Berstadt Castle

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Berstadt Castle
The approximately location of the castle stables, today called the castle gardens

The roughly position of the castle stables today, the castle gardens called

Alternative name (s): Cramer Castle
Creation time : 10th to 11th centuries
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: Burgstall
Place: Wölfersheim - Berstadt
Geographical location 50 ° 25 '29.3 "  N , 8 ° 51' 58.9"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 25 '29.3 "  N , 8 ° 51' 58.9"  E
Height: 140  m above sea level NN
Berstadt Castle (Hesse)
Berstadt Castle
Location of the castle in Berstadt. Compared to what is in the area today (broken lines)

The castle Berstadt , including Cramer's castle called, is a Outbound Wasserburg am Zingel Bach in the district Berstadt (between washing alley and Burggasse ) of the community Wölfersheim in Wetteraukreis in Hesse .

history

The early development of the castle ( Reichsgut and Königsgut ) can probably be dated to the Salier period (10th to 11th centuries). In the 11th century, the royal court had regional importance in the northern Wetterau . For the years 1056, 1068 and 1074 stays of the kings Heinrich III. and Heinrich IV. documented. The Burgmannen came from the lower nobility, in the 13th century a noble von Berstadt family is documented as a branch of the von Büches family. The von Büches family died out in the male line around 1600. The von Berstedt are documented as part of the castle team in the Wetterau Reichsburg Friedberg .

In the Hessian archive, documentation and information system HADIS there are documents for the “Steinhaus zu Berstadt”, from which an enfeoffment of the castle from 1439 to 1604 can be ascertained. In 1439, as an inheritance from his father, Henne von Bellersheim was enfeoffed in a document with the stone house in Berstadt, two farms, three Hufen land as well as fields, meadows and accessories in Berstadt by the Fulda prince Abbot Johann I von Merlau . In 1440 Heinrich von Bellersheim (probably the same) was enfeoffed again with it by the new prince abbot of Fulda Abbey . In 1490 the brothers Heinrich and Erwin von Bellersheim received it as a fief from Prince Abbot Johann von Henneberg . With Heinrich's death in 1506, the same abbot enfeoffed the heir Hans von Karsbach. In 1558 Prince Abbot Wolfgang Schutzbar called Milchling gave the property to the guardians Wilhelm von Waldmannshausen and Hartmann von Bellersheim of the Walpurgis von Karsbach, daughter of the late Philipp von Karsbach. In 1570 the fiefdom passed to her husband Dietz von Rosenbach , awarded by the then Fulda abbot Balthasar von Dernbach called Graul . He confirmed the fiefdom of his sons Adam Hektor, Johann Konrad and Hans Dietrich von Rosenbach in 1604.

From the investigations of the working group village development (AKD) Berstadt the following course emerges for the modern history: The last owners of the castle were descendants of the Geiß-Niddaer pastor Cramer. His son, Carl Cramer, married Christine Sophie Laupus, daughter of the pastor Laupus zu Nauheim , her mother was Luise Jakobine Ellenberger from Berstadt. The marriage had six children, of whom only two daughters, one of whom was unmarried, survived. Daughter Christine Wilhelmine, born October 25, 1803, married the Prussian lieutenant Weber in 1838 . Until 1852 the property was still with the descendants of the Cramer family. Twelve years later the property, the residential building to which the community was entitled, along with the coach house and laundry room, as well as two pigsties were sold for demolition. The upper area of ​​the castle, roughly today's property at Untergasse 21, with a large house and outbuildings, was sold by the Counts of Walderdorff and von Einsiedel to the community, who rented the complex to the wife of the district forester Müller in 1860 .

The Hofreite , located in the upper area of ​​the castle, was auctioned on February 26, 1866 by Heinrich Wolf X. for 1405 florins . The last tenant of the castle cellar in the castle garden, which still existed after the demolition, was Jost Völbel in 1870. The cellar, which was in danger of collapsing, was then no longer leased and partially collapsed in 1877. The castle area is now occupied by a garden and a playground.

description

The approximately 55 by 48 meter large rectangular core castle with a 20 meter by 20 meter residential tower was located in the middle of the castle complex, surrounded by a 5 meter wide moat . Access was via a gate tower to the west (towards Waschgasse ) . The building had at least two floors and was probably a slate-roofed half-timbered building. Outside the main castle there were barns, stables, lounges and storage rooms. What is certain is that these buildings no longer had the original appearance from the Salian period . Only the roughly square floor plan in the parcel books refers to its design as a residential tower. The entrance to the castle was made from the property at Untergasse 21 (also part of the castle), where there is still a courtyard gate with gate posts (date 1793). A ditch is said to have run parallel to Untergasse at this property. The former moat should still be recognizable. The castle was accessed via a drawbridge , which finally gave way to a footbridge in the early 19th century and a permanent access after the trenches were filled in in 1839.

The “manor house” in the area of ​​today's Untergasse 19 , clearly elevated above the former moated castle, probably belonged to the castle property . The entire castle property is given with a size of 2 hectares. All that remains of the castle today is the name of Burggasse , the so-called castle gardens and the property known as "Burgs" in Untergasse 21 with the doorways that probably come from the castle.

  • The gate with the year (Untergasse 21) refers to the former entrance to the moated castle

  • The year of the door gate: 1793

  • The name of the property in Untergasse refers to its earlier relationship with the castle (access)

  • The property at Untergasse 21 with half-timbered buildings was the entrance to the castle

  • Southern boundary of the former castle: the Waschbach to the east

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 348.
  • Eugen Rieß, Berstadt Castle. In: Eugen Rieß, Willy Roth, Berstadt. People and history. Vol. 3: 1200 years of Berstadt. Our village 817 - 1200. Friedberg 2017, pp. 120–127.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LAGIS entry
  2. ↑ Hessian Archive, Documentation and Information System, Marburg State Archives (HStAM), series of documents A 5: No. 21/3 and series of documents 80: numbers 4, 5, 278, 279, 532 and 534
  3. ↑ Information on the history in the 18th and 19th centuries according to Die Burg at the Berstadt Village Development Working Group (AKB).
  4. ^ The castle at the Berstadt Village Development Working Group (AKB).