Fake: The Knight's Castle in Hannover's Nordstadt

© Matthias Kothe

Nothing is as it seems

It was not a knight, but the Hanoverian banker Alexander Moritz Simon who had a private city park laid out on the corner of Herrenhäuser Kirchweg and An der Strangriede around 1860 and had a detailed knight's castle built in it. The park no longer exists today. The knight's castle in the romantic neo-Gothic style, which was never a castle and only looked like one, fell into ruin over time. Hanover's only "castle" (the six medieval castle complexes that once stood in the present-day city area of Lower Saxony's capital no longer exist) was left to rot and was eventually rebuilt stone by stone, complete with tower and fortress wall, and beautifully restored. From 1971, the handsome castle was home to the gastronomic couple Renate and Heinrich Stern, who were awarded the coveted Michelin star for their gourmet restaurant "Georgenhof" in 1984. In 2004, Hanover's charismatic star chef Heinrich Stern retired at the age of 65, after which the photogenic building stood empty for several years and was finally completely renovated and converted into a residential building on behalf of a university professor.

A banker with vision

"Alexander Moritz Simon was born in Hanover in 1837. He trained in banking, worked for a time in the United States, which later appointed him its vice-consul in Hanover. He amassed a considerable fortune. Among his properties were, for example, the magnificent, pointed-cornered parking garage at the corner of Nienburger Straße and Appelstraße, and not far from there, the castle ruins still standing at the corner of Herrenhäuser Kirchweg and An der Strangriede—where, of course, no knights ever lived. Simon had the ruin built as a ruin in his park—which was enormous at the time—and included, among other things, an Old German-style drinking hall within it, where he entertained noble and wealthy guests.“, writes the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung in an online article dated August 5, 2019, while also recalling another passion of the Jewish banker: “Alexander Moritz Simon's greatest legacy, however, is the founding of the Israelite Horticultural School in Ahlem. Simon, who lived extremely frugally in his later years, invested all his money in this project. The school later became a Gestapo prison and is now a memorial to the Nazi persecution of the Jews.“

Simons of Hanover

Incidentally, his namesakes Katerina and Marc Simon are just as imaginative and visionary today as the banker and castle lord Alexander Moritz Simon was 160 years ago. In collaboration with Roland Schulze from the Lister Distillery on Mengendamm, they produce kosher spirits such as gin and fruit brandies in Hanover under the brand name “Simons of Hanover,” which comply with the strict rules governing the preparation and consumption of food and drink by observant Jews—inspected and approved by Rabbi Benjamin Wolff of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish community in Hanover. Manuel Mauritz from Hannover’s “LieblingsBar” in Herrenhausen describes the taste of the Simons’ kosher premium gin: “Spicy, subtly tart, classic, with a strong juniper note, yet not overly floral.”