Rheineck Castle

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Rheineck Castle
Aerial view of Rheineck Castle, view from the southeast

Aerial view of Rheineck Castle, view from the southeast

Creation time : around 1000 to 1100
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Received or received substantial parts
Standing position : Count Palatine
Place: Bad Breisig
Geographical location 50 ° 29 '45.2 "  N , 7 ° 18' 46.8"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 29 '45.2 "  N , 7 ° 18' 46.8"  E
Height: 185  m above sea level NHN
Rheineck Castle (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Rheineck Castle

The Rheineck Castle is a hilltop castle in Bad Breisig in Rhineland-Palatinate district of Ahrweiler . Its roots lie in a medieval complex from the 11th century. The castle was the center of the Burggrafschaft Rheineck .

location

The castle stands on the left bank of the Rhine in the Middle Rhine Valley in the immediate vicinity of the Vinxtbach . In Roman times it separated the Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Germany and the Moselle and Ripuarian Franks . Roman finds, Anticalien, on the castle hill suggest a Roman lookout as a predecessor . Especially since the Roman Limes began near Rheinbrohl , on the other side of the Rhine . In the Middle Ages, the areas of Kurtrier and Kurköln bordered one another.

Rheineck Castle, cross section through the chapel

history

The Count Palatine near Rhine built the castle in the 11th century. When Count Palatine Siegfried I died in the battle near Warnstedt (1113), he left his wife Gertrud with three children. Gertrud was the sister of Richenza von Northeim , the wife of the later Emperor Lothar III. , and heiress of the Grafschaft Bentheim and Rheineck Castle. Gertrud married Count Otto von Salm for the second time , who from 1126 was the first to call himself “Comes de Rinegke” (Count von Rheineck). In 1140 after the death of Count Palatine Wilhelm , son of Count Palatine Siegfried, King Conrad III moved. the old palatine fiefs on the Rhine. The von Rheineck rose up against this and sought to assert claims on Wilhelm's legacy.
During the dispute between Count Otto von Salm and Hermann von Stahleck over the office of the Palatine, in which his son Otto II opened the fight against Hermann von Stahleck, he finds a violent death in his captivity at the Schönburg . King Conrad III. gave the fiefdom to his brother-in-law Hermann von Stahleck.
Count Otto I von Salm died in 1150 after he had given his rights to Treis Castle to the Archbishop of Trier Albero with the consent of his wife Gertrud . His widow Gertrud turned her back on Rheineck Castle and withdrew to the county of Bentheim, which she owned. Archbishop Albero soon took possession of Treis Castle by force of arms, which then turned King Konrad III. the old hatred against Rheineck was rekindled. Without further ado, he ordered the destruction of the orphaned Rheineck Castle.

After the castle was destroyed in 1151 by King Konrad III. Who received Archbishop of Cologne and simultaneous Chancellor Rainald of Dassel in 1167 Andernach, lay in the nearby Rheineck, from gratitude for the support of the emperor in the fighting in Italy at Tusculum of Frederick I paid. Since the archbishop saw the Cologne possessions of Andernach and Rhens as an important pillar of his territory, the castle should be rebuilt as a Cologne fortress. In 1164, Rainald ordered the rapid occupation of the mountain and the reconstruction of the castle in order to anticipate the claims to power and territorial expansion plans of the meanwhile Count Palatine Konrad von Hohenstaufen .

Rheineck Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

He was able to prevent a civil war, because his deputy and later successor Philip I von Heinsberg , according to his instructions, brought together the then immense number of 125,000 men for an expected battle against troops of the Count Palatine. On May 18, 1164, the enemy soldiers faced each other near the town of Andernach, a few kilometers south of Rheineck Castle. The contemporary Cologne royal chronicle notes on this date: This year, when Count Palatine Konrad, the brother of the emperor, wanted to invade the Cologne diocese with desire and plunder and intended to occupy the mountain called Rheineck, the Cologne chosen Reinold ordered , who was with the emperor in Italy, through familiar messengers the faithful of the Cologne Church to take the mountain beforehand. When the Count Palatinate realized that they had come to him beforehand, he announced a war against the Cologne residents for May 18th on the plain near Andernach. Through the mobilization of the Cologne prelates, cavalry and infantry came together as well as ships to support the army. There were about 125,000 warriors. Which is why neither the Count Palatinate nor anyone dared approach when they waited 12 days for his arrival. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa gave three weeks of frustrated and not taken place battle his chancellor Rainald of Dassel for immense and innumerable merits the village Dairago in the province of Milan . There were also villas and castles as gifts, as well as the remains of the Three Kings from conquered Milan.

The Burgraves of Rheineck

The Archbishopric of Cologne needed ministerials from the knighthood and appointed burgraves to maintain and guard , although this position was initially not inheritable. The selection of these was not always a happy one, because hardly any servant tribe were less obedient and devoted than the burgraves of Rheineck. Around 1180 the knight family von Ulmen was enfeoffed, which soon took the name of Rheineck . The first burgrave of this family who received the inheritable burgrave of Rheineck from the archbishopric at the end of the 13th century was "Johann I. von Rheineck".

The following are known of the Counts of Rheineck from documents:

  • Gottfried and Johann I (1190), this is about father and son
  • Henry I (1200)
  • John II (1213-1229)
  • Heinrich II. ⚭ Berta (before 1237), he became a benefactor of the Laach Abbey . He and his housewife Berta bequeathed many goods from the burgraviate to the monastery
  • Johann III. (1237-1245)
  • Henry III. (1245)
  • Theodoric (1263-1278)
  • Johann IV. (1285–1304), the robber baron of Rheineck. He took on the side of Archbishop Siegfried at the Battle of Worringen part (1288), came later in captivity. During the dispute with the archbishop about Kaiserswerth Castle , he was again taken prisoner (1298). Embittered by Archbishop Wigbold , impoverished by the ransom payments, he became a highwayman. He robbed the ships on the Rhine and the wagons that passed his castle. Furthermore, he cultivated friendships with the archbishop's enemies, mainly with Count Gerhard von Jülich , who obliged him to be the castle man of Nideggen Castle . As it became a plague, the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz and Trier besieged Rheineck Castle (1301). But when King Albrecht came up to relieve Rheineck, the besiegers withdrew. The king saw Rheineck as an imperial castle and Johann as loyal. After he had sworn a primal feud against Archbishop Wigbold, he reinstated him and his descendants as burgraves
  • Johann V. ⚭ 1. Isengard, ⚭ 2. Margaretha (1315–1351), in 1330 he connects with the two Gerarden von Landskron, father and son, with Diedrich von Schonenburg and Görg von Eich against Simon von Kempenich . They vowed to provide Elector Baldwin of Trier with 60 armed men until reconciliation. In the so-called "Kempenich feud" they form the party "with the red sleeves". The feud only ended with the atonement at Lahnstein in 1331
  • Johann VI. (1368–1381), he came to an inglorious end. At a court camp in Godesberg , on Christmas Day in 1381, he stabbed the knight Rollman von Sinzig in a dispute in the presence of Archbishop Friedrich . The archbishop then had him beheaded in public the following day.
  • Johann VII. ⚭ Catharina von Daun (1417–1460),
  • Diedrich ⚭ Mezza von Isenburg († 1470)
  • Jacob I.⚭ Wild and Rhine Countess Johannetta († around 1500)
  • Jacob II. ⚭ 1. Wilhelmine von Eineberg, ⚭ 2. Elisabeth von Crichingen († 1539)

When James II died. From the family of Rheineck 1539 without son electoral Koln put under Archbishop Salentin of Isenburg the Burgrave's one as a completed fiefdom. In the legal dispute between Kurköln and the relatives of those von Rheineck, nobles of Warsberg , the Imperial Court of Justice ruled in favor of those von Warsberg in 1567. The inheritance claim arose through the marriage of Heinrich von Warsberg with Metza von Rheineck, the daughter of Jacob II. Their sons, the brothers Samson and Johann von Warsberg († 1604), received Rheineck Castle as a fief in 1571. He is succeeded as burgrave after the son of Johann, Samson, French colonel (* 1569). The successor Johann Philipp von Warsberg sold the Burgraviate Rheineck in 1654 for 7000 ducats to the Count Rudolf von Sinzendorf († 1677). The Lords of Warsberg did not attach particular importance to the Burggrafschaft Rheineck, rather they tried to enlarge their ancestral seat on the Saarburg in every way possible.

The Counts of Sinzendorf belonged to an old, respected family from Austria. With this acquisition they wanted to acquire the title of burgrave and add the coat of arms to their coat of arms. They attached great importance to the fact that Rheineck had a seat and vote at the Reichstag in the Westphalian Grafen-Collegio, as well as in the Kurrheinische Kreis . Furthermore, they were appointed to the Cologne state parliaments as estates of the Cologne archbishopric.

The successors of Count Rudolf von Sinzendorf were: Weickard Michael Wencelaus († 1715), Prosper Anton († 1756), Wenzel Johann Eustach († 1773), Prosper (* 1751), was the last burgrave of Rheineck. He was later prince and Burgrave of Winterrieden . The Counts of Sinzendorf thus remained in the possession of the Burggrafschaft Rheineck until the French took possession of the left bank of the Rhine . In the Peace of Lunéville in 1801, compensation was made with the village of Winterrieden in Württemberg and a pension of 1500 guilders.

In 1805 Rheineck Castle was auctioned off by the French occupation as expropriated feudal property for 2,870 francs. The new owner was the chief forester Wencelaus Schurp, son of Johann Adam Schurp, who had been administrator at Rheineck Castle in the service of the Counts of Sinzendorf since 1749.

Destruction from war and fire

At the end of 1632 the Swedes under their General Baudissin undertook a campaign against the city of Andernach from their headquarters in Linz. In this way they took Rheineck Castle without a fight, plundered it, but did not destroy it. In the Palatine War of Succession (1688–1697) the French occupied the castle. When they left, they looted the castle and set it on fire. The few remains were destroyed by soldiers from the Electorate of Cologne (1692), with the exception of the keep and the chapel everything was ruined. It was not until 1718 that it was rebuilt, albeit to a lesser extent. In 1785 it was once again a victim of flames, which broke out in an outbuilding covered with thatch. Due to the prevailing wind at the time, the whole castle burned down within two and a half hours. In a makeshift way, it was restored for 2,000 thalers, but only offered an apartment for the manager Johann Adam Schurp.

Reconstruction and modern times

After repeated destruction, the Bonn university professor and later Prussian minister of culture, Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg, acquired the castle from the widow and heir Schurp for 20,000 thalers in 1832. Rheineck Castle was rebuilt on the old floor plan in the years 1832–1836. The building fabric was so dilapidated that everything had to be removed down to the foundation stones. However, the client did not want to rebuild a knight's castle, but rather build a cozy castle in Romanesque style based on the gate chapel , which he had Johann Claudius von Lassaulx rebuild. After the old caretaker's building, which was attached to the gate chapel and supported it, was demolished, large cracks in the wall formed in the chapel. Lassaulx therefore asked permission to demolish the walls of the chapel. The newly built chapel , which adjoins the original gate chapel from the 12th century in terms of its floor plan and exterior design, was painted by Edward von Steinle between 1838 and 1840. Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg spent his twilight years at the castle and died there in 1877, the family's mausoleum is on the castle hill. Parts of the ring walls from the Middle Ages are still preserved, the huge keep with its square floor plan and the gate above the driveway.

After the Second World War, Rheineck Castle became an excursion destination in the 1950s with a cable car and castle restaurant, castle tour and tower ascent. In 1975, investor Herbert Hillebrand, known as the “ Castle King”, bought the castle for his daughter Nathalie. After severe financial losses, the castle had been vacant since 1993, until he sold it in 1999 to the current owner, Kai Krause , who had it completely restored .

The castle today

The castle cannot be visited; only the access on the mountain slope to the gate is possible. This driveway is part of a designated hiking trail, the Rheinhöhenweg . It continues via Reuterslei to Brohl-Lützing and crosses a Celtic refugee castle with two section walls directly above the castle. The castle cannot be seen from there due to the tall trees. From the old access road, a footpath branches uphill to a historic Jewish cemetery below the mountain peak on a sloping plateau. Some of the tombstones that were in the immediate vicinity of the castle were "relocated" by the Bethmann-Hollweg family during the renovation and new construction . They found a new place on the Kesselberg, north of Bad Breisig. The hereditary burial place of the Bethmann-Hollweg family is located in the fenced-in area of ​​the castle, which is no longer accessible today .

literature

  • Alexander Duncker : The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners in the Prussian monarchy along with the royal family, house, Fideicommiss and Schattull goods . Volume 12. Berlin 1871-73 ( PDF; 220 kB ).
  • Moritz August Bethmann-Hollweg: Family Message 2. Rheineck Castle , Bonn, Georgi, 1878, pp. 46–58, (online University and State Library Bonn). http://digitale-sammlungen.ulb.uni-bonn.de/content/pageview/333275
  • Carl Bertram Hommen: Rheineck Castle - your picture went around the world . In: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Ahrweiler 1984 . Weiss, Monschau, ISSN  0342-5827 , pp. 82-87 ( online ).
  • Heino Möhring: Legends and stories about Rheineck Castle . In: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Ahrweiler 1992 . Weiss, Monschau, ISSN  0342-5827 , pp. 143-147 ( online ).
  • Jakob Rausch: Rheineck Castle . In: 1955 homeland yearbook for the Ahrweiler district . Schiffer, Rheinberg, ISSN  0342-5827 , pp. 82-88 ( online ).
  • Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich: "... like a monarch enthroned in the middle of his court". Castles on the Lower Middle Rhine . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-2210-3 , pp. 132-137.
  • Joachim Gerhardt, Heinrich Neu: Art monuments of the Ahrweiler district , II. Half volume. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1938, pp. 571-580.
  • Carl Bertram Hommen: Das Breisiger Ländchen , JP Bachem publishing house, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7616-0808-X , pp. 134-137.
  • State main archive Koblenz, inventory 700.330 "Burg Rheineck", http://www.archivdatenbank.lha-rlp.de/koblenz/
  • Johann Christian von Stramberg , Anton Joseph Weidenbach : Memorable and useful Rheinischer Antiquarius , III. Section, Volume 5, R. F. Hergt, Coblenz 1858, pp. 490-588. ( Google Books )
  • Julius Wegeler : Rheineck Castle, its counts and burgraves , Verlag J. Hölscher, Coblenz 1852. ( Google Books )

Web links

Commons : Burg Rheineck  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Theodor Joseph Lacomblet : Archive for the History of the Lower Rhine , Volume V, Düsseldorf 1866, p. 323 ff. ( Google Books )
  2. ↑ Julius Wegeler: The Rheineck Castle, their counts and burgraves , Verlag J. Hölscher, Koblenz 1852, pp. 20–77.
  3. ↑ Joachim Gerhardt, Heinrich Neu: Art monuments of the Ahrweiler district , II. Half volume. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1938, pp. 571-580.
  4. ^ Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg: Family Message 2 , Bonn, Georgi 1878, pp. 46-58.
  5. ^ Carl Bertram Hommen: Das Breisiger Ländchen , Verlag JP Bachem, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7616-0808-X , pp. 134-137.