When I started this project, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to find any clues to the location of the castle. Although I still don’t know the name of the castle, I have two pretty good prospects. The inside cover of Aunt Frieda’s notebook lists two cities (Wulfshagen and Gadendorf) which helps narrow the location. In addition, I have three german-speaking elves who have been pointing out possibilities and sharing their knowledge of the region. (Many thanks to Meike, Lisa, and Adrian!).

Here’s a map of the area to get a better idea of where these places are located. Wulfshagen is 22.8 miles from Aunt Frieda’s home town of Krokau. Gadendorf is 19.8 miles from Krokau. Both cities are far enough from her parent’s home that she would probably have had to have a live-in position at the castle.

Germany map courtesy of Wikipedia and enlargement courtesy of Map Carta.

Wulfshagen

There is an old manor house in Wulfshagen called Gut Wulfshagen. The estate was built in 1699 and is situated in a park with 600 years old oaks. It is still owned by a noble family, the von Reventlows, but now is mainly rented out for events.

photo from Gut Wolfshagen website

In the past, the estate has been used as a venue for the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival. It has also been used as a TV filming location. The German public television channel used it in 2010 for a production of a Brothers Grimm tale called, “Der Meisterdieb” (“Master Thief”). And in 2008 it was one of the shooting locations for a German reality show called “Gräfin Gesucht” (“Looking for Countess”), which tried to match aristocratic bachelors with brides. One of the von Reventlow family, Moritz Graf zu Reventlow, even participated as one of the bachelors.

Wow. Not really what I had pictured. I was expecting more of a “Downton Abby”, than “The Bachelor,” but I suppose that trying to maintain large estates nowadays might require looking for creative ways to bring in revenue. It’s good news for me. The Schloss is still around, still family owned, and available for more investigation.

(Stay tuned for Part 2, in which I introduce the Panker Estate near Gadendorf.)

Providence, that’s what it was. Or fate or kismet, or coincidence…take your pick.

Last Saturday, I attended a birthday party for my sister-in-law. The guests included a couple that I had met before, but didn’t know well. As we were conversing over dinner, I explained my adventures trying to make recipes from the Castle Cook’s notebook. As fate would have it, they were not only familiar with the area where my great-aunt had lived, they had relatives there and had studied the history of the area.

Since I know nothing about the castle at this point, we speculated about what type of place this might have been and whether it might still be around. I was concerned that the castle might have been bombed or fatally damaged during World War II and no longer exist. They assured me that it was unlikely, since this part of Germany had not been bombed much during with war.

I was also told that my aunt Frieda had probably not worked at what we Americans think of as a proper castle, since those are not common in Northern Germany. It’s far more likely that she worked in a Schloss, which is often translated as castle in English, but would be more like a noble house or manor house. A Schloss would have been built for nobility or by a wealthy patron as a country estate and most certainly would have had servants. Being a big fan of PBS’s Downton Abbey, I was thrilled to hear that. I could imagine that my great-aunt Frieda was something like Daisy, young and inexperienced, wanting to improve her station in life, born into tradition but flirting with some of the new freedoms arising for women in the 1920’s.

The next day, I received an email from Lisa, the woman I had been talking with at the party. Intrigued by identifying the Schloss, she had actually done some research for me! She sent me a list of Schloss’s in the area and pointed to two she thought were good candidates: Wish-hof in Krokau (the village my great-aunt lived in) and Schloss Bredeneek, which is 20km (12 miles away). Providence has me off to a good start.