Schloss Eickhof, Neo-Gothic château in Liebenau, Germany
Schloss Eickhof is a château near Liebenau, built after 1870 on the foundations of an older manor house at a bend in the Große Aue. The brick building has Neo-Gothic features, high gables and a surrounding park with a garden and estate farm. It is not open to the public.
The present Schloss Eickhof was built after 1870 on the foundations of the old manor house for Marbod von Kalm, who had bought the estate and turned former heath into forest. After his death in 1895 it passed to Eduard Oskar Reitzenstein, later von Eickhof genannt Reitzenstein, and stayed with his descendants until 1938. From 1938 a Hitler Youth leadership school occupied the building; after 1945 the British requisitioned it and ran an officers' mess until 1978.
The château grounds incorporate Japanese garden elements within the traditional European castle park, creating an intersection between Western and Eastern design principles.
The estate today houses a Zen monastery offering meditation seminars as well as offices for a landscaping company. Visitors should check in advance as the property is partly in private use.
The park's Japanese-style sections date from after 1986, when Wolfgang and Marianne Hess bought the castle and enlarged the garden in that style. The music video for Fettes Brot's song "Denxu" was filmed here, and a horticultural firm now has its office in the castle.
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