation was carried out in 2003, the around 10,000 exhibits of the United Museums were made accessible to the public in 1996. The number of exhibits has risen to more than 20,000 to date. In order to know that this cultural treasure from all over the world and the moated castle itself are well managed, the Schröder couple established a cultural foundation in 2007. Together with this, another museum building – the St. Hubertus-Helga-Hallen – was erected south of the castle and inaugurated in 2016. Soon there will also be a great collection of paintings in these rooms.
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The new museum building was inaugurated in 2016. Photo: Schröder Cultural Foundation
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Famous guests
Visitors can look forward to a short trip around the world on a guided tour of the museum. He travels to different countries and continents. It goes through Africa, Asia, via a detour to India, on to Australia and the South Seas, to South and North America to arctic regions, where you can look walrus and polar bears in the eyes. Europe is of course also represented, showing its history in the area of hunting culture as well as looking into and at home rooms and objects from the good old days. Many celebrities from politics, business and the nobility insisted on taking a look behind the promising facades of the castle.
Acquired Stiftswald
A hike around Neuenheerse also leads through the Stiftswald, depending on the route. This forest belonged to the former women’s monastery for almost a thousand years and, after a long time in strange hands, was to find its way back last year. Honorary Consul General Schröder, who was made an honorary citizen of the city of Bad Driburg because of his great cultural achievements, acquired the forest and handed it over to the cultural foundation for future management. Storms, drought and the bark beetle have left their unmistakable traces in the monastery forest. With a lot of commitment, energy and good planning, the forest should become a magnificent forest again. The roots for this have already been set to a large extent in the truest sense of the word. More than 6000 trees have already been brought into the earth. Many helping hands have given climatically sensible species such as silver and coastal firs, larches, Douglas firs, black pines, atlas cedars, beeches, winter linden trees, walnut bushes, sweet chestnuts and wild cherries their future home in the Eggeboden under the tried and tested management of forestry councilor Wilfried Drüke.
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The south side of the castle in bright sunshine. Photo: Schröder Cultural Foundation
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Weddings possible
Should the signs of hope in the fight against the corona virus soon bring the long-awaited normalcy back, a walk through the Stiftswald and the idyllic landscape could end at the moated St. Hubertus Heerse castle. A museum tour invites you into foreign worlds – into the fauna of Africa and the gods of India. If the situation permits, the season can start. The cultural foundation draws attention to the fact that weddings are constantly taking place in the castle. These should be booked through the Bad Driburg registry office.
The cultural foundation can be reached on 05259/93 03 33, email: [email protected], Internet www.wasserschloss-neuenheerse.com.
Children convey greetings
Actually, on the 96th birthday of Consul General Manfred O. Schröder, the memorial stone, which commemorates the repurchase of the monastery forest by the Schröder couple, was to be inaugurated in the park of the Neuenheerse moated castle. However, the celebration had to be postponed due to the corona pandemic.
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Spring flowers as a sign of appreciation: Consul General Manfred O. Schröder and his wife Helga were very happy about the surprise of the primary school students. Photo: Private
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Nevertheless, Manfred O. Schröder received congratulations from the village community on his special day. Pupils from the St. Walburga elementary school congratulated together with the teaching staff on the south veranda of the castle in a corona-compliant manner with a serenade and a tulip poem. In keeping with the poem, the children presented the jubilee with the colorful spring flowers. With their successful surprise, the “little ones” in the village expressed their appreciation for the Schröder family’s support for the private primary school.
The couple acquired the Neuenheerse moated castle more than 30 years ago, renovated it with private funds and turned it into a museum that is second to none in the region. In 2020, Consul General Schröder and his wife Helga bought back the 106 hectares of forest that had belonged to the monastery grounds for their cultural foundation.
