Haus Laake

Haus Laake stood on the edge of the Lippe flood-plain near Bockum, a village now part of Hamm. The name means ‘marshy ground’, and old maps show it surrounded by wide moats fed by the Laaker stream. In the 19th century the estate still appeared as an island when the river burst its banks, reachable only by boat. A local clergyman wrote in 1886 that during floods the house floated like an island in the water. Archaeologists digging near the site in the 1920s found charred timber and a complete skeleton with sword and stirrups, now in Berlin’s museum. The estate belonged to the von Hövel family from at least the 12th century. Arnold von Altena was count of Hövel around 1190, and knights called de Hüvele lived at Laake by the mid-12th century. By 1420 Gödeke von Hövel took the name Lakemann, and his descendants slowly lost their lands. In 1474 Hermann sold most of the estate, and by 1503 his sons had to leave altogether. Rötger von Deipenbrock moved in and later bought Westerwinkel castle. The property passed through Westerholt and Hackfurt lines until 1734, when it was bought by Ferdinand von Plettenberg. Today nothing remains of the house. The site lies beneath the municipal rubbish tip south of Laakerholzstraße, between the incinerator and the landfill. The Lippe meadows still stretch around the old moat lines, though the stream itself has vanished. Visitors see only the flat grass mound of the former estate and the working waste site. The only traces are the 19th-century field patterns on old maps and the Berlin skeleton in its case.