In 1679, Christian V gave the Seekamp estate, which Holtenau was a part of, to "Oberjägermeister von Hahn."

The deed which gave van Hahn the estate also explicitly granted him lordship over those who resided in Holtenau.

[1] In 1791, the lord of the estate abolished serfdom, and the land was parceled out to private individuals following the approval of the Danish crown.

When Schleswig-Holstein was annexed by Prussia, the Seekamp estate was dissolved entirely and divided into individual rural communities, including Holtenau.

William II later took the inaugural trip on the canal in 1914 onboard the SMY Hohenzollern accompanied by several other vessels.

[6] Though the lighthouse serves a navigational purpose, it was also intended as a monument to glorify the German Empire.

To allow for the expansion of the airbase and the construction of military facilities, many locals were forced to sell their properties.

At the onset of the Second World War a quarter of all people living in Holtenau worked at the airbase as members of the Luftwaffe.

In 1958, after the establishment of the German Navy, the Marineflieger reconstructed the base and created the naval pilot division of Marinefliegergeschwader 5 (MFG 5) at the new site.

Holtenau is also part of the Roman Catholic parish of Kiel-Nord, which was founded at the time the district was incorporated into Kiel in 1922.

Beginning around 1650, children from Holtenau could attend school in Dänischenhagen, though few were able because of the distance and fees charged.

The first school in the area was established around 1706 at the “Gut Seekamp” in Pries, the district of Kiel north of Holtenau.

This school was poorly funded until after the abolishment of serfdom, when the building which had been owned by the overseeing estate, passed into the possession of the residents of Holtenau.

[22] During the war, there were army barracks in the schoolyard and the school itself was used to store grain and other military supplies.

After the end of the war, several classrooms at the school were used to house refugees from nearby areas which had been decimated.