Around the year 1800, the district administrator at the time, Peter Alexander von Itzenplitz, had a mansion built above the Great Behnitz Lake. In 1866, after persistent mismanagement and high levels of debt, the property passed to the Borsig family.

Under the direction of Albert Borsig, the mansion, with more buildings added on the property, becomes an agricultural model estate where farming has been implemented on an industrial scale. In 1923 the farm had reached a size of 2700 ha, on which the forerunners of organic farming were already being operated.

Overall, the property consisted of the manor house, two distilleries, two tower houses used as farm buildings and a forge with attached stables and a workers' house.

In 1933 Ernst von Borsig jun. the estate from his father and continued to run it until the end of the Second World War. Ernst  von Borsig jun. belonged to the Kreisau circle during the war, which met several times on the property.