Founding date The founding of the Hoflößnitz has been dated to May 8, 1401 since 1904, after an article by the archivist and historian Hans Beschorner in the
Dresdner Geschichtsblätter, Beschorner referred to the original document No. 5170 in the Saxon Main State Archive and claimed: According to this purchase contract between Margrave Wilhelm and Friedemann Küchenmeister, the margrave acquired during the Dohna Feud from their vassals, the
Küch(en)meisters, bypassing the feudal lordship, the press house with three surrounding vineyards for a purchase sum of 1660 shock Meißner Groschen (corresponding to 4980 Rhenish guilders). Beschorner's chain of argument that the Küchenmeisters were fief holders of the Burgraves of Dohna and that these had overlordship over some vineyards in the cadastral area of Kötzschenbroda was rejected by the historian Mike Huth in 2001 in
600 Jahre Hoflößnitz. The document No. 635 from around 1373 from the document book of the
Meissen Diocese cited by Beschorner for his conclusion does prove the fief bearing of the Dohna under the Bishop of Meissen. However, the 1401 document does not prove the overlordship over the vineyards in question, which were listed as
accessories. Rather, according to the 1401 document, Margrave Wilhelm bought from Friedemann Küchenmeister for a purchase sum of 1660 shock Meißner Groschen “the village Kötzschenbroda with fields, meadows, services, duties, vineyards, spiritual and secular fiefs and all its accessories in field and village,” In that 17th century, the Hoflößnitz lay in the center of 6000 hectares of Saxon viticulture area. The core of the complex was for a long time the press house described in 1563, which was equipped with a large tree press, and until 1688 owned the only wine cellar. Elector Christian I. issued the first regulations for Saxon viticulture in 1588, the
Weingebürgsordnung. In the 17th century, a residential extension was added to the existing press house for the mountain administrator. From 1616, specialists from
Württemberg around the vintner Jacob Löffler introduced new cultivation and working methods “in Württemberg style”. These included terracing the steep slopes with dry stone walls, row planting of the vines as well as varietal pure cultivation. Until then, cultivation had been in
mixed set, which after pressing produced the typical Rotling (Schieler). From 1615 to 1735, the electoral ownership increased enormously through purchases of further vineyards. Until into the 19th century, the mountain administrator was responsible for twelve vintneries (1670: with 23 vineyards) with their mountain bailiffs. Two of them lay on the cadastral land of today's Niederlößnitz: these were the
Eckberg and a vineyard north of the
Spittelberg. The mountain administrator of the Hoflößnitz was directly subordinate to the electoral Landweinmeister. Ecclesiastically, the courtly domain was assigned to the Kirche zu Kötzschenbroda. For the water supply of the estate courtyard, the
Straken water pipeline, a wooden pipeline, was put into operation in 1625 from the Wahnsdorf height. Fed by Wahnsdorf springs, this first ran south through the incised
Straken ground and then west parallel to Weinbergstraße. Against water rent, it initially supplied twelve properties. The
Hof-Lößnitzer Röhr-Waßer-Ordnung regulated the use legally from 1744. A polygonal water house with curved hood in the inner courtyard of the complex collected the pipeline water (in the 1667 image in front of the smoking chimney of the right upper mountain administrator house). In addition, a sundial was set up on a column in the inner courtyard. In the years 1648 to 1650, Elector Johann Georg I. built a small palace on the estate with the help of his land architect Ezechiel Eckhardt, which can be assigned to the transition from late Renaissance to early Baroque and whose interior furnishings stylistically belong to
Mannerism. It differed externally from the Lößnitz vineyard houses by the tower with the spiral staircase as well as the gilded
weather vane with the Saxon coat of arms. The interior construction was probably not completed until around 1680. The Elector's son Johann Georg II. celebrated the grape harvest there annually, employed the Dutchman
Albert Eckhout already hired by his father as
court painter and arranged larger expansions in interior architecture as well as additions. Especially also through the court painters Wiebel and Schiebling, the splendid furnishings of the banquet hall with the two laterally located living and sleeping rooms of the Elector and Electress were created. Also around 1650, the kitchen and stable building was created, which today looks out on both sides from the later expanded cavalier house. From 1657 to 1807, the
Lößnitzer Manual was kept, which recorded the electoral visits to the Hoflößnitz: Johann Georg II. was on site up to five times a year, mostly on the way to the hunt in the Friedewald. From 1661, Johann Paul Knohll was the
construction and mountain scribe at the Hoflößnitz, who wrote with his
Klein Vinicultur-Büchlein a standard work on Saxon viticulture used into the 19th century. After 1667, the originally half-timbered spiral tower up to the top was rebuilt into a massive spiral stone. The buildings west of the small palace with wine cellar, cellar room, vintner dwelling and stable were created in 1688. In place of today's cavalier house stood the kitchen building. Parts of it remained in 1843 during the construction of the later mountain administrator house.
Augustus the Strong invited his hunting parties to Hoflößnitz and held court dance festivals with wine dispensing. The first such festival for the grape harvest took place in 1715, followed by others in 1719 and 1727. After the Spitzige Haus on the height above the Hoflößnitz had come back into electoral possession in 1710 through the Countess Cosel, August harbored first plans for another pleasure palace on the height; of this, only the shell pavilion was executed. Instead, his son
Friedrich August II. had the
Spitzige Haus baroquely rebuilt in 1749 according to plans by
Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann using the older building substance. A
year staircase with planned 365 (in reality 390) steps led from the small palace to the height (restoration 1845–1847, renovated 1992 with 397 steps). In the 17th or 18th century, the electoral vintners planted a vine
Frühe Leipziger (
Prié Blanc) on a south wall in the
vineyard Goldener Wagen, which today with an estimated age of 250 to 350 years is considered the fourth oldest vine in the world and second oldest house vine in Germany. The press house was renewed in 1698. Burned down in 1824, it was rebuilt including the dwelling for the mountain bailiff by the land architect Carl Mildreich Barth. Both the Electors and later the Saxon kings used their country seat in the Lößnitz also for state-relevant meetings. The guest book preserved in the Saxon State Archive for the private chambers in the tower floor of the Spitzhaus standing high on the slope edge names names like Emperor
Joseph II, King
Charles X of France and King
Otto I of Greece. Also the later German Emperor
William I of Prussia was a guest there as Crown Prince.
Saxon state winery, phylloxera catastrophe In 1834, the royal winery was converted into a state winery. Land architect Carl Mildreich Barth created the plans in 1843 for the late classicist construction of the mountain administrator house, which integrated parts of the kitchen and stable buildings. The execution was by Karl Moritz Haenel. For this building, the ahistorical but still used designation
cavalier house became established at the beginning of the 20th century. The construction of the first German
long-distance railway connection Leipzig–Dresden built from 1837 to 1839 was started simultaneously from both sides. The 8.18 km long
section from Dresden-Neustadt to Weintraube was ceremonially opened on July 19, 1838, at the same time near the Hoflößnitz at the height of today's
stop Radebeul-Weintraube the first
stop “zur Weintraube” on today's Radebeul city area was inaugurated, including the first
turntable after the Leipziger Bahnhof in Dresden. By the end of August of that year, 68,000 passengers had already used the “steam ride” to the Lößnitz. On October 25, 1840, a large bourgeois vintners' festival with the ''vintners' procession of the viticulture society
took place, which led from the Hoflößnitz to the Gasthof Goldene Weintraube''. At the festival, not only a banquet and dance were offered, but also a Bengal fire on the mountain heights of the Hoflößnitz and at Cossebaude on the other side of the Elbe. This vintners' procession is probably the best known in Saxony today, as it was recorded and published by the painter
Moritz Retzsch living in Oberlößnitz on his winery Retzschgut in a series of images. Retzsch's image template influenced all subsequent processions. A version of Retzsch's image sequence colored in the 1950s is exhibited in the winegrowing museum. It provided the model for the vintners' processions from 2011. From 1846 to 1851,
compensation recess negotiations took place between the
special commission for compensation and commons division and twelve named “property owners obligated to deliver interest manure to the domain cellar [of the Hoflößnitz] in Naundorf and Zitzschewig”, six farm owners from each place. The goal was to convert the
natural interest of annually 42 fuder of manure to be delivered without compensation since at least 1170 into a monetary
rent payment to the state treasury. Also in 1846, it was determined that the 200 grape harvest days to be performed annually in the Hoflößnitz by residents of Kötzschenbroda, Fürstenhains, Serkowitz’, Radebeuls,
Micktens, Übigaus, Trachaus, Reichenbergs, Dippelsdorfs, Naundorfs and Zitzschewigs were to be compensated by a one-time amount as well as annual rent payments to the treasury of the Dresden Rentamt. The respective one-time amounts and annual payments were based on the respective share ratios per commune. According to Hofmann 1853 the Hoflößnitz as “special immediate Dresden office place” had a size of 80 bushel seed, which corresponds to about 22 hectares. Together with the office vineyards in Pillnitz and Cossebaude, they were subordinate to a royal office mountain inspector. In the 1880s, the phylloxera catastrophe in the Lößnitz caused severe damage to the vineyards. In the summer of 1887, the infestation of the soils was officially determined, after which, according to a Reich law of 1875, the destruction of the vine systems had to follow. In May 1888, the Saxon government decided to abandon viticulture in the Hoflößnitz as well as the sale of the fiscal vineyards.
Sale of the vineyards and estate complex to private In 1889, the winery was parceled and auctioned, as were many parts of the movable inventory. Many of the former vineyard areas were subsequently built with
villas. The estate complex itself came after two owner changes in 1899 into the hands of the Russian general and envoy to the Saxon court, Count Boris Sukanov-Podkolzin (also Suckanoff-Podkolzine). He had a very large dimensioned, paneled neo-rococo tower structure set on the Mountain and Pleasure House south toward the valley. And in front of the main house, toward the valley, a
balustrade with a free staircase was built. In addition, the courtyard gate received a neo-baroque grille. Already in 1900 the general died, and the new owner became his heiress, the Countess Anna von Zolotoff living in
Saint Petersburg. Since the small palace lying far away in Saxony meant little to her and she considered selling the property used only for occasional summer stays, the danger of further parceling of the remaining areas of the formerly extensive winery arose again. The Oberlößnitz development plan provided for villa construction all around, of which in 1905 the Villa Franziska nearby in Hoflößnitzstraße 58 was built. What could happen to the remaining area had shown the development of the Villenkolonie Altfriedstein, including the intervention in the centuries-old building substance of a manor house.
Saviors of the stock: The Hoflößnitz Association In 1912, the core of the Hoflößnitz, a 2.8 hectare property with the winery complex, was again for sale. To counteract the further fragmentation of the remaining areas with the consequence of further sprawl as well as the dispersal of still existing artworks, interested citizens founded the Hoflößnitz Association. On March 20, 1912, the association founded in the Grundschänke under the leadership of the secret finance councilor Georg Friedrich Haase from Oberlößnitz took its seat in Oberlößnitz. Lippert became deputy chairman and Beschorner secretary; also involved was the Oberlößnitz community board Bruno Hörning as treasurer. The association purpose according to the statutes was to The association, soon grown to 120 members through the support of the historian Woldemar Lippert, board member in the Royal Saxon Antiquities Association, succeeded in a short time in raising a large part of the funds necessary for the acquisition and renovation in the amount of 350,000 marks especially through donations from the ranks of industry. After the acquisition of the complex (the Spitzhaus could not be reacquired) as well as the eastern areas (especially the
Schlossberg) in July 1912, the architectural management was transferred to the architect and board member Emil Högg, who settled in the neighboring Radebeul in the same year in his own house. His task was the securing of the centuries-old historic substance, the necessary reduction to the historic stylization as well as the then prevailing ideas of heritage-appropriate renovation. He found support for the restoration of the damaged wall and ceiling paintings with the Dresden painter Gustav Löhr. The local history museum was commissioned to the Niederlößnitz school director Emanuel Erler. He led the local group of the Association for Saxon Folklore, with which he had already exhibited an exhibition of local viticulture history at the Kötzschenbroda trade exhibition of 1909. Especially also because of the encouragement by King
Friedrich August III., Erler wanted to make this exhibition a permanent presentation. The building technical investigations had revealed that the vineyard palace was much more dilapidated than suspected. Through the improper placement of the oversized roof rider on the south side, the roof structure was so deformed that intruded rainwater had damaged the ceiling paintings of the banquet hall. In addition, the half-timbering in the upper floor, probably plastered in the 18th century, was severely damaged. Högg's measures such as the removal of the roof tower, the exposure of the half-timbering and the replacement of beams saved the building and at the same time put it externally into a form appropriate to the construction time of 1650. In addition, the balustrade was broken off again and the neo-baroque gate was removed. All these construction executions were in the hands of the construction company Hörnig & Barth. The historically appropriate restoration was so elaborate that it consumed the association's assets. In addition, the external appearance provoked protests in the population, who did not imagine a small palace like a simple vintner's house. The donation sources dried up in a short time. In 1913, the
Association for the Promotion of Viticulture in the Lößnitz was founded, which under the leadership of the oenologist Carl Pfeiffer began to replant the Lößnitz with the grafted vine introduced in 1905. Costly wrong decisions by Haase cost him his place, he was forced to resign. A tax demand in 1914 led to de facto insolvency. After some association board members were drafted for war service at the beginning of the First World War, the Oberlößnitz community leader and association treasurer Hörnig took care of the association's business. The debt burden led three years after founding to the orderly bankruptcy proceedings of the association. To secure what had been achieved, Hörnig initiated the bankruptcy proceedings over the association in February 1915; in June 1915, Oberlößnitz as the main creditor acquired the now repaired and increased in value Hoflößnitz property for significantly less money than the association had paid. The Hoflößnitz Association thus became the “savior of the Hoflößnitz”, its bankruptcy, “a blemish in the eyes of contemporaries, appears from the distance of a century as a marginal note.”
Municipal ownership: Local heritage protection law and beginning of the recultivation of viticulture Upon takeover, the commune received the state requirement to maintain the property in a heritage-appropriate manner and to prevent future land speculation with the Hoflößnitz property. Thus, Oberlößnitz issued in the same year 1915 a
local law against the disfigurement of the Hoflößnitz including systems and surroundings, The new plantings were made with grafted vines mainly of the varieties
Müller-Thurgau,
Riesling,
Ruländer,
Veltliner,
Silvaner,
Neuburger,
Traminer,
Gutedel,
Pinot noir or
Portugieser. The land ownership of the city winery was over 16 hectares in 1941; the agricultural areas were mainly cultivated during the Second World War by forced laborers. In the meantime, the Hoflößnitz was used in the Second World War as a prisoner of war camp for soldiers of the Red Army. After the war, which the Hoflößnitz survived unscathed, it became the seat of the Soviet occupation power (
1st Guards Tank Army), for which a today heritage-protected block station was built in 1949 at the foot of the southwestern gate. In 1946, the managed vineyards yielded 9.46 hectares of vine area, which according to a property overview from west to east consisted of the following vineyards:
Altfriedstein,
Steinrücken (near the Friedrich-August-Höhe),
Goldener Wagen,
Schlossberg (house mountain of the Hoflößnitz),
Perle,
Hölle,
Ballberg,
Hermannsberg,
Albertsberg and
Ravensberg. The yield was temporarily confiscated by the
Soviet Military Administration in Germany. Plans in 1946 to set up a hotel in the cavalier house were not implemented. In 1947, the area size of the city winery including still fallow mountains was just under 29 hectares, of which just under 3.3 hectares were leased. On October 1, 1949, the
Heimathaus Hoflößnitz with its museum building, the
Mountain and Pleasure House, remained in the legal ownership of the city of Radebeul, while the rest of the city winery operation was spun off.
People's winery Lößnitz, viticulture Radebeul The
city winery Radebeul and the state winery of the state of Saxony both passed into the legal ownership of the
central Vereinigung Volkseigener Güter (ZVVG) Southeast on October 1, 1949. This was subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the state of Saxony. Added were the city wineries of Dresden and Meißen as well as some expropriated operations of private vintners. From the association of both wineries emerged the ''People's Own Enterprise Viticulture “Lößnitz”''. As the seat of the people's winery, the winery Paulsberg in the district Zitzschewig was determined, which had belonged since 1940 to the state estates administration of the Saxon state government. In addition to the
viticulture “Lößnitz” only the vintners' cooperative in Meißen remained in the region as a producer operation. In the following period, the people's winery developed, also through the takeover of further vineyards as well as through area consolidations, into the largest viticulture operation in the Elbe Valley with about 80 hectares. Thus in 1974 six operation parts belonged to it, which managed in the Radebeul area 32.5 hectares, around
Meißen 10.5 hectares
(Meißner city winery), in Seußlitz (near
Nünchritz) 33.5 hectares and in Cossebaude 3.5 hectares of vineyard areas. Cultivation varieties were especially
Müller-Thurgau,
Riesling,
Pinot blanc,
Traminer as well as
Ruländer. According to
Werte unserer Heimat a total of 136 hectares of vineyard belonged to the winery in 1970, in addition to the previous list areas in Diesbar and in the Spaargebirge are added in the listing. In the years 1974 to 1977, Schloss Wackerbarth and parts of the garden system were renovated. From 1977, extensive preservation work was carried out on the buildings of the Hoflößnitz, which had become rundown due to aging and improper use. In April 1974, the people's winery took over the nearby expropriated in 1972 Sektkellerei Bussard, which was still used until 1978 for the artisanal production of sparkling wine in bottle fermentation. In 1978/1979, the traditional bottle fermentation was discontinued and the last remaining Bussard employees were transferred to mass sparkling wine production on the grounds of Wackerbarthsruhe. The tank fermentation process practiced there for mass production of cheap sparkling wine had priority over the classic bottle fermentation practiced in Bussard with much manual work, which delivered higher sparkling wine qualities but was more cost-intensive. Until 1981, the sparkling wine output increased from 25,600 to 36,500 hectoliters. The protected brands were
Schlossberg (after the house mountain of the Hoflößnitz) and
Schloß Wackerbarth, in 1985 the sparkling wine brand
Graf Wackerbarth was introduced.
Municipal winery, Hoflößnitz Winery Museum Foundation, Saxon Winegrowing Museum In July 1990, the People's Own Enterprise was converted into
Viticulture Radebeul – Schloß Wackerbarth GmbH. The state
Saxony took over Schloss Wackerbarth in April 1992, while the
city winery Radebeul brought into the people's winery was separated again and transferred to municipal ownership. This cleared the way for a fundamental renovation, reactivation of viticulture, revision of the museum as well as tourist use (guided tours through the small palace, museum and the winery with wine tastings, wine sales and dispensing). In 1994, a wine tavern was reopened – in the same place where one had already existed between 1919 and 1938: in the former vintner's dwelling, which was called
electoral chamber at the time of the restaurant. The lower rooms of the cavalier house were restored in 1995. They have since been used for events or also wine tastings; to the right of the entrance is the museum cash desk with wine sales, to the left is a museum room, in which in 2010 the exhibition
Memory + Responsibility. Saxon Viticulture in National Socialism was opened, which commemorates the forced laborers in Saxon viticulture at the time of National Socialism. The city as owner brought the property in 1997 into a non-profit, legally capable foundation under civil law with the name
Stiftung Weingutmuseum Hoflößnitz, which was approved by the Dresden government presidency in March 1998. In addition, the
Weingut und Weinstube Hoflößnitz Betriebsgesellschaft mbH is operated, which bundles the commercial interests. With the conversion of the
municipal museum Hoflößnitz into the
winery museum Hoflößnitz, the art stock was divided: The wine-specific part remained with the Hoflößnitz, the other artworks went into the stock of the
municipal art collection, which is attached to the
Stadtgalerie Radebeul on the Anger of Altkötzschenbroda. In 2001, with the publication edited by the art historian and former Saxon state conservator Heinrich Magirius
600 Years Hoflößnitz: Historic Winery Complex the probably most comprehensive standard work on the Hoflößnitz appeared. On the occasion of the state-wide event
850 Years Viticulture in Saxony in 2011, the
winery museum Hoflößnitz was upgraded to
Saxon Winegrowing Museum Hoflößnitz. The museum is a member of ICOM Germany. Also in 2011, the historic vintners' procession by
Moritz Retzsch from 1840 was revived by the
Stiftung Weingutmuseum Hoflößnitz according to historic template; only the direction of the vintners' procession was reversed to be able to end in the Hoflößnitz. Since October 2012, the event has been repeated, in 2015 it was carried out on the occasion of the double anniversary ''300 years Saxon Vintners' Procession
and 25 years German Unity
as German Vintners' Procession'', with participation of the twelve other German winegrowing regions. == Historic winery complex with winery and winegrowing museum ==