Jagdschloss Veckerhagen - Reinhardshagen, HE, D - Castles on Waymarking.com

The privately owned castle (Burgstrasse 1-3) is located between Burgstrasse/Langen Strasse and the Weser, directly on the banks of the Weser; to the south are the Habich Farben factories.

Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse had a castle surrounded by a moat built on the banks of the Weser in 1430-1431, which served as the seat of landgrave ministerials and liegemen and to protect the Hessian possessions on the upper Weser. With the end of the Hesse-Paderborn feud in 1472, the military purpose of the Old Castle was fulfilled. No attention was paid to its preservation and it gradually fell into disrepair. Fires in 1914 and 1967 largely destroyed what was left, and today only the remains of the walls remain.

In 1689, Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel had a three-winged, two-storey (plus attic) hunting lodge built in the Italian Baroque style next to the old castle. Possible architects were Paul du Ry or Johann Conrad Giesler.

On September 2, 1721, Landgrave Karl gave the castle and the associated domain to his mistress and confidante Barbara Christine von Bernhold (1690–1756), who had unofficially taken her place after the death of his wife Amalia von Kurland. She remained in possession of her properties even after Karl's death in 1730, became an adviser to his son Wilhelm, and was made Imperial Countess by Emperor Karl VII in 1742. After her death in 1756, the property reverted to Landgrave Friedrich II of Hesse-Kassel in 1770.

During the first years of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia, from 1807, the castle was used by King Jérôme Bonaparte.

In 1810 it was sold to the Habich family of manufacturers from Kassel for 2000 Reichstaler. In 1823 they moved their G. E. Habich's Sons paint factory from Kassel to the castle, set up production facilities on the remains of the old castle and manufactured chemicals and paints there and in the castle. From around 1869, the Habichs also ran an exclusive private school in the castle, where their children and those of the head forester and a few others were taught by a "seminar-based teacher".

Part of the old castle used by the paint factory burned down in 1914 and was never rebuilt.

During the Second World War, the Junkers aircraft and engine works set up a branch on the company premises. After the war, the paint factory got back on its feet, initially mainly by supplying large quantities of olive colored paint for the vehicles of the American troops. In 1967 the still stately remains of the old castle fell victim to another major fire. The remaining foundation walls were used to build workshops and warehouses. Today, around 125 employees produce paints, emulsion paints, lawn marking paints and color granules.

To this day, Veckerhagen Castle and the adjacent paint factory are owned by the Habich family.

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