Remsa (in the Nordsachsen district) is home to what is probably the first German full-time agricultural business focused on alpaca breeding. Starting in 1999, we initially farmed 5 hectares; by 2000 the herd had already grown to around 80 alpacas following our first direct import. Today we keep around 170 alpacas and farm around 18 hectares in and around Remsa, plus a small area of woodland.
Remsa was first mentioned in records in 1350 and today consists of two listed 19th-century four-sided farmsteads. With currently eight residents, it is one of the smallest villages in Saxony – set apart in a gently rolling landscape, about 4 km from Wermsdorf.
The Kraft Family in Remsa
The Kraft family has farmed in Remsa for several generations – they have been established in the region for about 250 years. The Saxon Krafts trace their lineage back to Martin Kraft, who came from Styria to Saxony in the 18th century and was a tenant of the manor estate in Motterwitz near Leisnig; he died in 1762.
Before the GDR era, Kraft-Remsa was well known in Saxony, among other things for cold-blood horse breeding. Until 1953, our uncle Ernst Kraft farmed the two estates, which were regarded as model farms; in 1953 he was forced to leave the farm with his family. Over the following 37 years, the state-run collective farm (LPG) that took over left all the buildings in a rather rundown state.
Rebuilding
In 1999, Hartwig Kraft von Wedel acquired the two farmsteads from his cousin Dieter Kraft and began building up Germany's first professional alpaca breeding operation. In keeping with our family tradition, our long-term goal here is to build something up again, to foster harmony and beauty, and to establish culture and future-oriented ventures.
In 2003 we began the extensive renovation of the exterior facade of the main house on the upper farmstead, the Planitz estate; the final work was completed in 2007. In the 2007 State Competition for Rural Building, Katharina & Hartwig Kraft von Wedel were honored for this work – the only award winners in the Torgau-Oschatz district. In 2013 the family moved to Wiederoda, and in 2017 the upper farmstead was sold to a family from Leipzig.
In the summer of 2001, the association "NEUES LEBEN in Remsa S.D.G." was founded to promote intellectual and cultural life in rural Saxony and the preservation of historic monuments in Remsa. The association has already organized clay-building workshops, children's festivals, and drumming and dance workshops.