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If buildings could talk, the Gutshaus would no doubt have many fine tales to tell of love and loss, and of pain and joy. Still standing strong after more than 80 years, it was originally built in 1925 by Franz Bach, a Hamburg engineer, for his son, who was a trained agriculturist. The villagers used to call it the ‚Stellshagen castle’ , but of course there were no aristocrats here, just some interesting people whose lives revolved around the seasons and the harvests. During the second world war, Franz Bachs’ eldest daughter, Lore, met Captain Dietrich Cordes-it was love at first sight and they married soon afterwards. Their first son was born in 1944, and a few months later, the war arrived in the idyllic ‚klutzer winkel’ as the local area is called, bringing refugees and some big changes to the Gutshaus. Shortly afterwards the owners had to flee as Russian soliders occupied the house and subsequently it got absorbed into the fabric of daily life in the former Easr Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Lore and her daughter Gertie, decided to try to get the house back (by then it was administered by the local land-management committee who were auctioning it off). And so, in july 1996, 5o years after she had to leave the Gutshaus with her baby son in her arms, Lore walked back through the imposing rooms, her son’s hand in hers, and the ownership once and for all was back in the hands of the family. The winning concept which Lore and Gertie proposed evolved quickly, and by 2007 the Gutshaus was awarded the BIO-hotel certification-the first in Mecklenburg. |
