Friedberg Castle (Friedberg)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friedberg Castle
Entrance to Friedberg Castle

Entrance to Friedberg Castle

Creation time : 1171 to 1180
Castle type : Höhenburg, location
Conservation status: Preserved essential parts
Standing position : Kaiser, cooperatively organized low-nobility castle team
Place: Friedberg
Geographical location 50 ° 20 '32.6 "  N , 8 ° 45' 10.7"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 20 '32.6 "  N , 8 ° 45' 10.7"  E
Height: 140  m above sea level NN
Friedberg Castle (Hesse)
Friedberg Castle

The Burg Friedberg in Hessen City Friedberg is 3.9 hectares one of the largest castles in Germany ( hilltop castle on 140  m above sea level.  NN ). For centuries it was the center of the Burggrafschaft Friedberg . Today it houses u. a. various public institutions, such as large parts of the tax office, the Burggymnasium and a church, within the historical walls.

Geographical location

The castle and town of Friedberg lie on a basalt rock in the middle of the Wetterau .

prehistory

At the beginning of the first century AD, there was a Roman military camp on Friedberger Burgberg , which was built during the Germanicus campaigns . After that Friedberg was without Roman occupation for decades. Only under the reign of Emperor Vespasian from 69 to 79 was a Roman fort built again on the castle hill. This facility, which was expanded and rebuilt several times, was given up when the Romans withdrew to the Rhine border around 260. The excavated remnants of a small bathing facility, probably part of the commandant's office of the fort, which was incorporated into the basement of a new school building in 1965, are still visible today.

history

Friedberg Castle in the castle
View of the castle

The castle was probably founded between 1171 and 1180 on behalf of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa . The oldest surviving document about the castle dates back to 1216. The castle and town were legally separate entities, and the Burggrafschaft Friedberg was its own territory within the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation . This close juxtaposition of castle and town led to friction that determined Friedberg's history for centuries.

The burgraviate was organized as a cooperative and directly under the empire . The legal status of a castle man was hereditary and was in the hands of noble families in the area. There were about 100 Burgmannen ( see main article : List of Friedberger Burgmannenfamilien ). The task of the castle was, as with the other Hohenstaufen palatinate, cities and castles Gelnhausen , Frankfurt , Wetzlar and Glauburg , some of which were built during the same period, to protect the Wetterau . The perception of Burghut to meet and to the residence obligation, were built since the 14th century within the castle Burgmann houses. In later times the duties of the Burgmannen were often performed by officials residing there. Since the 15th century, the castle formed its own small lordship in the Wetterau by acquiring the Kaichen free court and in 1445 the pledge of the town of Friedberg. During this time she had her greatest political influence and was involved in the voting of the Wetterau counts at the Reichstag .

In the castle - as in the entire Castle County - was a special particular law , the Friedberger police order . In 1679 it was renewed and printed. This is the first time that it can be put into writing. She mainly dealt with administrative , police and regulatory law . In this respect, the Solms land law remained the main source of law for the broad area of civil law . The Common Law was, moreover, if all these regulations did not contain provisions for a fact. This legal situation remained in effect in the 19th century after the burgraviate passed to the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the city and castle were united in 1834. It was not until the Civil Code of January 1, 1900, which was uniformly valid throughout the German Reich , that this old particular law was suspended.

From the 17th century, the castle increasingly turned into a manor. The representative buildings of the castle men in the castle, the extensive castle garden and the castle church bear witness to this. The castle kept its Staufer constitution until 1806 and was then mediated by the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Until 1821 the castle district had its own office , the Burg-Friedberg office of the Grand Duchy in its province of Upper Hesse . In 1821 it was - like all offices in the province of Upper Hesse - dissolved and the tasks of administration and jurisdiction were separated at the lower level. The administrative tasks of the former office of Burg-Friedberg were transferred to the district of Butzbach and jurisdiction to the Friedberg district court . In 1834 the castle was incorporated into the town of Friedberg. In 1846, Sigmund Löw von und zu Steinfurth, the last of the castle men, died.

Attachment

The castle was heavily fortified. It had two main entrances:

  • The northern one, the existing structure of which dates back to the middle of the 14th century, had six gateways, three of which have been preserved. Outside the city of Friedberg, it led across the suburb to the garden and into the open area in front of the castle.
  • The southern access from the town of Friedberg was secured by the deep moat, the so-called Hirschgraben, and a drawbridge.

The Adolfsturm

The Adolfsturm in Friedberg is a butter barrel tower

Originally the castle had two keep ; the tower at the south gate, which presumably dates from the Hohenstaufen era, collapsed in 1684, the other, the Adolfsturm, dates from the middle of the 14th century and is the castle's oldest surviving medieval structure. Today it is the symbol of the city and with a height of 54.42 m (with a weather vane 58.22 m) one of the largest keeps in Germany. In 1347 the Friedberg Burgmannen captured Count Adolf von Nassau. With the ransom it was now possible to build a new keep, which was named Adolfsturm after the released hostage . The tower was built from quartzite from the Taunus and basalt from the nearby Fauerbach.

In the years 1893/96 the Adolfsturm was romanticized at great expense. He got his characteristic appearance today with the pointed helmet. The four side turrets ( Wichhäuschen ) have also been reconstructed . In addition, a walkway was added to the entrance, which was originally 13 meters high and could only be reached with a ladder. The tower has two circumferential viewing levels. The lower one is by the wich houses at a height of 31 meters, the upper viewing platform at a height of 42.5 meters. From here you can see Frankfurt, 30 kilometers away . Orientation boards on the parapet explain the visual objectives.

On February 28, 2010, the tip of the Adolf Storm was snapped off by Hurricane Xynthia .

The Adolfsturm is managed by the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse and is made accessible to the public on weekend afternoons by the Friedberg City History Association.

The Burggrafiat (Castle)

St. George's Fountain

In the years 1604–1610 the Kronberger Hof was built by the then burgrave Johann Eberhard von Kronberg . The building complex, built in the high Renaissance style, served as the seat of the Friedberg burgraves from 1698. From 1817 to 1919 it served as the palace of the Hessian Grand Dukes . In 1910, the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, stayed as a guest of the Grand Dukes in Friedberg Castle during a spa stay in neighboring Bad Nauheim . His wife Alix von Hessen-Darmstadt was the sister of the Grand Duke at the time. In June 1990 the burgraviate burned out almost completely. Only the outer walls remained; however, it was rebuilt.

The Marstall , the baroque Teutonic Order House (built: 1716–1718), 1491–1806 trading post of the Kommende Frankfurt am Main and 1589–1764 Directory of the Middle Rhine Knighthood , the Cavalier Building (beginning of the 17th century) and the large renaissance gate (1611/1752). Today all the buildings mentioned are used by the tax office.

Outside the castle area is the Georgsbrunnen from 1738. The figure of Saint George was created by the Mainz sculptor Burkard Zamels in the Baroque style. The figure that adorns the fountain today is a copy; the original is in the nearby Wetterau Museum .

The castle church

Castle Church

The early Classicist church was designed by Franz Ludwig Cancrin from Hanau and built by the Bad Nauheim master builder Johann Philipp Wörrishöfer . It replaced the medieval St. George's Church, which was demolished in the 18th century. The compact church building, which is equipped with a relatively low tower, rises on the ground plan of a Greek cross . Construction work began on July 14, 1783, but lasted until 1808, which can be attributed to political disputes at the time. The interior of the church represents a typical Protestant preaching church. The appearance of the interior of the church is dominated by the temple-like facade including gallery and organ.

Depiction of Friedberg Castle and St. George as the patron saint of the castle in the Salbuch of the Naumburg Monastery
Nordtor and Adolfsturm 2009

On September 30th and October 1st, 1947 the Protestant regional churches of Nassau, Hessen-Darmstadt and Frankfurt united in the Burgkirche to form the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau . One day later, Martin Niemöller was elected its first church president. For the 200th anniversary of the church in 2008, extensive renovation measures were carried out on the church building. a. the roof straightened, the facade painted (now powder blue instead of red) and inside the stucco ceiling renovated.

More buildings

The double fence from the 14th-16th centuries Century is preserved in its entirety, as well as part of the interior. In the spacious castle area there are still a number of Burgmannen houses. Next to the mighty castle gate is the baroque castle guard (1771/72), which is modeled on the Frankfurt main guard . The baroque portal of the former castle chancellery (1512), which is now part of the Burggymnasium , an upper-level grammar school, deserves a special mention . The building served as a teachers' college from the middle of the 19th century.

Worth knowing

Testimonies to the history of the castle and town Friedberg are exhibited in the Wetterau Museum in Haagstraße. In addition to three city views from the 16th century, the portraits of Friedberg Burgraves, the grave slab of Burgrave Johann Brendel von Homburg and the original statue of St. George's Fountain are important. There is also a model of the castle and town of Friedberg, which gives a good overview of the castle complex in the late Middle Ages .

literature

  • Elmar Brohl : Fortresses in Hessen. Published by the German Society for Fortress Research e. V., Wesel, Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2013 (=  Deutsche Festungen  2), ISBN 978-3-7954-2534-0 , pp. 77-84.
  • Michael Keller: City Guide Friedberg , ISBN 3-87076-072-9 .
  • Friedrich Karl Mader: Reliable news from the Imperial and Holy Reich Castle Friedberg and the associated county and free court of Kaichen, collected from reliable archival documents and authenticated history books, also explained now and then , 1st part Lauterbach 1766 ( Digitized version ); 2nd part Lauterbach 1767 ( digitized version ); 3rd part Lauterbach 1774 ( digitized version ).
  • Volker Press: Friedberg - imperial castle and imperial city in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period. In: Wetterauer Geschichtsblätter Volume 35 , Bindernagel, Friedberg 1986, pp. 1-29.
  • Klaus-Dieter Rack: Friedberg Castle in the Old Kingdom: Studies on its constitutional and social history between the 15th and 19th centuries. Self-rel. d. Hess. Histor. Commission, Darmstadt 1988, ISBN 3-88443-161-7 ( sources and research on Hessian history 72 ).
  • Thomas Schilp : The Reichsburg Friedberg in the Middle Ages. Studies of their constitution, administration and politics. Bindernagel, Friedberg 1982, ISBN 3-87076-035-4 ( Wetterauer Geschichtsblätter 31 , also a dissertation at the University of Marburg).
  • Heinz Wionski: Cultural monuments in Hessen. Wetteraukreis II, Part 2, Friedberg to Wöllstadt. Published by the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Vieweg, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-528-06227-4 , pp. 613–626. ( Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany ).
  • Rainer Zuch: Friedberg Castle. Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2513-5 ( Castles, palaces and fortifications in Central Europe 28 ).
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , pp. 123–125.

Web links

Commons : Burg Friedberg (Hessen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Becker, Jörg Lindenthal: Römerbad Friedberg receives a new presentation , Der Limes, news sheet of the German Limes Commission, 6th year, 2012, issue 2 (PDF; 2.7 MB), pp. 32–33
  2. ^ Johann Friedrich Böhmer , Friedrich Lau: Codex diplomaticus Moenofrancofurtanus = document book of the imperial city of Frankfurt vol. 1. 794 - 1314. Unchanged. Reprint of the Frankfurt 1901 edition, Baer, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970, pp. 21f. No. 44.
  3. ↑ Arthur Benno Schmidt : The historical foundations of civil law in the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Curt von Münchow, Giessen 1893, p. 107, as well as the enclosed map.
  4. ^ Ordinance on the division of the country into districts and district courts of July 14, 1821 . In: Hessisches Regierungsblatt, p. 409.
  5. ^ Ordinance on the division of the country into districts and district courts of July 14, 1821 . In: Hessisches Regierungsblatt, p. 410.
  6. ↑ For the burgraviate see Renaissance castles in Hessen (project at the Germanic National Museum by Georg Ulrich Großmann ).
  7. ↑ [1] Website of the EKHN with historical background