The Imperial Castle – the former residence of Emperor Wilhelm II – was the largest and most important building erected by the Prussian authorities in the early 20th century to raise the importance of Poznań. Its construction began in 1905 and took only five years; in 1910 the Emperor was ceremoniously handed the keys. After three further years work was completed on a mosaic-decorated castle chapel. Its designer, Franz Schwechten, referred to Neo-Romanesque forms recalling the splendour of the Charlemagne Empire. Most of the castle’s stately interiors also received Neo-Romanesque decor. 

Overlooking the castle is the tower, which originally housed the chapel. The western part of the building, which surrounds the inner courtyard, contained private apartments of the Emperor and his family, while the eastern part – the throne-room. At the back a small park was set up; it boasts a rosary whose architecture is modelled on the Alhambra’s famous Lion Courtyard. A service building, the so-called groom’s house, is located in the north-western corner of the compound. After the end of World War 1 the Castle became property of the Polish State; between the world wars the building was one of the official residences of the Polish presidents as well as the main seat of the then newly-established Poznań University. It was also a tourist attraction. In 1939, soon after the town had been taken by the Germans, the castle was visited by Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler’s “court” architect. The visit resulted in a decision to redecorate the former imperial apartments to suit the needs of the Third Reich’s Führer (the most spectacular change was the conversion of the castle’s chapel into Adolf Hitler’s office). The second floor was prepared for Arthur Greiser – under Nazi rule the official in control of the so-called Warthe River District. Work commenced immediately and continued until 1944, when the military situation left no doubt as to the future development of the war. By the time almost all previous internal decorations had been removed and replaced with solutions modelled on the new Berlin Chancellery designed by A. Speer. Like other buildings in the centre of Poznań, the castle was severely damaged during the liberation of the town. Its state, but first of all the war-time associations it evoked, brought proposals to demolish or redesign the construction. Eventually, its tower was lowered by ca. one-third of the original height. In the early post-war years the castle still served the University, later to become the seat of the municipal authorities. Since 1962 it has been a cultural establishment. Granted the status of a monument, in recent years the castle has been undergoing systematic redecoration. Archive photographs exhibited in hallways as well as preserved elements of the original decoration, incl. the imperial throne, make the castle’s history more familiar.

Text thanks to www.zamek.poznan.pl

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