2021 - September- Berlin - Max Liebermann Villa

If you can call a villa on the banks of the Berlin Wannsee your own, you are surely one of the happiest people.

The painter Max Liebermann was one of these privileged people. He had his summer residence there, which he lovingly called 'my castle by the lake'. Not only the fantastic location, but also his house and the accompanying garden were his great joy. Here he could work in peace and watch the vegetables grow.

Today, the garden looks similar to how it did back then, but that is only the case since a few years. Since 2006, the villa has been open as a private museum. The museum relies solely on admission fees and donations from its members. But what happened in the years before?

It is no secret that Max Liebermann was Jewish. This led to him being excluded from society, although he was previously highly esteemed, from 1933 onwards. He died embittered in 1935. His equally Jewish wife was even forced to sell the house significantly below its value to the Reichspost in 1940. She never received the money. But that was not all: like many other Jews, she was supposed to be deported to a camp and ultimately avoided this fate by committing suicide. Their daughter Käthe was able to emigrate to the USA with her family in time.

After the Second World War, she regained her property. In the meantime, the villa had been used as a hospital. Since Käthe no longer lived in Berlin anyway, she ultimately sold the house to the city of Berlin.

But the hospital was not the last stage of external use for the former artist's villa. From 1972 to 2002, a diving club (!) was accommodated here.

The garden was almost completely destroyed as a result, and the furniture has also not survived.

So it is a great achievement that the house is now under monument protection thanks to a lot of private commitment, and the garden has also been restored.

In particular, the revival of the garden is incredibly successful.

It is absolutely worth spending an extended afternoon here and enjoying a coffee with cake on the terrace.

In the villa itself, there is a permanent exhibition about Max Liebermann and changing special presentations.

If I can give a tip: first visit the Wannsee Conference Memorial, just a few hundred meters away. This is also worth a visit, although for very unpleasant reasons. Read here why...

https://vakantio.de/reisetante/2021-september-berlin-gedenkstatte-haus-der-wannsee-konferenz