Groß Zecher Manor

The Groß Zecher estate is a noble estate in the district of Groß Zecher in the municipality of Seedorf am Schaalsee.

Not far from the current estate complex, a motte-and-bailey castle Boko with a diameter of 15 m was already located on the Zechersche Werder, a peninsula in Lake Schaalsee, in the Middle Ages. The 5 m wide surrounding moat is still partially visible. In the course of medieval colonization, the family von Zülen, coming from Saxony, settled here and named themselves von Zecher after this newly acquired property. The castle was destroyed in 1349. In the 14th century, the von Carlow family first came into possession of Groß Zecher, then from 1497 the von Parkentin family. The Parkentin (later spelling Berkentin) sold Groß Zecher in 1691 to the patrician family von Witzendorff, who originated from Lüneburg. Hieronymus von Witzendorff, Privy Councillor and President of the Chamber of Brunswick-Lüneburg, thus became a member of the knighthood of the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, which fell to the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg with the extinction of the Dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg in 1689. Hieronymus von Witzendorff established a fideicommiss for Groß Zecher. The estate has remained in the von Witzendorff family ever since. In the Lauenburgian politics of the 19th century, Ottokar von Witzendorff played a major role as district administrator of the Duchy of Lauenburg. After his death in 1890, the neighboring Seedorf estate, which had also belonged to the family until then, passed to his widow, who passed it on within her family.