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Sub­limity, avant-garde and ele­gance: The Kranich Hotel

When talking to hostess Dr. Bettina Klein, who welcomes guests on an estate comprising a small hotel, a museum and a café near the Saaler Bodden in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, this immediately seems to be a sufficiently apt, albeit generalising description of the landlady herself.

by Ulrich Knoll in June 2020

In Roman culture, the crane was con­sidered the symbol of ‘pru­dentia’, the prudent action, of ‘per­se­ver­antia’, i.e. per­se­verance, and of ‘cus­todia’, the dili­gence of action. When talking to hostess Dr. Bettina Klein, who wel­comes guests on an estate com­prising a small hotel, a museum and a café near the Saaler Bodden in Meck­lenburg-Western Pome­rania, this imme­diately seems to be a suf­fi­ci­ently apt, albeit gene­ra­lising description of the landlady herself.

With a lot of courage, per­se­verance and—in view of the size of the grounds—inevitably limited means, she has over the years built up a worldly paradise in the Kranich Hotel, which one would hardly ever suspect in this rural idyll con­sidering its out­lan­dishness. The eponymous crane (Kranich) rests here twice a year; and yet in our con­ver­sation it soon turns out that the estate itself, its history and deve­lo­pment as well as its prot­ago­nists are the more inte­resting topics.

A pen­chant for ‘com­pli­cated things’

The lady of the house, an art his­torian with a PhD, slightly smirks at my first ques­tions of under­standing. How she had actually found the house; what the ori­ginal concept for the deve­lo­pment of the museum, including the ope­ration of a hotel and café had com­prised and how it was imple­mented… and according to which plan the reno­vation of the dila­pi­dated manor house, which she had bought in 1999, was actually carried out. She pro­bably had a general pen­chant for com­pli­cated things, she tells me in her distin­gu­ished and at the same time polite and open-minded manner. A plan? No, there was much pro­vi­dence involved. Thank heaven, one could say.

The very acqui­sition alone—completely unplanned. Bettina Klein does not come from the area, only came to Meck­lenburg-Western Pome­rania once to watch the cranes dance; and during some periods of her life, she spent more time in Japan than in Germany. A friend from their time tog­ether at the Stä­del­schule in Frankfurt actually wanted to buy the house. He was really infa­tuated with the estate; he just did not have the necessary funds. Bettina Klein, who had actually attended the auction to accompany her friend, finally bought the pro­perty. When asked why, she answers with a smile that this must have been the naivety of the art historian—given the history of the estate, which dates back to the 13th century. The main building was, as it later turned out, in a much worse con­dition than ori­gi­nally assumed. Even demo­lition was briefly up for dis­cussion.

Pre­serve it!

The Ame­rican architect and artist Alex Schweder responded to the invi­tation to tender for the con­version of the building. Schweder, a repre­sen­tative of per­for­mance archi­tecture, alter­na­tively describes himself as an “artist who works with space or architect who works toward artistic ques­tions”.

On the project itself he says:

Per­for­mance Archi­tecture’ is an artistic approach to making space that seeks to arrive at ques­tions rather than solu­tions. In the case of the Kranich Museum & Hotel, we kept frag­ments of the various occu­pa­tions of the building over time. Addi­tio­nally, the museum and hotel are not sepa­rated as they usually are. Putting all of these ele­ments next to one another rather than neatly resolving them allows our visitors to expe­rience their tension and offers new ways of expe­ri­encing space. Our approach to the house was modeled on other approaches to his­toric struc­tures with modern inter­ven­tions – like the Chinati Foun­dation in Texas or the Brooklyn Academy of Music where frag­ments of dif­ferent periods could be expe­ri­enced simul­ta­neously. This sets up a situation where people visiting the building now can see that the building is actually a process rather than an object, a per­for­mance if you will, that occurs more slowly than people can usually per­ceive. Our work with the design of the building was to allow guests to per­ceive this.

It imme­diately became apparent that his approach was very well suited to this building, which had to be almost com­pletely gutted. Schweder’s dia­gnosis after the first visit on site: “Pre­serve it!”
Today, walls and cei­lings bear the traces of history, partly in the form of remains of dif­ferent layers of plaster, partly as a raw, quasi ‘rebuilt’ brick façade. Newly laid, light-coloured flo­o­rings, which are set off towards the wall and high­lighted in these areas by indirect lighting, add both con­trast and harmony to the overall impression. The same applies to a few subtly added built-in units and the modern beds with their high head­boards, also made of bright wood, which clearly refer to modern times, too. The tension between old and new is con­cluded with few, well-placed his­to­rical pieces of fur­niture, which the hostess has uner­ringly purchased over the years in household cle­arances in the sur­rounding area.

In the first con­s­truction phase starting in 2011, six apart­ments with very indi­vidual designs and room sizes ranging from 31 to 51 m² were built on the ground floor—parallel to the museum rooms located above. In these apart­ments, the history of the manor house and its layers are visible in an undis­guised way and, despite all the archi­tec­tural pre­cision, they exude a relaxed cheerfulness. The warmth of old cast-iron stoves and the luxury of ample views connections—out into the park and the land­scape, often seen with the con­tem­plative rela­xation one feels when lying in a free­standing bathtub—further enhance the cosy, tension-filled ambience of the spatial land­scapes.

In general: feeling com­for­table and letting go are achieved here almost auto­ma­ti­cally. In Hes­senburg, the usual measure of time seems magi­cally over­ridden. People come here with lots of things in mind they want to do: a trip to the Darss with its won­derful Baltic Sea beaches; or an excursion to the neigh­bouring Han­seatic jewels of Rostock and Stralsund. Well, while one is in the area… and because all this is really worth seeing. But then: whoosh, another day already passed by, a day on which you have slept in and had a won­derful breakfast, strolled through the park and explored the in-house museum. Maybe you took a bath, but you surely pon­dered for a little while about yourself and the world.

If you don’t pay attention (or don’t stay long enough), you run the risk of having seen hardly any of the sup­posed tourist attrac­tions that were on your initial travel itin­erary. On the other hand, you will pro­bably have slowed down to a degree you haven’t done in a long time. So, don’t worry, do as your hostess does: trust in her sense of momentum—and in the lucky coin­ci­dence! The place is simply pre­destined for this.

The two studio apart­ments on the top floor, which have been com­pleting the range of hotel rooms since the end of 2019, have also become truly wondrous places for inner reflection. The larger of the two apart­ments pro­vides 80 m² and is designed for three people, while the smaller one, like the apart­ments on the ground floor, usually accom­mo­dates two guests.

Rege­ne­ration and change, also in outdoor areas

An equally won­derful place for letting go is the neo-baroque park of almost five hec­tares, which has for some years now been revi­ta­lised in stages by land­scape architect Ludivine Gragy . Drawing on her study of archive material, she has partly incor­po­rated the his­to­rical struc­tures into the current main­tenance and deve­lo­pment plan and partly reinter­preted them as a response to modern times and on the basis of current usage requi­re­ments. Changes in the con­di­tions of use, some of which date back to GDR times, resulted, for example, in the eli­mi­nation of the clear sepa­ration between the north and south sides of the main building; alt­hough it was still a detached building, it was no longer inte­grated into the sur­rounding land­scape.

With a new planting strategy, the ori­ginal struc­tural ele­ments of axial sight­lines, and also boun­daries, were and are made dis­cer­nible again. This creates an invi­tation to enter the park again. An essential aspect of the new design concept for the entire complex is the division into rooms with dif­ferent cha­racter, the thinning out of the existing vege­tation and the increase in species diversity. In order to be able to replace trees that are too old or affected by storms, a separate tree nursery has mean­while been set up. Today, benches and groups of seats await guests in very romantic corners, who—armed with cushions and blankets—can sit down and enjoy the ease. If guests feel like it, breakfast can also be had here. The extensive park once again offers ideal con­di­tions for extensive walks and dis­covery tours—with or without qua­drupeds.

Museum 24/7

A special feature of the house is its museum, which occupies the entire upper floor. It is not pri­marily dedi­cated to the crane, as the name of the house might suggest. Rather, Dr. Bettina Klein has been inviting inter­na­tional artists in the framework of an artist in resi­dence scheme since 2011, who, in per­for­mative work or instal­la­tions on site, engage with the house, its archi­tecture, its sur­roun­dings and its history. From the very beginning, the artists in resi­dence have been assisted by an external curator—in the early years by Alex Schweder and Khadija Zin­nenburg Carroll, since 2015 by Zsuz­sanna Stánitz, who is par­ti­cu­larly inte­rested in con­tem­porary culture and archi­tecture.

Each new art object natu­rally becomes part of the Kranich Museum’s coll­ection, while the docu­men­tation material created during the working phase is exhi­bited in the hotel rooms, thus pro­viding an insight into the artistic process. Here you lite­rally sleep in the museum and can be inspired by the artists’ points of view even outside of opening hours.

Learning, meeting or cele­brating tog­ether

The Kranich Hotel can also be used to host art courses, yoga seminars and con­fe­rences. The rooms ups­tairs, including the open attic space in between, and if required also the museum rooms and the Kranich Café offer both suf­fi­cient space and plenty of inspi­ration. If you wish, you can even cele­brate the ‘most won­derful day of your life’ here: you can get married in Hessenburg—the manor house has its own registry office. The com­bi­nation with the hotel and the café, tog­ether with the spa­cious park land­scape all around, is perfect for all kinds of festive occa­sions.

Whether with or without a festive occasion: you will defi­nitely spend happy, sti­mu­lating days here. Come as you are!

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Text: Ulrich Stefan Knoll, Juli 2020

Pho­to­graphy: © Philipp Obkircher, © Ludivine Gragy, © Clemens Klein