Söder Castle

The castle complex is surrounded on three sides by a moat and consists of the actual castle building and simple farm buildings to the north and northwest, which thus enclose an inner courtyard. The castle has a square central building, which protrudes like a risalit from the ocher plastered facade, and two equally long side wings adjoining it to the west and east, whose rear corners are completed by rectangular pavilion towers. The central building is symmetrically structured by seven window axes, of which the three central ones are particularly emphasized by a risalit.

While the four stories of the corner pavilions are topped by mansard roofs, the other building tracts have hip roofs. The high roof of the four-story central building has a roof turret with a bell as an additional decorative element, while the three-story side wings are only crowned by very low hip roofs.

A double-flight open staircase leads to the portal, which is located exactly in the central axis of the castle building.

Already in the Middle Ages, Söder, a fief of the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim, had a small castle with an associated agricultural estate, which belonged to the Lords of Bortfeld. After the Bortfeld family died out in 1686, the Prince-Bishop of Hildesheim, Jobst Edmund von Brabeck, enfeoffed a branch of his Brabeck family with the property in 1690.

His nephew – also named Jobst Edmund – had the old Bortfeld Castle demolished in 1740 and a new castle built in its place between 1741 and 1742. His descendant Friedrich Moritz von Brabeck had the building continuously expanded and rebuilt into a representative residence over several years, thus giving the castle its current appearance. The completion of the work was marked in 1791 by the construction of the access bridge and the entrance gate, as well as the erection of two pavilions at the northwest and northeast corners of the castle grounds. In the same year, the creation of a castle park in the English landscape style also began.

As an art lover, Friedrich Moritz von Brabeck amassed an extensive art collection, which he exhibited at the castle for study purposes from 1788. It comprised about 400 works, including many paintings by renowned artists such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Titian, and Rembrandt. This collection, valued at about 500,000 thalers, attracted many visitors to Söder and made the castle the cultural and intellectual center of the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim.

In the year of his death, 1819, Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg was a guest of his son in Söder. Here, in view of the miraculous image of the Immaculata, he composed the Söderlied.

A fire in 1845 severely damaged the castle building, but it was rebuilt by 1848. Moritz's son-in-law Andreas zu Stolberg first sold the art collection in 1859 and finally the castle in 1862. The new owner was Boguslav von Schwicheldt.

Curt von Schwicheldt carried out extensive renovations and alterations to the interior of the building and erected the current farm buildings on the west side of the area. Through his heiress daughter Sigrid, Söder Castle came to the family of her husband Eberhard Graf von Hardenberg in the first quarter of the 20th century, and through their daughter to the Lampe family.

After the castle served as a backdrop for the film "Du mein stilles Tal" with Curd Jürgens and Winnie Markus in 1955, it was extensively renovated and modernized by Carola von Hardenberg in 1968, while maintaining its baroque style.

Söder Castle is privately owned and can therefore only be viewed from the outside. The Lampe family now operates a horse breeding business on the castle grounds.