Pinneberg

Pinneberg grew around a castle north-west of Hamburg. The site had served for centuries as a Germanic assembly place before a fortress was built around 1200. Count Adolf of Schauenburg captured it in 1370, and by 1397 Pinneberg was recorded as a place where local courts were regularly held. Servants and craftsmen settled near the castle, though the settlement grew slowly.

The old fortress was replaced by a residence in 1472. Badly damaged in 1627 and again in 1657 during the wars of the seventeenth century, that building was demolished in 1720. Pinneberg had become the seat of a Danish royal official in 1640, and a substantial new brick residence for the local administrator Hans von Ahlefeldt was built between 1765 and 1767, reflecting the continued importance of the seat.