Werther Castle

Werther House is an old manor house, first mentioned in 1295. Since 1385, it has been a fief of the Counts of Ravensberg, who enfeoffed the Counts of Hatzfeld with the estate in 1526. The Counts of Hatzfeld from Hesse owned the estate until 1803 but never lived there, instead having it administered. In 1840, the house came into the possession of the then District Administrator of the Halle district, zur Hellen. From 1843 to 1855, it served, among other things, as the District Administrator's office. In 1887/88, the buildings were sold to the Weinberg company, which operated a cigar factory there until 1938. The property of the Jewish Weinberg family was "Aryanized" in 1938 and came to the Herford cigar factory. After restitution in 1951, the Weinberg family sold the house to another cigar manufacturer. Cigars were produced in the house until 1966, and it remained the seat of a cigar distributor until the end of the 1980s. Since 1994, the house has served as a community meeting place and library.