Like other villages in medieval times, the income from the church and from the farms was distributed to a series of nobles, typically as rewards or in payment for fealty and service.

Apparently falling on hard times, Jacob Herter and his nephew Hans sold the village to Count Ludwig of Württemberg in 1446.

However, Jacob's son Wilhelm ended up getting the property back as a fief because of his stature in the Württemberg court.

The Herter family retained its fief until the death of their last male heir in 1614, just prior to the time when Dußlingen's church records start.

A slight bend in the wall seems to point to a polygonal shape, similar to the old Castle of Kilchberg.