Knau Manor

The place is first mentioned in a document in 1374 as Knauwe villa, a monastery farm of the Benedictine abbey in Saalfeld. With high probability, the origins of the place go back further. Archaeological investigations near the medieval residential tower of the Knau manor found pottery shards from the 12th century. It is assumed that the cultivation of the former swamp landscape originated from the economic farm of the Saalfeld monastery.

The place belonged to a part of the dominion of the House of Wettin (Amt Ziegenrück), from 1485 to the Ernestine line, was pledged to the Albertine line in 1567 and remained there from 1660 to 1815. After the Congress of Vienna, the Neustadt district came to Prussia in 1816. The largest part – including Knau – was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in the same year and, after 1850, belonged to the V. administrative district with its seat in Neustadt an der Orla. In 1918, the area became part of the Free State of Saxe-Weimar, and in 1920, the Free State of Thuringia. With the territorial reform in 1922, the Neustadt district was dissolved, and Knau was assigned to the Schleiz district. Through the territorial and administrative reform of the GDR, the place came to the new Pößneck district of the Gera region in 1952. After the re-establishment of the Free State of Thuringia (1990), these municipalities merged into the larger Saale-Orla-Kreis with its seat in Schleiz in 1994.

The history of Knau is inextricably linked with that of the manor, whose owners always guided the fate of the place and also exercised jurisdiction: The Knau manor, which came into the possession of Esaias von Brandenstein in 1602, included, among others, Plothen, Neudeck, Bucha, Dreba, Schöndorf and Volkmannsdorf. He had the castle in Knau and the church rebuilt. Thus, in 1608, there was a Renaissance castle in Knau connected to the manor, with a unique ship's throat ceiling. The magnificent facade was greatly simplified during "renovation work" in the mid-1950s, as it presents itself today.

Owners of the estate were:

• Duchess Maria Amalia: from 1703
• Anna Sophie von Einsiedel: around 1725
• Eajus Rudolf Haubold von Einsiedel: around 1730
• Johann Georg von Einsiedel: since 1743
• Schmatz family: until 1871
• Schneider family (most recently Herbert Schneider): from 1871 to 1945

In 1923, Paul Schneider managed the Knau estate with 915 hectares of cultivated land.

Herbert Schneider - the last owner of the manor - was dispossessed by the communists in 1945, abducted by Russian soldiers, and shot at an unknown location. His mother, Minna Schneider, died shortly thereafter. The estate was then used as a base for the Red Army for one year.

In 1946, the former manor was called a state estate, in 1947 a Thuringian state estate, and from 1949 a Volkseigenes Gut (VEG - People's Own Estate), in whose stables pigs and cattle were kept until 1990. From 1946 to 1951, the Thuringian Teaching and Experimental Farm for Pig Rearing Knau was located in the manor house. Afterwards, in 1952, there was the Research Center for Animal Husbandry Knau, and from 1962, the Institute for Animal Husbandry Knau of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences (DAL) in Berlin. In 1964, this Knau facility was closed, and the estate became a department of the VEG Animal Breeding Ludwigshof b. Ranis from 1965 to 1968. Afterwards, the arable farming was assigned to the Joint Department of Crop Production (GAP), later Cooperative Department of Crop Production (KAP), and finally Agricultural Production Cooperative Crop Production (LPG P) "Ernst Thälmann" Knau, which was responsible for this area. The well-known noble pig breeding herd of the Knau estate, however, became a department of the Cooperation Community (KOG) "Orlatal" with its seat in Oppurg until about 1976, and thereafter the already existing LPG Animal Production "Klausengrund" Knau, which already operated a sow facility in the Posen district and existed until 1990, took over the manor with its livestock. From 1953 to 1991, there was also the newly built fattening testing facility for pigs Knau on the southern edge of the village. The facility was subordinate to the DAL until 1964, then to the Association of People's Own Enterprises (VVB) Animal Breeding Paretz and was responsible for Thuringian pig herd book breeding.

Until 1991, near Knau (between Knau and Weira), there was also the second largest pig breeding and fattening combine (SZMK) of the GDR with 180,000 pigs. Due to environmentally unsound disposal of faeces and other waste materials, massive environmental damage to air, soil and water occurred. Pastor Peter Taeger founded an environmental group and published a magazine called Leidplanke. In the autumn of 1989, a citizens' initiative organized demonstrations with thousands of participants against the SZMK. After the end of the GDR, pig farming in this operation was discontinued in 1991.

The publicly owned assets of the Knau estate came under the administration of the Treuhandanstalt in 1990. In 1992, a major fire destroyed one third of the historical building fabric of the estate. This destroyed the integrity of the entire complex. In 1999, the municipality of Knau acquired about 10 hectares with the farmyard and park. Already in 2003, after renovation measures, it was able to open the "Community Meeting Center" for public use. Currently, the Förderkreis Rittergut Knau e. V. (Friends of Knau Manor Association) is striving to save the former castle by organizing and implementing practical steps for the monument-appropriate renovation of the ensemble.

Agricultural areas of the former LPG Pflanzenproduktion Knau were reunited with animal production and further organized across several villages. The successor company, Agrofarm Knau e. G., was established. It operates extensive crop production on 1,800 hectares, the breeding and fattening of pigs for direct marketing, and the keeping of dairy and suckler cows.