The time at the beginning of the 19th century left a strong mark on the owners of the castle and throughout the region. The coalition wars, which culminated in the region around 1813, led to destruction, disease, hardship and misery among the population; looting and pillage occurred among the French as well as the Russians. The battles between Russian and French troops and their allies led to a large number of skirmishes between the Erzgebirge and Elbe, of which evidence is still available today (Napoleon's hill at hostels, memorial plaques and cannonballs in Dohna and much more).
On September 9, 1813, Napoléon I stayed in the castle after watching the enemy retreat from the heights north of Liebstadt near Borna. His armed forces still had 400,000 French who camped in and around the city. During this time, Carl Adolf von Carlowitz actively campaigned against the Napoleonic occupation and also served the Russian tsar as major general of the cavalry. He did not come into direct contact with the enemy, however, as he did not reach the Saxon Jägerkorps (2,900 men) he had set up until April 1814. But Paris had already capitulated on March 16.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of family members made a name for themselves, but not the castle. The distress caused by the inflationary period in the 1920s meant that Kuckuckstein Castle had to be sold again. It was bought by Ottomar Heinsius von Mayenburg in 1931.
View from the mountain with the keep
After the Second World War, the castle was expropriated, became public property and was administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and, since 1952, by the city of Liebstadt. The museum was established in 1954 and was initially headed by the teacher Walter Jobst, who was very committed to the preservation of the castle and made a great contribution to research into local history in the Eastern Ore Mountains with a large number of publications. At the same time he brought his collection of local history objects, especially from the native bird and plant world, to the museum's holdings. In addition, the museum has a number of historical objects from Freemasonry such as lodge badges, Masonic aprons and oil paintings depicting former lodge brothers from the Saxon lodges.