Huis Doorn in Utrechtse Heuvelrug

Saturday, 13 April 2013 - 01:09 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks
Reading Time:  4 minutes

The bust of Wilhelm II, sculpted by Max Bezner © Hanseichbaum

The bust of Wilhelm II, sculpted by Max Bezner © Hanseichbaum

Huis Doorn (Doorn Manor) is a small manor house that lies outside of Doorn, a small town near Utrecht, in the Netherlands. The 15th-century house was rebuilt in the late 18th century in a conservative manner and, in the mid-19th century, a surrounding park was laid out as an English landscape garden. Baroness Ella van Heemstra (1900–1984), the mother of actress Audrey Hepburn, spent much of her childhood living in the house. The property was purchased in 1919 by Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor, as his residence-in-exile (1920–1941), following his abdication after World War I. During his years in exile, he was allowed to travel freely within a 15 mile radius of his house, but journeys farther than that meant that advance notice had to be given to a local government official. As he disliked having to kowtow to a minor official, he rarely journeyed beyond the ‘free’ limit. The former Emperor regularly exercised by chopping down many of the estate’s trees, splitting the logs into stacks of firewood, thereby denuding the matured landscape as the years progressed. Hence he was called by his enemies ‘The Woodchopper of Doorn’. The Dutch government seized the manor house and its household effects in 1945 and, since then, many new trees have been re-planted and the wooded parkland is returning to its earlier glory.

Wilhelm’s asylum in the Netherlands was based on family ties with Queen Wilhelmina, whom, some claim, he embarrassed by his political statements. In fact, Wilhelm rarely spoke publicly, while in exile. His first wife, Dona, died at Huis Doorn and, afterwards, her body was taken back to Potsdam in Germany where she was buried in the Temple of Antiquities. Wilhelm could only accompany her on her last journey as far as the German border. In 1938, his grandson, Prince Louis Ferdinand, was married to Grand Duchess Kira of Russia, in Huis Doorn.

Huis Doorn © Iijjccoo/cc-by-sa-3.0 Gatehouse © Basvb/cc-by-sa-3.0 Orangerie © Basvb/cc-by-sa-3.0-nl Mausoleum of Wilhelm II © Iijjccoo Huis Doorn Panorama © Suedwester93/cc-by-sa-3.0 The bust of Wilhelm II, sculpted by Max Bezner © Hanseichbaum
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The bust of Wilhelm II, sculpted by Max Bezner © Hanseichbaum
Wilhelm II died of a pulmonary embolism at Huis Doorn, on the 4th June 1941, with German occupation soldiers on guard at the gates of his estate. He was buried in a small mausoleum in the gardens, to await his return to Germany upon the restoration of the Prussian monarchy, according to the terms of his will. His wish that no swastikas would be displayed at his funeral was not heeded.

The house is open as a museum, just as Wilhelm left it, with marquetry commodes, tapestries, paintings by German court painters, porcelains and silver. Wilhelm’s collections of snuffboxes and watches that belonged to Frederick the Great are considered by some to be the most interesting of the artifacts.

In June each year, a devoted band of German monarchists still come to pay their respects and lay wreaths, accompanied by marchers in period uniforms and representatives from modern monarchist organisations, such as Tradition und Leben of Cologne.

Read more on Huis Doorn and Wikipedia Huis Doorn. Photos by Wikipedia Commons.




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