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Fans of The Queen's Gambit, German history aficianados: I went out to Schulzendorf near the new BER airport to find the manor house that stood in for Beth's orphanage in the series. It's an evocative place linked to one of Berlin's most illustrious Jewish families (thread)
Moritz Israel, scion of a Jewish retail dynasty in Berlin since the 1740s, bought the former feudal estate in the late 19th c and built this Renaissance-style villa. A year later he would give it to his son Richard & bride Bianca as a wedding present
They were known as generous patrons of artists (incl a young Lovis Corinth), built schools for local children & employed a large staff on the grounds. The Israels took pride in their modernity & ensured key infrastructure in Schulzendorf incl electrical lines & drinking water
The rise of the Nazis saw the Israels stripped of their property. While a few of their children managed to escape, Richard & Bianca were sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He died almost immediately; she survived the Holocaust & lived out the postwar years in Hanover
The grounds of the place are beautiful, especially on a lovely fall day but no match for the reportedly spectacular gardens of yore where swans swam, rare blossoms unfurled and peacocks sashayed
The descendants of the family, many active in Germany's Jewish community, have helped keep alive the memories of Richard, a decorated WWI veteran, & Bianca, who founded an aid group for young mothers & their infants. Schulzendorf named a small street for him
But the Schloss itself is a shadow of its former self. We got a peek inside an annex, more redolent of the GDR than the 1920s glory days
The place mainly serves as an exterior these days for movies & series like The Queen's Gambit, which filmed here & in Berlin last winter. But it's tempting to fantasize about what could be done with a restoration that honored the Israel family's fate & legacy
All this to find another frame for talking on the eve of the 82th anniversary of the November pogrom (Kristallnacht) & after this momentous week for the US & the world about the culture of historical remembrance. #memoryculture Thanks for reading. Sources below
For more on the locations for the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit (in which Berlin stood in for Moscow, Paris & Mexico City!): https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2020/10/where-was-the-queens-gambit-filmed.html?fbclid=IwAR1S7Vq8E71du9l9zkRH4es9nhpROJn79RpYWZ0qlw1LI2SI708SaWoL8Uk
For more on the Israel family and Schloss Schulzendorf: http://scottyscout.com/brandenburg/schloss-schulzendorf/ and https://www.maz-online.de/Lokales/Dahme-Spreewald/Getoetet-aber-niemals-vergessen
For more on the Israel family & its descendants: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/themen/reportage/juedisches-leben-in-berlin-mit-ihrem-reichtum-retteten-sie-ihre-kinder-vor-den-nazis/10354546-3.html @tagesspiegel @_Palenker and the family's former department store near the Rotes Rathaus: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufhaus_Nathan_Israel
