07/19/2018

“What is a steam engine? So let's play it silly and say, a steam engine, that's a big, round black room. And the big, round black room has two holes.”

Whether Hans Pfeiffer, who has the three f's, understood the technical explanations from high school professor Bömmel? Did Bömmel, a scatterbrained member of the teaching staff at the “Feuerzangenbowle”, understand it himself? One has to doubt it and, if he wasn't just a character in an ancient film, we should recommend him to stay at the Stober estate in Groß Behnitz, a district of Nauen. There, in the former distillery, where industrial alcohol was once made from grain or potatoes, there is such a heavy steam engine from the Borsig company - who else, after all, the estate belonged to the industrial family that was once famous for its steam locomotives. Today there is a restaurant, a wine bar, a farm shop, conference rooms of all sizes, you can even get married there in style and accommodate the wedding guests in the two hotels on the estate, all of this with idyllic nature and lake views included. But no matter whether a larger group is staying for such a private reason of love or for more professional reasons, for example as part of a much more prosaic conference - as an accompanying program, a lesson in steam engine technology is possible under expert guidance, including disassembly. and screwing selected parts back together and acquiring a corresponding certificate. Bömmel and Pfeiffer could still learn something.

THE LEGAL DISPUTE OVER THE NAME BORSIG IS STILL SWARMING

This rebirth of the ruinous von Borsig property, which was expropriated after the end of the war and completely run down during the GDR era, was made possible by the real estate entrepreneur Michael Stober, whose name the estate also bears today. One of the heirs, the son of the last owner, objected to the use of the name Borsig legal objections asserted, the legal dispute is still smoldering.

Aber auch ohne den berühmten Namen, der im Berliner Stadtbild noch immer vielfach präsent ist, floriert das Geschäft in der Hotelanlage mit ihrem angegliederten Gastronomie- und Veranstaltungsbetrieb offensichtlich bestens – so gut, dass Michael Stober zahlreiche Anfragen schon abschlägig bescheiden musste. Das Prinzip Fließband mag für Industriebetriebe ein Segen sein – bei Hochzeiten oder Tagungen ist es nicht zu empfehlen. Doch soll es mit derlei Engpässen in absehbarer Zukunft ein Ende haben, ist die Erweiterung des Hotelbetriebs fest geplant.

Der Erfolg war nicht abzusehen, als Stober das Landgut im Jahr 2000 übernahm. Mancher seiner Freunde und Bekannten neigte dazu, ihn deswegen für verrückt zu erklären. Er war gerade von der Ostsee zurückgekehrt, hatte mit zwei dort angebotenen Herrenhäusern geliebäugelt, die sich jedoch als vom Hausschwamm befallen erwiesen. Ein Freund empfahl ihm das ebenfalls zur Versteigerung anstehende ehemalige Landgut der Borsigs, er fuhr hin, sah den grassierenden Verfall, die leeren Fensterhöhlen, das aus den maroden Dächern wuchernde Grün, die Müllberge in den Gebäuden, erkannte aber, erfahren in der Sanierung selbst maroder Altbauten, die weitgehend intakte, jedenfalls reparable Substanz und sagte sich: „Entweder du machst das oder keiner.“ Stober griff zu.

Seither ist viel Geld in das ursprünglich 30 000, jetzt immerhin noch 20 000 Quadratmeter große Areal geflossen. Auf 18 Millionen Euro beziffert Michael Stober die Investitionen, zu je einem knappen Drittel finanziert durch Fördermittel und Bankdarlehen, der Rest durch Eigenkapital nach Verkäufen eigener Immobilien. Allerdings klotzte der neue Gutsherr, der dort mit seiner Familie mittlerweile auch lebt, nicht gleich los, ließ sein neues Reich eher organisch wachsen. Erst wurde das alte Logierhaus der Borsigs – eine verkleinerte Kopie des Herrenhauses, das 1946/47, noch vor dem Berliner Stadtschloss, abgerissen wurde – zum Hotel umgewandelt, dann an der Stelle einer früheren, längst verschwundenen Scheune Brandenburgs erstes zertifiziertes Bio-Hotel gebaut, samt Photovoltaikanlage zur Stromgewinnung, Regenwasserspülung für die Toiletten, Holzheizung und elektrosmog-reduzierten Zimmern. Insgesamt stehen nun 256 auf 128 Doppelzimmer und Suiten verteilte Betten zur Verfügung – für manche Tagung noch immer zu wenig, reisen doch deren Gäste eher solo an. Ein weiteres Haus mit 172 Einzelzimmern soll daher entstehen, dort wo an der Dorfstraße früher der Ferkelstall stand.

THE TASK: BRINGING OLD BUILDING SUBSTANCE AND NEW USE INTO HARMONY

For Stober, to the delight of the preservationists, it goes without saying that this new building should also remain committed to the past and be built in the same cubature as the original stable. He has already done this with the organic hotel. It takes a lot of sensitivity to grasp and complement existing structures, is how he describes his credo. The conversion of the poultry house and calf barn into a restaurant with a terrace facing the romantically overgrown Groß Behnitzer Lake has not created any foreign objects in the brick building ensemble. The new use of the old granary, the distillery, the cattle stable and the manager's house can hardly be seen from the outside, with 25 salons - also suitable for conferences, events and private celebrations - a farm shop, wedding room, an old printing workshop and much more. And inside, Stober has successfully tried to harmonize the old building structure and the new use as much as possible. The large number of rooms of very different, sometimes even variable sizes even allows for completely new types of events, beyond the classic conference rituals focused on frontal sound.

75 PERCENT OF OVERNIGHT OVERNIGHTS ARE AT CONFERENCES

Currently, conference guests account for around 75 percent of overnight stays. If you include other company meetings, company parties and weddings, it's already 95 percent - an astonishing success, as Michael Stober himself says that when he started here, Groß Behnitz was still at the end of the world. It has now moved closer to Berlin - although Deutsche Bahn has not yet responded to his request to connect the place to its network with a stop again, as in the Borsigs' time, and to simply let the RB 13 continue a little further beyond Wustermark - despite his willingness to finance the station.

So until further notice, guests have to travel by car, which takes around 50 minutes from the Brandenburg Gate. Or you can take the bus from Nauen train station. Currently, 60 full-time employees, most of whom come from the town and the region, as well as 150 seasonal employees look after their well-being. And just as Michael Stober strives to run his business sustainably and responsibly, organic anyway, climate-neutral, oriented towards the common good, which has repeatedly been attested to with awards, he has also taken unusual paths with the staff: Hire refugees? Sure, just not at the reception with her language problems. This would be possible in the kitchen, housekeeping or technology, but the new employee from abroad would also have to be accepted by the local staff. And so, when Stober hired a Syrian to work in the kitchen two years ago, he personally introduced him to the staff on his first day of work and told his escape story. It worked.

Stober is just as happy to talk about the history of the Borsig family as he is about the success of his “vision” after his first encounter with the estate. Over the almost two decades he has developed into an expert on this industrial dynasty. During excavation work, the remains of Germanic settlements were even discovered on the site. The estate's history becomes clearer at the beginning of the 19th century, when Peter Alexander von Itzenplitz, grandson of the famous general Frederick II, had a manor house built there. His heirs quickly ran the estate down, so that it was bought by Albert Borsig in 1866 /a> became. Since its founding by his father in August 1837, the Berlin company Borsig had quickly developed into a leading heavy industry company, was famous not only for its steam locomotives, and shaped the cityscape with the steel constructions of various domed buildings, of which only that of the Nikolaikirche in Potsdam still remains has stood the test of time.

THE FIGURINE DECORATION COME FROM THE ORANIENBURG TOR IN BERLIN

However, the Borsigs, whose family business only sank into insolvency with the global economic crisis and was sold, by no means fulfilled the image of greedy exploiters; rather, they ran their company as it was for the time almost people-friendly company, including its own social security fund, bathing establishment and canteen. The country estate, which was run using the most modern methods and the latest technology and for whose entrance Albert Borsig had the sandstone trophies saved when the Oranienburg Gate in Berlin was demolished in 1867, not only served the family's relaxation, but also supplied the canteen kitchen with fresh food.</p >

Later, when the company went bankrupt, history was written here again in dark times, the estate, now run by Ernst von Borsig, was one of the meeting places of the Kreisau Circle. With him, the great-grandson of the company founder, the Borsigs' time in Groß Behnitz ended. The Gestapo did not come across the industrialist's son, but he did not survive the Soviet camp detention after the end of the war and the property was expropriated. After reunification, Ernst von Borsig's son Manfred unsuccessfully sued for reimbursement.