Neumühle Castle

Neumühle Castle is a castle in Beetzendorf in Saxony-Anhalt. It is considered Germany's youngest newly built castle and belonged to the Wolfsburg line of the noble family von der Schulenburg. The name "Neumühle" is based on the name of the nearby small village of Neumühle between Mellin and Tangeln.

In 1938, the City of the KdF-Wagen – today's Wolfsburg – was founded by the National Socialist rulers. Wolfsburg Castle, located there and belonging to the then Count Günther von der Schulenburg, was expropriated. The von der Schulenburgs received 560,000 Reichsmark and, from 1938, built a new castle on a forest plot they owned in the then municipality of Tangeln in the Altmark, about 35 kilometers from Wolfsburg Castle. It was built according to plans by architect Paul Bonatz in the then modern reinforced concrete construction method. Construction was completed in 1942, and it was occupied in November of the same year. Outwardly, it resembles Wolfsburg Castle, which had been built primarily in the Weser Renaissance style.

In 1943, parts of the extensive collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen were brought to the castle to protect them from war damage due to air raids on Bremen during World War II. In early summer 1944, Ursula Countess von der Schulenburg hid the family treasure within the castle. It consisted, among other things, of jewelry, family silver and porcelain, as well as the correspondence between Frederick the Great and Count Gebhard Werner von der Schulenburg, primarily from the years 1776 and 1777. Towards the end of the war, US soldiers were the first to reach the castle. They were able to secure and return a large part of the Bremen paintings. After the withdrawal of the British occupation force, which was responsible for a few weeks, Neumühle Castle belonged to the Soviet occupation zone from July 1, 1945. Shortly before the establishment of the Soviet occupation zone, the von der Schulenburgs fled back to Wolfsburg Castle, leaving most of their belongings behind. The castle was plundered by Red Army soldiers, but the family treasure was not found.

The von der Schulenburgs were again expropriated and no longer had access to Neumühle Castle. After the war, refugees were housed there, and it was subsequently converted into a sanatorium for lung tuberculosis patients. From 1965 to 1991, the castle was used as a nursing home for the mentally disabled. After the reunification, the von der Schulenburgs did not get the castle back according to the Two Plus Four Agreement. In 1993, a Hamburg company established a retirement home there, where mentally and emotionally disabled people were cared for. In 1997, the home still existed, but the company planned to move to a home in the village of Beetzendorf.

In autumn 2001, the family treasure, hidden in 1944, was rediscovered by a private person in a double wall next to the count's former study and handed over to the descendants.