Today's Eringerfeld was already settled in early times. Thus, several Bronze Age tumuli were found. Much later a historical trace can be traced. There was an older settlement "Erkerinkhusen", after which a lordly family named itself.
In 1300 Friedrich von Hörde acquires landed property in Erkerinchusen (Eringerfeld) and already in 1367 the lords of Hörde expand their property in the Eringerfeld field. In 1395 the Eringerfeld farm is sold, half to the convent of the virgins in Lippstadt and half to the von der Borch family. In 1463 Temmo von Hörde and his wife Fry acquire half of the farm in Eringerfeld from Ludof von der Borch. After the division of the inheritance of the four brothers Temmen, Jorgen, Christoffer and Allhard von Hörde in 1529 Christoffer von Hörde receives Eringerfeld with the sheep farm; probably from this time on Eringerfeld is an independent manor.
In 1615, Christoph von Hörde buys the second half of the farm, which still belongs to the monastery in Lippstadt. The baroque castle chapel, whose predecessor had fallen victim to a fire, was consecrated in 1661; remains of the magnificent altar can be found today in the Landesmuseum Münster.
From 1676 to 1699, Schloss Eringerfeld (moated castle) is rebuilt by the canons Johann Gottfried and Rhabanus Chriostph von Hörde as a family foundation.
In 1690, the new farmstead was built on the remains of the foundation walls of the manor, which had been destroyed by fire.
Baron Ludolph von Hörde on Eringerfeld dies without descendants. After the death of his wife in 1792, according to the inheritance contract, Eringerfeld falls to the v. Hörde zu Schwarzenraben family, who initially leave the castle empty. Later it is temporarily inhabited and used as a hunting lodge or for economic purposes.
In 1846, Engelbert Mathias von Hörde dies on Schwarzenraben without children. His wife Kunigundes von Asbeck, who inherits the entire property, marries Colonel Otto von der Decken from Oldenburg. This marriage also remains childless and the daughter of Colonel von der Decken from his first marriage, Maria Kunigunde, inherits the property. In 1863, she marries Baron Friedrich Klemens von Ketteler-Harkotten, with whom the property of the von Hörde family passes to the Barons von Ketteler. Six years later, the mother-in-law Kunigunde von Asbeck gives the young couple the property Schloss Eringerfeld.
In 1873, the entire former von Hörde property, with the exception of the manor house in Erwitte, is finally transferred to the Barons von Ketteler by gift.
In 1875, renovation work on the castle begins and in 1878 Baron von Ketteler and his wife move from the Mittelhausen estate to Schloss Eringerfeld.
During the Second World War the castle was given free of charge to the Steyl missionaries and from 1946 to 1960 to the Jesuits.
Afterwards, Dr. Berna and Wilfried Kirchner acquired the castle and ran a boarding school from 1961 to 1987. New school buildings and extensions followed around the castle. At peak times, up to 1,200 students of various school types were taught. In 2013, another change of ownership took place.
As early as 1985, the interiors of the castle and the outbuildings were converted into a conference and training center with a hotel. The castle park was also restored according to old plans. The whole complex is under monument protection.
The castle area is surrounded to the south, west and north by a dry moat cut deep into the rock. In order to be protected against attackers from the east, the antechamber had almost no windows to the outside, but only a few embrasures. The present windows were broken into the outer walls only in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The rectangle of the castle is oriented north-south and surrounded by buildings on three sides. In the south it is bordered by a gatehouse in the central axis and two shield walls.
In the inner courtyard of the castle there is still a hand pump from 1874, which was used to pump rainwater from the 27-meter-deep cistern to the surface, thus supplying the castle with drinking water.
The best preserved part of the castle is the entrance hall with its two-tone stone floor, door frames made of dark oak and the magnificent stone fireplace frame with supporting arms, ornamented brackets and the coat of arms of Hörde on the lintel. East of the hall is the main staircase. This is made of oak and leads four-sided with intermediate landings over the upper floor to the attic.
The ancestral hall, which received a wooden coffered ceiling and wall paneling in 1873, is also outstanding. In the dining room on the first floor, tapestries (picture weavings) were also installed around 1873, which originated from Schwarzenraben.
The former boarding school buildings after the abandonment of the boarding school in 1987 were used in different ways. The main reception camp Unna-Massen maintained a branch from September 1989 to the end of July 1990. At times, more than 1,400 people - resettlers from the GDR, ethnic Germans and foreign refugees - were housed there. The "Talenta" school for the highly gifted used the premises from 2000 to 2005. Since August 2006, the "Regenbogen Bildungswerkstatt e.V." from Paderborn has been running the private grammar school and the private secondary school with boarding school.
Excerpts according to J. Tommke.