Ehrenburg (Plaue)
| Ehrenburg | ||
|---|---|---|
 The Ehrenburg |
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| Creation time : | after 1324 | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, hillside location | |
| Conservation status: | Preserved essential parts | |
| Standing position : | Count | |
| Place: | Plaue | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 46 '45.5 " N , 10 ° 53' 44.7" E | |
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The Ehrenburg is a hilltop castle on the western slope of the Geratal above the town of Plaue in the Ilm district in Thuringia (Germany).
history
Henry VII , who ruled from 1285 to 1326 (?), Was a friend of the German Emperor Ludwig IV of Bavaria . When he visited him in Arnstadt in 1323 , he persuaded him to ask the Thuringian Landgrave Friedrich von Thuringia (Ludwig's son-in-law) to allow him to build a castle in Plaue. Friedrich von Thuringia granted this permission to Heinrich VII on July 12, 1324. The document is preserved in the State Archives.
Henry VII died defending the Mark Brandenburg in 1326, possibly as early as 1324, and is buried in Berlin. It is therefore more than likely that he was no longer there when the castle was built. The land fell to his sons Heinrich X. and Günther XXI.
In 1416 the Counts of Schwarzburg pledged the Ehrenburg for 968 Rhenish guilders to the von Witzleben family , an old Thuringian noble family that had been running a haulage business in Plaue for a long time . In 1420 the castle was pledged to Heinrich the Elder for life. After his death in 1430, the castle was taken over by Count Günther XXXVI in 1482. of Schwarzburg-Arnstadt for 1,200 guilders to the house Lichtenberg pledged.
At the beginning of the 16th century the castle was no longer used and slowly fell into disrepair. Their military use was no longer given in the age of the cannons.
With the beginning of the development of a German nation in the middle of the 19th century began a return to the castles of the ancestors and their symbolic power. In 1853, clearing work began on the Ehrenburg, which was financed by Prince Günter Friedrich Carl II of Schwarzburg . In 1913, the chatty chamberlain Arthur von Schierholz bought the castle for 10,000 marks with the approval of the state parliament and the local council , on condition that it be made accessible to the public. The castle was restored and in parts rebuilt and secured. The old knight's kitchen was not rebuilt, but catering facilities were created on the upper floors. During the renovation, a historically correct restoration of the castle was not necessarily considered, but rather its gastronomic usefulness. The underground escape route in the direction of the Zimmer Valley was thus misused as a toilet and pipework. It was only when a side wall collapsed in the late 1980s that the old escape tunnel from the castle in the direction of the Zimmer Valley became visible again.
Until 1988 the castle was managed gastronomically. The hosts were as follows:
- Armin Erdenberger,
- Straube family,
- Arthur Walter family,
- Oskar Röhr (1942–1950),
- Family G Wunsch,
- Mr. Fischer (nickname "Racker") - he owned the first television from Plaue,
- Erich Müller,
- Dieter Beck,
- Roswitha Bolduan,
- Hermann Huettner,
- Siegfried Karnahl,
- Käthe Jagdmunth,
In 1962 the guest rooms were renovated. In the 1980s, the gastronomic establishment became a meeting place for young people, but increasingly lost its former good reputation. The knight's hall or the tower that can be reached from there were no longer publicly accessible for a long time. In 1988 the restaurant, which was also popular with the numerous FDGB vacationers from Plaue, was closed. The reasons for this were the poor occupancy out of season, the need for renovation of the entire facility and, in particular, safety deficiencies. The restaurant was on the second floor and did not have a second escape route, and it was impossible to use turntable ladders to get close enough to the building to hide trapped victims from the windows or the roof. There wasn't enough space for a safety cushion between the castle and the surrounding wall. Plans to build a second escape route in the tower that is ideally suited for this purpose were no longer implemented until the fall of the Wall.
In 1991 the castle was transferred back to the von Schierholz family and was no longer accessible from then on. The von Schierholz family sold the castle to a real estate agent in 2000, who tried to completely block the castle for plausible citizens and to fence it off extensively. This fails, however, because plausible citizens claim a centuries-old right of way. In 2008 the broker sells the castle to a German-British couple, who reopened the area and slowly want to restore the castle. Building sins from the first reconstruction will also be reversed and chatty citizens can re-enter the castle after consultation with the owners or, in their absence, with the local administrators of the castle. Ultimately, the current owners thus meet the requirements that the von Schierholz family made in 1913 when the city administration bought the castle.
investment
The castle complex consists of the main castle , the palace and the keep , which is enclosed by a circular wall. Furthermore, additional walls were built in the south and east to protect these flanks. The layout of the castle is similar to the nearby castles in Liebenstein and Ehrenstein : the tower and palas were built on a rectangular floor plan. Today the castle is privately owned and not open to the public.
Name of the castle
The spelling of the castle changes in old documents. There is talk of the Ernberg, Ernburg or Ernborg. The spelling "Ernborg" is also the name that is still used in Plaue today for the castle. The origin of the name is controversial. There are theories that derive the name from Oern (old German for maple). Others think it is called "Geraburg", named after the river "Gera", which was called "Ger" in old German and thus would result in the name "Gerburg" at that time. It is also assumed that there could have been a prehistoric owner named "Erin" or "Ero". Still others interpret the name as “Herrn-Burg”, which in Old German would become “Ernborg”. Another plausible interpretation goes in the direction that the name was derived from the old German formulation for "triangle", because the castle forms a triangle with the rest of the fortifications of the city of Plaue. Most unlikely is the popular interpretation according to which the name of "honor" was derived. The most likely interpretation of the name is likely to be the term "Herrenburg". In the Middle Ages, "He" was synonymous with today's "Lord". Back then, the castle always belonged to strangers.
The Burglinde
The Burglinde is a tree that was planted in front of the actual castle complex when the castle was built in 1324. This tree is the oldest tree in Thuringia. The tree is dead and hollow inside, but still alive. In the last hundred years, larger prunings of dead branches have taken place, but also securing with metal straps. The tree is under nature protection.
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments edition for Thuringia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-422-03095-6 .
- Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces . 2nd expanded and revised edition. Jenzig-Verlag, Jena 2003, ISBN 3-910141-56-0 , pp. 97-98.
- Thomas Bienert: Medieval castles in Thuringia - 430 castles, castle ruins and fortifications . 1st edition. Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-631-1 , pp. 129-130.
Web links
- Reconstruction drawing by Wolfgang Braun
Individual evidence
- ^ Felix Georgi: Chronicle of the city of Plaue. A. Frauendorff, 1927, p. 15.
- ^ City of Plaue (Ed.): Plauesche views in the course of time. 2010, p. 52.
- ↑ a b Stadt Plaue (ed.): Plauesche views in the course of time. 2010, p. 53.
- ^ Felix Georgi: Chronicle of the city of Plaue. A. Frauendorff, 1927, p. 16.