Assen Castle

Haus Assen is a moated castle in the style of the Lippe Renaissance in Lippborg, a district of the municipality of Lippetal in the Soest district (North Rhine-Westphalia).

The "Borch to Assen", which already existed in the 11th century, belonged to the Honsel administrative court on the Lippe, which Emperor Henry II donated to the Abdinghof Monastery in Paderborn in 1023. In 1384, Röttger von Ketteler received the castle as a fief. The property was divided in 1455. In 1564, Laurenz von Brachum built Haus Neu-Assen, located south of the castle, on behalf of Goswin von Ketteler; his brother lived in the old castle. The buildings were later connected. At the end of the 16th century, the separate possessions were united when Konrad von Ketteler married Odilia von Ketteler. The inheritance from the childless marriage went to Odilia's sister Eva, who had married Goswin von Ketteler zu Hovestadt. The next heiress was Goswin's sister, married to Gottfried von Heyden. After inheritance disputes could not be settled, Heinrich von Galen, supported by his brother Christoph Bernhard von Galen, bought the property and moved into Haus Assen in 1653. Christoph Bernhard von Galen, Prince-Bishop of Münster, wanted to have a confidant at the southern border of his territory with his brother. After the Assen branch of the family died out, Clemens August Graf von Galen (1748–1820) from Dinklage took over Haus Assen. From 1850, the castle was the family's second residence alongside Burg Dinklage, today's Burg Dinklage Monastery. Matthias Graf von Galen (1800–1878), brother-in-law of the Mainz social bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, and his wife completely renovated Haus Assen and built the neo-Gothic castle chapel in 1858. Haus Assen remained in the family's possession until 1997.

In 1997, the then head of the former Westphalian noble family von Galen, Christoph Bernhard Graf von Galen (1907–2002), who lived alone in the castle after his wife's death, donated his residence to the religious community Servants of Jesus and Mary (SJM). He justified his decision as follows: "My wife died in 1992, my children are long grown up and not interested in taking over and continuing Haus Assen. The effort for preservation and renovation is great. And I live here alone in the large building. [...] I therefore thought of finding some Catholic institution that could appropriately use Haus Assen, but also wanted to take on the associated burdens." Through his daughter Johanna Gräfin von Westphalen, honorary president of the Catholic Scouts of Europe (KPE), which is spiritually cared for by the SJM, von Galen came into contact with the religious community founded in 1988 and handed over Haus Assen to them in 1997. In 1949, he had already handed over another ancestral seat of the family, Burg Dinklage in Oldenburg Münsterland, to the Order of Benedictine Nuns.