Count Caspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff and the creation of the spa resort "Gräflicher Park" in Bad Driburg

Bad Driburg owes the founding of the spa resort "Gräflicher Park" to Count Caspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff. He came from a noble family that originated in Siersdorf in the Rhineland. However, Sierstorpff was born in Hildesheim in Lower Saxony. After studying in Erfurt and Leipzig, he spent time at the court of the Elector of Mainz in Regensburg and later at the court in Munich. His later appreciation of art developed during his trip to Italy in 1773 and 1774. In 1779, Sierstorpff came to Driburg for the first time and was enchanted by what he described as the "divine Dribourg". In 1782, he acquired the rights to the springs from Prince-Bishop Wilhelm Anton and in the same year bought the Drostenhof, owned by the von der Lippe family of Vinsebeck, which he furnished as a residence and spa hotel. Sierstorpff set to work with dedication. He transformed the grounds around the springs into one of the first English landscape parks in Germany, opening a coffee house, bathhouses, library and casino. This proved to be a successful concept at the time: the spa flourished. However, the Napoleonic Wars soon put a stop to this positive development. After 1815, however, the now Prussian Driburg experienced a significant upswing: in 1820, Sierstorpff reported that he already had to turn away guests because the number of visitors had risen so dramatically. In 1832, the successful entrepreneur was awarded high honors to mark the 50th anniversary of his spa, including the Order of the Red Eagle from Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. In 1840, von Sierstorpff was also elevated to the rank of Prussian count. After his death in 1842, he was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Brunswick. In Bad Driburg, an obelisk in front of the count's mausoleum still commemorates the founder and developer of today's spa resort. His descendants still live in the "Count's House", the residence built by Sierstorpff in 1803. The family, whose name was changed to "Counts of Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff" in 1901 due to the marriage of Countess Hedwig von Sierstorpff and Count Wilhelm von Oeynhausen, is still the seventh generation to own and operate the only private spa in Germany.