The Romanesque tower house is probably the oldest administrative building in the town of Saalfeld. It was built around 1180 as the seat of the imperial bailiff of Frederick I Barbarossa. The stone lions above the portal bear witness to this. After the town fell to the Counts of Schwarzburg in 1208, the house passed to the town council in 1468, who used the building as a merchant's and dance hall. It later passed into private hands.

After several changes of ownership, the burgher Balthasar Kamsdorf received the ducal privilege to open the court pharmacy in 1681. In 1880, the building burned down completely when a pharmacy apprentice was asked to fetch petrol from the cellar with a burning candle. In the following two years, the building was reconstructed, carefully incorporating all the preserved Romanesque parts. In 1996/97, extensive renovation and restoration work was carried out with funds from the state of Thuringia and the Sparkasse Saalfeld, which helped to restore the old walls to their former glory.