Hohnstein Castle (Saxon Switzerland)
| Hohnstein Castle | ||
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 Hohnstein Castle |
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| Creation time : | around 1200 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, rock castle | |
| Conservation status: | Received or received substantial parts | |
| Standing position : | Noble | |
| Place: | Mockery | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 58 '47 " N , 14 ° 6' 34" E | |
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The Hohnstein Castle is located in the same place Hohnstein in Saxon Switzerland in Saxony . Of the formerly numerous castles on the right bank of the Elbe in Saxon Switzerland, Hohnstein is the only one that has survived.
location
The rock castle , enthroned on a sandstone cliff above the Polenztal, is the symbol of the small town. It lies on a hard sandstone slab 140 m above the Polenz valley. Access to the castle is only possible via the Hohnstein market square.
history
Hohnstein Castle was probably built in the 12th century as a Bohemian border fortress to the margraviate of Meißen and thus against Saxony . In 1353 the Bohemian nobleman Hinko Berka von Dubá , whose coat of arms with crossed oak branches adorns the passage to the second courtyard, received the castle ("castrum Hohenstayn") as a fief. In 1443 the Berken von der Dubá lost the property through barter and purchase transactions, now mentioned for the first time under their name, to Electoral Saxony under Frederick the Meek , but it remained a Bohemian fief until 1806 . The Wettins hunted and stabbed salmon from here . In the early 16th century the Schönburgers were able to settle here briefly in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, but in 1543 they left Hohnstein in an exchange deal with Duke Moritz .
In the following centuries the castle alternately served as the administrative seat (electoral office) as well as the place of jurisdiction and prison . The structures, originally made of wood, were gradually replaced by today's stone structures in the 17th and 18th centuries and even successfully withstood a Swedish siege in 1639.
After the official residence was dissolved in 1861, the castle served, among other things, as a "male correctional institution" and from 1919 as a youth prison .
The Saxon state parliament decided in September 1924 to make the facility available to the Reich Association of German Youth Hostels . In April 1926 the castle was opened as a youth hostel ( youth castle ). With 1000 beds, Hohnstein Castle was the largest youth hostel in Germany at that time. In 1926 and 1927, the castle counted 2,357 holiday camp guests, 1,258 course guests, 18,696 conference guests and 2,357 participants in various celebrations.
The Hohnsteiner Kasper puppet stage , which first performed in the castle in 1928, is named after the town and Hohnstein Castle.
In 1933/34, the Hohnstein concentration camp was set up in the castle for so-called “ protective prisoners ” (around 5,600 political prisoners ). From 1935, the facility was used again as the Reich Youth Hostel for the Hitler Youth . In World War II, one was a POW camp in the castle housed. Initially the castle served as a prison camp ( Oflag ) for 800 Polish and then French officers, later as Stalag IV / 4 for Yugoslav and Soviet prisoners of war.
After the end of the war, the castle served as a refuge for refugees before becoming a youth hostel again in 1949. The largest youth hostel in the GDR was given the honorary name Ernst Thälmann in 1951 . 1953 was also the Natural Science National Museum of Geology , Botany , Zoology , Ecology of the landscape set.
Hohnstein Castle belonged to the Free State of Saxony until 1947 and then became public property in the administration of the Sebnitz district . At the end of the GDR period there were plans to set up an internment camp in Hohnstein Castle for up to 890 opponents of the SED rule.
After German reunification, Hohnstein Castle remained in the ownership of the district of Sebnitz (from 1994 district of Saxon Switzerland , from 2008 district of Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains ). On the part of the monument protection, the complex was not classified as nationally significant, so that it was not taken over by the state palace administration of the Free State of Saxony .
The district of Saxon Switzerland leased Hohnstein Castle in 1996 to the association Häuserwerk des Deutsche Naturfreunde eV, which operated the museum established in 1953 as well as a youth hostel with around 160 beds and leased rooms for celebrations and events. One building was later given to the association as heritable building right . However, the association had to file for bankruptcy in 2007 , and the castle has been managed in bankruptcy since then. As a result, the necessary investments in the building fabric could not be carried out, so that the structural condition gradually deteriorated. In the meantime, some of the buildings can only be managed under certain conditions or not at all (as of July 2017).
The investment requirement for the existing buildings at Hohnstein Castle is estimated at at least € 12 million. On the part of the insolvency administrator, the lease contracts were terminated with the exception of the building with leasehold on November 30, 2017, so that the castle was threatened with extensive closure. Therefore, the city of Hohnstein will take over the operation of the castle from January 2018. The district of Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains is currently looking for a new permanent operator for the entire system, but has at the same time signaled that the investment backlog cannot be managed with funds from the district.
Drawing of the castle from 1719 with labeling of the buildings
Hohnstein Castle around 1844
Coat of arms of the Berka von Dubá and Lipa above the passage to the second courtyard
Postage stamp of the German Post of the GDR from the series Castles
View over the deeply cut Polenz valley to the center of Hohnstein and the castle
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Individual evidence
- ↑ Once Germany's largest youth hostel , Sächsische Zeitung (Sebnitz edition) from June 21, 2014.
- ^ Lothar Gruchmann: Justice in the Third Reich. 3. verb. Edition Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-53833-0 , pp. 369-374.
- ↑ Keyword "Leuchtboje" - The planned isolation camp of the State Security at the Hohnstein Castle Federal Agency for Civic Education
- ↑ Current information on the castle , information from the town of Hohnstein. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
- ↑ a b Burg im Hamsterrad , Sächsische Zeitung (Pirna edition) from 22./23. July 2017.
- ^ Hohnstein takes over the castle , Sächsische Zeitung (Pirna edition) from August 4, 2017.
literature
- Königstein area, Saxon Switzerland (= values of the German homeland . Volume 1). 1st edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1957.
- A. Bergmann: Hohnstein. in: Alfred Meiche : Castles and prehistoric dwellings in Saxon Switzerland . Dresden 1907, pp. 236-259
- Matthias Donath: Castles in Saxon Switzerland and in the Eastern Ore Mountains. edition Sächsische Zeitung, Meißen 2006
- Edgar Hahnewald : Hohnstein . in: Communications of the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz Volume XX, Issue 1–2 / 1931, Dresden 1931, pp. 70–76
- Hermann Knothe : The Berka from the Duba on Hohnstein, Wildenstein, Tollenstein and their relations to the Meissnischen princes , in: New archive for Saxon history and antiquity . Volume 2, Issue 3, Dresden 1881, pp. 194–236 ( digitized version )
- Winfried Pätzold: Hohnstein Castle. "The historical place" series, No. 51, Berlin 1999
- Manfred Schober : The former St. Anna Chapel at Hohnstein Castle . in: Bulletin of the Saxon Switzerland Working Group in the Saxon Heritage Protection Association, Volume 3, Pirna 2006, pp. 17–23
