Oberhausen Castle

Oberhausen Castle probably dates back to the knight's seat of Overhus (also Overhuysen, Averhus) from the late 12th or early 13th century. In 1443, the moated castle, which controlled a ford on the Emscher, fell to the von der Hoven family, who were part of a feudal alliance with Cleves. In 1615, Overhus then came into the possession of Conrad von Boenen. Due to its location on the important Emscher crossing, the castle was often plundered and occupied, including during the Eighty Years' War.
The lord of the castle, Friedrich Adolf Freiherr von Boenen zu Berge und Oberhaus, married the heir Wilhelmine Franziska von Westerholt-Gysenberg in 1770 and, after being elevated to the rank of Imperial Count by the Emperor in 1779, adopted the name and coat of arms of her family. However, the Westerholt-Gysenbergs resided in Berge Castle from then on and allowed Oberhausen Castle to fall into disrepair.
In 1801, Frederick Adolf assigned the castle to his son, Maximilian Friedrich, Count of Westerholt-Gysenberg, and his wife, Friederike Karoline von Bretzenheim, an illegitimate daughter of the Bavarian-Palatinate Elector Karl Theodor, as a leased estate and family seat.
Maximilian Friedrich, who had entered the service of Joachim Murat, the Grand Duke of Berg and from 1806 King of Naples, as head stable master in 1808, received considerable funds from this court office and from 1809 also from his wife's fortune. From 1803 he had the architect August Reinking present him with plans for the conversion and expansion of an inn (post office) about 200 meters northwest of the castle into a classicist manor house, according to which the castle was built and designed as a count's residence between 1804 and 1820/1821. From 1808 the landscape architect and Düsseldorf court gardener Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe designed the gardens of the manor house.
Forty years later, the family moved to Arenfels Castle near Bad Hönningen; Oberhausen Castle was no longer inhabited by members of the count's family after 1858. In 1884, the agricultural estate was also closed and from 1891 the castle buildings were rented out. In 1896, the city of Oberhausen bought the castle park and redesigned it as a public park. The castle itself became the property of the Emschergenossenschaft in 1908, which sold it to the city in 1911.
During the Second World War, parts of the main building and the roof of the small castle were destroyed. In 1947, the Municipal Gallery opened under the direction of Dr. Herbert Griebitzsch with a collection of impressionist landscapes by Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt and Lovis Corinth, among others. Another focus was the collection of international graphics from the 19th and 20th centuries with prints by Pablo Picasso, Odilon Redon, Maurice Denis and others.
The outbuildings, now known as the "Little Castle", were completely rebuilt by 1952. However, the main building had to be closed in 1953 due to dilapidation. It was largely demolished in 1958. With funds from the Gutehoffnungshütte, it was rebuilt in a historic style by 1960, with the interior in the style of the 50s.
At the beginning of the 1960s, the collections of 20th century glass, European art from the Middle Ages to the modern era and “art of foreign peoples” from the Cologne private collector Kasimir Hagen were added to the museum’s holdings through donations.
At the end of the 1960s, the new director, Professor Thomas Grochowiak, exhibited for the first time pictures by the expressionist artist group die brucke and their environment as well as works by representatives of the New Objectivity like Otto Dix and the Critical Realism such as Käthe Kollwitz. Under Bernhard Mensch, Grochowiak's successor, a collection of German Expressionist prints was added in 1988 with the donation from Rolf Jäger, the focus of which was on Otto Pankok's prints.
In 1983, the collector couple Peter and Irene Ludwig founded the Ludwig Institute for Art of the GDR in Oberhausen, where East German art was exhibited and presented for the first time in the West. With the fall of the Wall, this need no longer existed and the institute was closed in 1991.
Peter and Irene Ludwig again provided the impetus for the search for a new concept. Under the leadership of Bernhard Mensch and Professor Peter Pachnicke, the building was given a new profile in the mid-1990s - now under the name LUDWIGGALERIE. With the addition of the "Vitrine", a large glass entrance area by the architectural firm Eller + Eller, the new orientation as a "stage for the art of the Ludwig Collection" was also structurally reflected in 1998.