Gut Ellingerode

The Ellingerode estate, located southwest of Rotenburg, was first mentioned in a document in 1290. The farm was owned by the Landgraves of Hesse, who passed it on as a fief. 1503 to the brothers Jost and Konrad von Ratzenberg and 1595 to the Aitinger family. Johann Caspar Aitinger is considered to be the builder of the three-story half-timbered building with gable walls, richly decorated with carvings on cornices and corner posts. In 1721 Barbara Christine von Bernhold, lover and confidante of Landgrave Karl von Hessen, widowed since 1711, received the estate. Other later owners were von Schmerfeld, von Schutzbar and around 1905 the farmer Bertling. Literature tip: History of the Ellingerode Estate, Around the Alheimer 1953–1955, pp. 47–48.