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The Harmonica from Space
Episode 18 of the journey through the cultural heritage sites
On our journey through the cultural heritage sites of the Oderbruch we came across curiosities or unusually interesting things several times. The village museum in Neuhardenberg displays everyday objects from the town's eventful history. Among them is an exhibit that would normally receive little attention. This one has become a one-of-a-kind item in the world due to a special circumstance.
For now, we will focus on the local chronicle. A current special exhibition is dedicated to the life of Karl August von Hardenberg, who gave the village its name.
Theodor Fontane has been helpful to us several times with his local and historical knowledge. On his hikes through the Margraviate of Brandenburg, he naturally also traveled through Quilitz, as Neuhardenberg was formerly known. At first he was not very enthusiastic: "The history of Quilitz up to 1763 is poor and obscure." The place only became interesting to him when Prussian nobility became involved in the village's history. He reports that the Prussian King Frederick II, who was revered in the Oderbruch, gave the Quilitz estate to Lieutenant Colonel von Prittwitz in 1763. Prittwitz had saved the king from being captured by the Austrians in the Battle of Kunersdorf and thus probably saved his life. After the captain's death, Prittwitz's eldest son sold the estate back to the crown in 1811. Just three years later, Quilitz was donated to the State Chancellor von Hardenberg. This also led to the name of the place being changed to Neu-Hardenberg. Not the last name change as we will learn later.
How did Karl August von Hardenberg get this gift? Hardenberg is one of the most important figures in German history. Together with Karl Freiherr vom Stein, he is considered the founder of the Prussian reforms. These included the reorganization of the state administration by specialist ministers, the introduction of freedom of trade and equal rights for Jews. The reforms also included the renewal of the education system with the introduction of compulsory schooling and the founding of the University of Berlin by Humboldt. His army reform introduced general conscription.
After a devastating village fire in 1801, another big name came into play: the famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel left his mark on the place. The place was replanned according to Schinkel's ideas. He had the church restored and the rectory and schoolhouse built. He had previously built his first work, a whey house in the shape of a basilica, made of bog ironstone, in the Quilitz farmstead of Bärwinkel. From 1820 onwards he redesigned the castle for Karl August von Hardenberg into a two-storey, classicist country castle.
After the Second World War, Neu-Hardenberg was renamed Marxwalde in honour of Karl Marx and transformed into a model socialist village. Fighter planes of the NVA as well as passenger helicopters and planes for the GDR government were stationed at the nearby airfield. Here we come across another famous name, that of the first German cosmonaut, Sigmund Jähn. Before his space flight in 1978, he was a pilot in the fighter squadron stationed in Marxwalde. Sigmund Jähn lived in Marxwalde from 1965 to 1978. A harmonica that the cosmonaut took with him into space is on display in a small display case in the local history museum. He donated it to the local history association on the occasion of a visit. Its almost 50 members have been organising changing thematic special exhibitions in the renovated village school since 2003. In our case, it was Andrea Planert who guided us through the exhibition with around 1000 exhibits.
Now we come to the last name change of the Oderbruch village. The local council voted for a name change after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991. Since then, the village has been called Neuhardenberg again, this time without a hyphen.
After a visit to the village museum, we recommend a tour of the castle complex with the park and the Schinkel church. Incidentally, the mummified heart of Karl August von Hardenberg is still kept in the church today. An exhibition in Neuhardenberg Castle is currently dedicated to the prince's work.
Village Museum Alte Schule, Karl-Marx-Allee 22, 15320 Neuhardenberg.
Open in season: On weekends and public holidays from 12 noon to 17 pm and on request by phone: 033476 60740 or 015165 666 955. Heimatverein Neuhardenberg e. V.
For more information about the Oderbruch Museum and the cultural heritage in the Oderbruch, please see here.