Steinhof Manor

The Steinhof with its stone tower is the oldest preserved building in Duisburg and is located in the Huckingen district at Düsseldorfer Landstraße 347. Today, the Steinhof is used as an event venue.

The medieval, U-shaped farm, originally a free knight's estate, is first mentioned in documents in 1454. The central element is a nearly square residential tower, the lower part of which dates from the late 12th century. The middle floor was built in the first half of the 13th century, the 2nd upper floor belongs to the late 13th/14th century. Today it is surrounded by residential buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries, to which younger building parts connect to the south.

The location of the Steinhof is unusual, as it is not situated directly on the Angerbach like other historic buildings in the area, e.g., the moated castles Böckum and Remberg, but on the country road between Kaiserswerth and Duisburg. The robber knight legends associated with the Steinhof, as well as the assumptions that it once stood in a swamp and possessed a tunnel to the not-far-off Haus Böckum, have not yet been archaeologically proven. The relationship to the nearby village of Huckingen has also not yet been clarified. It is suspected that the Steinhof, including the tower, was a road and temporary customs station.

Owners of the Steinhof included the Duisburg citizen Adolf (Ailf) Tacken (around 1450), Rütger von Galen and his wife Elsgen von Kalkum (Calicheim) (until 1454), the chapter of St. Lambertus Abbey Düsseldorf (1454–1805), the State Domain Administration (1805–1819), the Counts of Spee (1819–1949), and the City of Duisburg (since 1949).

After agricultural operations ceased at the Steinhof in 1971, the farm threatened to fall into disrepair. Dedicated citizens in 1970/1971 narrowly prevented the buildings from being demolished for an elevated rapid transit line between Düsseldorf and Duisburg. In the spring of 1999, various Huckingen associations convinced the City of Duisburg and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia of their idea for a community center. After the founding of the supporting association Bürgerhaus Steinhof Huckingen on May 31, 1999, the renovation work could begin. These were supported over the years by a larger state subsidy, voluntary working groups of the participating associations, and ABM workers from the employment office. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 9, 2001.