Wustrau Castle

The Cavalier House was built in 1690. The old manor house was the birthplace of Hans Joachim von Zieten in 1699. A first castle building in a rural-baroque style was constructed between 1747 and 1750. Wustrau Castle received its current appearance in the last third of the 19th century under Count Albert-Julius von Zieten-Schwerin. The associated landscape park was created around 1830. From 1750, the estate included an ice cellar, where ice transported from the lake in winter (covered with straw and peat) was stored until summer. The ice cellar is decorated with herms created by Friedrich Christian Glume, which were restored between 1991 and 2003.

During the Second World War, the castle temporarily served as the headquarters of the SS War Economy Administration and a central SS command post. Allegedly, the Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück concentration camps were last administered from here. At the end of the war, SS chief Heinrich Himmler briefly had his command post here. The last owner until her expropriation and expulsion by the communists in 1945 was Anni von Schwerin (1893–1961), married to Hans-Ulrich von Oertzen since 1918.

After 1945, the castle was plundered, then nationalized and used as emergency accommodation. From 1950 to 1975, a vocational and secondary school was housed there. From 1981, the GDR Ministry of Justice operated a training center, the Institute for Further Education, in the castle. For this purpose, two guest houses, which are still preserved today, were built in the park. After German reunification, the further education institution for justice in the state of Brandenburg found a home in the castle until 1993. Since then, it has been the second conference venue of the German Judicial Academy.