In a pyramid-shaped mausoleum south of Castle Baum, Count Wilhelm, his wife and their little daughter rest in three black marble coffins: Below the top of the grave pyramid is a stone slab with two round dark metal plates with the coat of arms of the count (left) and the countess (right). In each case around her in the stone slab her life data and below are horizontally engraved the life data of her daughter: Above the with a gate to the burial chamber of the pyramid is located on a gray oval metal plate the following inscription:
"Holy Hope! Outpouring of Divine Power!" - the source of the happy thought that connections, which unite the knowledgeable part of our being, without prejudice to all transformations of the changeable, indestructible. "1776
The large W indicates that Count Wilhelm himself came up with this inscription. Above the inscription, a hand from the clouds picks up the hand stretched out from below. Around the grave pyramid are the remains of a former garden. The burial of the late Countess Marie zu Schaumburg-Lippe on 7 Sept. 1776 was one of Herder's last official acts before he left Bückeburg to move to Weimar. The little three-year-old Count's daughter Emilie, the only child of the family, had died of tuberculosis in 1774, much to the grief of her parents, and is also buried in the tomb pyramid. The count died a good year after his wife on Sept. 10, 1777 in his "Haus Bergleben" on the Wölpinghauser Berg above the "Steinhuder Meer". Today there stands the Wilhelmsturm, the half-timbered house "Bergleben" was dismantled and today serves as a pharmacy in Bad Nenndorf. Count Wilhelm was buried on 2 October 1777 in the Mausoleum. With that, the little family was wiped out in just about three years.
Only in 2014, on the initiative of an architect interested in history with the permission of his Highness Alexander Prince Schaumburg-Lippe with the participation of the Princely Court Chamber, Princely Forestry Administration and personnel assistance of the riot hunter 7 from Bückeburg and the infantry regiment Graf Wilhelm eV, the surrounding forest was cleared the spiral path is restored and a new planting done. The gate to the tomb is soon to grace the entrance to the spiral path.
The only daughter of Count Wilhelm zu Schaumburg-Lippe, Emilie zu Schaumburg-Lippe (*June 30, 1771 - † June 18, 1774) died at the age of three and was buried in the mausoleum in Stadthagen. His beloved wife Marie Barbara Eleonore zu Lippe-Biestefeld (* June 16, 1744 - † June 16, 1776) died as a result of severe tuberculosis two years later on her 32nd birthday.
After these severe strokes of fate, Count Wilhelm decided to build a very special tomb in the form of a pyramid for himself and his family. While she was still alive, the young countess chose a place for her final resting place near her summer residence, Baum Castle in the Schaumburg Forest, where she loved to spend time with her beloved husband. Count Wilhelm drew several designs for a tomb before your death and immediately after the death of his beloved wife, Wilhelm began to design the final design in the form of a pyramid. Wilhelm designed both the pyramid and all the epitaphs himself, as evidenced by designs in the Count's calendars, which he always carried with him for personal notes.
After the death of the Countess, the body of the dead Princess Emilie was reburied in the tomb pyramid and buried in marble coffins in the small crypt together with Countess Marie. Count Wilhelm, who found it difficult to cope with the death of his beloved wife, followed his wife only a year later. He died on September 10, 1777 of an illness in his retirement home "Bergleben" in Wölpinghausen, which was still under construction.
The corpses of the three deceased rest in the inner vault of a four-sided, stepped pyramid. A spherical sphere is enthroned at the top. Iron flower pots with small trees were placed on the corners of the pyramid. Source: ir-graf-wilhelm.de/index.php/geschichte/geschichte-4/geschichte-9
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