Whenever country house owners died around 1800 their heirs frequently auctioned off their private possessions. This not only facilitated splitting up the inheritance, it also enabled them to dispose of unwanted possessions that their parents had left behind. After all, old furniture showed that one could not afford an up-to-date style, and who wanted to be considered poor? Instead, noble lords and ladies sought out the newest fashions and luxuries, bought on-trend tables, chests, or beds  to underline their aristocratic status and social standing. When they had gotten tired of old furniture in their rooms, they sometimes transferred them to the servants’ rooms – or to the attic. Some country houses were also devoid of any furniture. This happened if the heirs did not live there but instead took up residence in a city, where they worked as military officers or pubic servants. Thus, empty country houses were not an unusual thing around 1800.

Around 1800, many noble owners of country houses felt that social change was threatening their status and pre-eminence in state and society. Bourgeois families acquired country houses in increasing numbers and began to compete with noble families. At the same time, the new ideology of nationalism spread: Its adherents reinterpreted old objects as expressions of national heritage. As a result, many country house owners changed their old customs and took the old furniture of their ancestors down from the attic or expended significant amounts of money at antique sales. They also legally bound their heirs to keep important pieces of furniture rather than selling them, declaring that these objects formed an inseparable component of the house. As a positive side effect, keeping old furniture also
saved a lot of money. This was no mere trifle at a time when it became difficult to keep up with rich industrialists’ luxury.

Even though many country houses survived the Second World War, they nevertheless lost the greater part of their furnishing over the next decades. In Eastern Germany, on the one hand, the government expropriated its owners who could only take a few heirlooms on their flight west. The government sold the majority of the valuable old furniture and other objects, some were transferred into museums or stolen. In Western Germany, on the other hand, the need for money, whether due to emergencies or to revamp the house, frequently resulted in the sale of objects from attics, libraries, and finally the salon. Accordingly, auction catalogues of those times frequently advertised furniture or silverware from noble households. However, only rarely do they name the country house, from which the objects originated. Yet, this is hardly surprising: Who would like to admit to the sale of heirlooms to repair the roof or set up a new toilet?