Geist Castle

Haus Geist near Oelde in the Ahmenhorst farming community is a moated castle in the style of the Lippe Renaissance and Baroque, and for a time served as a Jesuit establishment.

The building possibly dates back to a medieval castle of the Lords of Geist. Their most famous representative was the canon and poet Bernhard von Geist in the 13th century. Before 1427, the estate was owned by a branch of the Wolff von Lüdinghausen family. Later, it was owned by the von Oer family. Through the daughter of the Landdrost Jaspar von Oer, the house temporarily passed to the von Nesselrode family. In the 16th century, it fell to the von Loë family. Between 1560 and 1568, master builder Laurenz von Brachum the Elder, with his sons Rotger and Johannes, erected a new building in the Lippe Renaissance style. In 1593, the castle came into the possession of Joachim von Büren through marriage. Moritz von Büren transferred Haus Geist, like his other possessions, to the Jesuit Order.

After von Büren's death, the order established a branch there from 1661. Heinrich Turck became vice-rector of the establishment in 1664. The missionary Bernhard Havestadt lived there, as did Johann Bernhard Zumziel. After a fire, the north wing was rebuilt between 1750 and 1755 in the Baroque style according to plans by Franz Christoph Nagel. The actual construction management was carried out by the Jesuit Franz Pfisterer.

After the dissolution of the order, the house fell to the Prince-Bishopric of Münster in 1773. The income from the Haus Geist estate went to the so-called Studienfonds (study fund) for the maintenance of the University of Münster. After 1803, the Prussian state became the legal successor of the Prince-Bishopric and continued to manage the Studienfonds. The state leased Haus Geist in 1884.

In the forests of Haus Geist ("Geisterholz"), the Federal Presidents organized hunts for the diplomatic corps in the first decades of the Federal Republic of Germany.