Schwalenberg - Malkasten

Schwalenberg, today part of Schieder-Schwalenberg, was first mentioned in writing in 1127. Situated on a hill above the village is Schwalenberg Castle, which was built from 1228 to 1231.

Even before 1900, the first open-air painters had come to Schwalenberg to paint here in the great outdoors. After the turn of the century, the development into an artists' colony began. Artists from Berlin in particular came to Schwalenberg as part of the summer retreat movement. Hans Licht, one of Berlin's leading impressionist painters at the time, even ran a painting school in Schwalenberg during the summer and brought many of his students to Schwalenberg.

This finally came to an end with the onset of WWII. There are still traces, like the "Schwalenberger Malkasten", where the artists gathered