Schloss Imshausen

Schloss Imshausen is a three-winged manor house built late in the 18th century beside the river Solz, five kilometres north-east of Bebra in eastern Hesse. The estate had belonged to the Trott zu Solz family since about 1500, and in 1778 the family branch at Imshausen was raised to the rank of Imperial barons. Rudolf von Trott zu Solz and his wife Eleonore moved into the new residence in 1791 after the building was first turned to face north, then later rebuilt and reoriented to the south. The estate once included the Tannenhof farm at Vockerode, part of the old Trott court at Solz. In the 19th century the house served as the main home of the first Trott zu Solz line, welcoming relatives such as Bodo Trott, a Prussian chamberlain, and later his niece Ernestine and nephew Bodo. The building became best known as the childhood home of Adam von Trott zu Solz, who lived there with his parents and seven siblings between 1919 and 1921. After studying in Hannoversch Münden he returned in 1942 and used his position in the Foreign Office to travel abroad, meeting resistance figures and Allied contacts in preparation for the 20 July plot. Arrested in July 1944 and executed a month later, he is commemorated above the village by a cross unveiled each July. In 1947 his brother Werner gathered forty leading figures from all four occupation zones in the house to discuss Germany’s renewal, an initiative that led to the Imshausen Society and, decades later, to a permanent exhibition about Adam’s life opened in 2021. The manor’s yellow façade is divided by four white pilasters into three sections of three windows on each floor, with a mansard roof carrying thirteen dormers. Inside, the two side wings have been converted into a meeting centre, while the Visser’t Hooft House, built from an old barn, and the former coachman’s wing now host workshops and seminars on democracy, resistance and internationalism. The estate lies within the Trottenpark, a landscaped area that includes the memorial cross and offers views across the surrounding countryside.