The large estate in Rendsburg/Büdelsdorf in Schleswig-Holstein supplied Rendsburg Castle with agricultural products from the 14th century onwards. With the founding of the Carlshütte iron foundry in 1827, the first industrial settlement in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein was established here. After the industrial operation was permanently shut down in 1997, the site – with its enormous foundry halls and historic housing and commercial properties – was acquired by Hans-Julius Ahlmann, Managing Partner of the internationally active ACO Group.

Since then, the “Kunstwerk Carlshütte”, with its diverse performance and exhibition spaces, has developed into a unique venue for exhibitions, concerts, readings, theater performances, and film screenings.

NordArt, which has been held annually during the summer months since 1999, is one of the most significant exhibitions of contemporary art in Europe. The exhibition grounds encompass 22,000 square meters of foundry halls of the Carlshütte, 400 square meters of the "ACO Wagenremise", and an 80,000-square-meter sculpture park. Discover NordArt on the virtual tour.

Since 2011, also the Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival (SHMF) is at home at Kunstwerk Carlshütte – in the specially converted rehearsal and concert space “ACO Thormannhalle” that can accommodate audiences of up to 1,200. NordArt and the Festival are not only good partners, who both foster the worldwide network of artists, they also forward the crossover between fine arts and music. Since 2015 the concerts take place also in the Carlshütte in the middle of NordArt.

The Carlshütte Foundry established in 1827 by the merchant Marcus Hartwig Holler (1796 – 1858) was the first industrial operation in Schleswig and Holstein, and the first foundry in the State of Denmark to which the two duchies belonged at the time. By 1835, the Carlshütte Foundry was producing items including stoves, steam engines and agricultural machinery. A reminder of this time is the white bridge with the cast iron railings which still crosses the pond on the Blutbuche within today’s sculpture park. The bridge was cast in the Carlshütte in 1834. The Ahlmann family became increasingly involved starting in 1883, initially under the management of Johannes Ahlmann (1851 – 1939), who built up the workforce to a total of 1100 employees in 1909. The Carlshütte was the largest foundry in northern Germany at the time.

Josef-Severin Ahlmann (1924 – 2006) launched his company Ahlmann & Co. in 1946 for the production of concrete construction elements and windows: on the left, the listed university church in Kiel, for which ACO produced the honeycomb-shaped window elements. The first drainage channels were produced in the 1960s. ACO’s activities extended beyond the borders of Germany for the first time in the 1970s with the innovative ACO DRAIN polymer concrete line drainage system. ACO today is one of the world market leaders in drainage technology.

After the death of Julius Ahlmann in 1931, his widow Käte (1890 – 1963) took over as managing director. Käte Ahlmann expanded the business so that there were up to 2500 employees at times (1957) who enjoyed huge success with the production of stoves and enamelled cast iron bath tubs in particular. She founded the “Association of German Business Women” in 1954 (Verband deutscher Unternehmerinnen, VdU) where she acted as president for many years, and was also an executive board member of the European association “Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales”. In this function, she met political celebrities of the time including Ludwig Erhard and Theodor Heuss. To celebrate her 70th birthday, she set up a foundation to support the Decorative Cast Iron Museum in Büdelsdorf in 1960.