Events. Schloss Neubeuern.
Christmas party 2025
11.12.2025
As a farewell to the anniversary year, we celebrated Christmas in the Neubeur tradition with a backstage nativity play.
At the ceremony in July 2025, Christina Antholzner (senior school coordinator) and Christina Rothmayer (music teacher) managed to delight the guests with a play. At the parents’ Christmas party on 11 December, the 300 guests were treated to their own interpretation of Rudolf Borchardt’s backstage nativity play, an equally worthy farewell to the end of the 100th anniversary year.
In 1920, Ottonie von Degenfeld-Schonburg made a heartfelt wish to the poet and writer Rudolf Borchardt – a close friend of the family at Neubeuern Castle. She asked him to write a nativity play for her then eleven-year-old daughter Marie-Therese. He was happy to fulfil her wish and, as a guest at Gut Hinterhör, he wrote the “Hinterhörer-Krippenspiel”, which premiered in Kiel on 18 December 1922. Under the direction of Wieland Goldberg, it was performed for the first time in the Neubeur castle chapel, which eventually became a tradition. Teachers and pupils alike have dared to take on the performance several times, which demands a lot from the children linguistically. This year was no exception – what better way to round off our anniversary year?
Christina Rothmayer and Christina Antholzner liked the idea of putting this idea into practice, even though the original version of the play is not easy to rehearse. But it wasn’t just the short preparation time that posed a challenge – unfortunately, no theatre guild was formed at the beginning of the school year – the pupils hadn’t chosen it. But they didn’t want to give up on the idea so easily. Without further ado, Christine Antholzner grabbed the script and summarised the nativity play in three essential scenes and approached individual pupils directly and was actually able to get them enthusiastic about this production. Together with Christina Rothmayer’s musical ensemble, this spontaneous idea turned into a very successful performance of an extract from the backstage nativity play.
At the start of this school year, our school was delighted to welcome many new pupils. This made the Christmas party a major challenge – how do you manage to organise a programme and menu for so many guests in three halls?
Three halls - Three kings - Three scenes
This was ultimately the concept for this question – and the whole thing was accompanied by a musical prologue in the castle chapel. The programme in the chapel started at 5.30 pm for reasons of space and was repeated at 6.30 pm. In the meantime, the pupils and their mentors organised a Christmas bazaar to collect donations for the children in the Gaza Strip at a Christmas get-together in the MINT Centre. In front of the MINT Centre, the Star of Bethlehem shone at the top of the long-suffering fountain. In this traditional atmosphere, mulled wine and punch were offered and the wintry atmosphere on the south terrace was enjoyed. Finally, the castle’s library, dining room and banqueting hall were opened and the 300 guests spread out at the festively decorated tables.
A stage in every hall.
After the “Christmas Pastorale” by Arcangelo Corelli, the first scene “Mary and Joseph in the stable” was performed on the ballroom stage.
A small stage was also set up in the library, where the second scene, “The Visit of the Shepherds”, was performed after a small snack. It was introduced by a piece of music “Jetzt fangen wir zum Sin-gen an” by Tobi Reiser.
Another stage was set up in the dining room, on which the “Minuet of Friendship” by Hans Wiesholzer was first performed and then the third scene “The Visit of the Magi” crowned the end of the performance.
The sound was transmitted to the other halls – anyone who wanted to watch had to go to the respective hall. It was quite “cramped” at these times, but we had decided to do this so that every guest in every room could watch live from their seat. The space problem at the Christmas party will continue to increase as the number of students grows – but we are happy to be creative here and, as this year, we are relying on the understanding and flexibility of the guests, because we want to continue to celebrate Christmas together with all students, their parents and closest friends.
Many thanks to Christina Rothmayer and Christina Antholzner, who made this evening a special experience with their pupils. A big compliment also goes to the kitchen for the wonderful, slightly oriental-flavoured menu and the entire service and event team. Including our craftsmen, who always perform at their best on days like this and surpass themselves.
The evening was a worthy and atmospheric farewell to the centenary year of Schule Schloss Neubeuern
Katrin Burkamp
Happy Christmas
under the star of Bethlehem
The Christmas party began in the afternoon with a get-together in and in front of the MINT Centre. With mulled wine, biscuits and sparkling wine. The students organised a bazaar and diligently collected donations for “Save the Children”. The south terrace was atmospherically illuminated and the tower and chapel shone in a special light. After a prologue to the nativity play and Christmas music in the chapel, the party finally moved into the festively decorated halls – under a blue starry sky, with the golden star of Bethlehem.
