Rothenberg (fortress)

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Rothenberg Fortress seen from the west
Site plan of the fortress

The Rothenberg Fortress is a fortress and former fortress on the 588  m high mountain of the same name near Schnaittach in the Franconian Alb .

history

Beginnings and prehistory (from approx. 600 BC)

The first settlement of the Rothenberg can probably be traced back to Celtic tribes of the Hallstatt period, who may have built an oppidum there, similar to the nearby facilities on the Houbirg and the Ehrenbürg . In the High Middle Ages , numerous hilltop castles were built in the immediate vicinity (e.g. Osternohe , Reicheneck , Spitzenberg , Strahlfels , Wildenfels , Winterstein and Kleiner Hansgörgel ). It is not known exactly when the first medieval fortifications were built on the Rothenberg.

The Old Rothenberg (1254 – approx. 1300)

One of the first complexes, which was called Rothenberg, is the Alter Rothenberg castle stable, northwest of today's fortress. Etymologically, the name comes either from the red-colored sandstone there or from the fact that it was a "cleared mountain". The first written mention of the Lords of Rothenberg (formerly those of Hiltpoltstein and Lauf ), who sat there, dates back to 1254. This family died out in the 13th century and the castle came into the possession of the Wildensteiners through marriage . After the complex was probably destroyed in a feud , a different elevation was chosen for the new building.

Veste Rothenberg
The predecessor of the Rothenberg Fortress (Matthäus Merian: Topographia Franconiae, 1648)

The predecessor of the Rothenberg Fortress ( Matthäus Merian : Topographia Franconiae, 1648)

Alternative name (s): Rothenberg Castle, Vestung Rodenberch, Ganerbenschloss Rothenberg
Creation time : around 1315
Castle type : Summit castle
Conservation status: removed, parts integrated into the fortress
Standing position : Lower nobility (Ganerbenschaft)
Construction: Quarry stone, possibly humpback cuboid
Place: Schnaittach
Geographical location 49 ° 33 '16 "  N , 11 ° 21' 36"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 33 '16 "  N , 11 ° 21' 36"  E
Height: 588  m above sea level NN

Rothenberg Castle (approx. 1300 – approx. 1360)

Between about 1300 and 1330 Dietrich von Wildenstein built a summit castle on today's Rothenberg. The Wildensteiners sold these to the Bohemian King Charles IV in 1360 . The later Roman-German emperor had the castle expanded into a fortress in order to secure the New Bohemia he had created .

Veste Rothenberg (approx. 1360–1478)

As the emperor's property, the Rothenberg gained in importance. Officials and craftsmen settled outside the walls. This settlement continued to grow, received a church and walls and eventually became the town of Rothenberg. Charles' son and successor Wenzel lost the fortress when he was deposed to the Wittelsbach family . In the First Margrave War, the Nuremberg people besieged the fortifications, but could not take them. The small town, which had been almost completely destroyed by the attack, was not rebuilt.

Ganerbeburg (1478–1698)

Count Palatine Otto II created the conditions for a Ganerbeburg in the castle complex on the Rothenberg in 1478 . 44 (later 133) Ganerbe, who acquired the fortress with the remains of the town of Rothenberg and the market Schnaittach as an afterlehen , were endowed with relatively few possessions and rights, but the Ganerbe community was a strong alliance system into which other members of the Noble families in the surrounding area could be included. The castle also had several rights of patronage in the Nuremberg area. The Ganerbe community had the features of a unity . At the time of Schaumberg's New Year's Eve , the castle was considered a “wasp's nest”, with which even princes did not like to get into conflict.

The following burgraves were named from the community of Ganerbe :

The Bavarian enclave of Rothenberg

The imperial city of Nuremberg had quickly become the main enemy of the Ganerbe. The situation worsened after the Rothenberger Land had become an enclave in the Nuremberg lands as a result of the Landshut War of Succession . In two treaties in 1523 and 1540 the exact course of the border was determined and territorial disputes largely settled. The Ganerbenschaft also made use of their patronage rights mentioned above and introduced the Lutheran denomination in 1529 (four years after the Nuremberg residents) . During the Thirty Years' War was Maximilian of Bavaria by the Emperor with the Rothenberg invested and called its recatholicization . Since the Ganerbe were not ready to comply with this demand, the Elector made use of his right to open and occupied the fortress. The Ganerbenschaft, which had de facto lost control, decided to sell the fortification to Bavaria for 200,000 guilders .

Electorate of Bavaria, War of the Spanish Succession and razing (1698–1703)

Immediately after the acquisition, the facility was renovated and reinforced. The fortress suffered a last siege in the War of the Spanish Succession , which was provoked to bind imperial troops. Unexpectedly, however, refugee civilians and a cavalry unit came to Rothenberg, so that the supplies ran out faster than planned. In September 1703, therefore, they were forced to surrender and in the following month the fortress was razed at the instigation of Nuremberg.

Moat, bridge and gate
Bridge and gate

Establishment of Rothenberg Fortress (1703–1740)

The Rothenberg and the surrounding area remained in Bavarian hands even after the war and continued to form an enclave. In order to be able to protect these, a new fortification was to be built: From 1720 the ruins of the fortress were removed and in 1729 the actual construction work began, which was essentially completed by 1741. In the year of completion, a Bavarian garrison was again stationed on the current fortress.

War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1793)

In 1740, with Maria Theresa's accession to the throne, there was another conflict of the Habsburg succession . Four years later the fighting reached Rothenberg Fortress and the Austrian Habsburgs tried in vain to take the facility. The detonation of a mine was prevented at the last moment by the approach of French troops. The Frankish Reichskreis had behaved neutrally in this cabinet war and supplied the fortress with weapons - and in return let the Austrians march through its territory.

French Revolutionary Wars (1793–1806)

The Rothenberg Fortress did not take an active part in the coalition wars, but was opened to the troops on both sides. In 1796 she switched several times between France , Austria and Bavaria . After the Third Coalition War , which resulted in the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire , Bavaria joined the Rhine Confederation and became a kingdom . Napoleon I then struck part of Franconia in Bavaria and Rothenberg lost its position as an enclave.

Kingdom of Bavaria and subsequent use (1806–1838)

This was accompanied by a reduction in the strategic value of the fortress. The facility had lost its function for border protection and became a fortress prison and a retirement home for veterans and invalids . In order to save costs, the majority of the soldiers had been withdrawn, so that only a few guards, nurses and administrators lived on the fortress. They were also unwilling to spend money on the renovations that had become necessary due to seepage and casemate intrusions. In 1838 Ludwig I finally obtained the abandonment of the Rothenberg Fortress.

Conclusion, world wars and tourist development (since 1838)

From 1838 the War Department sold all inventory, including doors, beams, and anything that could be removed. With the departure of the last three soldiers who had supervised the slaughter in 1841, the fortress was abandoned and left to decay. It was allowed to be used by the population as a quarry.

The fortress area was handed over to the Bavarian Forest Administration and reforested. In 1876, the Royal Bavarian Railway Company carried out explosive tests on the Ravelin . In the last decade of the 19th century, the fortress ruins developed into a popular excursion destination, benefiting from the emerging rail traffic. The Schnaittach Schönerungsverein (today's Schnaittach Heimatverein) has been looking after the facility since 1894. Hiking tourism brought the Rothenberg, in addition to agriculture (initially mainly sheep farming , later hop growing ), another branch of the economy and so a tourist infrastructure was created, for example with sidewalks and restaurants. The First World War initially put an end to this. The National Socialists planned to build an order castle on the Rothenberg, but quickly gave up the idea because it could not be clarified how the water supply was to be ensured. Between 1940 and 1943 a flight observation station (so-called air watch) was set up on the mountain. After the Second World War , tourism came back to Rothenberg for a few years in the form of winter sports , which led to the construction of ski slopes, a BRK refuge and a ski jumping hill (which was destroyed in a landslide in 1972). The actual fortress ruins, whose administration was taken over by the Bavarian Palace Administration in 1966 , was (and is) the focus of visitors, especially in summer. From 1999 to 2006 several music festivals ( summerships ), theater performances (including Bertolt Brecht's mother Courage and her children and the works Turandot , Carmina Burana and Nabucco under the direction of Wilhelm Keitel ) and (historically misplaced) medieval markets took place at the fortress. The urgently needed renovation of the fortress, which was carried out by the above-mentioned authority in cooperation with the Schnaittach Heimatverein, was essentially completed in 2008. The fortress is open to visitors every six months and - with the exception of the festive days that take place twice a year - there is a fee. Since the fortress is also intended to serve a nature conservation purpose, it is not possible to visit the casemates during the bat protection period .

Castle and fortifications

Veste Rothenberg

It is not known what the fortress looked like at the time of its creation. It was not until the 16th century that pictorial representations emerged, such as in the Topographia Franconiae by Matthäus Merian . From these it can be seen that the complex could be divided into three parts: the main castle, the outer castle, and an open area on which the abandoned town of Rothenberg had been located. The former was in the south of the plateau and was surrounded by a circular wall in the shape of a pentagon . The central building was the Palas , the so-called Red House. Next to it was a blacksmith's shop, kitchen, oven and a square with a well. A gate with a drawbridge connected the main castle with the outer castle. A wide neck ditch , in which deer were kept, separated the two sections of the castle. In the middle of this ditch was the "goose belly", a tower from which almost the entire area could be painted . Remnants of this, the wall between the outer and main castle and the inner neck ditch were integrated into the casemate hall when the fortress was built. The outer bailey housed workshops, residential buildings for servants and armed men, a chapel, stables and a brewery. The curtain wall also had a kennel there . In the north, the complex was completed by two bastions and another neck ditch. Since the weakest point of the curtain wall was there, there was also an earth wall and a covered path . On the site of the former city there were several farm buildings, a fountain and possibly kitchen gardens and fruit trees. The remains of the city walls were still used as enclosures and were later replaced by wooden palisades. Apparently the fortress did not have a keep .

In the vaults of Rothenberg Fortress

Rothenberg Fortress

In the 18th century, the current complex was built by the Elector of Bavaria and German Emperor Charles VII in the French style as an important Rococo fortress. At times 400 soldiers were housed here. The complex was built in a bastion-like manner according to geometric principles. Since blind spots should be avoided, the typical star- shaped bastions were created . The basic shape is a polygon with a bastion tower at each corner. The crest of the wall was kept low in order to offer as little attack surface as possible. The walling began on the north side with a gently rising glacis , followed by a covered path and a ditch. Behind it, barely higher than the crest of the glacis, rose the wall . This made it difficult for artillery to hit the masonry, as it was covered by the crest of the glacis. The location on a ridge created those defensive qualities known from spur castles . The mountainside protected the fortress from storm attacks to the south, east and west, but not from the siege guns that were already powerful at the time. The northern wall (the main kurtine ) was secured by a ravelin . All bastions and curtains (except the main curtain) have casemates . Next to it there is a bomb-proof casemate hall in the middle of the fortress, thanks to a five-meter-thick layer of earth .

The fortress was built entirely from masonry. This was sixteen meters high all around and equipped with ten meter high vaults.

At the fortress there were two two-story barracks buildings , an armory , an engineering house, a gatehouse, the commandant's office and a church. Some of the crew lived with their families at the fortress. The bastions are named after Karl Albrecht, his wife Maria Amalia , the Glatzenstein mountain and the towns of Kersbach , Nuremberg and Schnaittach .

The tombstones of the commanders von Storchenau and von Sanch

The area around the fortress

The farm buildings and supply systems of the fortress were located in the area of ​​the former city and on the slopes. They included the powder magazine, a laundry with a washing pond and bleaching meadow , a horse pond , a shepherd's hut , a quarry with lime pits , several kitchen and ornamental gardens, a guard house and a parade ground. These buildings, which were connected to the fortress by a vicinal road, have all disappeared; only remains of the foundation wall and trenches are evidence of them. To the south-east of the fortress was a cemetery used between 1740 and 1843, where 1,083 fortress residents and their families found their final resting place. In 1927, the Schnaittach local history association restored the cemetery by placing the preserved tombstones at their current location.

Water supply

Although there are sufficient natural springs on the Rothenberg , the water supply on the summit plateau turned out to be problematic. Over time, three possible solutions developed: When the castle was built, the groundwater was tapped with a deep well . This well was later also used by the fortress. Since its water supply was no longer considered sufficient, another well had to be tapped. For this purpose, the site of the former town of Rothenberg was searched for underground water resources, and seven springs were located. In order to achieve a sufficient filling , it was necessary to connect them together. With the so-called snail well, a complex system for collecting and storing spring water was created from 1760. A collecting tunnel over forty meters long took up the water and directed it to a draw well. The system is named after another shaft with a helical staircase, which was used to control the water level. Excess water could run off towards the slope via an overflow. The fountain system was protected by a frontwork ( counter guard ) made of quarry stone masonry named after Max Joseph and is located outside the wall. An underground passage that was supposed to connect the fortress with the actual fortress was no longer realized. On the occasion of the abandonment of the fortress, the well shaft was filled and after the Second World War it was also closed with a concrete cover. After previous attempts had failed, the research group Höhle und Karst Franken succeeded between 1987 and 1989 in removing rubble and dammed water from the shaft, locating the position of the overflow and restoring the watercourse. Since the building fabric (apart from frost damage in the upper area of ​​the shaft and sintering in the collector tunnel) is in almost perfect condition, the snail well can now supply the Rothenberg with around 4,000 liters of water per week. The arrangement of the artefacts found during the excavation of the well shaft allows a little insight into the history of the fortress. They include u. a. a Goldmark coin, a stiletto , two harmonica , stone marbles, bricks with scorch marks, a knife, ceramic remains, forged nails and a barrel hoop. Engravings from 1838 also indicate that the collection of rainwater must have played an important role in the water supply.

literature

  • Johannes Müllner: The annals of the imperial city of Nuremberg from 1623, Part II: From 1351-1469 . Nuremberg 1972. pp. 30-35.
  • Martin Schütz: The Rothenberg inheritance . Nuremberg 1924.
  • Sven Thole: The fortress Rothenberg - the fortress construction in the 18th century, measures of preservation and possibilities of preservation . Dissertation, University of Bamberg 2007 ( full text )
  • August Wörler: fortress and fortress Rothenberg . Local history and history association Neunkirchen am Sand, Neunkirchen am Sand 2008 ISBN 978-3-00-025554-0

Web links

Commons : Fortress Rothenberg (Schnaittach)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Rothenberg in the Topographia Franconiae (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wörler 2008, p. 18f.
  2. ↑ Müllner, p. 31ff.
  3. ↑ Friedrich Kipp: New Year's Eve von Schaumberg, Luther's friend - A picture of life from the time of the Reformation . Leipzig 1911. p. 15ff.
  4. ↑ Müllner, p. 34f.
  5. ↑ Wörler 2008, p. 35.
  6. ↑ Wörler 2008, p. 37.
  7. ↑ Wörler 2008, p. 84
  8. ↑ Wörler 2008, p. 149
  9. ↑ Wörler 2008, p. 131
  10. ↑ Memorial plaque at the cemetery