Even if you don't see it at first glance, you're facing a real curiosity. The Ellern pond in the Rasteder palace park, which you can see here from its southern tip, has been created twice.

First, the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, Paul Friedrich August, had the park redesigned according to his personal taste in the style of an English landscape garden. Of course, a pond with its "curved" shape must not be missed. And so in 1842, he had the local lowland, which was overgrown by alder, which means "Ellern" in Low German, transformed into a fish pond. With its completion, a new beautiful view was created, which went from the castle over the Ellern pond and the mill pond to the water mill. A far-sightedness that suits a ruling house well! About 100 years later, long after the resignation of the last Grand Duke, the Ellern pond was unfortunately in such bad condition that it was decided to fish it off and drain it. In order to restore the original condition of the lowland as much as possible, some "Ellern", that is, alder trees, were even replanted on this spot. But apparently, the inhabitants of Rastern lacked something that had become dear to them over the years, and so in 1976, it was decided to dig up the ground again to build the Ellernteich a second time. This time the pond even got a magnificent fountain, which makes the water sparkle in the sunlight in all the colours of the rainbow. On the occasion of the pond restoration, Rastede celebrates the Ellernfest every year on the second weekend of September with a popular folk festival for young and older people! Absolutely worth it!