Richthofen House in Schweidnitz Today (July 2009)

[Gman]

This thread is to follow up on my recent thread


http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/pe...irthplace.html

Thanks to all who replied and helped with directions to the Richthofen house in Schweidnitz and the birthplace in Kleinburg.
All information was correct and I can report a few news from my visit to Schweidnitz last month (July 2009).

The actual birthplace of course, was not this house but located somewhere in Kleinburg which is now part of Breslau (Wroclaw, PL). I drove around a bit, got stuck in traffic of this vibrant city and ultimately gave up trying to locate the place where it might have been. Lot's of construction going on – Silesia sure is nice and Poland today looks like any country in Western Europe if not better with a more modern infrastructure.

The Richthofen Family home in Schweidnitz was easy to find, it lays at the northwestern corner of the city and Ulice. Sikorskiego is one of the main roads going into the city.

We were lucky to make the acquaintance of one of the present occupants and were allowed to visit both inside and outside the building.

Outside – the Manfred von Richthofen Memorial Plaque, with its inscription in Polish, is still there.

Next to it is the Rock with his name, date of death and the Iron Cross, which was placed in the park opposite the house during WW II.



Obviously this required some effort by someone.
Mrs.Ulanowska mentioned that Mr. Pawelski (who lives on the second floor) is involved with a conservation effort and it might have been his doing to get the memorial moved. Mr. Pawelski was not in, so this is second hand information.
The building is in need of repair but still looks good. It now houses six families, who bought individual apartments.

Behind the main building are two Horse stables which look ‘original'.

Inside – After ‘taking in' the outside, Mrs. Ulanowska invited us into her apartment which lies on the lower floor. (The stairs which were probably used for the main entrance would now lead into her living room).


The rooms have high ceilings – which gave the walls plenty space for all the trophies collected during Manfred's hunting in the forests and the skies over the Western Front.
(A deer antler mount hangs in Mrs. Ulanowska's room and is visible from the outside making me wonder which room/floor was the actual ‘Trophy Room/Museum' in 1918
I showed Mrs. Ulanowska a picture of it in a book).

The doors, windows and room furnace are original – (I have a picture of myself standing in front of the furnace holding a Polish copy of Pete Kilduff's book ‘Czerwony Baron' owned by Mrs. Ulanowska ).
Mrs. Ulanowska's son Tomasz was kind enough to show me the roof after getting a ladder from storage.

The characteristic tower is not used for anything and in need of restoration. From the top of the house one can have a nice view of the city of Swidnica, I took a 360 deg. Video.
Tomasz told me that about every six months someone shows up to look at the building – the last two Richthofen fans came from Japan.
While retrieving the ladder Tomasz showed me this poster which was attached to some furniture. It has the Richthofen house pictured in red color on it!

It also shows a street map to find it and photos of the new combined Memorial Rock/Plaque. Obviously someone is leading the charge to renovate the building and
turn it into a tourist attraction. Mr. Pawelski might know more about this or might even be involved. At the bottom right corner is a website address which has additional information (in Polish). It seems to be coming from the local Swidnicia community:

Manfred von Richthofen - Czerwony Baron

I wonder if some of our polish speaking forum members could shed some additional light on this ?

Tomasz also gave me a passport sized photo of MvR and his email address.
Future potential visitors may PM me to make contact in advance. (I told Tomasz to fix his room up with copies of MvR's aircraft registration trophies and charge for admission).

Thanks to the Ulanowska family for taking the time and allowing strangers in their home.

After we left I went across the road to the park to see if I could find the remnants of the Memorial erected during the Third Reich. This might or might not be it, or what's left of it.

P.S. This forum lets me only post six photos at a time, more pics in next thread.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/pe...y-outside.html

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/pe...ay-inside.html