Gadebusch Castle

Gadebusch Castle is a Renaissance castle from 1573 in the northwest of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the town of Gadebusch, located between Schwerin and Ratzeburg. It is a rare example of Mecklenburg or North German brick Renaissance with reliefs in the regional Johann-Albrecht style.

The original building of the castle was a Slavic ring fort, which has been proven at this site for the 8th century. Godebuz Castle was under Obotrite rule. After its conquest by the troops of Henry the Lion, the castle was transferred to the County of Ratzeburg in 1143. From 1200 to 1204, the castle was occupied by the Danes and was then rebuilt in the 13th century into a fortified brick castle with a freestanding stone keep. From 1283 to 1299, the castle was the main residence of Mecklenburg princes. The nearby Burgsee (Castle Lake) also gets its name from this period.

The Renaissance castle on the Schlossberg (Castle Hill) with terracottas from the Lübeck workshop of the Dutchman Statius von Düren as a typical example of North German brick Renaissance was rebuilt by master builder Christoph Haubitz from 1570 to 1573 under Christoph von Mecklenburg, administrator of the Diocese of Ratzeburg. In 1675, the Prussian Elector Frederick William met the Danish King Christian V at the castle to seal their alliance in the Scanian War. From 1734 to 1768, the castle came under Hanoverian occupation, after which it became the seat of the ducal administrative office. At the end of the 18th century, the keep was demolished. During a renovation in 1903, among other things, the semicircular three-part gable ends of the staircase were restored and individual lost and destroyed terracottas were replaced. In 1945, the Barber-Lyashchenko Agreement was signed here. After 1945, the castle was used as a museum, boarding school, and later as an administrative building. In 2002, the building, which had been restored since 1991 as part of the urban redevelopment of Gadebusch, was sold to the publisher Herbert Freisleben-Liechtenstein from Rimpar.

Since summer 2012, Gadebusch Castle has housed a development project of the non-profit association HoffnungsGut.