Schloss Grundlsee, 19th-century villa and château near Lake Grundlsee, Austria.
Schloss Grundlsee, also called Villa Roth, is a historicist villa on a peninsula by Gößl on the Grundlsee in Styria. Built of pale stone with a steep grey roof, it has a square tower with a dark pyramidal spire and arched windows, rows of arched and rectangular windows, roof dormers and a small projecting entrance bay. A lower single-storey wing with a veranda extends to the left, fronted by lawn and trees.
Vienna industrialist Johann "Jean" Roth (1837–1906) had the villa built between 1879 and 1883 on a peninsula in the Grundlsee, following plans by his brother, the architect Franz Roth; he used it as a hunting lodge. In the interwar years the actors Attila Hörbiger and Paula Wessely spent summers here with their children. After Austria's annexation to Hitler Germany, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels used it as a summer residence.
The villa's nickname, Schloss Grundlsee, comes from its castle-like tower and grand facade, though it was built as a private hunting lodge. In the interwar years the actors Attila Hörbiger and Paula Wessely spent several summers here with their children Elisabeth Orth and Christiane Hörbiger; Orth later wrote about these stays in a book.
The villa is in private ownership and not open to visitors; it can only be seen from outside. It stands on a peninsula by the village of Gößl in the municipality of Grundlsee, district of Liezen, Styria. The lakeshore and the paths around the peninsula give views of the pale facade, the square tower with its dark pyramidal spire and the lower veranda wing.
In the night of 4 to 5 September 1939, two shots were fired in the tower room. Actor Attila Hörbiger, staying in the villa, broke a window and found the bodies of Dr. Georg Roth, 23, son of the owner, and his bride Trude Kuntner, 22; Roth had shot her and then himself, and no farewell letters were found.
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