Family Grave Strousberg Design: Master Builders A. (H. ?) Bandke und Breidsprecher Builder: Mason Waldemar Guttzeit Old St. Matthäus Cemetery Family Grave 98 (bought 14/9/1874) Location: I-o-I (Halfway up the Eastern cemetery wall) Characterization Of The Mausoleum Built with simple bricks, the mausoleum appears plain, strict, almost inconspicuous; the same holds true for the interior. The still very wealthy Strousberg renounced everything pompous in favour of a building full of dignity and seriousness in the reduces style of "Christian" Neo-Gothic. The comparison with neighboring mausoleum Neumeister, built likewise in neo-gothic style, emphasizes Strousberg´s understatement. Outside: The closed brick building takes the whole space of the grave-site. A three-part facade rises on a granite pedestal. The gaps in the yellow-red brickwork are painted rust-red, to create a smoother and more homogenous effect. The slightly projecting middle part of the facade and the lower wings are structured with lisenes and protruding brickwork, horizontal on the wings, following the gable in the middle. The lower edges have ornaments of triangular bricks. The window-less side walls are structured in the same way as the wings. The wooden door with blind tracery is topped by a window, that is not in its original state anymore. Both wing windows (lancet windows) are framed with light grey stucco, similar to the stucco moulding. Above the door there is a beige-grey archivolt made from terracotta with crabs and plant arabesques, bearing the inscription "FAMILIE STROUSBERG"; before and after the writing there are six-pointed stars, in the vertex poppy capsules. In the gable above the door is a tondo, made from beige-grey terracotta too, depicting a winged putto ("Prussian putto") in high relief. On a little pedestal on the gable there used to be a lily-shaped cross in mock-gothic style, presumably made from zinc. The middle part of the mausoleum has a saddle roofs, the wings have flat roofs. Interior: An almost square middle room with two smaller annexes, that are separated by Tudor flying buttresses. The floor is tiled in a chessboard pattern with a surrounding ornamental ribbon. On a stucco pedestal bare plastered walls with a few relicts of an original light beige frame rise. The wall opposite the door features a blind arcade; directly above the pedestal there are three inlaid marble crosses with golden lettering. In the left annex there is a simple stone cross on a pedestal. The actual roof construction is not visible because of a wooden ceiling, stained dark red, following the form of the roof (saddled and flat). Underneath the three rooms there is a vault of about three meters height. In the vault there are three children´s, three middle-sized and two huge sarcophagi. The construction of the vault´s ceiling appears to be "Prussian Caps". The opening to the vault used to be covered by a cast iron grating with a bronze sheet lying on top of it. Type: Neo-Gothic brickwork Front length: 7.30 m Depth: 3.80 m Height (gable): 5.80 m Height (wings): 3.80 m Opening of the vault (inside): 1.20 m by 2.20 m Interred: 8 adults, 3 children (Peter Behrens) Kontakt: gbbb@gmx.de © GBBB e. V. 1994 - 2006