Only those who get the hang of the panorama picture will discover the saddle seat.

The worn piece of oak wood is actually in Wilhelm II's study, but like the entire Imperial Apartment in Bad Homburg Castle, it can now also be viewed on your home screen.

Or on the mobile phone, if someone on the way feels like taking a tour of the Hohenzollern summer residence.

Then we learn that the emperor probably didn't want to prove how firmly he still sat in the saddle with the unusual piece of seating furniture, but rather used the stool in a very modern way for ergonomic reasons: to protect the back.

Florentine Fritzen

Correspondent in the Hochtaunus district

  • Follow I follow

Like Wilhelm's study, all the other recently restored and newly furnished rooms in the imperial couple's Bad Homburg apartment can be zoomed in and rotated in all directions with the mouse and fingers, so that details and ceiling decorations become visible.

The computer-generated reality was composed of panorama photos.

For each room there is a text read by a speaker in German or English.

If you want to know more, click on the red dots and read through the information window that opens behind them.

For example, to the columns made of Lahn marble right next to the main staircase, which, like in reality, leads to Wilhelm and Auguste Victoria's apartment.

Bedroom in mint green

Visitors then enter the apartment through the king's aisle with its red carpet.

You can take a close look at the barograph with which Wilhelm II recorded imperial and bad weather, and compare his small bedroom with a narrow brass bed with his wife's much larger bedroom, which is decorated in mint green.

And wondering why her bathtub is hidden behind a closet door and his isn't, while both partners' toilets are hidden in closets.

Of course, you can also visit the telephone room with what was then a very modern device on the wall.

Anyone who has actually seen the freshly restored rooms on the first floor of the castle, smelled them and listened to the sound of footsteps and voices will probably miss the authentic aura on the virtual tour.

But the offer of the State Castles and Gardens of Hesse, which can be accessed via their website, is not necessarily intended as a replacement.

But as a supplement, for example to prepare for a visit or to take a closer look at everything after a guided tour.

At your own pace.