Looking for a distinguished country residence, Johann Daniel Souchay, a prominent merchant from Manchester, acquired the vineyard "Eckberg" in 1858, along with two neighboring smaller vineyards, in the small town of Loschwitz near Dresden. He commissioned Professor Christian Friedrich Arnold, a student of the renowned architect Gottfried Semper, to design an English manor house in the neo-Gothic style. For the design of the gardens and the expansive parkland, Souchay entrusted landscape architect Hermann Sigismund Neumann, a student of Berlin’s garden director Eduard Neide. By 1861, the construction of the castle, park and auxiliary buildings was completed and Souchay was able to enjoy his fairytale estate until his death in 1871.
In 1883, his heirs sold the estate to entrepreneur Artur Bruno Wunderlich, "Imperial Persian, Royal Swedish and Norwegian Consul General for Saxony." After Wunderlich's death in 1909, his widow, Anna Wunderlich, rented out the castle. One of the prominent residents was the Austrian confectionery manufacturer Joseph Weiser, who, newly married to his young wife, the actress Grete Weiser, took up residence at Eckberg.
By 1925, the period of renting out the castle had come to an end, and with the new owner Ottomar Heinsius von Mayenburg, the castle entered a new era of prosperity. As the inventor of the aluminum toothpaste tube and the toothpaste "Chlorodont," von Mayenburg had the financial means to fulfill his dream of acquiring Schloss Eckberg. AS a trained botanist, von Mayenburg was particularly passionate about the park, which underwent a major transformation in the following years. The elaborate park, featuring a rock garden, rose wall, and wildflower meadow, was designed and maintained by 18 gardeners under the supervision of Mayenburg’s head gardener, Emil Metzner.
After World War II, the von Mayenburg family left Eckberg in 1947 and was expropriated in 1952. Until 1968, the castle was used as a workers' and farmers' faculty and a student dormitory. In 1969, a branch of the research center of VEB Robotron Dresden moved into the buildings and used it for the development of memory chips.
With the departure of the institute in 1980, the once-neglected castle found a new purpose. As East Germany (GDR) began to rediscover its historical heritage, a new approach to the remnants of Romanticism emerged. The dilapidated castle was converted into a hotel and operated as the "Youth Tourist Hotel Schloss Eckberg" from 1985 to 1990.
Following the reunification and the accompanying restitution, the Munich-based company ARGENTA has been the owner of Schloss Eckberg since 1995. Between 1996 and 1997, the castle, auxiliary buildings and gardens underwent extensive restoration and redesign and since then, it has been operated as a hotel and restaurant.
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