Alfter Castle

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Alfter Castle (2018)
Alfter Castle, aerial photo (2016)

The Alfter Castle is a Grade II listed secular building in Alfter , a municipality in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis ( North Rhine-Westphalia ).

History and architecture

The Lords de Halechtre (Knights of Alfter) were first mentioned in 1117, and the Hereditary Marshal's Office of Kurköln was associated with Alfter Castle from 1188 . The von Metternich family (with the lion's coat of arms) at the Moated Castle Metternich also emerged from the von Alfter knightly family and should not be confused with the more well-known von Metternich family (with the shell coat of arms) , which is also based in Metternich.

Ricarda, his heir daughter from Alfter, married Wilhelm II von Wevelinghoven in 1418 ; their daughter Irmgard von Wevelinghoven married Count Johann VI in 1433. from Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck . In 1461 the Alfter rule and the Hereditary Marshal's Office went to this. The castle was destroyed by fire in 1468. The peace treaty of 1481 shows that the castle was rebuilt. At the beginning of the 16th century the castle was burned down again for unknown reasons and rebuilt. In 1583 the place, the castle and the adjoining Anna monastery were attacked and completely destroyed in the Truchsessian War .

The current building, an irregularly closed rectangular complex, was built in 1721 by Count Wilhelm von Salm. The horseshoe-shaped mansion and the farm yard date from the same period. The farm yard has been changed a lot until today. The mansion is a two-story plastered building under hipped roofs with tower-like corner risers . Originally the building was painted red, today it is painted yellow . In the basement of the north-western corner building you can still see masonry made of columnar basalt from the 1200s.

From 1930 to 1961, the castle was the seat of the family of Prince Franz Josef zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim and Dyck . After his death, the family's permanent residence was moved to Schloss Dyck . Since 2008 his grandson Simeon Reichsgraf Wolff Metternich zur Gracht is the owner of the castle.

From 1947 to 1950, the Thursday Society , a group of artists and art enthusiasts , met in the castle at the invitation of Prince Salm .

use

From September 1962 to October 1965, Alfter Castle was the location of the “Psychological Warfare Teaching Group” of the German Armed Forces, a predecessor institution of the Operational Communication Troop .

After that, the social science research institute of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation used the premises.

The castle housed parts of the Alanus University from 1977 to 2009 . Since 1991 the Schloss-Galerie u. a. Works by the Spa- born painter and draftsman Renier Roidkin (1684–1741) can be seen.

The castle was largely unused after the university moved out. In October 2015, the Alfter community rented the castle to accommodate refugees. The castle became the emergency shelter of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for refugees, Alfter held 150 places here for initial reception . The facility was closed on December 31, 2016. The castle has been empty since then. The gate building partly serves as an apartment and is rented. A Waldorf kindergarten is located in another outbuilding .

From June 23 to July 14, 2019, an exhibition "Thursday Society 2.0" took place in the castle.

“With the exhibition of the works of Hubert Berke and Eva Ohlow in June / July 2019, the Friends of the House of Alfter History e. V. took up the events [of 1947] again. He wants to have shaped the memories of the great artists, the art and culture of the post-war period in an inimitable way, and to keep the memory of the extraordinary importance of the castle and the town of Alfter for the revival of artistic life in the past. "

- Bärbel Steinkemper, Former Mayor and Chairwoman of the Friends' Association : Brochure: Thursday Society 2.0: Exhibition - Review - Outlook

literature

Web links

Commons : Schloss Alfter  - Collection of images

Remarks

  1. ↑ Roidkin wandered through the Rhineland in the 20s and 30s of the 18th century and drew castles and gardens on behalf of the nobility, especially Elector Clemens August .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry by Jens Friedhoff on the Alfter, castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute, accessed on February 26, 2019.
  2. ^ Bernhard Gondorf: The castles of the Eifel and their peripheral areas. A lexicon of the "permanent houses" . J. P. Bachem, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7616-0723-7 , p. 23 .
  3. ↑ Friends of the House of Alfter History e. V. (Ed.): Power and splendor - Alfter Castle and its lords . Alfter December 2017, p. 7 .
  4. ↑ Handbook of German Art Monuments. North Rhine-Westphalia I Rhineland. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2005, ISBN 3-422-03093-X , p. 76.
  5. ↑ Ilse Mohr: Long-time landlord of Schloss Alfter is dead. In: General-Anzeiger (Bonn). May 29, 2013. Retrieved January 23, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Ilse Mohr: Sanitary container in the yard . In: General-Anzeiger . Part of the promontory. Bonn October 24, 2015, p. 25 .
  7. ^ Thursday Society Schloss zu Alfter 1947–1950 and the time thereafter. Zellermayer Gallery Berlin. Broecking, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-938763-30-8 .
  8. ↑ Dirk Drews: The Psychological Warfare / Psychological Defense of the Bundeswehr - an educational and journalistic study . Ed .: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Faculty of Social Sciences, Media and Sport. Mainz 2006, DNB  979178479 , p. 128 ( ubm.opus.hbz-nrw.de [PDF; accessed on July 28, 2015] dissertation). ubm.opus.hbz-nrw.de ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ubm.opus.hbz-nrw.de
  9. ↑ Ilse Mohr: Refugees in Alfter - the renovation of the Alfter Castle has already started. In: General-Anzeiger (Bonn). October 24, 2015, accessed October 24, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Refugee Aid - EAE, ZUE, NU: Which state institutions are there and what is the occupancy rate there? State government of North Rhine-Westphalia, February 12, 2016, accessed on November 20, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Antje Jagodzinski: Refugees in Alfter - emergency accommodation in the castle is dissolved. In: General-Anzeiger (Bonn). November 18, 2016, accessed November 20, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Sonja Weber: Alfter should again be the hotspot of art. In: General-Anzeiger (Bonn). June 19, 2019, accessed March 23, 2020 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 19.6 ″  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 28.9 ″  E