In 1922, two of the men who had killed Walther Rathenau, the foreign minister of Germany, hid at Saaleck Castle but were tracked down by the police.

The Nazi regime later put up a memorial plaque at the castle and turned their grave in Saaleck cemetery into a heroes' shrine.

In 1922, two of the assassins of German foreign minister Walther Rathenau were spotted at the castle, whose owner was himself a secret member of the Organisation Consul.

While waiting for reinforcements during the stand-off one of the detectives fired at a window, unknowingly killing Erwin Kern with a bullet in the head.

[3] The Marzona Foundation acquired the property in 2018 and the German government has approved a grant of 7 million euros towards the site's renovation.