Uckermannsches Castle (Bendeleben)

In 1763, Johann Jacob von Uckermann acquired the property and had the existing knight's seat demolished to erect a symmetrical castle ensemble with an identical inspector's house. Simultaneously, other Baroque residential and commercial buildings were constructed. From 1770, the pleasure garden was redesigned and an orangery was added. The former deer park was transformed into an English landscape park. After 1816, Bendeleben became part of the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. Johann Jacob Uckermann, who inherited the estate in 1827, established an observatory in the castle tower and abolished serfdom in 1831. In 1849, the merchant Wilhelm Krause acquired the property, was ennobled in 1852, and successfully began lignite mining in 1853. Between 1860 and 1861, he had the “New Castle” built. From 1920, Wilhelm Baron von Krause and his wife redesigned and modernized the castle, transforming the estate into an agricultural operation. After its occupation by US and later Soviet troops in 1945, the von Krause family was dispossessed.