Broock Castle

The manor house called Broock Castle, located in the eponymous district of Broock in the municipality of Alt Tellin in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, is situated on the southern edge of the Tollense valley lowlands. The building, which has been vacant since 1980, is in need of renovation.

The village of Broock, also known as Duvelsbrueke until the 17th century, was originally a knightly fief. It dates back to a former castle complex directly on the Tollense, which is referred to as "Schlossberg" (Castle Hill) and is still recognizable as an archaeological monument. Here was the second river crossing between Demmin and Klempenow, in addition to the one still existing near Osten Castle.

From the 15th century until 1652, the house of Broock (Bruch), along with other villages, was a fief of the noble Buggenhagen family, who belonged to the castle-dwelling gentry of Pomerania. According to a list from 1613, the Broock estate consisted of Broock Castle and its farmyard itself, as well as the outworks in Siedenbüssow and Buchholz, along with 28 farmsteads and 22 cotter's holdings in the villages of Tellin, Siedenbüssow, Hohenbüssow, and Buchholz. With Andreas Buggenhagen, the family died out in the male line on May 4, 1652, and the estates, which also included Nehringen with numerous surrounding places and Pustow with some places, passed into other hands. Around 1705, Christian von Linden, a Stettin grain merchant whom the Swedish King Charles XII had ennobled, was enfeoffed with the Broock estates. His grandson Christian Bogislaw von Linden, a Prussian major general, had an elaborate manor house built in the "Dutch style" by 1770. In 1785, the house and estate passed to a line of the von Heyden family, who from then on called themselves Heyden-Linden.

In the first half of the 19th century, the von Seckendorff family came into possession of Broock. Hans von Seckendorff had the manor house rebuilt in the Neo-Gothic style between 1840 and 1850 according to designs by Friedrich August Stüler. At the same time, Peter Joseph Lenné designed an English landscape park for Broock.

In 1944, the Demmin district administrator confiscated the manor house to establish an alternative location for two institutes of the University of Greifswald. In the winter of 1944–45, the contents of a railway wagon with parts of the Prussia Collection were housed in the building. This included the entire find archive, excavation plans, and the negative collection. The merchant Lothar Diemer, who learned about it in 1946, finally had the collection transferred to East Berlin.

In the manor house, expropriated in 1945, refugees were initially accommodated, and later apartments were set up. From 1980, the building stood empty. In private ownership since 1990, it has not yet been possible to raise the funds required for renovation.

Since 2004, the Freilandlausch, an event with free admission where radio plays can be listened to outdoors, has taken place annually in the castle park.