Landscape
park and
summer house
In 2009, the ensemble of buildings, which was in dire need of renovation, was sold by the City of Hamburg to Peter Bishop, who began the initial renovation work before selling it to Baurs Park GbR in 2022.
Their concept envisages a revitalization of the Katharinenhof through a cultural use that includes exhibitions, residencies for international artists, office space and a gastronomic offer. The new owners feel a special connection to the location, Blankenese and Hamburg, but also to the historical heritage. They value the special relationship that the urban community has developed with this location and consider it particularly suitable for making a contribution to Hamburg's rich cultural life. The building is to be made accessible again all year round and serve the interests of various groups.
The building application was submitted in March 2023 and approved in July 2025.
The upcoming refurbishment respects all the requirements and the city's special interest in this historic site and aims to treat it sensitively. The cultural venue being created here is intended to have an outward impact from Blankenese, while also addressing contemporary issues and bringing them to Blankenese. This website provides an overview of the history of the buildings and the historic landscape park, the art-historically significant "Charity" window and the biographies of its builder Georg Friedrich Baur and his architect Johann Matthias Hansen.
The two-hundred-year history of Baur's Park and Katharinenhof is full of changes. Originally acquired by the Altona merchant Georg Friedrich Baur in the then Danish town of Blankenese and constantly expanded, the landscaped park quickly became famous and popular beyond Hamburg's borders thanks to its modern garden art and spectacular mock architecture. The artistic design of the representative country house with the large stained glass window by William Collins, the later palm houses on the Elbchaussee and ornamental flowerbeds also made Baur's park a place of the muses for a good hundred years. The country house was not given its current name until 1923, when the shipowner and new owner Leonhard Rudolf Müller named it after his daughter Katharina. Katharinenhof was privately owned until 1939 and became a listed building in 1949. During the Second World War, it housed the Luftgaukommando XI, after which it was used as a refugee home and emergency accommodation, before the buildings played an important role in Blankenese's public life for over half a century from 1950 onwards as a local office and reading hall.
A warm thank you
on behalf of the entire Katharinenhof team
We owe much of the following information on the history of the Baur country house and those who played a role in its history to the 2005 report by Dr Jörgen Ringenberg and Jörg Matthies of the Department of Urban Greenery and Recreation.
Their development plan for Baurs Park, prepared for the Hamburg Urban Development and Environment Authority, provides a detailed and accurate representation of the Park. Quotations from this study are identified below by the abbreviation “EP2005”.
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Baur's Park
and its buildings
Baur's Park
and its buildings
Baur's Park in Blankenese is one of the former private country house gardens of wealthy Hamburg and Altona merchants on the northern bank of the Elbe.
In the first half of the 19th century, Georg Friedrich Baur, with the help of the French architect and garden artist Joseph Jacques Ramée, created a remarkable English landscape garden in the style of an English landscape garden over a period of almost 30 years from a partly unvegetated sandy slope of the Elbe. Numerous visual axes through the grounds and viewpoints onto the Elbe were supplemented by varied small-scale park architecture, which was gradually lost.
After various changes of ownership, parcelling out and partial development, Baur's Park has been in municipal ownership since 1939. Today's Baur's Park has essentially shrunk to the area between Kanonenberg and Katharinenhof. In 1829, Georg Friedrich Baur commissioned Johann Matthias Hansen to build a representative country house. Over the next seven years until 1836, the Danish master builder Ole Jörgen Schmidt (1793- 1848) worked on a two-storey, and in the side wings two-and-a-half-storey classical plaster building on an almost square ground plan. The closed-looking five-axis fronts open up on the park side with a Doric columned loggia.
In 1834, the wooden fortification on the banks of the Elbe was replaced by a 420-metre-long, solid stone wall, which has since formed a terrace-like promenade as the southern end of the park. The cast-iron fence of this promenade dates from the same year. Like the rest of the park fence, including the gates, it was cast in the Carlshütte foundry in Büdelsdorf, the only iron foundry in Schleswig-Holstein at the time.
Main house
Coach house
History
of the "Charity" window
The "Charity" window by Joshua Reynolds, which was created in 1816 for a chapel in Oxford, was an artistic sensation at the time of its creation.
It became famous through a copy by the glass painter William Collins at an exhibition in London, which led to Georg Friedrich Baur commissioning a copy of this window for his summer house in Blankenese.
The Hamburg “Charity” window is based on a London model. The London and Oxford copies of the famous art glass window were destroyed in the Second World War by air raids on London and Hamburg, and both windows were brought back to life around twenty years ago, the result of a private initiative. From the relics of just a few shards of glass, both works of art were recreated through scientific research, artisanal skill and the generosity of patrons – almost as if the spirit of the title of the window, “Charity”, were manifesting itself in this process. During the reconstruction of the London window, experts contacted Peter Bishop, the then-owner of Katharinenhof, who commissioned the production of a copy for Baur’s country house in Blankenese in 2015. Following its completion by artist Keith Barley, the “Charity” window has been on loan to the Jenisch House ever since. The information sheet for the exhibition at Jenisch House provides details on the history of the original and its famous copies: “ Georg Friedrich Baur (1768–1865) built his summer house on Mühlenberger Weg from 1829 to 1836. In the early years he received design advice from Hamburg painter Siegfried Detlef Bendixen (1786–1864), who also sent his students as decorators to the building site during their holidays.
Bendixen left Hamburg for London in 1832 while the building was still under construction.
He remained in contact with Georg Friedrich Baur so it was likely Bendixen’s idea to commission the stained-glass window for Baur’s new building. It was precisely in this year – 1832 – that the English star architect of his time, Sir John Soane (1753–1837), opened his museum in London – a major social event. Soane was as important for neoclassicism in England as Karl Friedrich Schinkel was in Prussia or Christian Frederik Hansen in Denmark. Soane primarily exhibited architectural pieces in his museum, but also showcased important works by contemporary artists.
History
of the "Charity" window
The “Charity” window, created by Joshua Reynolds in 1816 for a chapel in Oxford, was an artistic sensation at the time it was made.
It became famous thanks to a copy of the window by glass painter William Collins presented at an exhibition in London, which led to Georg Friedrich Baur commissioning his own copy for his summer house in Blankenese.
The Hamburg “Charity” window is based on a London model. The London and Oxford copies of the famous art glass window were destroyed in the Second World War by air raids on London and Hamburg, and both windows were brought back to life around twenty years ago, the result of a private initiative. From the relics of just a few shards of glass, both works of art were recreated through scientific research, artisanal skill and the generosity of patrons – almost as if the spirit of the title of the window, “Charity”, were manifesting itself in this process. During the reconstruction of the London window, experts contacted Peter Bishop, the then-owner of Katharinenhof, who commissioned the production of a copy for Baur’s country house in Blankenese in 2015. Following its completion by artist Keith Barley, the “Charity” window has been on loan to the Jenisch House ever since. The information sheet for the exhibition at Jenisch House provides details on the history of the original and its famous copies: “ Georg Friedrich Baur (1768–1865) built his summer house on Mühlenberger Weg from 1829 to 1836. In the early years he received design advice from Hamburg painter Siegfried Detlef Bendixen (1786–1864), who also sent his students as decorators to the building site during their holidays.
Bendixen left Hamburg for London in 1832 while the building was still under construction.
He remained in contact with Georg Friedrich Baur so it was likely Bendixen’s idea to commission the stained-glass window for Baur’s new building. It was precisely in this year – 1832 – that the English star architect of his time, Sir John Soane (1753–1837), opened his museum in London – a major social event. Soane was as important for neoclassicism in England as Karl Friedrich Schinkel was in Prussia or Christian Frederik Hansen in Denmark. Soane primarily exhibited architectural pieces in his museum, but also showcased important works by contemporary artists.
He remained in contact with Georg Friedrich Baur so it was likely Bendixen’s idea to commission the stained-glass window for Baur’s new building. It was precisely in this year – 1832 – that the English star architect of his time, Sir John Soane (1753–1837), opened his museum in London – a major social event. Soane was as important for neoclassicism in England as Karl Friedrich Schinkel was in Prussia or Christian Frederik Hansen in Denmark. Soane primarily exhibited architectural pieces in his museum, but also showcased important works by contemporary artists.
G. F. Baur -
the builder
* Nov. 23, 1768 - † March 14, 1865
Georg Friedrich Baur (1768–1865) had the country house with coach house and extensive park built in Blankenese, which was still Danish at the time.
The Altona merchant was the third son of Altona banker, mayor and Conference Councillor Johann Heinrich Baur (1730–1819) and the grandson of Johann Daniel Baur (1700–1774), who had immigrated to Altona from Stuttgart in 1735. The Baur family quickly achieved great wealth and prestige in Altona in the money and goods trade. Georg Friedrich Baur studied law in Göttingen and Kiel and then, like his father and grandfather, became a merchant in Danish Altona. From 1794 he was employed at his father’s firm “J.H. & G.F. Baur” in Altona. In 1797 he married Marianne Heise, the daughter of Hamburg councillor and later mayor Johann Arnold Heise. The couple had eleven children.
Thanks to his successful commercial and international activities and the flourishing firm, he achieved a special position in society, becoming a member of the Altona Collegium of Commerce in 1837 and a Royal Danish Councillor of State in 1840. In 1847, he was appointed Conference Councillor on the occasion of his golden wedding anniversary, receiving an honorary doctorate from the College of Law at the University of Kiel. When he passed away in 1865, he left his children roughly twenty million marks courant. EP2005
He was the nephew of famous Danish architect Christian Frederik Hansen, whose buildings and urban planning still feature prominently in Altona and the Blankenese river district today, including the neoclassical buildings he designed on the Palmaille, the Baur Country House (“Little Castle on the Elbe”) and the Godeffroy Country House, or No 40 on Hamburg’s Catharinenstrasse.
His nephew Johann Matthias Hansen began working for him in Hamburg in 1801. After his uncle returned to Copenhagen in 1804, he took over his uncle’s Hamburg building business and carried out the outstanding orders before starting to work as an independent architect.
J. M. Hansen - "the young Hansen"
Johann Matthias Hansen was born in Copenhagen in 1781 and studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts there.
* Apr. 10, 1781 - † Aug 29, 1850
J. M. Hansen - "the young Hansen"
Johann Matthias Hansen was born in Copenhagen in 1781 and studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts there.
He was the nephew of famous Danish architect Christian Frederik Hansen, whose buildings and urban planning still feature prominently in Altona and the Blankenese river district today, including the neoclassical buildings he designed on the Palmaille, the Baur Country House (“Little Castle on the Elbe”) and the Godeffroy Country House, or No 40 on Hamburg’s Catharinenstrasse.
In 1829, he founded a company with the Danish architect Ole Jürgen Schmitt and both designed the country house, later known as "Katharinenhof", in the middle of the park for Georg Friedrich Baur. In 1839, Hansen's design was used to build the coach house, which was added to the side of the main building.
* Apr. 10, 1781 - † Aug 29, 1850
His nephew Johann Matthias Hansen began working for him in Hamburg in 1801. After his uncle returned to Copenhagen in 1804, he took over his uncle’s Hamburg building business and carried out the outstanding orders before starting to work as an independent architect.
In addition to Baur's buildings on the Altonaer Palmaille, Hansen's redesign of the "Halbmond" stable building of the British merchant John Thornton on the Elbchaussee, as well as his design for a pharmacy ("Handwerkshaus") at Elbchaussee 574 and numerous houses in Hamburg, especially on Neuer Wall, have been preserved.
Previously, in 1824, Hansen had built ten apartment buildings for Georg Friedrich Baur at Palmaille 53 to 71, across the street from his uncle’s buildings. The first design created for Baur was Hansen’s neoclassical round temple for his park in Blankenese, which was erected in 1815 but later removed.
Previously, in 1824, Hansen had built ten apartment buildings for Georg Friedrich Baur at Palmaille 53 to 71, across the street from his uncle’s buildings. The first design created for Baur was Hansen’s neoclassical round temple for his park in Blankenese, which was erected in 1815 but later removed.
In addition to Baur’s buildings on Altona’s Palmaille, Hansen’s redesign of the “Halbmond” stable building of British merchant John Thornton on the Elbchaussee can still be seen today, as can his design for a pharmacy (“Handwerkshaus”) at Elbchaussee 574 and numerous houses in Hamburg, especially on Neuer Wall.
