In 1824 the orphanage of the Kingdom of Saxony was established in the building shown above.
Shortly thereafter, the status of the institution changed to the royal
Saxon correctional institution for criminal children. A first hint in which direction the
Home would be used for the next few decades. At this time the guards were
armed and did not hesitate to use their carbines against the youths in case of emergency.
While guards with rifles kept order, there was always an old
cannon was always ready to be fired if a child escaped. Since most of the
population worked for the correctional institution or the adjoining manor of the family
Schubert von Kleefeld, everyone knew what the cannon shot meant.
Thus it was hardly possible for the fugitives to find a place of shelter. After the First World War, the intentions of the institution changed to a welfare
and educational institution. At this time, further building complexes were put into operation.
At the same time the neighboring manor grew, which was always connected with the home.
was always connected with the home.
In 1933, the home reached a further low point when it became a custodial institution for antisocial and
and unwilling adults. On September 23, 1943, January 6, 1944, and March 1, 1944.
March 1944, a total of 123 women were transferred to the Bräunsdorf branch of the LA
Hochweitzschen and to Hilbersdorf. Of these women, 105 were deported on
10, 18 and 19 April 1944 to Kosmanos near Jungbunzlau in Eastern Bohemia.
Kosmanos became known as a "death camp" due to malnutrition and medicinal
overdosage.

After the end of the National Socialists in 1945, the home became one of the first
Jugendwerkshöfe in our area. There are rumors of mistreatment here as well,
however, one of the inmates reports in a forum that at that time one was anyway
with the bare survival was busy anyway and could be glad under circumstances also
glad to have a roof over one's head. In 1960, the Jugendwerkshof became a
special children's home for children and adolescents who were difficult to raise. As I already wrote
here, too, the operators of the time tried to wash as little dirty laundry as possible in public.
The children's home in Bräunsdorf was under the
Youth Welfare under the leadership of Margot Honecker. Children and young people who did not
who did not meet the socialist standards in everyday life and who were beaten and humiliated for
and suffered beatings and humiliation for even minor offenses. The reason for being sent to such
were, among other things, truancy, restlessness, or rebellion against the
socialist regime. The style of education in such homes was closely based on the Soviet model of collective education.
Collective guilt was a widespread concept in the
educationalproblem. That is, if a child made a
mistake or did not behave in a disciplined manner, the whole group was held responsible.
group was held responsible and collective punishments were handed out. This often resulted in the creation of
outsiders were created, who now received additional beatings from the group. Also
some of the former home residents speak of fisticuffs, kicks and other harassment by
harassment by educators who are sometimes even mentioned by name in various forum contributions.
are called. I will link some of these contributions here at a later date.
After the political change the home was closed. Exact dates for this can not be found
not, however it must have been probably around 1989.

After a long period of vacancy, the estate and home grounds were taken over by the German Elite Academy (DEA) in 2003.
a conference and training center, but this ultimately failed due to the financing
the financing due to the banking crisis. Only the villa was renovated and today shines in a modern
splendor. Today, the building serves as a residential house. In 2011 the roof of the
of the mansion collapsed. The monument authorities considered the damage to the house to be too severe and
later had it demolished. In March 2019, a woman from Poland bought the
1841 built tower building for the minimum bid of 10000 euros. In
an interview the lady said that she could imagine a spa hotel there or something for
children.

Today a Lost Place or Haunted Place

Today the whole area, including the manor, is a true Lost Place. Everywhere
you can see the traces of decay and destruction by vandalism. In some
buildings of the estate, the roofs are collapsing, and in the tower house, the floors are breaking through
to the lower floor. In the cellar of the tower house one can still find the beds of the poor
children and youths who had to be imprisoned in darkness. On the upper floor of the residential building
three is the cell for solitary confinement. In the former prison church some vandals
vandals have broken the pews and torn the pipes out of the organ. Everywhere there is a
and eerie atmosphere prevails everywhere, which is the breeding ground for some haunted stories and
inexplicable events. I myself was there several times with several people, there were always
there were some strange things and always one felt observed during the shootings.
I stumbled across some experiences of other Urbexers on the internet, which are similar to ours.
similar to our experiences. On one homepage I found two very interesting stories
of locals who, as teenagers, went into one of the buildings at night for a test of courage.
(building three, where we also had most of our experiences) and then after a few minutes
then ran out in a panic, claiming to have heard children's screams in the building.
The operator of the site assured me that although he lived right nearby, he had since 2010
would always make a bow around the site and no matter what happened, he would never again after
After dark he would never enter one of these houses again. Other locals claim again and again
a girl at the window of one of the buildings at night (by the way, this is how I became aware of the area).
What is the reason that there are always people who report certain
I can not say what the reason is that there are always people reporting certain events. Maybe it is because of the suffering and
misery that people had to endure there for almost a hundred years. According to rumors
there is a medieval mass grave in the courtyard of the asylum, where plague victims were buried.
Maybe they don't want to rest. I can't tell you and I don't want to
claim anything. But if you have ever been there and experienced the twilight there
knows what I'm talking about here...