Allwind Castle

The property Alwind (or Allwind) was first mentioned in a document in 1370 and was owned by the Lords of Höchst in the 15th century: Johann von Höchst from Lindau built a castle-like manor in 1455, which he named "Alwind". In 1475, an iron-sulfur spring was discovered in Bad Schachen, which fostered the development of a small spa that grew steadily in the following centuries.

The Lords of Montfort followed as owners. Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix (1781–1826) was honored by the King for his services. He probably never visited Alwind Castle on Lake Constance, which he had received as a gift from the King. From 1797, the von Grubers were the lords of Alwind: Georg Gruber was a cousin of Friedrich Gruber and had a villa built as a summer residence a few hundred meters west of the Lindenhof. Villa Alwind was built in 1852/53 as a neoclassical villa with a flat hipped roof by the architect Johann Christoph Kunkler from St. Gallen.

In 1905, the textile industrialist Leopold König (1852–1912) bought the house after it had been uninhabited for over 50 years. During the "König era", Alwind became a center of social life in Lindau during the summer months from 1905 to 1912. In 1906, the Alwind harbor was built here – modeled after the Lindau harbor with two piers, one of which bears a lion statue.

Dr. Paul F. Beckmann (1881–1963) bought the property in 1924 and had the park laid out in place of the vineyard south of the villa. Since 1942, the building complex has been used by Deutsche Post AG, which acquired the land in 1937, as a recreation home for female postal employees. After the Second World War, the complex went to the French occupation forces and returned to Deutsche Bundespost in 1951. The villa and the park have been listed as historical monuments since 1952.


Source Text