Klötze Castle
| Klötze Castle | ||
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 Klötze Castle around 1650, drawing by Anco Wigboldus |
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| Creation time : | First mentioned in 1144 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | Ground monument | |
| Standing position : | Unknown assignment | |
| Place: | Blocks | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 37 '36 " N , 11 ° 9' 44" E | |
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In the castle blocks there was a moated castle in the same place in Saxony-Anhalt . There are no more traces of it today, but its former appearance is documented by an engraving by Matthäus Merian .
location
Separated from the settlement by a swamp belt, the castle lay in a glacial valley through which the Purnitz river flowed. The castle was used to control the trade route running from Wittingen to Gardelegen , which ran between the impassable areas of the Drömling and the swampy Purnitzstal.
history
Dates of its construction or the first beginnings are not known. The entire rule of Klötze was first mentioned in 1144. At that time, the complex belonged to the fiefdom of Hermann von Stades , which was given to him by the Roman-German King Konrad III. had received.
Since the Middle Ages, the castle, town and office of Klötze have been in the border area of several domains and have therefore been the subject of controversy between various influential noble families for centuries . Before 1383, the rule belonged with a few interruptions to the Brandenburg Altmark , later to the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and the Kingdom of Hanover . As a result of the provisions in the final act of the Congress of Vienna , the castle and rule of Klötze came to Prussia in 1815 .
The exact ownership structure has only been handed down in fragments at times. At the beginning of the 13th century the castle was owned by the Guelphs . In 1311 the Margrave of Brandenburg got the complex as a fief from the Diocese of Halberstadt . In 1319 Günther von Kevernburg received the castle as a fief from the Brandenburg Margrave Waldemar. As early as 1320, the County of Lüchow together with Klötze Castle went to Duke Otto von Lüneburg. A member of the von Alvensleben family , Gebhard VI. von Alvensleben, governor and bailiff of Stendal , received Klötze on November 11, 1343 from the Wittelsbach margrave Ludwig as a pledge . The task of the new lord of the castle was the defense of Neumark in the east of Brandenburg and the protection of the western border of the Brandenburg region. In 1355 the Duke of Lüneburg, who considered himself the legitimate sovereign, succeeded in a military conflict in front of Klötze. Nine years later, in 1364, the Alvensleben had to give way to the ducal troops. But already on August 15, 1373, Emperor Charles IV confirmed the brothers Gebhard IX. and Werner I. von Alvensleben, in turn, took possession of Klötze as a pledge. And although the castle complex came into Guelph ownership again in 1383, the von Alvensleben family were able to hold onto as lords of the castle for a long time.
How long they still exercised the de facto rule is unclear. There are reports that as early as 1396, Duke Heinrich had ousted the von Alvensleben family and expanded the castle. For 1428 Klötze is shown as a fiefdom of Bertram von Plathe .
For a century and a half, from 1446 to 1593, the gentlemen von der Schulenburg followed - with a few minor interruptions - as pledge holders on blocks. In 1485 a family line from Alvensleben succeeded in reacquiring half the office as a Guelph pledge, but only for two decades. The last attempt in 1593 to take the facility from the Schulenburg people with the help of Lüneburg mercenaries was successful, but due to imperial intervention this action was not crowned with lasting success. The castle and the lands belonging to it became the domain of Lüneburg.
In 1804 the keep collapsed and in 1828 the remains of the other buildings were also demolished.
investment
It was a four-winged, almost square castle complex with a castle chapel ; partly built in half-timbered houses and adorned with oriel structures. A round keep towered over the impressive group and a gate tower protected the drawbridge .
literature
- Siegmund Wilhelm Wohlbrück: Historical news of the Alvensleben family and their goods. First part. Berlin 1819, pp. 241-251, 276-286.
- Udo von Alvensleben : Alvensleben castles and country estates . Dortmund 1960
- Corrie Leitz: The disputes about the Klötze Castle in 1258-2008, 750 years of Breitenfeld, Festschrift. Municipality of Breitenfeld (ed.), Block-Verlag, Kremkau 2008, ISBN 978-3-934988-66-8 , p. 16 ff.
Web links
- Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun