Übigau Castle

Located in the northwest of the Saxon state capital, the palace is situated slightly south of the historic village center of the Übigau district, known as Altübigau, about three kilometers from the Inner Old Town. It stands between Werftstraße and the right bank of the Elbe, to which it is connected by a grand staircase through the palace garden, on an approximately 8200 m² plot of land with the address Rethelstraße 47. From here, there is a view over the wide Elbe meadows on the other bank towards Pieschener Winkel, to the Ostragehege, and also to the grounds of the Alberthafen, located on the opposite side of the river. In the immediate vicinity, industrial buildings adjoin to the southwest, some of which are also unused. The overall urban environment detracts from the effect of the once freestanding building. Like the rest of Übigau, the palace belongs to the statistical district of Mickten and, with it, to the Pieschen local administrative area. Approximately at the height of the palace also lies the western end of the Dresden Elbe Valley cultural landscape.

Übigau Palace was built in Baroque style within two years at the beginning of the 18th century. Due to his early death, it is the only realized Dresden building by court architect Johann Friedrich Eosander von Göthe, who also worked on the Berlin City Palace and had only recently been called to the Saxon residential city. Even before the completion of the two-story building, a change in plans led to the existing core building on the garden side being extended with two superimposed arched halls, of which the one on the ground floor remained closed. Seven of the palace's total of nine axes on the upper floor, however, open into loggias towards the Elbe, so that this facade is reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance. The other windows have balustrades and are separated by pilasters. However, due to vandalism and advanced decay, they have all been crudely boarded up since the 1990s. On the garden side, there is also a dormer window centrally above the upper floor. In between, at the eaves, the two seated Hercules and Mars flank a Saxon-Polish coat of arms. On the ground floor, there are rusticated plaster strips. The originally planned side wings were not realized.

Since its creation, the complex was equipped with a lavishly decorated French Baroque garden. The ensemble included two gatehouses, four pavilions, an outbuilding, an orangery, and a fountain. However, all of them fell victim to the industrial use of the site in the 19th century, as did large parts of the once rich sculptural decoration by an unknown creator. A two-winged grand staircase leads from the garden, located more than five meters above the normal level of the Elbe, down to a former gondola harbor, which, after Pillnitz Palace and the Japanese Palace, the two equally foreign-looking counterparts of Übigau Palace in Dresden, formed the third landing stage for these courtly watercraft on the Neustadt side of the Elbe. On the opposite bank, on the Altstadt side of the Elbe, an avenue known as Übigauer Fährweg has led as a visual axis to the palace since 1734. However, it is no longer preserved in its entire length.

Pleasure Palace of the Nobility

The Electoral Saxon Cabinet Minister, Field Marshal General, and Privy Councillor Imperial Count von Flemming, who was very wealthy and known for his lavish court, planned the construction of a representative summer residence for himself outside the gates of Dresden after 1720. He chose a site on the Elbe near Übigau with a view of the residential city. The four owners of these properties, used as vineyards, Übigau farmers, were summarily expropriated.

When the building, erected between 1724 and 1726 under the direction of the architect Eosander von Göthe, who came from Swedish Pomerania, was nearing completion, the Saxon Elector and King of Poland Augustus the Strong acquired it for a large sum of money, thus roughly repeating the events in the case of the Dutch Palace (Japanese Palace) almost a decade earlier. However, the Elector himself was only rarely personally present in Übigau. Furthermore, the extension plans for the palace, drawn up on his behalf by the master builder Zacharias Longuelune, were not realized. However, he successfully pushed ahead with the expansion of the garden and hosted splendid festivities. On August 28, 1727, German Empress Elisabeth, the wife of Charles VI and mother of the later Empress Maria Theresia, celebrated her 36th birthday here. In 1728, Frederick William I, the King of Prussia, visited the pleasure palace.

Augustus the Strong's son, Frederick Augustus II, inherited the palace after his father's death in February 1733. However, as he was not particularly interested in it, he gifted it to his minister Count Sułkowski in recognition of his long years of service. Following Sułkowski's downfall in February 1738, which was largely driven by his rival Count Brühl, Frederick Augustus II bought the palace back. Subsequently, the Elector's sons primarily used the palace as a starting point for hunts in the Dresdner Heide. A final major event was the troop parade of the Saxon Army between Übigau and Wilden Mann, three kilometers further north, with various training maneuvers in 1753; the palace served as a pleasure camp during this time. The last visit by a member of the court is mentioned for the year 1770.

Since the Albertines had now completely lost interest in the palace, the palace gardener subsequently set up a restaurant that quickly became popular with the local residents. Nevertheless, the palace was still in very good condition at this time. This changed after a period of vacancy at the beginning of the 19th century during the Wars of Liberation. After the Russian Imperial Army had withdrawn from the recently occupied Dresden area following the Battle of Großgörschen, Napoleon's troops now occupied the Saxon residential city and its surroundings in the run-up to the Battle of Dresden. A part of them was quartered in Übigau Palace between May 11 and 18, 1813, and plundered or destroyed the interior. The Saxon royal family finally had the now neglected palace auctioned off in 1831.

Center of German Steam Engine and Inland Ship Building

At this auction, the Dresden master carpenter Paul Siemen was awarded the contract and renovated the building. This led to a second flourishing.

Just five years later, in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, Johann Andreas Schubert was among the founders of the Actien-Maschinenbau-Verein Übigau (Übigau Joint Stock Machine Building Association), whose production buildings were located directly north of Übigau Palace in its park. The palace, acquired by the company at that time, housed administrative offices on the ground floor, with design rooms and Schubert's apartment as Technical Director and company manager on the upper floor. Under his leadership, the machine building company primarily produced steam engines and steam boilers. In 1837, Schubert designed the drive for the Königin Maria, one of the first Upper Elbe steamships, in Übigau; a year later, the engine for the steamer Prinz Albert followed. Around the same time, he built the first functional steam locomotive designed in Germany, the Saxonia, which was later used for the Leipzig-Dresden railway. After Schubert resigned his contract with the Actien-Maschinenbau-Verein in April 1838 and resumed his professorship at the Royal Technical Educational Institute Dresden, the company ran into economic difficulties. In 1841, it was liquidated due to a lack of orders.

Afterwards, Übigau Palace continued to serve as the administrative seat for various companies. From the 1840s onwards, a steam mill, a vinegar and paint factory, a string factory, and a paper factory, which eventually burned down in 1875, successively settled in the neighborhood. In parallel, the von Oppen family lived in the palace between 1854 and 1886.

In 1877, an inland shipyard was founded on the southern neighboring property and taken over three years later by the Elbschifffahrtsgesellschaft Kette, whose name referred to the chain navigation practiced on the Elbe at that time. Under the direction of engineer Ewald Bellingrath, it was continuously expanded into one of the most important inland shipyards in Europe. The Kette shipyard extended its ownership to the palace in 1886 and merged into the Dresdner Maschinenfabrik und Schiffswerft Übigau in 1905. Initially, it leased the building to an innkeeper, who operated the Schloßschänke Übigau here from 1886 to 1921; after the First World War, it set up its administrative offices here. After the large company had to be closed in 1930 due to the Great Depression, Übigau Palace, now located in the middle of an industrial area and owned by a real estate speculator, was to be demolished.

The demolition was prevented by the Zentralverein für Arbeitersport 1885 e. V., an Übigau workers' sports club and early predecessor of SC Borea Dresden, which leased the building and made the rooms available to various organizations such as the KPD, which is why the building was known as the Red Palace in the early 1930s. After the National Socialists came to power, communist associations were banned, and their Übigau members were rounded up in the palace in mid-June 1933 and then taken to Hohnstein concentration camp. The palace then stood empty again for a short time until it was temporarily used as the residence of the owner of the submarine armaments company newly founded on the shipyard premises in 1935. After the end of the Second World War, this company was expropriated in 1948.

During the GDR era, the administration of VEB Dampfkesselbau Übigau (Übigau Steam Boiler Construction State-Owned Enterprise) was housed in the palace. North of the palace, the cultural center belonging to VEB TuR Dresden was built in 1954, where many greats of the GDR cultural scene once performed and which has been used as a studio by the artist Eberhard Bosslet since 2000. During the 1970s, the palace park was repeatedly the venue for a small district festival, but towards the end of the decade, it had to be closed to the public due to vandalism. The historic Übigau palace building remained the seat of the Dampfkesselbau-VEB until 1990.

After the Wende

Since the time of the political change (Wende), during which the steam boiler construction company had to drastically downsize and eventually moved out, Übigau Palace has stood empty. A Mölln investor bought the palace from the Treuhandanstalt in 1993 to house art studios, but due to a formal error, the contract had to be declared invalid retrospectively. Furthermore, a legal dispute with the son of the former owner was fought. In the mid-1990s, the palace was repeatedly broken into and garbage was deposited; at the end of 1997, the investor finally withdrew his offer permanently after four years of unsuccessful negotiations with the Treuhand and the monument protection office.

In August 1999, the Heidelberg cigar and real estate entrepreneur Dieter Schinz (1938–2009) acquired the building and planned, in addition to cultural use, the establishment of an apartment and office spaces. He also intended the faithful restoration of the Baroque garden. In the following year, he bought additional properties in the vicinity, but the start of renovation has not yet occurred. Only some security measures have been carried out on the building since then. Other interested parties did not get a chance. Even the designation of the palace grounds as part of the Dresden Elbe Valley World Heritage Site in 2004 did not change the status quo.

In 2004, American prospective buyers Helga and Jack van Horn visited the site. However, no resale occurred.

In June 2005, the Bürgerinitiative Schloss Übigau (Übigau Palace Citizens' Initiative) was founded (dissolved at the end of 2009, replaced by a support association), which advocated for the preservation and renovation of the cultural monument. From 2006 to 2008, it also organized an annual Übigau Palace and Street Festival. For the summer months of 2008, the park was made publicly accessible again for the first time in decades, because a beer garden opened there. Under the name "Sommerwirtschaft Schloss Übigau" (Übigau Palace Summer Restaurant), it has been operated annually in summer ever since. In summer 2009, after the death of the owner Schinz, the Förderverein Schloss Übigau für Kunst und Kultur e. V. (Übigau Palace Support Association for Art and Culture) was founded, which, in coordination with the main heiress, advocates for the cultural and artistic use of the palace and its outdoor facilities and also intends to organize events itself. Furthermore, plans are underway that aim for the renovation of the building within a period of five to ten years.

The Free State and the city are not pushing for the repurchase of the site, as demanded by the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen faction, but initially only imposed conditions on the real estate company for the preservation of the monument.

At the end of 2010, Ingrid Schinz had students from the Dresden University of Applied Sciences, under the direction of Professor Torsten Gonschorek, design concepts for a future public use of the complex on the Übigau Elbe bank. The ideas range from a chocolate palace (café, courses, and sales) to a Rococo center, a dance and music school, studios for artists (all with a summer restaurant), and office use. Karsten Linke, whose engineering firm represents the owner, reported on these ideas to the Pieschen district council in March 2012.