Lauterburg (Coburg Land)

Lauterburg
Lauterburg near Oberwohlsbach, south side
Creation time :	around 1150, around 1700
Castle type :	Elevated castle, hillside location, conversion to a castle
Conservation status:	Ruin, remains of the wall
Standing position :	Count
Construction:	Cuboid, small cuboid, quarry stone
Place:	Rödental - Oberwohlsbach
Geographical location	50 ° 19 '2 "  N , 11 ° 1' 6"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 19 '2 "  N , 11 ° 1' 6"  E

The Lauterburg castle ruins are located on the edge of Oberwohlsbach ( Rödental ) on the Spitzberg, a foothill of the Thuringian Forest on the southern slope of the Hohen Schwenge in the Coburg region . The castle , founded around 1700, was built on a hillside castle founded around 1150 .

history

Original building

Hermann Sterker (or Starckeri), Burgrave of Meißen , founded the Benedictine monastery in Mönchröden , today Rödental , in 1149 and endowed it with a number of villages and estates in the vicinity. The deed of donation lists the hamlets of Plesten , Meilschnitz , Brüx , Weimersdorf , Bertelsdorf , Weidach , Wasungen, Walbur, Esbach and others, all of which were assigned to the Sterker family. A nephew of Burgrave Sterker was named at the same time as "Hermann Graf von Wolveswach", whose ancestral castle is believed to be in the place of the same name, today Oberwohlsbach. The Wolfsturm, which has disappeared from the townscape today, may have been a last remnant of this ancestral castle.

The name Lauterburg first appeared as "Castrum Luterberg" in 1156, when the nobility of the country was appointed there to clarify the legal position of the monastery in Mönchröden. At that meeting Margrave had Conrad of Meissen from the House of Wettin than the Emperor used ruler of Grenzmark loaded, from the jurisdiction of the Viscount comprised only a part. Until 1230, the princes of the Coburg Land were the Counts of Henneberg , who gave the Lauterburg to the Sterker as a fief ; in the following period the Bishop of Würzburg was sovereign. The Wolveswach branch of the Sterker seems to have died out with Count Hermann.

patio

Lauterburg, rise

Lauterburg, inner courtyard

Herzogsbrunnen in the forest on the Lauterburg, meeting point for the Coburg dukes' hunting parties

The Schalkau line of the Lords of Schaumberg entered as a Ganerbe and held the fief with a brief interruption at the beginning of the 15th century until the death of Ludwig Ernst von Schaumburg zu Lauterburg in 1694. During the Thirty Years' War , the Lauterburg served the Lutheran farmers as a refuge from the arsonists of the imperial family until the fortress was taken in 1635 by 25 horsemen and 20 musketeers from General Lamboy's troops. The castle was looted and burned down, as was the associated farm, where 44 horses were hired. The extensive arable land with vineyards and hops was also devastated. The rulers with pastors and servants were able to save themselves in the forests of Thuringia . Count Ludwig-Ernst, whose only son died in this attack, only had the Lauterburg rebuilt in a makeshift manner after the end of the war. He left only one daughter who could not inherit the man fief.

So in 1694 the castle came to the Baron Bachoff von Echt . He sold his fiefdom to Duke Friedrich von Gotha , who in turn gave it to his daughter Dorothea Marie as a marriage property. As a result, the Lauterburg passed to her husband, Duke Ernst Ludwig von Meiningen in 1704 .

Successor building

The hunting prince liked this dowry of his wife, not least because of the extensive, over 100 square kilometers hunting grounds that belonged to the Lauterburg. He had the remains of the old castle torn down and a hunting and pleasure palace built on the foundation walls. The representative new building in the Rococo style with its three floors had two side wings. A total of 169 windows formed the tracery . From then on, the Meiningers named the castle "Ludwigsburg" after its owner.

With the spacious building, however, the duke seemed to have taken over financially. Part of the roof was not covered, and a number of the many windows were never shutters, frames or glazing. He could not expect any help from his sons as they showed no interest in the hunting lodge outside their duchy. So the castle was always unfinished.

With the death of Duke Karl Friedrich von Meiningen in 1743, the male descendants of Ernst Ludwig died out. Now the Saxon-Coburg-Saalfeld dukes Christian Ernst and Franz Josias claimed ownership of the property, believing that they were in the right through a resolution drawn up 50 years earlier between the dukes Albrecht von Coburg and Friedrich II. Von Gotha . However, the Gotha people saw it differently and forcibly occupied Ludwigsburg. This was followed by an apparently very superficial Imperial Court process in which the property was awarded to the Duchess Luise Dorothea of ​​Saxe-Gotha, apparently to her great surprise, as she had to completely cover the roof as a precaution to reduce the value of the castle for the Coburgs to let.

Decay

This hasty measure made the castle uninhabitable. It was not until 1804 that the property returned to Coburg through a settlement with a relatively small sum and was given its original name Lauterburg again.

The castle was now almost in ruins, as snow and rain could penetrate the upper floors unhindered for 60 years. The walls of the sprawling building were still standing, but reconstruction was out of the question, as the new owners were busy with numerous other building projects (building the Coburg State Theater , renovating Ehrenburg Palace and others).

For the next 125 years the Lauterburg, now finally abandoned to ruin, was used as a cheap quarry. After the Second World War , only parts of the former window front protruded from the forest on the Spitzberg. Of the original 169 windows, only 14 high wall openings with a few stone window crosses remained.

On March 21, 1959, the ruins of the wall, threatened with collapse, were blown up. The Lauterburg ceased to exist.

ruin

After the demolition , a pile of rubble with a number of large, unbreakable wall blocks remained between the former foundation walls. Underneath, a long, barrel-vaulted cellar room from the 16th century and a narrow, low cellar corridor with a round-arched entrance, which leads to what is popularly known as the “witch's kitchen”, have been more or less preserved.

Around 1970 the Coburg court sculptor Scheler discovered a large, well-preserved, apparently Henneberg coat of arms “of good work” in the ruins. Some time later, when he tried to retrieve the stone, it was destroyed.

In 1989 the Heimatverein Rödental e. V. with securing the ruin. It was cleared of rubble and usable remains were prepared for reuse. By 1999 it was possible to raise the walls low again according to the floor plan and to make the Lauterburg accessible to the public. The barrel vault and the “witch's kitchen” were also secured. Events are taking place again in the castle ruins, and hikers can enjoy the wide view of the Itz valley from the south wall .

literature

• Fritz Mahnke: Palaces and castles in the vicinity of the Franconian Crown. Tape. 1st 3rd edition. Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse GmbH, Coburg 1974, pp. 84–87.
• Johann Adolph von Schultes : Saxony-Coburg-Saalfeldische Landesgeschichte, under the government of the Electoral and Princely House of Saxony from 1425 to modern times. A continuation of the Coburg regional history of the Middle Ages. With a document book. Department 1. In Commission of the Ahl'schen Buchhandlung, Coburg 1818, ( digitized ).
• Richard Teufel : Architectural and art monuments in the district of Coburg. Riemann, Coburg 1956.

360 ° panorama

Web links

Commons : Lauterburg Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rainer Hambrecht: Contributions to the founding, ownership and economic history of the monastery Mönchröden. In: Reinhardt Butz, Gert Melville (ed.): 850 years of Mönchröden. The former Benedictine abbey from the first mention in 1149 until the Reformation (= series of publications by the Historical Society of Coburg. Vol. 13, ZDB -ID 1122214-1 ). Historical Society Coburg, Coburg 1999, pp. 65–118, here p. 74.
2. ^ City of Rödental: Lauterburg Castle (accessed on May 9, 2011)