Sunder Manor

Gut Sunder originated from a free farm of the St. Michaelis Monastery in Lüneburg, with the church as the landlord. The Lüneburg Chancellor at the Celle Court, Baltasar Klammer, was enfeoffed in 1548 by Abbot Herbold of the St. Michaelis Monastery with the monastery's possessions in Meißendorf. He moved the farm from the village of Meißendorf to the vicinity of his lands. This is also the origin of the name: gesondert, sonder, sunder (separated, special, sunder). On a site surrounded by moats, with small ponds, a manor house was built in the representative style of Celle's town houses. After the estate changed hands several times, Gottlieb Ludewig von Schrader (according to the inscription on his tombstone: * November 8, 1695; † December 23, 1760, Royal Gr.Br. and Elector Br.Lün. Court Councillor) acquired Sunder in 1752. In 1881, a family cemetery was established northwest of the estate, in the forest, by the Meiße, which has been preserved to this day. In 1977, the von Schrader family had to sell the estate for financial reasons. In 1980, the German Association for Bird Protection (DBV) (today NABU), together with the federal government, and thanks to financial participation from IBM, acquired a large part of the site to ensure the preservation of this important wetland habitat. The NABU regional association of Lower Saxony now maintains a regional nature experience center with seminars here. The manor house is now a protected monument and is considered the most beautiful secular building in the Heath.