Family

When the electric gates buzz open, the Baroque facade of castle Dennenlohe, which has remained unchanged since 1734, greets its visitors.

The cavalry houses, gardens and the adjacent farm buildings date from the same period. High walls surround the castle grounds and create an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity.

The architect, not just for the castle but for the entire complex, was the Italian Leopold Retti, master builder at the court of the count of Ansbach and a master of German Baroque architecture. Famous castles in Ludwigsburg and Ansbach as well as the new castle in Stuttgart were also drafted on his drawing board.

He designed castle Dennenlohe for the diplomat Baron Eichler von Auritz. Since 1825 it has been in the possession of the Barons von Süsskind who have now lived in there for eight generations.

The castle is the home of the baronial family and their Airedale terriers. In July and August the bush-roses blossom in the circular flower bed edged with box.

 Johann Gottlieb Baron von Süsskind - was a successful banker from Augsburg.

Head of one of the most prosperous and influential families in Southern Germany, Baron Johann Gottlieb managed to combine global business relationships with his down-to-earth appreciation of country lifestyle.

 He bought a castle with farmland for each of his six children, enabling them to maintain a respectable social and financial status. Two of these castles are still owned by members of the Süsskind family.

 Baron Johann Gottlieb survived three wives. Only seven of his thirteen children reached adulthood.

Industrialist families forming bonds. - One of Baron Gottlieb’s grandsons married the granddaughter of Zacharias Plattner, the financier of the first German railway from Nuremberg to Fürth.