Empte Manor

Haus Emte (around 900 Emnithi) originally belonged to a knightly family of the same name.

The family von Emte, like the Lords of Merfeld, with whom they were obviously of the same lineage, bore a diagonal grid in their coat of arms. The first bearer of the name we encounter is Thiderik von Emete in 1226, who also owned a castle fief at Haus Dülmen. The last male heir we know of around 1450 is Johan von Emete, whose heiress daughter Olderadis brought her parents' ancestral home Emte into her marriage with Dietherich von Hamern zu Billerbeck.

Through the marriage of Goswin von Raesfeld zu Ostendorf, knight, lord of Ostendorf, and Odilia von der Horst, heiress of Hameren and Emte (E:Diederich oo Odilia von Hamern) and settlement, Haus Emte came to Goswin von Raesfeld zu Ostendorf in 1481, whose son Goswin founded the line of Raesfeld zu Emte in the brotherly division.

Goswin von Raesfeld zu Emte in Dülmen entered into a marriage agreement on August 20, 1607, with a distant relative, namely Anna von Raesfeld zu Ostendorf, daughter of Johan III. von Raesfeld zu Ostendorf (1566-1619), Drost zu Dülmen, and Elisabeth von Bronkhorst zu Anholt, Moyland, Baer and Lathem, daughter of Diederich oo Elis. (Margarethe) von Nivelle.

After his death, she married Rainer von Raesfeld (1611 - 1638) zu Visbeck in Dülmen, to whom she brought Emte. Thereafter, Emte came in 1633 to the von Westerholt zu Hackfurt and from them, through marriage around 1708, together with Haus Lembeck, to the von Merveldt family, who were still in possession of Haus Emte in the 20th century.

The old buildings were demolished in the 18th century due to dilapidation. From 1767 to 1770, a new residential building was erected on the castle grounds, which were surrounded by a double moat fed by the Mühlenbach, for the tenant of the estate, and the current farm buildings also date from this period.