Tannenberg Castle (Nentershausen)

Tannenberg Castle
	View from Buchenstein (north view), in the foreground the "New Kemenate", behind it the residential tower
Alternative name (s):	Tannenburg
Creation time :	1300 to 1400
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	Preserved essential parts
Standing position :	Nobles, clerics, landgraves
Construction:	Tufa, limestone, half-timbering
Place:	Nentershausen
Geographical location	51 ° 0 '30 " N , 9 ° 56' 59" E Coordinates: 51 ° 0 '30 " N , 9 ° 56' 59" E
Height:	351 m above sea level NHN

The Castle Tannenberg , often Tannenburg called, is a spur castle on a spur of the Heart Mountain , above Nentershausen in Richelsdorfer Mountains , in northeastern Hesse . The castle lies at 351 m above sea level. NN only about one kilometer east of Nentershausen.

description

The castle was built in the 14th century on the site of an older fortification which, according to an old Hersfeld document, is said to have been "abandoned since Olim's time".

A previous building of the Tannenburg stood on the "old hilltop", where you can still see moats of an earlier fortification. Alt-Tannenburg probably existed for a long time next to the new building, but stones were used to build the new castle.

West view of the castle

The entire facility has the basic shape of an elongated rectangle about 50 m long and 25 m wide. The castle was built from tufa stone . In the west is the entrance to the main castle . Due to the stone guides on the outer wall above the entrance gate, it is assumed that there was a fall gate there in the Middle Ages . Prior to today's entrance nor was until 1400 bailey , which could be the mentioned in ancient documents as "heritage stone" main defense work.

In 2006 the western kennel wall was renovated. During the work, the foundations of were gatehouse exposed a together loophole on today's basement level.

The castle courtyard stretches from the entrance like a street through the complex and separates the buildings on the north and south sides.

Buildings on the north side of the castle

Initials on the coat of arms stone above the courtyard gate of the "New Kemenate"

Immediately to the left of the entrance was the oldest house, the "stone house" of Ludwig I von Baumbach, which was called "old bower" in the documents. Here, at the north-western corner of the castle, the two-meter-thick curtain wall had collapsed completely. It was only rebuilt in 2001 to close the castle to the outside. In the east of the castle, this surrounding wall is still around eight meters high.

There is a three-story house in the same line. Its foundation walls are not much younger than those of the “old bower”. It was rebuilt under Ludwig VII von Baumbach († 1552), Hesse-Kassel privy councilor and court marshal , and under Ewald von Baumbach († 1575), electoral Mainz privy councilor and comitial envoy , im Completed in 1545. A largely weathered coat of arms stone made of red sandstone above the portal of this house, on which the initials LVBEVB can still be read, refers to these two lords of the castle (another initial on the stone is MZHGV, the coats of arms underneath are completely weathered). In this building there was the stables on the ground floor and living quarters on the upper floors. In the eastern outer wall of this building you can still see the walled-in wooden piles that supported the scaffolding when the house was built up high.

Residential tower on the south side of the castle

Gothic chapel bay window as a chapel

In a clockwise direction, on the other side of the courtyard in the south-east of the complex stands the largest surviving building in the castle. It is now a four-story residential tower . Construction began around 1375 and in 1555 it was expanded into the residential tower as it can still be seen today.

The eastern side faces the mountain, making it the main attack side. This side was particularly strongly fortified at castles. On the crowns of the outer walls of this building, traces can be found in the east, which suggest that the building was once higher. Where the castle wall meets the building, you can still see today that the castle wall was also a lot higher. The strong locking devices on the building site, which can still be seen inside and outside the walls today are typical of a fortified tower house, which is also the task of the keep filled.

On the second floor there is a hall with a Gothic chapel bay facing east , the stone roof of which ends in a finial. The space, which is made up of five sides of an octagon, is covered by a cross vault, the ribs of which are profiled with double valleys and run against a keystone bearing three oak leaves.

Inside, to the right of the bay window, there is a stucco frieze on the wall that shows the coats of arms of Boyneburg- Hohenstein, Trumbach and Treusch-Buttlar zu Brandenfels .

Further buildings on the south side of the castle

Wappenstein, on the left the coat of arms of those of Baumbach and on the right that of those of Hundelshausen

Next to it, further to the west, is another former residential building, which today houses the castle's utility rooms. Above the courtyard portal of this building was the year 1543, including the Baumbach coat of arms (on a blue background, a lying silver sickle above the tips of which are two gold stars) with the initials AV and the coat of arms of Hundelshausen with the initials B W.

The former Burgwartshaus , which was rebuilt around 1690, is located directly to the right of the entrance . The two-story building has a half-timbered front on the inner courtyard facade, above a ground floor made of sintered lime stone. Here the castle tavern is now housed on the ground floor, the outside area opposite to the area of the old bower is. During the renovation work, a presumably Romanesque arcade row was uncovered in the western wall .

On the side of the complex facing the mountain, in the extreme southeast, there are still the last remnants of the kennel with battlements, loopholes and a still recognizable guard walk. In the south, in front of the former Zwinger wall, below the castle, there are still the outer walls of a building with three gates. This was probably a building belonging to the landgrave's domain . However, there are also indications that the building was connected to trade from Erfurt .

history

Inner courtyard of the castle, photographed from the east of the entrance in the west, on the left the courtyard portal to the residential tower

Alt-Tannenburg on the "old hilltop", was probably built by the Hersfeld abbot after the abbey had received the wild ban for the Reichsforst "Eherinevirst" ( Knüllgebirge and Seulingswald ) from King Heinrich II in 1003 . The purpose of the castle at that time was to control the northern part of the imperial forest. Consequently, who was a vassal on behalf of the lords for the safety and conduct on the plane passing through the nearby Seulingswald old route through the Short Hessen responsible .

The 14th century

After the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession , the castle was in a fiercely contested border region. It can be assumed that the abbot therefore decided around 1300 to rebuild the castle on the mountain spur a little further to the east . The reasons were probably an easier to defend location and the larger space available.

Ludwig I von Baumbach († 1357), who had been a knight since 1329, had received this castle from the Hersfeld abbot as a fief . From when he held the fief is not known. It can be assumed, however, that he had owned the fief since at least the time when his sons sold their fief shares in Rotenburg Castle on September 1, 1338 to the Breitenau monastery . In return, they acquired free goods in Nentershausen. This was the origin of the von Baumbach estate in the valley. The von Baumbach family held high and low jurisdiction in “Nentershusen” and the surrounding villages . It was not until 1578 that they had to cede the high jurisdiction to the Hessian landgrave , the lower jurisdiction was abolished in 1806 (the judicial linden tree is still in Nentershausen).

In 1347 Ludwig I came into conflict with Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse because of some possessions in the Seulingswald . Both signed a settlement in 1348 in which the castle was mentioned for the first time as "das hus tzu deme Thannberg".

In front of the castle at that time there was an older chapel, which belonged to the parish church of Renda (probably also the first parish church for Nentershausen). On August 5, 1349, a document permitted “the separation of the altar on the Tannenberg” (the altar was brought into the existing baptistery in the valley). The abbot of Hersfeld, Johann II. Von Elben , formally confirmed this in 1356. The chapel was rebuilt in 1539 according to the Nentershausen chronicler Pastor Kollmann.

In 1360 Abbot Johann II enfeoffed the Hessian landgrave with the castle, who passed it on to the Baumbachs as an after-fief . On January 29, 1365, Landgrave Heinrich II and his son Otto enfeoffed the Baumbachs again. The contract stipulated that the castle was open to the landgrave against all enemies and should never be withdrawn. The landgrave needed the castle to defend his territory against the landgraves of Thuringia .

In 1371 the city of Erfurt signed a protection treaty with the Baumbachs in order to be able to protect their traders on the nearby Altstrasse Durch die Kurzen Hessen , which led through the Seulingswald . One path deviated from the road to the castle. There the merchants had shelter and shelter and waited for trade trains to form in the desired direction. The Baumbachs received an annual salary and building money to keep the castle.

In 1372 the Baumbachs were in league with the Hessian Landgrave against the Star League , but as early as 1374 the Landgrave declared the feud against the Baumbachs . This conflict broke out when the Fulda abbot Konrad IV von Hanau withdrew the fiefs from the Lords of Baumbach over the villages of Uffhausen (now part of Grossenlüder ) and Weißenborn (now part of Ottrau ). After the Baumbacher had attacked the Fulda property with the help of Erfurt mercenaries, the Fulda citizens complained to the landgrave. This stood on the side of the Fulda monastery . Hessian and Fulda troops then besieged the castle. The camps of the besiegers can still be seen from the names of the parcels. The parcel on which the Hessians set up their jumps is called the Hesslers or Hessenschanze. It is located on the slope south opposite the castle. The Fulda residents' camp site is called Buchenstein (derived from Altgau Buchonia ) and is located on the slope to the north opposite the castle. The castle was not conquered and there was no major damage to the castle, but many Baumbach villages in the vicinity were destroyed and remained desolate . The dispute ended with an atonement from the Baumbachs in 1375.

The Baumbachs later joined the Sternern in the Star Wars in 1385 . Landgrave Hermann II reacted by depriving them of the Ulfen court (now part of Sontra ) in 1386 . The conflict continued to smolder until the Landgrave, in league with Fulda and some wealthy knight families from the region, again took action against the Tannenburg in 1392. The landgrave promised his allies the castle for 1,800 guilders and for three years. The castle could be held against the attackers again. The castle also survived other feuds in the 15th and 16th centuries and the Thirty Years' War unscathed. The castle benefited from the fact that it was not directly on the above-mentioned trade route.

Modern times and the present

By dividing the inheritance and selling it to the landgrave in 1698 and 1738, the Tannenburg line of the Baumbachs only had a share of 3/16 in the castle. The Baumbachs moved into their manor house on their estate in the valley as early as 1698 . For the next 200 years, miners from the copper and cobalt works and farm workers from the landgrave's domain were housed in the residential tower. In the following centuries, the castle buildings that were no longer in use fell into disrepair.

A family association founded in 1903, which united all of the von Baumbach lines, bought their ancestral castle back from the state in order to save it from final ruin. During this time, the first restoration work was carried out on the castle. In the Third Reich, the Burgwartshaus was the hostel of the Association of German Girls , and after the war a youth hostel was housed there.

In the 1980s, the von Baumbach family tried to convert the castle into a hotel. Much of the medieval interior was destroyed, including the stairwell in the residential tower. This company was canceled due to insufficient funds. During this time the local history and mining museum was housed in the former stables (today in the former district court in Nentershausen).

Today the castle is owned by the "Association of Friends of the Tannenberg" in Nentershausen. Extensive restoration work has been carried out again since 1995. Since 2002 there has been a medieval themed restaurant in the residential tower and in the former Burgwartshaus. The apartment of the castle administrator (Vogt) and the office of the operating company are housed in the former stables.

The castle is the starting point / destination on the Werra-Burgen-Steig Hessen long-distance hiking trail (X5H).

Sources and literature

Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 175.
Ludwig Büff: On the history of Nentershausen . Blücher Verlag, Merzhausen 2004, ISBN 3-934249-06-X .
Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 266f.

Web links

Commons : Burg Tannenberg - Collection of images, videos and audio files