Genshagen

Genshagen is a former manor village and has been a district of the town of Ludwigsfelde in the Brandenburg district of Teltow-Fläming since December 31, 1997. The village is located about 9 kilometers south of Berlin and 17 kilometers east of Potsdam at an altitude of 36 meters.

The village of Wedigo dominus Janshagen was mentioned in documents for the first time in 1289 and at that time belonged to the family von Torgau in the lordship of Zossen. They invested a lord Segart over his court in Genshagen and a lord Reiche over the village as an intermediate lord in 1378. The spelling Jamshagen is recorded from 1346, and from 1378 the spelling zcu Janshagin. In 1413, Janshain appeared in maps. From 1450, an Otto Scheve is known to have held four free plowlands. At that time, Genshagen was a total of 31 plowlands large; there was a tavern and eight cottagers. The remarkable village church with an added wooden tower likely originated in its basic structure in the 14th century as a simple rectangular church. Modifications were made in 1707 and 1862, with various renovations and extensions in the 20th century. After the extinction of the nobility of Torgau, the Brandenburg Elector Johann Cicero acquired the lordship in 1490. Before 1499, the village was divided between the families von Otterstedt and von Zicker. The larger part, with three-quarters of the total, including higher and lower jurisdiction, a sheepfold, and woodlands went to the von Otterstedt family. They further expanded their property by purchasing two peasants’ shares. The remaining quarter, with higher and lower jurisdiction, as well as a residential estate with four plowlands, payments, and services of a two-plowland tenant, two farms, and a tavern remained in the possession of the family von Zicker until 1677. Before 1655, the noble family von Hake acquired the Otterstedt share via two knightly seats with 16 plowlands, gardens, higher and lower jurisdiction as well as the sheepfold rights and shepherd's lodgings in front of the village. By that time, the estate also included a vineyard with a wine master’s house and press, a windmill, four deserted peasant estates, 12 cottager farms, and half of the deserted field mark of Damsdorf. In 1583 there were eight ploughmen, 12 cottagers, and a purchased ploughman in the village. Before the Thirty Years' War, in 1625, six ploughmen, 11 cottagers, a shepherd, a blacksmith, four pairs of householders, the shepherd’s assist and the lease shepherd lived in the village. They cultivated 21 ploughlands, of which one farm with two ploughlands was freed by the von Otterstedt family, meaning they did not have to pay any taxes. Few inhabitants in Genshagen survived the war: by 1652, the population had shrunk to eight cottagers with six sons and two servants. The Zicker share passed to Friedrich August von Thümen in 1677. He received a residential estate and the knightly seats, a quarter of the higher and lower jurisdiction, payments and services, and also a vineyard. In 1685, there were two knightly seats of the von Hake family with 16 ploughlands, tree and cabbage gardens, a sheepfold, a vineyard, and a wine master’s house with press. A windmill was privately owned from 1609 until about 1685. The manor also included four deserted peasant estates, 12 cottager farms, and a deserted knightly seat of the von Thümen family with a garden, three and a half knightly ploughlands, the sheepfold rights, and a deserted cottage estate.

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