Immendorf Castle

Schloss Immendorf is a ruined castle in the village of Immendorf near the market town of Wullersdorf in the district of Hollabrunn in the northeast of Lower Austria, within the Weinviertel region.

At the end of World War II the castle, used as a depot for art stolen by the Nazis, was set on fire by the SS, and paintings by Gustav Klimt and other artworks were destroyed.

Early owners include Bernhard von Immendorf and the Palterndorfers. Matthias Palterndorfer appears in the tax records in 1529.

The castle was the seat of knightly followers who repeatedly adapted the building. In 1850, the last conversion of the plant took place, during which the moat was embedded. In 1886 Carl Freiherr von Freudenthal, from an old-noble Silesian family, acquired Schloss Immendorf. In the 20th century the small three-storey Kastellburg had four higher towers.

After the fire in 1945, the ruins were robbed for building stone and the castle reduced to its foundation walls.

The castle had been used as an art depot of looted and stolen art since 1942. On 8 May 1945, the last day of the war in the region, the castle was burnt down completely by an SS unit of the "Feldherrnhalle" division. The fire destroyed all the objects which had been relocated to the castle for safe storage.

The losses included an important sequence of paintings by Gustav Klimt, the Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings of 1900 to 1907. All that remains now are preparatory sketches and a few photographs.

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