Gut Panker with the Olen Liese: from manor house to gastronomic stronghold

The historic estate comprises an imposing gatehouse, a farmyard and a chapel, while the somewhat later baroque manor house with a lake and English landscape park forms the center of the estate village. The estate village is an official part of the municipality of Panker. Today, around 80 people live here, the majority of whom work in the village.

Over the course of its long history, the Panker estate has been farmed and inhabited by various noble families and personalities. The land on which the estate stands today has been owned by the Rantzau family since the end of the 14th century, who managed the estate and built the core of the manor house, often referred to as the castle, in 1650. In 1739, the Swedish King Frederick I of the House of Hesse acquired the estate for his illegitimate sons, Frederick William, Prince of Hessenstein and Carl Eduard, Count of Hessenstein. Together they founded the manor of Hessenstein, which developed into a social center of the Schleswig-Holstein nobility in the duchies. After the death of Count von Hessenstein, Gut Panker became the residence of his brother, the Prince von Hessenstein, and so the estate in its present form was created around 1800. After his death in 1808, Gut Panker passed to the Electors of Hesse-Kassel.

Today, the estate, including the land and buildings, is owned by the Hessian House Foundation, a family foundation of the House of Hesse, which is tasked with preserving the cultural values of the Hessian princely house. At the end of the 1980s, the estate village, which had previously been characterized by the countryside, was expanded to include further concepts for tourist purposes. Around 20 years later, in 2008, an estate community was founded on the estate in close cooperation with the Hessian House Foundation with several objectives: to secure the long-term economic viability of the businesses located in the estate village, to preserve the estate as a lively village worth living in and to promote a sense of community among the estate residents.

Shopping, horse breeding, gastronomy - variety for every taste

For almost 15 years, the active village community has been home to small stores and galleries with a wide range of products. In addition to antiques and custom-made furniture, you will also find high-quality home accessories and handicrafts for your home as well as roses and accessories for your garden. You can also purchase selected wines from the Prinz von Hessen winery as well as jewelry and fashion from the emmas fashion brand, which was created in Panker.

The estate grounds are not only a great place to stroll and store, horse lovers also get their money's worth here. The former stables are home to one of the most important German Trakehner studs; Germany's oldest riding horse breed has been bred here since 1947. A horse probably also gave its name to one of the gastronomic offerings at Gut Panker: At the beginning of the 19th century, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Hessenstein's favorite horse of the same name, which had grown old, was cared for and looked after in the "Ole Liese" inn - in gratitude, the farmhand living there was granted a license to serve beer.

Today, the historic inn comprises a hotel with 23 individually designed hotel rooms and suites, a country-style apartment and two dining options - the Ole Liese Wirtschaft and the Michelin-starred Restaurant 1797. In the Ole Liese Wirtschaft, visitors can look forward to down-to-earth and refined German cuisine, where delicious dishes are prepared and served using regional ingredients. In the gourmet restaurant, chef Volker M. Fuhrwerk and his team conjure up unusual menus and reinterpret German cuisine.