Noble obligations

Technische Universität Darmstadt, which for the last twenty years or so has been responsible for any restoration work in its role as custodian of the palace, refers to it as a ‘picture book of architectural history’. What began as a medieval moated castle was extended in the Renaissance style with the construction of the church and emperor’s hall. At the beginning of the 18th century, French architect Louis Remy de la Fosse designed an entirely new baroque palace complex, of which only two wings and the striking gateway were realised, however, for financial reasons.The ‘new’ palace was not fully completed until the 19th century. In 1944 bombing left the palace gutted, and it was then rebuilt and restored over a number of decades.

The majority of the windows in Darmstadt’s residential palace date from the post-war era. Back then, they were specially crafted along the lines of the originals, as virtually nothing survived the bombing. These days, the window restoration work is carried out according to rather different standards of heritage conservation: ‘We preserve what we can,’ stresses Jürgen Pfau. ‘It is crucial that we approach the work with a great deal of care and experience in the craft.’ A substantial fleet of Festool machines – both fixed and mobile – help the staff with their work. ‘When it comes to sanding and dust extraction, Festool is simply the best,’ says Jürgen Pfau, waxing lyrical. ‘With the cordless sanders, we can even sand window frames up to five metres tall quite easily from the scaffolding.’