The Hugo Scheu’s estate

The Šilutė estate  (now 4 Lietuvininkų St.) was founded in 1721 during the administrative reforms carried out in Prussia. Then the great county of Klaipėda was divided into smaller administrative units, which were managed by established state estates.  Since 1724, the Šilutė state estate was rented out in the hope that it would generate more income in this way. Gottfried Sperber, became the first general tenant of the Šilute State Manor; in 1730, it was passed to Friedrich Werner, in 1752, to his grandson Christoph Friedrich Radcke, and in 1761-1785, it went to his brother Ewald Radcke. The latter family ruled the Šilutė estate manor for almost 150 years, and during that time, the land of the estate increased from several dozen to several hundred hectares. The lease of the estate was transferred to Franz Wilhelm Radcke in 1804. In 1819, he bought the Šilutė state estate for almost 37 thousand thalers with full ownership rights. In 1889, Eduard Radcke sold it for almost 540,000 marks to Hugo Scheu, the landlord of Lėbartai. The new owner immediately began to reorganize the estate. Having left about 750 ha for the estate, he divided the remaining land into plots, sold and rented them. In this way, the expenses of the property were reduced and the received income could be used to repay the debts, to fix the estate buildings and to found a park with 3 ponds near the manor.  Thanks to H. Scheu, the manor acquired an attractive and representative look. After the landlord’s death in 1937, the estate was inherited by his grandson Werner Scheu, who left the estate in autumn of 1944, when the war front was approaching, and moved to Germany with his family. In 1945, the manor was severely damaged by the Soviet army units stationed there for some time; then it was nationalized and turned into an auxiliary farm of the Šilute District Executive Committee. During 1959-1985, the Agricultural Technical College was settled in the manor.  The manor is a building of simple forms of late classicism and historicism era, with indistinct style features and reserved decor typical of Klaipėda region. It is a two-storey building, with a living room in the attic. The second floor is decorated with moldings at the top of the windows and the plane of the windowsills; the attic is surrounded by a modest cornice. The plan of the manor is symmetrical, rectangular, with a central part slightly protruding towards the street, where there was a lobby with stairs. On one side of the lobby, the rooms are arranged on both sides of the corridor, on the other there are two rows of communicating rooms.  The facade is divided by blades, between which are placed tall rectangular windows, emphasized by window plasters.  Currently, the manor houses the Hugo Scheu Museum.