Eckhof Manor

Around 900, during the heyday of Haithabu, Eckhof was a respectable fortified complex with at least two outworks. This source is not reliably substantiated. In the Middle Ages, there was a settlement here.

The Eckhof estate was newly established in 1708 as a Meierhof of Gut Bülk.

On May 1, 1738, the first owner of Gut Bülk, Claus Christoph von Thienen († 1752), sold the Meierhof Eckhof to Baron Andreas Liliencron. On January 21, 1746, the latter sold it for 28,000 Reichstalers to Johann Ludwig Krantz. On May 1, 1753, it passed into the possession of Detlef Hilmers through resale. On the north wall of the cow house, his name with the year 1755 is carved into a wooden beam.

In 1770, Hillmer sold Eckhof for 60,000 Reichstalers to Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad Holck (1745–1800), a descendant of Henrik von Holck, who had led Holck's cavalry in the Thirty Years' War.

At court, Christian VII reigned, where Holck was chamberlain and befriended Johann Friedrich Struensee. Struensee had brought the lord Holck from Altona to court. Holck incited the king to excesses, which led to Holck, along with State Minister Johann von Bernstorff and poet Klopstock, being expelled from court. He married Juliane Sophie Dannesskjold/Danneskiold-Laurvig in 1769.

Reconstructions and New Buildings

During Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad Holck's ownership, Eckhof was elevated to an independent noble estate in 1774 and then comprised 10 ploughs. Holck built a new manor house with a Rococo sandstone portal, crowned by a triangular gable. The single-story brick building under a half-hipped roof features a two-story central risalit, three axes wide and framed by pilasters.

Klopstock at Eckhof

The Holck family was friends with the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who was a frequent guest at the manor between 1770 and 1794. Some plants commemorate this period: an English oak on the estate is called the Klopstock Oak. About the forest near the manor house, it is said: "In this grove, then called 'Klopstockhain', there were formerly much admired facilities, a pleasure house and monuments dedicated to the memory of Klopstock and von Bernstorff, who often stayed here as friends of the owner, Count Holk." Furthermore, an island is said to be called 'Klopstock Island'. The red honeysuckle (Lonicera Xylosteum) is abundant here. Holck abolished serfdom on his estate in 1786.

Transfer and Successions

In 1789/1790 and 1792, Holck sold the estate to Jens Peter Bruun Neergard, who made it a fideicommissum. In 1791, Fuhlensee became part of the Eckhof estate. Neergard had studied law and become chamberlain at the royal court. He married Henriette Caroline Elisabeth Baudissin on May 19, 1794.

After Count Otto D. Schack had ceded three houses in Dänischenhagen to Neergaard in 1792, the latter gradually acquired all houses and cottages in Dänischenhagen and the associated land, a total of 192 tons of land, and leased them to the inhabitants on a hereditary basis. In 1803, he generously supported the construction of a new school in Dänischenhagen at the corner of Schulstraße and Dorfstraße, which was used until 1831. In 1828, Bruun Neergard went bankrupt. His wife bought the Eckhof estate back at the forced auction. Bruun died in 1848, and his wife continued to manage the estate until her death on December 19, 1864.

The first son, Henrik Jens Carl Bruun Neergard, was already dead. The second son, Ernst Friedrich Ludvig Carl Bruun Neergard, lived in America, had children, but was unmarried. Thus, after the second, the third son, Lucius Carl Joseph Andreas Bruun Neergard, inherited the property.

His first son died before him, so his second son, Carl Erik Johan Bruun Neergaard, inherited him. He married Alette Wilhelmine Moltke (* September 12, 1827) from Poland on September 26, 1827. He, in turn, had two sons.

Theodor Magnus Sophus Gunni Bruun Neergaard had studied mechanical engineering and married Marie Henriette Wilhelmine Carola Romundt (* April 12, 1855) on May 28, 1886. Also relevant for the later succession is his younger brother, Magnus Bruun Neergard, who became an officer in the army and made a career at the court of the Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. He married Margarethe Reventlow at Kaltenhof on December 28, 1891. The wedding took place in the church of Dänischenhagen. Theodor Magnus Sophus Gunni Bruun Neergaard inherited his father. He himself had only one son, Carl Joseph Heltmuth Kurt Bruun Neergaard, who was so weak in his youth that he received home schooling, and finally had such severely affected lungs that the whole family decided to move with the child to Davos, Switzerland. The estate was then leased out.

Carl Joseph Neergaard studied and received his doctorate in medicine in Basel and was an extraordinary professor of physical therapy in Zurich from 1940 to 1946. He inherited the Eckhof estate from his father and was later inherited by his wife Mathilde Helene Heim (1883-1972), granddaughter of Albert Heim, whom he had married on January 19, 1917. The two had no children.

In 1972, the estate passed by inheritance to Count zu Reventlow at Wulfshagen. In 2009, Nicolaus Franz Friedrich Reventlow (* December 12, 1964) and Caroline Reventlow became the new owners. Nicolaus Reventlow is a brother of the twins Moritz Christoph Reventlow (* April 15, 1970 Eckernförde), known from the SAT1 series Gräfin gesucht, and Anna Sophie Reventlow (* April 15, 1970 Eckernförde).

The estate is currently (as of 2010) 346 ha in size, of which 66 ha are forest and water.

The Eckhof estate district was reduced in size in 1876, and the municipality of Dänischenhagen was formed from a part of it. Finally, the Eckhof estate district was completely dissolved in 1928 and became part of the municipality of Schilksee. In 1934, the area of the former Eckhof estate district became part of the municipality of Strande.

From 1889 to 1930, there was the Eckhof Office or Eckhof administrative district. From 1889 to 1928, it consisted of the municipality of Dänischenhagen, the municipality of Schilksee, the Eckhof estate district, and the Uhlenhorst estate district. From 1928 to 1930, it consisted of the large municipality of Schilksee, which had been formed from these very municipalities and estate districts, among others.

• Frederik Vilhelm Conrad Holck (also Germanized: Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad Holck) (* September 28, 1745, Orebygaard, † December 7, 1800)
  • Juliane Sophie Danneskiold-Laurvig (* January 12, 1757, † January 11, 1790)
• Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
• Jens Peter Bruun Neergard (* December 7, 1764, † January 7, 1848), owner of Gut Alt-Bülk, Gut Neu-Bülk and Gut Eckhof
  • Henriette Caroline Elisabeth Baudissin (* June 26, 1777, Gut Knoop, † December 19, 1864, Eckhof)
• Henrik Jens Bruun Neergaard (* April 14, 1795 Eckhof, † January 7, 1818)
• Ernst Friedrich Ludvig Carl Bruun Neergard (* December 24, 1807, Eckhof, † October 28, 1865, Kingston, Tennessee)
• Lucius Carl Joseph Andreas Bruun Neergard (* May 17, 1797, Eckhof, † July 9, 1881, Eckhof)
• Carl Erik Johan Bruun Neergaard (April 12, 1823 Ratzeburg, † July 21, 1889 Rendsburg)
• Theodor Magnus Sophus Gunni Bruun Neergaard (June 11, 1852 Hof Altona, Övelgönne, † December 14, 1911, Kiel)
• Carl Joseph Heltmuth Kurt Bruun Neergaard (June 13, 1887 Svalövgard, Skaane, Sweden, † November 7, 1947, Orselina, Locarno, Switzerland)
• Mathilde Helene Heim (* May 11, 1883 Switzerland, † 1972)