Schlemihl's Miraculous Story
Episode 12 of the journey through the cultural heritage sites
Who would have thought that further traces of high literary culture could be found in the Oderbruch? In Schiffmühle (Episode 4) we already came across the story of the writer Theodor Fontane and his father. Now Theodor once again proves to be a wonderful tour guide through the region. He takes us to Kunersdorf (until 1945 Cunersdorf), to which he dedicated a whole chapter in his “Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg”. Cunersdorf was a well-known place in the era of the Prussian King Frederick II. The women of Friedland developed it into one of the intellectual and cultural centers of the Mark, where well-known figures from politics, science and art came to visit. And here we also come across the poet and naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso. The cultural heritage site “Chamisso Museum” on the Musenhof Kunersdorf commemorates his life and work. In 1813, Chamisso wrote parts of his most famous German-language work, the novella “Peter Schlemihl’s Miraculous Story,” in Cunersdorf Castle (destroyed in April 1945).
In the middle of the fields of the Bruch, between Wriezen and Seelow, the Chamisso Museum, founded by Margot Prust and her association, shines like a gem. With its wonderful exhibition and beautiful garden, it tells the story of Chamisso, but also that of the women of Friedland. "Within four years, with the help of private donors alone, we managed to set up this meeting place. With crowdfunding and benefit concerts, we raised the money to set up the museum. We were finally able to open in April 2019," says Margot Prust, the owner of the house. The initiators were helped by the fact that the Berlin State Library has Chamisso's entire estate, collected in 34 boxes. This created the basis for putting the exhibition on a scientific footing. One room of the museum is dedicated to the "Schlehmihl" literature collection, and another room stages the world trip with original diary entries and original lithographs.
The museum has 400 of the approximately 120 Schlemihl editions worldwide, some of which are illustrated with high-quality illustrations. Since Chamisso was a natural scientist and botanist by profession, there is of course also a room dedicated to botany. "We also tried to include the cultural and historical history of the place. The women of Friedland were already known through Fontane," said Margot Prust during a tour of the private museum. She had the house restored with great passion. "Perhaps you can imagine what the house looked like after 60 years of state ownership. It had been run down. I sold my inheritance, my parents' house in the Berlin area, and put everything into this. I'm slowly approaching eighty, and now it's about preserving this object."
The "own fame"As Fontane writes, Cunersdorf was first acquired through the hands of the same women from Friedland. After General Hans Georg Sigismund von Lestwitz made a decisive contribution to the Prussian victory in the Battle of Torgau in 1760, he was given the office of Friedland as a gift by Frederick the Great. Unsure of what ownership or inheritance rights he had acquired, he also bought the neighboring Cunersdorf in 1766. He wanted to leave an estate to his only daughter as an inheritance. Daughter Helene Charlotte von Lestwitz inherited the entire Friedland domain after the death of the Prussian general in 1788. After an unhappy marriage, of which she did not want to be reminded, she took the name Frau von Friedland with the king's permission.
“At the same time she returned to Cunersdorf Castle, to her parents’ house, and there she devoted herself exclusively to the education of her daughter and the development of her own mind.“, we read in Fontane. She immediately took over the management of the estate. "...since it did not escape her keen eye that in order to achieve greater success, the management required, above all, a larger operating capital than before, so she sold her jewellery and her jewels in order to acquire such capital." General von der Marwitz in nearby Friedersdorf wrote full of admiration: "Most of the things about farming - just about everything that I didn't already know from childhood and later acquired from experience - I learned from a very remarkable woman in our neighborhood, a Mrs. von Friedland. ... She was not just a farmer, but a very intelligent woman who was well-informed in all things. I owe her a great deal..." Albrecht Daniel Thaer, who was researching modern agriculture in Möglin at about the same time, expressed similar admiration (Episode 7). "Today, from six in the morning until now, ten in the evening, she has not given us five minutes' peace. We must have exhausted four teams of horses. I have never seen such activity. She has over a dozen managers, clerks and foremen, and yet she knows every little patch of garden, every tree, every horse, every cow, and notices every little mistake that has occurred in the cultivation, every gap in a hedge, every wrongly positioned plough." Friedland’s wife died in 1803, not yet forty-nine years old.
Her only daughter, Henriette Charlotte, married Peter Alexander von Itzenplitz. Both of them managed their estates, which were exemplary for the time. Henriette Charlotte inherited her mother in all areas: "The daughter's personal interests were essentially in the same direction as her mother's; the sciences were in the forefront, with botany at the top, and Klaproth, Wildenow, Lichtenstein, Erman, both Humboldts, Leopold von Buch, as well as Savigny, Ranke, Knesebeck, Reden, Marwitz, Colonel von Romberg, and above all the old Oberpräsident von Vincke, were friends and guests of the house. But, as already indicated, the circle was wider than before, and art, the first dawn of which Mrs. von Friedland had only just experienced in this country, was now more thoroughly understood and, as far as the time and means of a private home permitted, was also promoted and cultivated. Rauch, Friedrich Tieck, Wach (not to mention the two old masters Schadow and Weitsch) entered into a closer relationship with the Itzenplitz family, partly socially, partly artistically… The year 1813 brought another guest to Cunersdorf Castle and with his visit we end with an idyll. This guest was Chamisso., said the chronicler Fontane. Consequently, he also knew the reason for Chamisso's visit to the Itzenplitz family.
"Chamisso, who is known to have emigrated from France as a result of the French Revolution, had, as a Prussian officer, experienced the unfortunate campaign of 1806 and in particular the capitulation of Hamelin. Since then he had devoted himself exclusively to science, especially to the study of botany. In the spring of 1813 his means were exhausted and Professor Lichtenstein, a friend of the Itzenplitz family, recommended the young botanist to Cunersdorf, where, after his arrival, he undertook the creation of a large plant collection, a herbarium, which was to contain on the one hand the flora of the Oderbruch and on the other hand all the garden and greenhouse plants of the castle itself. Chamisso stayed in this rural retreat for a summer and undertook his task with conscientious diligence. The herbarium he created still exists. But his leisure hours were devoted to poetry, and it was in the Cunersdorf library room where our Chamisso, with the window open and looking out over the beautiful park, wrote his most important and original work, the "Peter Schlemihl." The story of Peter Schlemihl is about a man who sells his shadow to the devil. It became the basis for many adaptations and inspired numerous artists to create illustration cycles.
The Musenhof is aptly named, as travelers to the Oderbruch can enjoy a wonderful moment of peace and relaxation here before visiting the architectural monuments of Kunersdorf. There is the church built between 1950 and 1955 with its dome roof, which is unusual for the area, the palace park, in the planning of which Peter Joseph Lenné may have been involved, or the family burial place of the von Lestwitz-Itzenplitz family. It was designed according to plans by Carl Gotthard Langhans (Brandenburg Gate) in the style of German classicism. The gravestones and urns were designed by Johann Gottfried Schadow, Christian Daniel Rauch, Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Hugo Hagen, among others.
Cultural Heritage Site: Dorfstraße 1, 16269 Bliesdorf OT Kunersdorf, 0 33 456 – 15 12 27, www.kunersdorfer-musenhof.de
For more information about the Oderbruch Museum and the cultural heritage in the Oderbruch, please see here.