Mihla Red Castle
| Red lock | ||
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 Red Mihla Castle, main building from the front |
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| Creation time : | around 1581 | |
| Conservation status: | fully preserved / not currently used | |
| Standing position : | Noble | |
| Place: | Mihla | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 4 '34 " N , 10 ° 19' 47" E | |
| Height: | 190 m above sea level NN | |
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The Red Palace in Mihla is one of the most extensively preserved half-timbered palace buildings of the Renaissance in West Thuringia. The two half-timbered floors stand on a solidly bricked ground floor with corner cuboids. There are three tower-like bay windows on the northern front of the building. Side bay windows on a square floor plan extend to the second floor.
history
builder
A year above the main entrance of the mansion of the Red Palace states 1581 as the year of construction completion . Information in the Harstall family history also refers to this year the completion of the Red Castle by the Harstall family . The construction of the renaissance castle, probably built by Hessian builders and local craftsmen, with its stone plinth and rich half-timbering, with transepts and bay windows and the associated farm buildings, certainly took several decades to complete; the entire new building was laid out as a four-sided courtyard in the 16th century . It can be assumed that the start of construction roughly coincides with the extensive changes to the two White Castles in Mihla (around 1536) and the formation of three clans within the family of the older Mihla line. According to tradition, the client was Hans David von Harstall. The Reformation , the secularization of church property , payments from the peasants after the suppression of the Peasants' War and the greater dependence of the peasants on the landlords, which became more common at the time, which was mainly reflected in the increased number of hours of work and ancillary services, put the family in a position to build this expensive new building offset. The construction of the Red Castle, the name of which was already established during the time of construction and refers to the roof covering, which was made with bricks in contrast to the Blue Palaces, did not take place on the basis of “wild roots”.
Previous structures at this point
As early as the 13th century, the Archbishopric of Mainz maintained a Fronhof in Mihla , which was one of the archbishop's table goods. This Fronhof was taken over by the Harstalls as an economic courtyard after 1436 and was located in the area of the Red Palace. This is indicated by the local conditions, the location in the arable land, the neighborhood of the "ice field", a very old settlement horizon in the local area, which is to be seen in connection with the name in connection with an independent jurisdiction , as well as the graves and buildings discovered there. The assumptions about the older roots of the Red Palace in the Mainz Fronhof of the 13th century, which were previously only derived from written sources, were confirmed at the beginning of 2009. A historical building study of the Red Palace commissioned by the Upper Monument Authority of the State of Thuringia provided evidence that much older construction phases can be found in at least three places.
Gothic gates and building niches were found in the area of the barrel cellar , while parts of the stones used to build the cellars date from Roman times. In the area of the farm buildings along Eisfeldstrasse, seven construction phases that can be dated differently could be identified, the oldest of which in the western area of the complex is much older than the construction time around 1580.
Construction phases
Investigations on the beam structures in the manor house and the eastern outbuildings revealed three major construction phases: The original roof structure of the mansion, which is still preserved today , was erected in 1581, many of the outbuildings and also parts of the transition building to the Binswanger building from 1914 come from an apparently large-scale one Construction phase from the years around 1620. The last major structural changes then took place in around 1730. These important construction phases - the castle was actually always built - now coincide exactly with those years in which new lines of rule in the red were established through inheritance regulations Lower the castle. So you can say that new masters always brought structural changes with them, with the most decisive interventions in the building fabric probably being carried out around 1620. Incidentally, the current investigations also found that the beam construction of the castle was kept in red tones. The renaissance decorations on the doors and the window frames were also colored, with the shade of red also dominating and being set off against gray.
Further history of the castle and the owners
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In the course of the 15th and 16th centuries, a total of three lines of Harstalls had emerged. Each of these families split up into several clans. This also made it necessary to build another castle building in Mihla. In all of the manor descriptions of the Harstalls it was repeatedly pointed out that the Red Castle did not belong to the "Saxon man fief " or the Fulda fief , but was owned by the family. According to tradition, the conflict between the Mihla clans of the family led to a terrible murder in 1587, which was to have fatal consequences for the family. The owner of the Blue Castle, Hans Georg von Harstall, is said to have killed the lord of the Red Castle, Hans David von Harstall, in anger and incited by his wife. He was then imprisoned for years and the family lost many possessions. Finally, in 1610, the only heir, Ernst Christoph, died without leaving any male successors. An inheritance was divided, through which the Red Castle and half of the village Mihla and later Berteroda fell to the Catholic line of the Diedorf Harstalls. Firm official ties between the people of Diedorf and the archbishopric meant that the new owners rarely lived in the Red Palace. During the Thirty Years' War it was inhabited by Johann Christoph von Harstall , Mainz Vizedom in Erfurt. Despite the war, he had the knight's hall expanded and a stucco ceiling with portraits and coats of arms installed, of which unfortunately nothing has survived. In a description of the Red Castle from 1682, a garden at the castle and a brewery were already mentioned. In the following decades, Harstalls of the Diedorfer line or tenants employed by them, mostly also of noble origin, lived in the castle. Often these were connected to the Harstalls through marriage, for example the von Weitershausen, Schellhase, Breithaupt and others families. a. Inheritance divisions always brought new ownership structures. In 1731 Friedrich Wilhelm von Harstall died as the last representative of his clan. According to a ducal resolution, all lines and families had to be taken into account in the new loan, which resulted in extremely difficult inheritance relationships. From then on the castle was almost exclusively administered and inhabited by tenants; however, all families took in the income. The last owner from the Diedorf line was Chamberlain Franz von Harstall. Since he did not leave any male descendants, after his death in Lauterbach in 1865 the castle came into the hands of the Creuzburg line based in the Blue (Gray) Castle . However, Karl II von Harstall was overwhelmed with the management of the estate. As early as 1895 he had to file for bankruptcy.
Development & use in the 20th century
The attempt by the community to buy the property failed. The well-known Jena neurologist Prof. Dr. Otto Binswanger acquire the manor. Binswanger, who used the castle as a summer apartment, had a lot of changes in the buildings. All in all, he proved himself to be a patron of the community by building a new brickworks in Tiefenbach (the branded bricks of the “Red Castle” brickworks soon became known), and from 1912 onwards he built a modern brewery in the park of the castle and also the building site for the provided the new Carl Alexander School. Large parts of the park also go back to Binswanger. In 1914, the entire left wing of the castle, formerly a farm building, was redesigned into the “new castle”, with the half-timbering being modeled on the old buildings. Various economic reasons prompted Binswanger to move to Switzerland in 1917. Without consulting the community, he sold the manor to the Westphalian landlord Ludwig Scharpenseel. This only remained in Mihla for a short time, as early as 1920 the property was in the hands of a certain Lichtenberg. This now turned out to be a typical "goods butcher", was only concerned with his own profit, without investing anything. The extensive estate forests were ruthlessly cut down (163 hectares in total), and the brewery was shut down and sold in 1922. 70 hectares of arable land came into the possession of Mihla farmers through the sale. Lichtenberg withdrew from Mihla in the mid-20s. The castle and the sparse remains of the property came into the possession of the Sickmann und Specht company. In 1927 they set up the first bus route between Eisenach and Mühlhausen , for which the first gas pump in the region was set up at the entrance to the castle. In 1930 the company had to file for bankruptcy. The Red Castle was under compulsory administration and in 1936 fell to Rudolf Ohlhoff, who came from northern Germany. He continued the procedure already practiced by Lichtenberg and sold piece and piece of the remaining possessions of the castle, such as the brickworks and the remaining lands, and finally the castle itself. The castle finally came into state ownership.
time of the nationalsocialism
National Socialist organizations have been using the palace buildings since 1934 by renting them. Initially an SS leadership school was housed in it, and in 1935 it served as accommodation for Austrian Nazis who had fled. Finally, in 1937, the Red Castle became the location of the 5th district school of the female Reich Labor Service of the Gaus Thuringia, now also as the owner. In 1938 extensive alterations were made, with the outbuildings being converted into barrack-like residential buildings. A new gateway was also built.
Post-war period / GDR period
After the end of the war in 1945, the Red Palace initially served as the headquarters of the American and Russian troops. As a result of this, much of the former, valuable and still well-preserved interior was destroyed and the park was also devastated. The mayor's office and various offices were later housed in the castle. A border police unit was quartered in the park area , for which the barracks that could be seen many decades later were used. Later these served as living space for people resettled to the east and as a community kindergarten. Since 1952 it was used as a retirement and nursing home. The parks were now overgrown and used differently. An industrial complex of the Uhrenwerke Ruhla (in the former brewery building), acquired and used today by the Fresenius Kabi company, a kindergarten and a crèche, LPG facilities (poultry and pig fattening) and a school garden were built on the former park area ; some park plots also came into private hands. In 2004 a new old people's home was built in the castle park. Only sparse remains of the original park facilities such as fountains, figures, rose gardens, greenhouses and ornamental gardens have survived.
Current condition
As a result of the renovations necessary for the nursing home in the old people's home, the valuable interior furnishings in particular suffered insofar as they had survived the devastation of the US armed forces and the Soviet troops.
As a gem of the half-timbered building, it has been described again and again in travel guides. The large inner courtyard is bordered by farm buildings on three sides. Opposite the gatehouse is the two-part castle building itself. To the right, the portal and 16th century windows in the stone basement of the old manor house. A stair tower is in front of it and if you look closely you can still find traces of the long broken staircase. Inside you can still guess the three large boards lying on top of each other. Heavy paneling and numerous decorations are a reminder of the castle's long past.
Currently (2015) the listed building with an auxiliary building (year of construction approx. 1900) is for sale at the Office for Real Estate and Building Management of the District Office Wartburgkreis.
literature
- Thomas Bienert: Mihla. Red lock and gray lock . In: Medieval castles in Thuringia . Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-631-1 , pp. 329-330.
- Rainer Lämmerhirt : History of Mihlas. The development of the place from the beginning to the end of the First World War . Heimat- und Verkehrsverein, Mihla 1992, ISBN 3-87022-180-1 .
