Fish Ponds at Haus Schnede

The Schnede estate was built at the beginning of the 1st century. At that time, a castle-like Art Nouveau villa with a romantic grotto was built in the nearby forest away from the manor.
More than 300 ponds were dug with shovels and pure muscle power, so that here in Schnede the largest Forennzucht Europe originated.
Today, well-stocked fishing ponds attract anglers in every season.More information about the Gut Schnede can be read in the Vierhöfener village chronicle.

These ponds and the Gut Schnede over were once the largest fish farm in Europe

Fish farming on the Schnede
In the northeast of Lower Saxony, between Garstedt and Salzhausen, you pass large fish ponds and a villa in the South American style in the middle of the forest: Haus Schnede. In 1909 the stately home was built by the Hamburg merchant family Wiedenbrüg. She had made her fortune in Argentina with cattle breeding and viticulture and incorporated some style elements from South America into the spacious architecture.Consul Wiedenbrüg bought the Schnede forest and the Weddermöde farm as early as 1908. There, in the headwaters of the Schnede and in the area of the Luhe, with over 300 ponds, he set up what was then Europe's largest trout farm.
However, after financial difficulties in the 1920s, the property went downhill. The huge estate was divided up and sold.

One of the numerous outbuildings of the former estate was the home of the forester, who was also the head of the fishmasters. It was built in 1911 north of the manor house with a hatchery in the basement directly above a spring - and is now the headquarters of the Nordbach fish farm. Salmonids have been laid and brooded here for over 100 years.
The pond management with its current system was founded in 1985 by Volker Buchtmann and managed until 2014. We reopened it in 2015.nordbach.de/historie