Qualla: Carinhall

Carinhall: Introduction

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wikidesk, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two stone gate pillars stand in the Schorfheide forest north-east of Berlin, opening onto nothing. Behind them there is undergrowth, a few foundation lines, some carved blocks half-swallowed by moss. This was the entrance to Carinhall, the country estate of Hermann Göring — hunting lodge, private gallery, and terminus for art stolen from across occupied Europe. On 28 April 1945, with the Red Army approaching, a Luftwaffe demolition squad blew the compound apart on Göring's own orders. Two days before Hitler shot himself in a Berlin bunker, the second man in the Nazi state was arranging the destruction of his own house.

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Image: Wikidesk | CC BY-SA 3.0

Carinhall: A House Named for a Dead Wife

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ralf Roletschek (talk) - Fahrradtechnik auf fahrradmonteur.de, FAL. Göring's first wife, Carin, a Swede born in 1888, died in 1931, and he named the estate for her. Construction began in stages from 1933; in June of that year he commissioned the architect Werner March to build a Swedish-style hunting lodge on a stretch of ground between the lakes...

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Image: Ralf Roletschek (talk) - Fahrradtechnik auf fahrradmonteur.de | FAL

Carinhall: The Collection That Was Not His

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ralf Roletschek (talk) - Fahrradtechnik auf fahrradmonteur.de, FAL. As German forces occupied one country after another, Göring funneled his share of the plunder back to Carinhall. Paintings, sculpture, antiquities, furniture — objects taken from Jewish families, from national museums, from dealers coerced into selling and dealers who did not nee...

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Image: Ralf Roletschek (talk) - Fahrradtechnik auf fahrradmonteur.de | FAL

Carinhall: Twenty-Eighth of April

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Picture taken by Marcus Cyron, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the spring of 1945 the front was moving west through Brandenburg. Much of the collection had already been evacuated south to Berchtesgaden, but a great deal was left behind — some concealed in bunkers, some simply buried in the gardens. Then the demolition squad arrived and th...

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Image: Picture taken by Marcus Cyron | CC BY-SA 3.0

Carinhall: Scattered Objects

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ralf Roletschek (User:Marcela), CC BY-SA 3.0. Pieces of Carinhall survive in public collections around Berlin and Brandenburg, and they are odd things to encounter. Franz von Stuck's bronze Kämpfende Amazone, cast in 1897, now stands at Eberswalde. Kronenhirsch, a crowned stag by Johannes Darsow made in 1937, is at Tierpark ...

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Image: Ralf Roletschek (User:Marcela) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Carinhall: A Ruin Kept Ruined

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ralf Roletschek (talk) - Fahrradtechnik auf fahrradmonteur.de, FAL. Treasure hunters have dug on and off since the 1990s. In 1993 one uncovered the entrance to the estate's air-raid bunker and was allowed to excavate it until 1995, when a forester finally had it sealed with a bulldozer; in February 2020 police arrested another crew trying to haul...

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Image: Ralf Roletschek (talk) - Fahrradtechnik auf fahrradmonteur.de | FAL