Gelbensande: Hunting Lodge and Places of Remembrance

The Hunting Lodge and Its History

Gelbensande Hunting Lodge was built by court architect Gotthilf Ludwig Möckel between 1885 and 1887. It was commissioned by Friedrich Franz III and his wife Anastasia Mikhailovna, a granddaughter of Russian Tsar Nicholas I, as a summer residence for the Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg. The lodge also has special historical significance as the childhood home of Cecilie, the last German Crown Princess, and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark. These biographies connect the history of the house with European ruling families.

The lodge’s location was also part of its design: it was deliberately built in a clearing so that the forest and wildlife would form part of the setting. History and landscape therefore come together in the layout of the place itself, without reducing the lodge solely to its former function as a summer residence.

Museum, Tour and Culture

The hunting lodge’s state rooms are operated as a museum and cultural venue. A tour takes you through twelve living rooms. Magnificent fireplaces and interesting technical details offer different points of interest in each room, so during your visit you can focus on both the furnishings and the technical features. Visitors with a particular interest in historic living spaces can make the tour their main focus.

The state rooms are also used for wedding ceremonies. Their use as a museum and cultural venue, on the one hand, and for weddings, on the other, shows the different roles this part of the lodge serves today. Another historical trace is the former Grand Ducal Forestry Inspectorate in Gelbensande, built after 1877.

Places of Remembrance in Gelbensande

Places of remembrance are also part of the town’s history. The infirmary cemetery at Gelbensande Hunting Lodge is located in Gelbensande at Am Jagdschloss 5 and is now a war cemetery. It contains 53 people buried in individual graves and 5 in collective graves. The numbers and different types of graves give the site a tangible, solemn significance.

Another wartime event is associated with the disused Fürstenhaus beside the hunting lodge: an auxiliary hospital was set up there on 1 May 1945. This followed the unloading of about 750 wounded people from two trains evacuating them from Pomerania. Gelbensande is also home to a memorial to five Polish forced labourers who were buried in an unmarked grave outside Gelbensande municipal cemetery in 1945. These places of remembrance represent different aspects of the town’s history and should not be equated with the history of the lodge alone.

Woodland Trails and Further Points of Interest

Within the municipality, the adjacent woodland areas are connected by a varied network of cycling and hiking trails. Along the B105, the network links up with the Baltic Sea Cycle Route and connects via forest trails to the Fischland-Darß-Zingst area. Hiking maps displayed throughout the municipality support walks with informative content. If you would like to include some activity alongside the lodge and cultural attractions, you can take these trails into account when choosing your own excursions.

Gelbensande Church stands west of the town. It was built of brick in 1924; its roof structure and bell tower were fully renovated in 2008. This offers another historic site, alongside the hunting lodge, that may be of particular interest.

If you would like to explore other places at the same navigation level, you can also visit Bentwisch, Blankenhagen, Mönchhagen and Rövershagen.

For the broader travel overview: Amt Rostocker Heide.