The letter was once part of the Schönburg family archive. The family resided at Gusow from 1805 until the Second World War. The castles was used during the war as a retirement home, and later was used by the Wehrmacht as a camp and command post. It was badly damaged in 1945 and in 1948 became the property of the municipality of Gusow, serving at various points as a grain store, kindergarten, after-school care centre, holiday camp, training course location, and HQ for village administrative matters. The fate of the family archives is unknown.