Akademie Schloss Rauenstein

Akademie Schloss Rauenstein occupies a neobaroque villa in Überlingen, built around 1903 on the hill called Rauhhalde. Otto Ziesig, a Swiss cavalry captain, commissioned it as a representative residence within a villa ensemble. The grounds cover about two and a half hectares, and a chestnut avenue threads through the park. From behind the building you look out over Lake Constance.

The two-storey house carries pilasters, corner stones, figurative reliefs and window decorations. Two mansard roofs flank a central one whose pointed top shows from a distance. After the Second World War the French military governor moved in and ran his headquarters here. District governor Lindemann then lived in the building until about 1950. Private owners followed before the local authority stepped in, and the 1973 reform folded the estate into the Lake Constance district. Plans for a casino or a sanatorium came to nothing, and instead an agricultural school and the farming office settled in. A thorough renovation in 2003 readied the house for the Ravensburg-Weingarten University. The academy, its external campus, hosts lectures and part-time master's programmes in business, production and the social and health sectors. The chamber of commerce stages events here as well, and other educational institutions use some of the outbuildings.

In 2015 the city of Überlingen bought the estate from the district so the park would stay open to everyone. The villa counts among the stops on historical walking tours through town. Along the southern slope, an apple variety trail presents the sorts grown around the lake. A walk along it doubles as a small lesson in regional fruit.