The Kramsta family played a key role in the history of Matzdorf Castle, allowing us to trace its evolution over time and understand its origins, as they were prominent owners of the castle.

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The Kramsta-Frankenthal coat of arms

 

The oldest known member of this family, Johann Georg Kramsta of Hoyerswerda, served as a master furrier in Freiburg, which was part of the duchy of Schweidnitz. His son, Christian Gottlieb (1744-1804), also followed the trade of master furrier and eventually became constable of the city of Freiburg. The latter's son, Christian Gottlieb Kramsta (1776-1838), founded and operated a wholesale linen business in Freiburg. Initially, he traded in fabrics for spinning, and from about 1814, he began to produce linen and cotton fabrics. The company experienced remarkable growth from 1820 onwards, with the commissioning of several production facilities. Subsequently, they established branches in Bolkenhain and a linen spinning mill in Merzdorf. In 1839/1840, Alexander von Minutoli, commissioned by the Prussian government to evaluate cotton spinning in the administrative district of Liegnitz, praised Kramsta und Söhne's cotton spinning mill in Nieder-Merzdorf as one of the most outstanding in the region.

 

In time, the family focused on property management, especially after several of its members were ennobled. In 1865, the Muhrau manor house was erected as a family residence. In 1875, Marie von Kramsta became the sole heiress to the fortune of the main branch of the family and distinguished herself as a philanthropist. After her death in 1923, the name and inheritance passed to the secondary lines of the family.

 

History of Matzdorf Castle

 

The castle was commissioned by Johann Dolan and built between 1834 and 1838 in a classicist style. After passing through several owners, including Emma von Kramsta, who acquired the castle in 1913 and added two side wings, the castle suffered confiscation by the Nazi state after the deportation of her son to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Subsequently, the castle was used as a military hospital and later as the residence of the Japanese ambassador Ōshima Hiroshi.

 

The extensive landscaped gardens surrounding the castle, designed between 1835 and 1838 by Muskau garden inspector Rehder together with garden architect Eduard Petzold, slope down to the Bobertal valley. The mausoleum in the gardens houses Renata Kracker von Schwarzenfeld, wife of Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff, known for his assassination attempt on Hitler in 1942. Due to the events of World War II, Matzdorf and most of Silesia came under Polish control in 1945. Subsequently, Matzdorf/Maciejów Castle was used for a time by the Wroclaw University of Economics.

 

Today, Matzdorf Castle, now known as Palac Maciejowiec since 1945, belongs to the House of Luxburg-Carolath, a noble family formed in 1869 by an alliance marriage between the Houses of Luxburg of Thurgau and Carolath-Beuthen-Schoenaich of Lower Silesia. This family had already left Europe before World War I and acquired properties in South America, mainly in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and in Mérida, Argentina. However, they returned to their homeland in Lower Silesia by acquiring Schloss Matzdorf in 2017. It should be noted that Matzdorf Castle was already in the hands of an ancestress named Henriette Friederike Amalie Reichsgräfin von Schöneich, née Burggräfin von Dohna, between 1795 and 1829, when Lower Silesia was part of the Kingdom of Prussia.