Gut Nordhausen

Wierszoklet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

The estate near Vietnitz in the Neumark from which the House of Nordhausen takes its name. General Leopold acquired it after the previous owner Alexander Schultze (1839–1857): in July 1858 he endowed 2,400 Taler "for the villages of Rohrbeck and Nordhausen". From 1864 it belonged to his son Berndt, Landrat of the Königsberg district, who in the 1880s built a two-storey neo-Gothic manor house with a thirteen-bay front and side terraces in the middle of the park; the park goes back to Peter Joseph Lenné. In 1896 Berndt's daughter Marie married the later Oberpräsident Rudolf von der Schulenburg here. Early in the twentieth century the estate passed to the Berlin manufacturer Ernst Dannenberg; Berndt's son Berndt-Leopold carried the name of the house as far as South West Africa. The manor house was destroyed when the Red Army arrived in 1945.

Chronicle

1. 1248

   Duke Barnim I grants the area to the Cistercian abbey of Lehnin; in 1338 Nordhausen with 64 hides is incorporated into the abbey's domain.

2. 1572

   Sold to Leonhard von Stör; in 1668 partly von Schöning, partly von Schönebeck, 1688–1792 the von Schönings alone; then von Mühlheim (1792), Carl von Knobelsdorff (1798–1800), von Goldbeck (1803), von Haslingen (1805–1839) and Alexander Schultze (1839–1857) (pl.wikipedia).

3. 1857/58

   After Alexander Schultze (until 1857) the estate passed to General Leopold von Gerlach. That it was already his in the summer of 1858 is shown by the endowment for the sick and infirm that he founded for the poor of two villages – Nordhausen stands in it beside Rohrbeck.

4. 1864

   After Leopold's death (1861) and the division of the inheritance, Nordhausen passes to his son Berndt (pl.wikipedia: "from 1864 Berndt von Gerlach").

5. 1880er Jahre

   Berndt, "lord of Nordhausen and a third of Rohrbeck", has a stately manor house built in the middle of the park – two storeys, a thirteen-bay neo-Gothic front, terraces on the side wings (pl.wikipedia); a local source gives 1884. He founds the Order of St John's district association at Königsberg. The manor park is a work of Peter Joseph Lenné from the time of the previous owners.

6. 1889

   Berndt von Gerlach dies at Rohrbeck; his son Berndt-Leopold (1879–1948), a cavalry captain, continues the House of Nordhausen and becomes a farmer at Kunemus in German South West Africa.

7. 1896

   The manor house is the setting for a wedding: Berndt's daughter Marie (1865–1931), born at Rohrbeck, married here on 8 January. Seven years after his death Nordhausen was thus the home of his widow and children (Reichsanzeiger 11 January 1896).

8. 1897

   The directory of steam-boiler owners lists for Nordhausen "v. Gerlach, distillery and agriculture" – the estate runs a distillery of its own.

9. 1900

   At the Paris World Exhibition the estate – represented by administrator Ehlers – exhibits Chevalier barley of the 1899 harvest (catalogue of German agriculture, Paris 1900).

10. 1901–1918

    The memorial volume of the Queen's Cuirassiers of 1919 gives the last Gerlach lord of the manor in full. Emil Bernd-Leopold von Gerlach served in 1901/02 as a one-year volunteer in Hussar Regiment 7, became a lieutenant of the reserve in 1904 and was transferred in 1907 to the reserve officers of the Queen's Cuirassier Regiment, first lieutenant in 1913. In the war he commanded reserve artillery munitions column 55 and from 1915 the replacement horse depot of the II Army Corps at Stettin-Kreckow; in June 1915 he became a Rittmeister and in August 1918 was discharged from active service. The regiment lists him with the Iron Cross second class and the Order of St John – and as "owner of the Nordhausen estate in the Neumark".

11. 1909

    The holding passes to the next generation: in the same year in which Berndt's widow died here, the son set up his own household.

12. 1909

    On 18 May Berndt-Leopold marries Irmgard von der Heyden-Linden (1888–1975) at Stretense in Western Pomerania; in 1914 the Gotha lists him as "lord of Nordhausen in the Neumark, lieutenant of the reserve of Cuirassier Regiment no. 2".

13. 1912

    Rudolf Martin's yearbook of the wealth and income of the millionaires in Prussia lists the entail owner von Gerlach at Nordhausen near Vietnitz.

14. 1927

    More than 400 inhabitants; about 1,500 hectares of arable land. The thirteenth-century granite church holds a late-baroque pulpit (1712/13) and epitaphs of the von Schöning family.

15. 1930er Jahre

    After Nordhausen is sold the family emigrates to South West Africa: Berndt-Leopold takes over the farm Kunemus (farm no. 79, south-west of Gobabis, about 22°46′ S / 18°45′ E). The Gotha of 1937 already gives Kunemus as the residence of the daughters Ursula (1920) and Rotraut (1926), both born at Nordhausen.

16. 1948

    Berndt-Leopold von Gerlach dies on 7 July at the farm Kunemus, described in the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels as "formerly of Nordhausen in the Neumark (sold), of the farm Kunemus (sold)", knight of justice of the Order of St John. His widow Irmgard is still at Kunemus in 1957 and dies at Windhoek in 1975; their daughter Ursula marries at Gobabis in 1944.

17. Anfang 20. Jh.

    The estate passes to the Berlin manufacturer Ernst Dannenberg – attested as owner in 1929, "probably since the beginning of the twentieth century" (pl.wikipedia); Berndt-Leopold von Gerlach becomes a farmer in German South West Africa. The year of sale remains to be checked against the family book (chapter VII).

18. 1945

    The manor house is destroyed when the Red Army arrives – the oldest villagers remember the ruin (pl.wikipedia; a dealer's text instead speaks of repairs in 1955/1975 and a fire on 29 March 1990). The village is now called Narost; the Lenné park has been a listed monument since 1977 and has been restored.