Charlotte von Gerlach geb. von Beyme

1792 – 1870

Heiress of Grand Chancellor Beyme · acquirer of the Drosedow estate

Estate: Trienke, Drosedow, temporarily Steglitz · Dahlem · Schmargendorf · Ruhleben

Charlotte Wilhelmine von Gerlach née von Beyme was the only surviving daughter of the Prussian Grand Chancellor Carl Friedrich von Beyme (1765–1838, ennobled 1816) and Charlotte Ernestine Meyer, daughter of Kolberg's mayor Salomon Meyer. Through her mother she inherited the Trienke estate, and through her father, in 1838, the estate villages of Steglitz, Dahlem, Schmargendorf and Ruhleben on the outskirts of Berlin, which she sold to the Prussian domains treasury in 1841. In 1840 she additionally bought the neighbouring Drosedow estate. Through her marriage to Carl Heinrich von Gerlach these estates passed into family ownership and formed, alongside Parsow and Schwemmin, the core of the family's Pomeranian holdings until 1945. Her year of death is given variously in the sources as 1870 or 1872.

Chronicle

1792
Born, daughter of Carl Friedrich von Beyme and Charlotte Ernestine Meyer.
1814
Marries Carl Heinrich von Gerlach; her father's letters to the couple begin in 1817 (BLHA, von Winterfeld family archive). Their daughter Henriette is born at Parsow in 1820 and marries at Steglitz in 1838. Her parents' engagement notice is dated 28 April 1814 from Stargard, where Beyme serves as civil governor (Berlinische Nachrichten 3 May 1814).
1821
Trienke with the outlying farm of Zauchram comes into the marriage – the widow of Landrat Meyer had given it to her daughter, Charlotte's mother, as a dowry.
1838–1841
After her father's death in December 1838 she is sole heiress of the four estate villages outside Berlin – Steglitz, Dahlem, Schmargendorf and the Ruhleben outwork. In 1841 she sells the whole complex to the Prussian domain treasury; Dahlem becomes a state domain whose division from 1901 creates the villa and science quarter (Jürgen Wetzel, history of Dahlem). Schmargendorf did not forget those three years: when the parish built its town hall between 1900 and 1902, it gave the five chamber windows the arms of the five families that had owned the village in turn; the fourth is that of the Beyme, the fifth that of the Gerlach.
1857
Bauer's directory lists her as lady of Drosedow and Trienke – the estates are held in her name.
1838
Inherits the estates of Steglitz, Dahlem, Schmargendorf and Ruhleben after her father's death. With them the manor house at Steglitz passed to her. Her father had had it built there after first leaving state service in 1807 and had run the estates from it; an English-style park adjoined the house, with a vineyard later planted with fruit trees, a kitchen and fruit garden, and the Kieferberg planted with pines, birches and acacias. The main entrance led from the village green across a forecourt of about one Morgen (administrative report of the parish of Steglitz, 1875–1909).
1840
Buys the Drosedow estate from the von Manteuffel family.
1841
Sells the Berlin estates to the Prussian domains treasury. The house stayed with the state, which gave it as a residence to men of merit: Lieutenant General von Rauch, Count von Brühl and, in 1853, Field Marshal von Wrangel. After him it is called the Wrangelschlösschen to this day; it stands on Schloßstraße in Steglitz. The estate land, a good nine hundred Morgen, was parcelled out by the treasury in 1848.
1870/1872
Death (sources give differing years).

Images

1902This is how the parish presented its new building to the profession: a chromolithograph by R. Wollmann as the colour plate in the first issue of the fifth volume of the "Berliner Architekturwelt". The accompanying article gives the building time – 1 June 1900 to 1 June 1902 – and describes what stood in the five hall windows: the arms of the five families who had owned the margravial village, the last of them the Gerlachs.
R. Wollmann · Berliner Architekturwelt 5 (1902/03), Heft 1, Farbtafel, Verlag Ernst Wasmuth · Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, gemeinfrei
1902Schmargendorf town hall, built 1900–1902 to plans by J. Otto Kerwien, in the year it was finished – still with a picket fence and open field. The five tall pointed windows in the centre are the windows of the council chamber: their glass carried the arms of the five families who had owned the village, the fifth being that of the Gerlachs. Above them the glass mosaics, which still exist: the March eagle in the topmost gable field, the Prussian royal arms over the five windows, and at the sides the arms of the four margravial houses.
Frisch · Baugewerks-Zeitung 34 (1902), Nr. 76, Tafelbeilage · Wikimedia Commons, gemeinfrei
1902The council chamber in the year it was finished. The sandstone fireplace carries Rudolf Franke’s relief of the fire magic from "Die Walküre" and two shields above it; the wrought-iron chandelier is shaped like a crenellated crown and carries shields on its band as well. The window wall lies outside the picture – no photograph of the five armorial windows is known.
Frisch · Baugewerks-Zeitung 34 (1902), Nr. 76, S. 1234 · Wikimedia Commons, gemeinfrei

Sources and literature