Haus Amecke, Medieval château in Sundern, Germany.
Haus Amecke, first recorded in 1338 as Castrum Adenbecke, stands on the road to Allendorf by the Sorpesee in Sundern-Amecke. Its limestone, quarried at the Steinert and Langeloh hills, forms a main building with a central block and east wing with a gate arch. A stair tower has linked the upper and lower houses since 1923.
Haus Amecke was first mentioned in 1338 as "Castrum Adenbecke", when Count Gottfried IV enfeoffed Johan Wrede with two hides in Amecke. Within 60 years the farm became a moated castle, built with limestone from quarries on the Steinert and Langeloh hills. In 1419 it was split into an upper and a lower house; the lower house stayed with the Barons von Wrede-Amecke, while the upper house passed by marriage in 1530 to Johann von Heygen and was bought back by the von Wrede family in 1758. A stair tower joined the two houses in 1923.
The name Amecke derives from the old designation "Castrum Adenbecke", recorded when Count Gottfried IV enfeoffed Johan Wrede with two hides there in 1338. The lower house stayed with the Freiherren von Wrede-Amecke, whose descendant Eberhard Freiherr von Wrede has run the estate since 1998. In 1923 director Svend Gade filmed scenes of the silent film "Das Geheimnis vom Brinkschultenhof" here, with Henny Porten in the lead and villagers as extras.
Haus Amecke stands on the road from Amecke to Allendorf, directly on the shore of the Sorpesee in the Sundern district of Amecke. The site is reached by car; the nearest public transport stop is several kilometres away. The manor house itself is a private residence and working estate, so visitors view it from the outside.
In April 1945, heavy fighting between the Wehrmacht and the US Army took place in Allendorf and the surrounding area. The Wehrmacht set up a field hospital in Haus Amecke and buried nine German soldiers in the park; the US Army then used the house as a camp for foreign labourers, during which parts of the archive and furniture were stolen and destroyed.
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