On the main road from Iserlohn to Altena, shortly after the office building on the left, in a long curve, you can see a courtyard entrance with a transverse half-timbered building dating from 1760. The entire courtyard grounds, on which there is also a typical local whitewashed quarry stone farmhouse from the mid-18th century, are surrounded by a quarry stone wall, as was common in the area in the past.
The listed farm belonged to the 37 estates of the so-called "Kelleramt", which were responsible for supplying Burg Altena. It was first mentioned in a document in 1748. The estate was owned by the von Nachrodt family until 1805, and by marriage into the Herzog family until it was sold in 1818. In 1800, there was only this estate and scattered small half-timbered cottages and an iron hammer on the Lenne in the Lenne valley in what is now Nachrodt. The acquisition of this water-powered Hamm and a needle scrubbing mill built in 1809 by Iserlohn merchant Johann Heinrich Schmidt marked the beginning of the development of one of the most innovative and largest industrial plants of the time in the old Altena district. His son Eduard Schmidt took over the company and bought the adjoining Nachrodt estate in 1818 and in the same year built a residential building with a vaulted cellar as a classicist manor house made of originally plastered quarrystone with a slate-covered crippled hipped roof, today's "Haus Nachrodt".
Particularly noteworthy is the splendidly furnished hall and the landscaped park, which still dominates the townscape today, with the avenue stretching from the weir along the Lenne via the courtyard and Haus Nachrodt on both sides of the main road to the hereditary burial ground at Klaras Höhe. The park with its park meadow, circular paths and bathing huts on the Lenne still boasts various exotic trees and plants such as yews, cedars, sequoias, tulip and trumpet trees, plane trees, hanging beeches, rare conifers, chestnuts, robinias, copper beeches, meter-high box trees and rhododendrons and has its own romantic atmosphere. A guided visit is particularly beautiful when the rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias are in bloom in May.
The listed ensemble includes the courtyard, gardener's house, park, avenue and Haus Nachrodt as well as the Dümpel farms and the hereditary burial grounds of the Schmidt / von Löbbecke and von Holtzbrinck / von Carlowitz families (in the Opperhusen district).
Klaras Häuschen (vacation home)
Halfway to the Dümpel farms, on the "Dümplerleie" below the Lenne rock "Klaras Höhe", lies an old half-timbered forester's house with a quarry stone base. The restored house in a romantic location is rented out as a vacation home under the name "Klaras Häuschen".
Haus Nachrodt and the Nachrodt estate bear witness to the social rise of a family from the upper middle class to the nobility, from the classicist industrialist villa of the Biedermeier period to the aristocratic manor house with guest house, steward's house and gardener's house at the turn of the century.
Six generations have left traces of their respective times in the house, on the farm and in the townscape, which bear witness to past ways of life and which are worth discovering through the stories of the following people, among others:
- Eduard Schmidt, the builder of Haus Nachrodt. He was the industrial spy who brought the puddling process from England to the Lenne Valley. His too short life is recorded in a collection of curious stories.
- Emma Schmidt, née Löbbecke, his later widow, was an extremely resolute and educated factory owner who had great social sense and to whom the landscaped park surrounding Haus Nachrodt along the Lenne can be attributed. She sold the factory in 1872.
- Klara Schnitzler, née Schmidt, the alleged favorite daughter of father Eduard. Is the "Klara ́s Höhe" named after her? In any case, there is a crocus meadow in the park that was originally planted in the shape of her name.
- Anton Wilhelm von Zuccalmaglio, the folk song collector, writer and researcher into folk and nature, to whom the song "Kein schöner Land in dieser Zeit" is attributed. He was the tutor of Eduard and Emma Schmidt's four grandchildren and died in 1869 during a visit to Haus Nachrodt.
- Eduard von Löbbecke, the grandson of Eduard and Emma Schmidt, who made a career as a politician and promoted forward-looking innovations in the village.
- Waldemar von Löbbecke, an officer and a well-known and successful rider and horse breeder of his time in Germany. He married Hertha von Carlowitz from Burg Holtzbrinck in Altena.
Culture and education
Emma Schmidt's restored Blüthner grand piano, which has stood in its place in the hall since 1863, is used for cultural events. Research is carried out with various universities in the field of monuments. The association "Kulturerben e. V." offers cultural education projects for children and young people in cooperation with schools, churches and other institutions.
Hiking trails
Several hiking trails lead from Nachrodt into the forests of the Lennetal valley, including the circular hiking trail over Klara's Höhe with views of the Dümpel farms and into the magnificent nature of the Lennetal valley, which was once praised and sung about for its beauty by numerous poets and also called "Westphalian Switzerland".
You can also visit the Dümpel farms and Klara's Häuschen, which are within walking distance of Haus Nachrodt.
Text: Charlotte von Löbbecke-Campe