Since 1989 Schloss Britz has been exhibiting a permanent exhibition on the residential culture of the Wilhelminian era in five rooms of the building on the left.
Image gallery
Schloss Britz, Damenzimmer © Kulturstiftung Schloss Britz
Schloss Britz, Damenzimmer © Kulturstiftung Schloss Britz
Schloss Britz, Jagdzimmer
Schloss Britz, Terrassenzimmer
The original furniture and decorations convey the living and life-feeling of the late 19th century to the visitors. The epoch of the Gründerzeit (founding period) began in Germany after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/1871 and the founding of the German Empire in 1871. The German capital market benefited greatly from the Reparations, which France had to pay in the amount of about 5 billion francs. The time was marked by numerous foundations of companies and stock corporations.
Winner of the economic upswing was especially the bourgeoisie.
As a result of the enormous economic success, a national high mood developed and thus a strong German national consciousness, which was a lasting influence on the bourgeois residential culture. Historism in architecture and art reflected the new national self-awareness in the splendor of past epochs, preferably those of the Renaissance and the Gothic.
A specifically German, "old German" art style could be revived, especially in the Neo-Renaissance. The aspiring and well-to-do bourgeoisie wanted to show the newly gained prosperity in a representative architecture of the house with richly decorated façade and a luxurious interior of the apartment with high quality furnishings.
