Friedeburg Castle (East Frisia)
| Friedeburg | ||
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 Friedeburg Fortress. Reversed engraving by Merian from the second half of the 17th century |
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| Alternative name (s): | Fredeburg, Fredoburg | |
| Creation time : | 1359 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | Burgstall | |
| Place: | Friedeburg | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 26 '49 .1 " N , 7 ° 50' 37.1" E | |
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The Friedeburg , also called Fredeburg or Fredoburg , is a late medieval fortress , the castle stable of which is located southeast near Friedeburg in the Wittmund district in Lower Saxony , Germany .
history
Beginnings
According to most depictions of the history of East Friesland, the construction of the Friedeburg should have been carried out by Edo Wiemken the Elder (around) 1359 . "Eodem anno extruxit Edo Wiemken una cum Harlingen castrum de Fredeburch contra raptores" ( In the same year Edo Wiemken built the Friedeburg Castle against the robbers together with Harlingen ) it says in a corresponding document of the Östringer and Rüstringer Frisians, in which reference to a text passage which includes the date 1359. Research in the 1960s and 1970s, however, casts doubt on this, as Edo Wiemken was guaranteed to take part in a fight in the Stadland in May 1414 . Therefore, he must have either taken part in the fighting when he was around 80 years old or had already been chief of his district and builder of the castle in his youth . Fredo von Wangern is therefore probably the builder. Edo Wiemken the Elder Ä. appeared from around 1380 and was probably the successor as lord of the castle.
The first castle was in the shape of a stone house, as it can be found in Bunderhee today, still in good condition . It was built to ward off the raptores , which in the present case meant the Counts of Oldenburg , with whom the Frisian Gaue Rüstringen and Östringen were in dispute at the time. The chiefs of the Harlingerland , like the Rüstringer and Östringer equally harassed by Oldenburg, also saw themselves exposed to the increasing efforts of the chief family tom Brok to expand from the west of the East Frisian peninsula . To secure the state border against the Oldenburgs, the Frisian districts mentioned built the Friedeburg.
It was on the old Frisian Heerweg from Oldenburg to Jever , Wittmund and Esens . The castle was built on a site to which the chief family Kankena from Harlingerland claimed. The Kankenas had apparently left the site to Fredo von Wangern in a kind of long lease , which is why they were able to lay claim to the castle in 1434 and enforce it. The facility stood south of the village of Endel, which is named after the Friedeburg today. The location was strategically favorable: The castle stood on a narrow spur of the Oldenburg-East Frisian Geestrücke, which ran from southeast to northwest . To the east and west, the site was surrounded by extensive marshes , which made it very difficult to circumvent the castle from the side. A building of around eleven by eight meters is given as a size; it was probably surrounded by a moat.
The Friedeburg in the East Frisian chief battles
Until around 1400 the tom Broks, here namely Widzeld tom Brok and later his half-brother Keno II. Tom Brok , continued the expansion of their house in the direction of eastern East Frisia. They also gained dominance in Östringen. Friedeburg Castle played no role in this, as it was supposed to secure the border to Oldenburg, but tom Broks were allied with the Oldenburgers. Edo Wiemken the Elder Ä. died between 1414 and 1416. His successor Sibet von Rüstringen then took up the fight against the tom Broks again, but was defeated by them and first had to commit to an alliance. When Ocko II. Tom Brok , son of Keno II., Faced increasing pressure from his former ally Focko Ukena and this led to an open conflict, Sibet von Rüstringen allied with Ukena. In the Battle of Detern on September 27, 1426 he was in the Ukena contingent. After the final defeat of Tom Brok's party in the Battle of the Wild Fields (October 28, 1427), Sibet came back into Östringen's possession. He left the Friedeburg to his allies, the Kankenas from the Wittmund / Reepsholt area . The future custodian of the castle from House Kankena was Cirk von Friedeburg , who had also been on the Ukena's side in both battles.
Focko Ukena remained the leading chief of East Frisia for only a few years. Due to his claims to power, he came increasingly into opposition to the Frisian state communities and their rural representatives. The Cirksena family made themselves their advocates . While the chiefs of the Harlingerland switched to the side of the Cirksenas, the Östringer Ukena remained connected. During this time Sibet had the Friedeburg significantly strengthened. After military defeats Ukena came defeated to the Friedeburg in 1431, which his ally Sibet had assigned him as a refuge. In 1432 the Cirksenas and their allies from Oldenburg built a path through the marshes some distance from the castle. In 1434 Count Dietrich von Oldenburg appeared in front of the castle gates with a large number and forced Ukena to hand them over to him. Focko Ukena then fled to Groningen . In the following two years, Count Dietrich subjugated the area around the castle, and the villages of Marx , Horsten , Wiesede and Etzel paid homage to him . Not used to Oldenburg rule, the Frisians bought the castle from the count, which cost 4,000 guilders . The reinforcements that had only taken place a few years earlier tore down the residents of the area and left the stone house alone. After Ukena's defeat, Cirk von Friedeburg remained the custodian of the castle, but had to commit to the Cirksena to keep slot unde vestinge open for them.
Under Cirk von Friedeburg the castle, which had just been de-fortified except for the stone house, was reinforced again. From around 1440 he had a square, reinforced structure with a moat built around it. Politically, Cirk was anxious to maintain his small area of power between the East Frisian Cirksena chiefs and the Oldenburg counts. In 1451 he succeeded in doing this against the Oldenburg Count Gerd. He had appeared with a number of armed men in front of the Friedeburg. Cirk, who had already made suspicious preparations, had only a few armed men patrol the castle, but several dozen men took refuge in the attic. After a conversation in which the Oldenburg Count had warned the lord of the castle to “watch his house”, Cirk had his armed men storm the main room of the castle, which apparently made so much impression on Count Gerd that he left without having achieved anything dropped his plans to conquer Friedeburg.
First expansion under the Cirksenas
After Ulrich Cirksena was raised to the status of hereditary imperial count by Emperor Friedrich III on December 23, 1464 , the now ruling house of East Frisia continued its policy of rounding off the power it had gained. Countess Theda , who came to power for her deceased husband Ulrich in 1466, won the Friedeburg against the interests of Count Gerhard VI. from Oldenburg . Supported by Edo Wiemken the Younger von Jever (who made claims on the Friedeburg) and Hero Omken the Elder von Esens, the count's troops besieged the area around the castle, whereby the tower of the church in Reepsholt was brought down. Cirk von Friedeburg was dying that year, but in the last years of his life he had turned more to the Oldenburg house. Cirk's call for Oldenburg help came too late, however, as his heirs had already agreed with Countess Theda on the handover of the Friedeburg. Countess Theda and Hero Omken took over the castle and booted their ally Edo Wiemken the Younger, which later brought them into bitter hostility to the House of Cirksena. Theda appointed Hero Mauritz Kankena von Dornum as captain of the castle. Hero Kankena, however, who also made claims to the castle, tried to maintain political freedom of movement and from then on called himself "Chief of Dornum and Friedeburg". However, he got captured during border disputes with Oldenburg troops. Countess Theda therefore released him by paying 5000 guilders, but in return had Hero Kankena assure her sole power of disposal over the castle. From then on, Kankena was content with his castle in Dornum and moved back there in 1481. Countess Theda was then paid homage to the parishes in the vicinity of the castle.
In 1486 Countess Theda appointed Engelmann von Horsten to be the future drosten of Castle Engelmann . A clergyman, the monk Egge from the Thedinga monastery, joined as bailiff . From then on, the castle became a customs post opposite the Oldenburg, a prison, place of court and place of execution. Several additions seem to have been made during this time, and the construction of an octagonal tower on the east corner of the main castle is considered certain. The mill valley flowing near the castle was also widened . For this purpose, the residents of the area had to do manual and clamping services. By widening the depth, smaller ships could get from the (at that time still much more extensive) Jade Bay to Friedeburg.
In 1491 there was a love affair at Friedeburg with far-reaching personal consequences for the East Frisian ruling house and thus also for the history of the region in the following decades. The Drost on the Friedeburg, Engelmann von Horsten, had entered into a love affair with the count's daughter Almuth and had abducted her from Aurich to the castle; According to the historiography, it was a thoroughly consensual kidnapping. Engelmann and Almuth holed up in the Friedeburg. Enno , eldest of the three sons of Count Ulrich and Countess Theda (Enno, Edzard, Uko), who had just returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, then besieged the castle. After a heated argument with Engelmann, Enno followed Drosten in full armor across the icy moat, broke through the ice sheet and drowned. As a result of this accident, the next elder son Edzard succeeded his brother in the line of rule. After the death of his mother in 1494, he took control of East Frisia and later went down in East Frisian history as Edzard the Great .
During the Saxon feud , the Friedeburg was besieged by Brunswick and Saxon troops without being able to be captured at first. The castle commander Rippersbusch handed them over to the besiegers in return for the assurance of safe conduct. Count Edzard the Great took the castle back for East Frisia on September 27, 1517.
The Friedeburg as a state fortress
During the reign of Countess Anna (1540–1561), the Friedeburg was significantly expanded and made a state fortress. In this case, however, the deterrent effect of the castle should not be directed towards the south, i.e. towards Oldenburg: The countess herself was a daughter of the Oldenburg Count Johann V. The East Frisian and Oldenburg count houses had buried their long-lasting feuds through this marriage policy . At the same time, it was agreed to set the spheres of interest. By contrast, Harlingerland , which at the time was not yet part of East Frisia , had proven to be a constant source of unrest under Balthasar von Esens . He had offered it to the Duchy of Geldern as a fief, which in turn passed it on to the Rietberg family.
Prussia
1744 East Friesland came through an existing since the end of the 17th century Exspektanz of Prussia . During the Seven Years' War , foreign occupation troops used the castles in the region, whereupon Frederick the Great decided to let the remaining castles in East Frisia be razed . The burgrave's house was already put up for auction in January 1763, followed two months later by the Drosten apartment and the adjacent tower. Only a few houses remained, including the bailiff's house and the prison. The stones were used to build houses in the area. In 1776 the miller Ibe Gerdes received a leasehold property from the War and Domain Chamber in Aurich , on which he built a windmill . The mill was built on the site of the former south bastion and was demolished in 1981 after being shut down.
Current condition
The municipality of Friedeburg built a viewing platform on the rest of the former defense tower or mill stump, from which the castle grounds can be viewed. A model of the facility has existed in the center of the village since 2002, the remains of which are still preserved. Parts of the facility are designated as a monument .
literature
- Jörg Eckert: The Friedeburg Fortress . Ostfriesland. Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany 35, Stuttgart 1999, pp. 221–224.
- Folkert van Dieken among others: Heimatkundliches Museum Friedeburg. A look into the past. Friedeburg 1988.
- Lutz Dursthoff among others: The German castles and palaces in color . Krüger, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-8105-0228-6 , pp. 549-550.
- Heinz Ramm: The Friedeburg. Origin and building history. In: College of the East Frisian Landscape (ed.): Res Frisicae. Harm Wiemann on his 75th birthday. (Treatises and lectures on the history of Ostfriesland, Volume 59), Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1978, without ISBN, pp. 28–72 (here: Ramm: Friedeburg ).
Web links
- Entry by Frank Both and Stefan Eismann about Friedeburg Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Fredeburg (Friedeburg) on the burgeninventar.de site
- Reconstruction drawing in the earlier state
Individual evidence
- ^ Ramm: Friedeburg , p. 36.
- ^ Ramm: Friedeburg , p. 39.
- ^ Ramm: Friedeburg , p. 40.
- ↑ Heinrich Schmidt: Political History of East Friesland (East Friesland in the protection of the dike, vol. 5), Verlag Rautenberg, Leer 1975, or ISBN, p. 121.
- ^ Karl-Heinz de Wall: Wittmund district , self-published by the Friesland district, Jever 1977, without ISBN, p. 242.
- ^ Ramm: Friedeburg , p. 70.