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Aurora aeterna — the See­hotel am Neu­klos­tersee

Once a farm, and from 1975 a guest house for citizens of former East Germany, the Seehotel am Neuklostersee near Wismar has been welcoming a wide range of guests from near and far for two-and-a-half decades.

by Ulrich Knoll in July 2018

Once a farm, and from 1975 a guest house for citizens of former East Germany, the See­hotel am Neu­klos­tersee near Wismar has been wel­coming a wide range of guests from near and far for two-and-a-half decades.
Now com­prising two buil­dings – the Steinhaus, a 20th century brick-built house, and the reed thatched, lovingly res­tored Kunst­scheune from the 19th century – the pro­perty represents an adventure begun in 1991 by Nalbach + Nalbach Archi­tekten that has taken them into uncharted, fasci­nating waters.

How it all began – planned chance

Johanne Nalbach has always loved water and farm buil­dings. Ori­gi­nally from Austria, when she arrived in Berlin in 1972, this suc­cessful architect would cer­tainly never have dreamt that she would end up by the Neu­klos­tersee lakeside in Meck­lenburg-Vor­pommern running a regular hotel business.

“I’ve always been fasci­nated by farm buil­dings,” says Johanne Nalbach. “They’re clever, sus­tainable buil­dings, con­s­tructed using cen­turies of expe­rience.”

Her husband Gernot, also an architect, moved to Berlin in 1972 to take up a pro­fes­sorship. It was in Berlin, in 1980, that the archi­tects’ practice Nalbach + Nalbach was founded. They went on to design a lot of suc­cessful hotels – but always for clients. That is, until 1991, when Johanne dis­co­vered the pro­perty that was to become the current hotel and fell in love with the lake, the farm­houses and the won­derful land­scape.

The village of Nakenstorf am Neu­klos­tersee, where today’s lakeside hotel is located, was a major centre in the area around Wismar until the Thirty Years’ War. All but des­troyed in the war, all that was left of the village was six farm­houses, among them the “Bir­kenhof”. It con­tinued as a farm until well into the 20th century, before its trans­for­mation into the Mor­genröte holiday centre for agri­cul­tural workers in 1975. After the reuni­fi­cation of Germany, the pro­perty was put on the market and Johanne Nalbach, who read about it in the press, was simply unable to resist it. Her own farm­house at last – a retreat where the whole family could escape Berlin at weekends.

From a weekend holiday home to a hotel

When the archi­tects viewed the pro­perty, two things quickly became clear: firstly, that it would mean a lot of work. The buil­dings had plenty of traces of Com­munist East Germany; the land was cris­scrossed with con­crete tracks and covered with num­erous lodges. But the basic structure and ancient tree coverage enabled Johanna Nalbach to visualise what lay at the heart of the complex, and what it could again become. A second problem also soon made itself known, namely that the pro­perty was much too big for a simple weekend retreat. It was the­r­efore for­t­unate that the couple who had run the former holiday centre were still living in the vicinity. And so the archi­tects made the unex­pected, spon­ta­neous decision to venture into the hotel business and invite guests to come and share in the magic of this place.

That was how they and their family, led by Johanne Nalbach, set out on a great adventure with no idea where it would lead them, let alone whether there would be the slightest return on their investment. The See­hotel was only made pos­sible, both in prin­ciple and in reality, by state funding. During the two-year reno­vation period prior to the opening in 1993, the first building to be given the full tre­atment was what is now known as the Kunst­scheune. In 1991/92, the com­plete timber frame and roof trusses of the barn were replaced, fol­lowed by the clean-up and reno­vation of the interior. A new gallery level was installed, which now houses a large mai­so­nette suite. The reno­vated Kunst­scheune is domi­nated by the large, open, two-storey main living room with a Steinway grand piano and excellent acou­stics, which has been dis­co­vered by, among others, the Meck­lenburg-Vor­pommern fes­tival who stage their twice-yearly “Young Elite” series of con­certs there.

The space is also used year-round for plays, lec­tures, con­certs and parties. Chef Alex­ander Stoye and his team, who in 2018 were awarded a Bib Gourmand for the second time in suc­cession, also hold a “Chef´s Table” here several times a year.

The adjacent shed was con­verted into the Gän­sebar in 2008, and since then offers not only a meeting place where people can come and enjoy top-quality drinks and sel­ected tobacco pro­ducts, but also a poignant reminder of the farm geese for which it is named, that had to be housed here during the bird flu epi­demic. The subtle refe­rences to goose-related folklore and the display case con­taining a goose, fox and hawk are a bridge between past and present, between the interior and the natural cycles of the sur­rounding coun­tryside.

Sub­stantial reno­va­tions were also carried out in the Steinhaus. Its accom­mo­dation was con­verted from the pre­vious seven rooms to six modern bed­rooms, with the former dining room con­verted into a con­tem­porary award-winning restaurant. In 2003 a steel and glass con­ser­vatory was added, giving both diners and kitchen staff a window on the natural world and pro­viding the culinary expe­rience with a backdrop of won­derful views.

Dia­logue between old and new

The location of the old East Germany-era lodges became the site of a new building, the Bade­scheune, in 2004. This building is in dia­logue with the Kunst­scheune which it faces, the latter’s his­toric half-tim­bered ele­ments mir­rored in the hori­zontal wea­thering-steel beams. Essential and fun­da­mental to the con­version are the use of local mate­rials such as larch and ivy for the exterior, built-in fur­niture of oak, cherry and walnut, and the interplay of the four vital ele­ments.

Swimming here, you look out over the beeches or the fire in the hearth at the end of the swimming pool, moving to the adjacent spa to relax and unwind after­wards. The upper floor of the building curr­ently houses eleven mai­so­nette suites with living areas and gallery bed­rooms. Each suite has a flower-related theme – with dis­plays of poppies, roses and dahlias showing the way in the cor­ridor.

In 2010, as “off­spring” of the Bade­scheune, the wellness suite was installed in the basement of an adjacent former lodge, also built of larch wood. Guests can come here for pam­pering with cos­metic tre­at­ments and mas­sages.

Three of the eleven former lodges on the site have been retained and com­pletely reno­vated. Enc­losed by hedges, the holiday lodges blend won­derfully into the overall complex, with glimpses of views and access paths skilfully inte­grated to ensure that they are both private yet very much a part of the land­scape.

The whole site is a veri­table paradise for children, offering plenty of space, hidden corners to explore, and oppor­tu­nities for activity. The Nal­bachs have had two special ideas to make the place a truly unique expe­rience for children.

In 2010, Gernot Nalbach con­verted a former trans­former building into a “kids’ hotel”, where children big and small can dis­cover the world. A lis­tening device amplifies bird calls, a wind turbine illu­mi­nates a bicycle light, a camera obscura gives views of the world upside-down, and cushions stuffed with sheep’s wool under the roof of the tower are a cosy place for day­d­re­aming while little music boxes play works by Mozart, Beet­hoven and Strauss. The outer walls of the tower are hung with boxes to attract but­ter­flies, cock­chafers, wild bees and bats. There is a swing where little ones can ride high over trees and water, and there is a sand pit to play in. The more adven­turous can even spend the night here, but only if accom­panied by an adult.

There is another hideaway espe­cially for children, the “birds’ nest”. Here, youngsters can whisper to one another and share secrets undis­turbed, forging plans, dre­aming or using the place as a hide to look out over the sur­roun­dings and observe all that people and wildlife are doing. It is sure to make adults wish they could be children again!

As the See­hotel was a farm for a long time, there are still animals living here: the cats and the sheep, Pflaume and Zwetschke, are sure to cross your path at some stage during your stay.

Detail matters

The geese fell prey at various times to the fox and the bird flu epi­demics, but they are given a fitting memorial in the “Gän­sebar” and their memory lives on. This is just one example of the great attention paid to details here, and the con­scious way they are used.

In line with this way of thinking, Johanne Nalbach is not curr­ently con­sidering any further building works. Working on the details with feeling and love is an ongoing, ful­filling task. It is important for her and her family to have regular per­sonal invol­vement with the hotel, despite all the demands on them in Berlin.

How can they add even more fine touches to the pro­perty? What would guests like to see? Or, to follow her own instincts: how could I feel more at home here and what can I do to make it happen? It soon becomes apparent that there is still no “business as usual”, even after 25 years.

The Nalbach family (left © Renate Gombert) and hotel manager Manuela Hampe (right)

At some stage in future their son, Moritz, will be handed the reins of the company and lead this paradise into the future. A qua­lified culture and tourism manager, he will be taking over a mature deve­lo­pment, and can also rely on the skills of hotel manager Manuela Hampe and her expe­ri­enced team. A dif­ficult inhe­ri­tance? On the con­trary: a won­derful challenge.

I’ve talked the talk; now it’s time to walk the walk!

As I planned my visit to the See­hotel, a long weekend soon grew into a full week’s stay, even though I still hadn’t fami­lia­rised myself with the attrac­tions the region has to offer. Before I had begun to research Schwerin, whose delights include one of the largest Duchamp coll­ec­tions in the world, Wismar, Rostock, Hei­li­gendamm, Güstrow and other places along the nearby “European Route of Brick Gothic”, I already sensed that the facets of the hotel, grounds and sur­roun­dings were simply too many and varied for a short stay.

Believing that what really matters is the indi­vidual moment and the sur­prises it brings, I decided simply to arrive and see what awaited me there, to allow the See­hotel to work its magic on me. And then, time for chilling! After all, as STERN so aptly put it in 2006: “What makes this place special are touches that would usually be con­sidered minor details. The place lives, it breathes, with some­thing beau­tiful to dis­cover at every turn.”

An overview of the “com­plete cosmos” of the hotel can also be found here.

The Kava­liershaus Schloss Blücher, 100 km to the south and also run by Nalbach + Nalbach Archi­tects, is also well worth a visit. This Clas­sicist manor house on the Fin­ckener lake, with its rich history that includes pre­vious use as a village school, has also been exten­sively reno­vated to form a small hotel, and since 2010 has been offering indi­vidual accom­mo­dation in a room and eleven suites.

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By Ulrich Stefan Knoll, July 2018

Unless indi­cated otherwise, photos © Nalbach Archi­tekten, Berlin

The hotel