Erlenhof stud

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The Erlenhof stud is a stud in Dornholzhausen , a district of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe .

history

The 65 hectare stud Erlenhof was founded in 1901 by the then District Administrator Ernst Ritter von Marx under the name Fohlenweide . In 1922 the industrialist Moritz James Oppenheimer acquired the stud, renamed it Erlenhof and ran thoroughbred breeding there. Oppenheimer was an enthusiastic sponsor of equestrian sport. He was president of the sports cartel in Bad Pyrmont, Bad Harzburg and Bad Homburg, member of the executive committee of the Reich Association for Breeding and Testing of German Warmbloods, co-founder of the Bavarian Riding School in Munich and from 1929 to 1936 he was Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Frankfurt. With the support of the well-known hippologists Gustav Rau and Richard Sternberg, the estate became a victorious racing team in horse races. The most successful horse from this time from Erlenhof was Graf Isolani , two-time winner of the Hansa Prize , the Blue Ribbon, the Union, the German St. Leger and above all the German Derby 1929.

In 1933 Oppenheimer had to file for bankruptcy and the stud with 60 horses and an estimated value of 200,000 Reichsmarks was bought by the steel industrialist Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza . Thyssen paid a total of RM 350,000; 160,000 RM for Oppenheimer's racing team in Hoppegarten and 190,000 RM for the property in Dornholzhausen. Oppenheimer was dissatisfied with the sales proceeds. For Count Isolani alone, he would have had a bid of 180,000 RM. Thyssen acquired the estate through its Dutch subsidiary Naamlooze Vennootschap Hollandsch Trustkantoor. The reason for this was that he could pay the purchase price in blocked marks .

Nereid

In the years that followed, the Erlenhof stud became one of the most successful and well-known studs in Germany and won a large number of races. The German Derby alone was won four times by horses from the Erlenhof stud farm (Athanasius (1934), Nereide (1936), Ticino (1942) and Nordlicht (1944)). In 1938 the stud was ranked 8th among the most successful stud farms in Germany in terms of prize money (with 19 victories 103,435 RM prize money had been won). With Nereide's victory in the Brown Ribbon of Germany , the "miracle mare" and the stud moved into the center of Nazi propaganda around equestrian sports.

After Heinrich Thyssen's death, his son Heini Thyssen wanted to sell the stud. His aunt, Margit von Batthyány , bought it at auction in 1953 and successfully ran the race horse breeding business together with Ferdi Leisten in the 1950s . In 1971 a fire destroyed a barn, in 1974 the main stable burned down, 35 horses were barely saved.

From 1977 until his death in 1991, the Ingelheim pharmaceutical producer Hubertus Liebrecht leased the stud and renamed it Erlengrund . In 1988 a fire ravaged the property and 13 mares were killed. This was the worst of three fires in the yard during the time under Hubertus Liebrecht. There had already been a fire on the night of April 1, 1980. According to the court, a tramp who negligently caused the fire by burning a cigarette was responsible at the time.

In 1994 the Günther Rothenberger family took over the property, which was run until 1997 under the management of Dr. Jens Freiherr von Lepel stood. The purchase price was not officially announced, the newspapers reported a purchase price "below DM 10 million". Now it has got its traditional name Gestüt Erlenhof back. Well-known riders from the Rothenberger family on the Erlenhof are Sven Rothenberger and Sönke Rothenberger .

Another serious fire broke out on March 1, 2019. A fire broke out due to a technical defect. This caused the death of five horses and a million damage.

Well-known horses that were bred at the Erlenhof stud

Trivia

In the series Geld.Macht.Liebe , the scenes of the horse breeding of the banker's daughter were filmed at the Erlenhof stud farm.

literature

  • Heinz Groesche: History of the Jews in Bad Homburg before the height 1866 to 1945, 1991, ISBN 9783782904124 , pp. 61–62.
  • Felix de Taillez: Two civil lives in public: The brothers Fritz Thyssen and Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2017, ISBN 9783657784455 , pp. 158–188.
  • A breath of fresh air at the Erlengrund stud - Rothenburgers in the fast lane; in: FAZ of September 17, 2005, p. 95.
  • The Bad Homburg stud is home to many derby winners; in: FAZ of January 12, 1994, p. 38.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography of Oppenheimer on the website of the city of Frankfurt
  2. ↑ Fire in the Erlenhof - One year imprisonment for tramps; in: FAZ of October 8, 1981, p. 36.
  3. ↑ Fire at Erlenhof stud: the fault was a technical defect; in: Hessenschau, online
  4. ↑ The banker family's intrigue on real floorboards; in: FAZ of July 3, 2008, p. 52

Coordinates: 50 ° 14 ′ 21.7 ″  N , 8 ° 34 ′ 2.8 ″  E