In the mid-1780s, the renown of the English-style gardens in Wörlitz had become so widespread that the gardens attracted an ever-increasing stream of visitors. To ensure guests a representative accommodation, Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817) commissioned his architect Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff (1736-1800) to build a new inn. The inn was built from 1785 to 1787 and soon was named "Zum Eichenkranz". As a city entrance and at the same time a reference point for the gardens, the "Eichenkranz" was an ingenious architectural and urban solution. During Prince Franz's lifetime the "Eichenkranz" was a meeting place of the intellectual world. Even after his death, and despite many changes of ownership of the inn, the "Eichenkranz" remained a much-used and popular place, and its outward appearance remained virtually unchanged. Only in the last decades of the 20th century did the "Eichenkranz" suffer decline and increasing decay. It is thanks to the initiative of the Gesellschaft der Freunde des Dessau-Wörlitzer Gartenreiches and its supporters that so important a building for Wörlitz could be saved.--Cf. Publisher's summary, back cover (translated)