Anyone driving through the small village of Düssin from the direction of Boizenburg will see the imposing red clinker brick building with its mighty hipped roof and the small tower on top, which is somewhat reminiscent of the spire of the Hamburg Michel, from afar.
In fact, the Hamburg landmark could be the model for the ornamental turret of the former cow barn, which covers around 6,600 square meters, because it was designed by two Hamburg architects on behalf of the Kommerzienrat Georg Plange about one hundred years ago. The commercial councillor from Hamburg, who acquired the former Düssin manor around 1911, had ambitious plans for the estate. He wanted to convert and expand Düssin into a model estate according to the latest state of the art. The centerpiece was to be the farm building erected between 1912 and 1914, which was to make livestock farming far more efficient than before due to its enormous area and space. The rather dainty turret on the roof of the approximately 150-meter-long cow barn, which initially housed 130 cattle and later as many as 400, was probably intended as a reminiscence of the Hanseatic city.
The enormous dimensions eventually became the undoing of the once glamorous object. For many years, a conversion and thus the long-term preservation of the architectural monument seemed impossible. In the meantime, the building shell, including the large gates and the representative central tower, has almost been restored to its original condition. The former cattle house is now the production site of a manufactory that produces running shoes.
