Kartzitz Manor

The manor house stands in Kartzitz, part of the municipality of Rappin in the Amt Bergen auf Rügen, Vorpommern-Rügen district, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It lies in the north of the island of Rügen.

Kartzitz is first recorded in the 13th century. From the 15th century to the end of the 19th century the estate belonged to the von Usedom family, who had their ancestral seat here. Around 1750 the Baroque estate complex was built, with a single-storey rendered manor house and a two-storey central projection. The original Baroque park included two symmetrical chestnut avenues on either side of the house. Around 1800 the rear, larger part of the park was extended and redesigned as an English landscape park.

From 1898 ownership changed several times, passing to the Schröder family and then to Carl Leitner. After a period of decline, Ernst von Schinckel acquired the estate in 1935 and had it restored. In May 1945 he took his own life together with his wife and daughter. A memorial stone on the island in the park’s Great Pond commemorates their fate. In 1945 the estate was expropriated by the Communists and divided among new settlers.

In GDR times the manor house was used by the agricultural cooperative (LPG) and the municipal administration. After German reunification, Joachim von Schinckel, son of the last owner, regained the estate. He sold it to Count and Countess zu Innhausen und Knyphausen, whose family had owned the neighbouring Pansevitz estate until they were expropriated and expelled by the Communists in 1945. They thoroughly restored the manor house, its two cavalier houses and the completely overgrown park.

Today Kartzitz is regarded as the only surviving Baroque manor house on Rügen. It is the residence of the count’s family and is therefore not open to visitors. The rear part of the landscape park, which covers about seven hectares, is open to the public all year round.