Ernst Ludwig Spiegel, Baron zum Diesenberg (1711-1785) belonged to the circle of Halberstadt Enlightenment thinkers around his cathedral secretary and poet Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719-1803).
Spiegel's hunting lodge was built in a mixture of Renaissance and Baroque styles and was inaugurated in 1782. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stayed at the hunting lodge in 1783 and met Gleim on this occasion. In 1781, Spiegel wrote a letter to Frederick the Great asking him to bring the world's only, largest, original giant wine barrel from Gröningen to Halberstadt in his castle in order to preserve it for posterity. The giant wine barrel holds 144,000 liters and was built in 1594. It was continuously filled with wine from 1594-1606.