Kolk Castle

This knight's seat, dating from the first half of the 14th century, to which Theodor Fontane also dedicated a literary monument in his "Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg", goes back to a collateral line of the noble family von Holthuysen, whose descendants called themselves "von Colck" according to their new residence.

In 1484, the Kolk estate came as a dowry to the von Egeren family, through whom it fell in 1531 by marriage to Stephan VI. von Hertefeld. He made Haus Kolk the cradle of the Reformed faith in the Uedem area, as his cousin had already done at Stephan's parental home, Haus Hertefeld in Weeze. His grandson, born in Kolk in 1561, the electoral councilor Stephan VII. von Hertefeld zum Kolk, was a secret plenipotentiary of the Brandenburg Elector.

In 1609, after the death of the last Duke of Kleve, Jülich and Berg, he asserted the Elector's claims to the vacant duchy. This partisanship of Stephan greatly displeased the Catholic Spaniards: In the same year, troops plundered the knight's seat Kolk to capture Stephan. However, he managed to escape in a dramatic flight to the swamps of the Uedemer Bruch in time. His son, Jobst Gerhard, an important financier of the Great Elector, intensified the traditionally good relations with the Brandenburgers and significantly increased the family's political influence and wealth by, among other things, acquiring extensive lands in the Mark Brandenburg, which remained the family's center of life until 1945.

The knight's seat Kolk, whose owners also included Emperor Wilhelm II's only close friend, Philipp Prince zu Eulenburg und Hertefeld, has remained in the possession of the Hertefeld family and their ancestors since its foundation more than 650 years ago. From 2001, after extensive research into the traditional materials and techniques, it was restored and furnished as the residence of the current owner of the Hertefeld family.