Habitzheim Castle

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Habitzheim Castle
Entrance to today's courtyard

Entrance to today's courtyard

Alternative name (s): Löwenstein Castle in Habitzheim, Habitzheim Castle, Habitzheim Castle, Habitzheim Estate
Creation time : probably 13th century; 1323/1339/1340 documented
Castle type : Niederungsburg in local location
Conservation status: Burgstall, heavily built over, minimal remains, farm estate
Standing position : Adelsburg
Construction: Sandstone
Place: Habitzheim
Geographical location 49 ° 51 '3 "  N , 8 ° 52' 41.8"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 51 '3 "  N , 8 ° 52' 41.8"  E
Height: 160  m above sea level NN
Habitzheim Castle (Hesse)
Habitzheim Castle

The castle Habitzheim is an Outbound Wasserburg , now buried under buildings as a courtyard, formerly created as Vorwerk the near Veste Otzberg. It is located in today's Habitzheim district of the Otzberg community in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse at the foot of the Odenwald .

location

The castle was located centrally in the present site of the present church and served well as a bailey of the Veste Otzberg and hedge Fuldischen possessions around the Otzberg . It was certainly the founding site of the emerging village with a line of sight to the fortress and control of the foreland in the direction of Dieburg and Reinheim .

history

Coat of arms of the Löwenstein-Wertheim dominion, which was established at the end of the 15th century and which also conquered the area of ​​and around the castle
View of the residential buildings of today's courtyard
The area of ​​the Löwenstein-Wertheim rulership in the 17th century, to which Habitzheim Castle (red arrow) belonged, is outlined in yellow, with the exception of Georgenhausen , which was only part of the rulership from 1482 to around 1611

The time of construction is unknown. However, it should have been built around the same time as the fortress Otzberg, i.e. in the 13th century at the latest. The first documentary evidence comes from 1323. The moated castle was a Fulda fiefdom to the von Bickenbach . To secure the moated castle, a junction of the small Hasselbach flowing through today's town was used to fill the moat . The Bickenbacher divided into different lines with different shares in the castle. Part of it goes after Conrad III's death . von Bickenbach (1298–1354) to the house of Erbach in the middle of the 14th century.

In the State Archives Wertheim of the State Archive of Baden-Wuerttemberg is a division deed dated 8 March 1362, after Konrad of (the) shareholders and Squire Werner Ku (e) surface of Dornberg on behalf of the deceased Countess Agnes of Katzenelnbogen born from Bickenbach, the Countess Mene zu Ryneck (probably Imagina von Rieneck , born von Bickenbach and married to Gerhard V. von Rieneck) and the late Konrad (Conrad III) von Bickenbach mutsch the Habitzheim Castle . The changed legal concept of a division of use corresponded to the inheritance of the castle in the Middle Ages . The Bickenbach part is described in more detail. The castle gate and tower should remain in common ownership.

It is documented in documents that by 1373 at the latest, Count Johann I von Wertheim owned part of the "Feste Haboltsheym", as described in a comparison with their feudal lord, Count Palatine Rupprecht II .

Almost eleven years later, a truce was agreed between Else von Katzenelnbogen , the Schenk Eberharten von Erbach and the aforementioned Ruprecht II of the Palatinate in and around Habitzheim Castle .

With the sale of the Fulda shares of Umstadt and Otzberg, the rule goes to the Electoral Palatinate, which now awards the fiefs (see also Umstadt condominium ).

In 1395 the Bickenbachers document that they have a sixth of the castle from Ruprecht II and want to keep a truce. Between 1398 and 1504, those of Erbach are mentioned in multiple documents, who have part of the castle (approx. Three quarters) and the village of Habitzheim with bailiwick and court as a fiefdom from the Electoral Palatinate. Only the Ulner -Hof, which they acquired from the Gayling von Altheim , is their direct property. In 1407, King Ruprecht of the Electorate of the Palatinate, as Count Palatinate of the Rhine, sells the Palatinate shares of the castle to the value of 6,937 gold guilders (redeemed in 1482). In 1458 the Bickenbachers transfer their share to the Erbachers for 300 Rhenish guilders with the approval of the feudal lord, the Electoral Palatinate.

How the Wertheim lines came to the castle is not exactly documented, but from the end of the 15th to the end of the 16th century they must have gradually bought up the castle and its shares. Probably they took over the fiefdom of the Erbacher, after Ludwig the Bavarian was mentioned in the succession documents in 1482, concerning the former Erbachsche fiefs to the Ulner von Dieburg , which from then on belonged to the house Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort . In 1528 the last share owned by the donor Valentin von Erbach was sold to Count Friedrich von Löwenstein for 6000 guilders. A rulership developed that included the present-day towns of Habitzheim , Spachbrücken , Zeilhard and Groß-Zimmer , without the then independent town of Klein-Zimmer ( Mainz area) and without Georgenhausen .

(At least) twice in the course of the following centuries the rule of the Löwenstein-Wertheimers was briefly taken from the Landgraves of Hesse as a result of warlike events . Once as a result of the Thirty Years' War , as a document of 1623 to the castle Habitzheim: After Emperor Ferdinand II. The Count Johann Casimir and George Louis Lowenstein with the imperial ban had occupied, confiscated their castle and village and to the Barons and Imperial Councilor Peter Heinrich von Stralendorf gave it away, he sold it to Hessen-Darmstadt in the same year. This is evidenced by the original purchase letter between the Hessian Landgrave Ludwig and the baron about the sale of lock and accessories (the village of Habitzheim) for the respectable sum of 25,000 Reichstalers . The Löwensteiners lost their property for the first time shortly after the acquisition in the Bavarian feud , when Landgrave Wilhelm II of Hesse, the middle one , conquered the Electoral Palatinate areas in what is now southern Hesse as far as Heidelberg on behalf of the Roman-German King Maximilian I.

The Counts of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort only resided in Habitzheim until the beginning of the 16th century. From then on, the castle was inhabited by a bailiff, whose job was to administer the rule. When the political structures changed significantly in the course of the transformations in the first half of the 19th century, the castle lost its function as the official residence. Chairs and stables were expanded and converted for use as an estate.

Burgmannen

In 1357 an Eberhard Kylian ( nobleman ) sells half of his castle loan to Schenk Eberhard VIII zu Erbach . In 1372 Edelknecht Heinrich Aumann also sold to Erbach. The gentlemen die Kuche , von Ulbach , von Beldersheim and the Ulner von Dieburg are named. Palatine castle fiefs were given to the lords of Franckenstein , von Wasen , the Ganse von Otzberg , the Mertze von Crotzel , von Hotzfeld and z. B. 1435 awarded by Count Palatine Otto to von Habern . Several of these names are simultaneously Burgmanns of Breuberg Castle .

Building history

Construction of Habitzheim Castle as a moated castle around 1777. The buildings named are named after documents and archives from around 1840–1850.

Over the centuries, the castle complex has been changed, rebuilt, redesigned or expanded several times. It represented a moated castle on the plan that is still recognizable today. Today's manor house with the building opposite formed the residential castle , while the large square of today's farm buildings consisted of stables and barns . The facility was surrounded by a ditch that was fed from the branched water of the Hasselbach . The main castle and residential castle were also temporarily separated by a moat that was spanned by a drawbridge . Only the building opposite the residential castle, in which today's so-called Yellow Hall is located, has survived almost unchanged over the centuries. It dates from around 1500, which can be recognized by the rear window frames. It is now referred to as the church or chapel building, although it was originally a residential building. The cause was the devastation of the Thirty Years' War , which almost wiped out the population of Habitzheim with the exception of a few families as a result of war and plague . At that time, settlers were brought to Habitzheim from the Spanish Netherlands , at that time under Spanish rule and Catholic faith. These did not have their own church room, as the local population was of the Reformed faith. The ground floor of the building was converted into a church space for this purpose. The institution of today's Catholic Church comes from this. Around 1850 the moated castle was converted into a courtyard . After that, the building was only used as a chicken coop and granary. The manor house was rebuilt in 1760 in place of a building that had been demolished at the time because of dilapidation. In the course of the transformations in the first half of the 19th century, the castle lost its function as an official residence and was converted into a farm through the expansion of barns and stables. From 1852 to 1972 the Heil family from Darmstadt and their descendants managed the estate as tenants. With the land reform after the Second World War , the estate lost almost half of its area.

Since 1972 the estate has been managed by its owners, the zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg family. Buildings that were no longer used for agriculture were restored and rebuilt in order to adapt them to their new functions. A ballroom was created from one of the two cowsheds and can be rented out for weddings and other celebrations. The other barn became a printing house remodeled, the old distillery to an ironwork redesigned and created living room on the first floor. The old sheepfold is now a warehouse; the blacksmith's studio and an office for the printing shop were built in another stable. A locksmith also works on the premises. The estate is still used today for agricultural production, which has been converted to organic farming since 1992 .

  • Pictures of today's courtyard

  • The southwest main building, formerly a chapel and granary; cut on the left side of the picture the southern barn

  • View from the entrance across the courtyard to the former chapel

  • The north-eastern main building, the old (formerly civil servants' apartments) and the new residential building

  • Pictures of today's courtyard

  • The southern cross bar, a former building for the Rentamt and Remise

  • The opposite crossbar, formerly a wash house and stable

  • View of the renovated northern barn, to the north between the former wash house and residential building

Present stock

Yellow hall

The Yellow Hall is located in a building from the early 16th century. For 200 years it served as a catholic church and after a long slumber it was brought back to its former glory by a three-year extensive renovation in the middle of the nineties of the last century and converted into a meeting and ballroom. The hall can now accommodate up to 80 people. The yellow hall is also registered as a registry office .

Vaulted stable

The vaulted stable was built as a cowshed in the 19th century. Today there is space for up to 160 people and a large dance stage between the artfully hewn sandstone columns under 24 vaulted caps . A room for the party service, an anteroom for the buffet and sanitary facilities expand the ensemble.

literature

  • Gustav Simon : The history of the dynasts and counts to Erbach and their country . Frankfurt am Main 1858, 564 pages (especially p. 183 ff.)
  • Helfrick Bernhard Wenck: Hessian country history: With document book , volume 1, Darmstadt & Gießen 1783, approx. 665 + 345 pages
  • Heinrich Leo: Lectures on the History of the German People and Empire , Volume 4 , Halle 1865, p. 548 ff.
  • Thomas Steinmetz: Castles in the Odenwald . Ellen Schmid, Brensbach 1998, ISBN 3-931529-02-9 . P. 73
  • Johann Goswin Widder: Attempt of a complete geographical-historical description of the Kurfürstl. Pfalz am Rheine, Second Part , Frankfurt & Leipzig 1786, Volume 2, p. 29 ff

Web links

Commons : Habitzheim Castle  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 1611 the inhabitants of Georgenhausen had to do labor services for Count Löwenstein-Scharfeneck . Georgenhausen was only subject to the Löwensteiners from 1482 to 1611. From around 1618 the Lords of Wallbrunn were the secular and spiritual leaders of Georgenhausen. In 1629, even in embarrassing criminal court cases, the Georgenhäuser were no longer subordinate to the court in Lichtenberg or Groß-Umstadt, but to local rule. In 1649, after the Thirty Years' War , the von Walbrunn were so in debt that they sold Georgenhausen to the "war profiteer" Kamptz zu Godow . The von Haxthausen estate and power in Georgenhausen inherited from him in 1671 . In 1806 the place came to the Grand Duchy of Hesse . More about the rulership of the various places under the entry of the city of Reinheim , to which the districts Georgenhausen, Spachbrücken and Zeilhard belong today.
  2. ↑ Comparison of the Habermannsburg , also: Burgmannenhaus of the von Habern family , Städtel 26 in Erbach im Odenwald - a medieval Burgmannenhaus.
  3. ↑ Certificate joint archive: G-Rep. 101 No. 28/4 , Wertheim State Archive, Baden-Württemberg State Archive; accessed December 1, 2017
  4. ^ Daniel Schneider: History and family table of the Hoch-Graflichen Haus Erbach , Frankfurt am Main 1736, second sentence p. 47; the original certificate in: certificates for the second sentence : No. XXXIX , p. 94, online
  5. ↑ R-US: US 1407 April 20 in the Wertheim State Archives, Baden-Württemberg State Archives. See also: Regesten nach Scriba, Hessische Regesten I , 132 No. 1426. Also mentioned by Gustav Simon: The history of the dynasts and counts of Erbach and their country . Brönner, Frankfurt a. M. 1858 I, p. 305
  6. ↑ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt, documents of the von Dalberg family (treasurer of Worms called von Dalberg): archival documents B 15, documents under the keyword Habitzheim regarding Schenk von Erbach (several documents between 1428 and 1461), Ludwig von Bayern (document from 17 November 1482), Counts of Löwenstein (two documents: 1517 and 1527)
  7. ^ Johann Casimir Graf von Löwenstein
  8. ^ Georg Ludwig Graf von Löwenstein-Scharfeneck (Lowenstein, Löbenstein, Liebenstein)
  9. ↑ Wenck: Hess. State history p. 639
  10. ↑ Grossherzogliches General-Landesarchiv zu Karlsruhe, Journal for the History of the Upper Rhine , Volume 11 , Karlsruhe 1860, p. 82
  11. ↑ The rooms from: www.hofgut-habitzheim.de
  12. ↑ In the part concerning the legacy of Ulrich I. von Bickenbach, incorrect.