Altenweiher

Hammer lock with bell tower around 1900

Altenweiher was a 204 ha large hammer and later pond property northwest of Sorghof , a district of the town of Vilseck in the Upper Palatinate district of Amberg-Sulzbach . The core of the property, which was at the eastern end of a hammer pond, was the hammer castle with a chapel from the 16th or 17th century. In 1937 the estate was replaced for the expansion of the Grafenwöhr military training area and fell into disrepair in the following years.

Manor building around 1937

Gut Altenweiher

Like many other places in the Upper Palatinate, the Hammergut Altenweiher has its origins in the operation of an iron hammer and was one of the prince-bishop-Bamberg hammer estates around Vilseck. The Bamberg column in front of the Altenweiher gate, which was preserved until the middle of the 20th century, was a sign of this affiliation, which was valid until secularization . The ore was mostly brought from the Black Mountain near Langenbruck in wagons. Max von Heeg stopped the hammer business in 1866.

Fish farming was an economic mainstay of Altenweiher . In 1799, a trout Weyer in Altenweiher is mentioned in a document from the Bishop of Bamberg . The origins are earlier, however, as the pond dammed up for the hammer operation was already used for fishing. The slag from the ironworks from smelting was used to fill the dams (not only) around Altenweiher . Gottfried Dorfner, the son of the last owner, expanded the Altenweiher pond and raised trout, pike, carp, tench and finally pikeperch.

In 1838 the Hammergut with castle consisted of six houses and 92 residents. When it was replaced in 1937, there were around thirty residents.

With this replacement, Theresia Dorfner sold a total of 204 hectares of land. 91 hectares of this were agricultural land (57 hectares of arable land, 25 hectares of meadows, 9 hectares of pastures), 49 hectares of forest and 51 hectares of ponds. The courtyard and paths covered 13 hectares. At least until autumn 1938 Gottfried Dorfner leased about half of the previous property and also until April 1938 the ponds Hammerweiher, Birnhofweiher, Herrenweiher, Schlehenweiher and Brunnenweiher belonging to Gut Altneuhaus. The remainder of the property was taken over by an administrator appointed by the Reich Resettlement Society.

Fiefdom letter from the Archbishop of Bamberg from 1760

Grave of the last owners (von Heeg and Dorfner) at the cemetery in Vilseck

owner

The Hegner family can be verified as the first owner of the iron hammer. In 1348 Ulrich Hegenin is named as the owner of the "Alten Weyers". In 1387 it belonged to a Hans Hegnin. The keystone with the Hegner coat of arms in the chapel testifies to this time.

Ownership changed frequently, especially in the seventeenth century. Around 1600 the estate was sold to Veit Philipp Holzschuher from Nuremberg. In 1612 it was bought by Hans Philipp Gebsattel, who in turn sold it to Sugenfinger in 1622. Since the estate suffered a lot under the Swedes from 1632 to 1634, Field Marshal Graf von Wahl bought it in 1635. On March 16, 1650, Johann von Edelburg von Kürmreuth acquired the hammer, and around 1700 it passed to Franz Friedrich von Dressendorf, a son-in-law of the Edelburgs. In 1734, the farmer Georg Graf from Oberweißbach and Heinrich Heeg zu Schlicht jointly acquired the estate from Baron von Lichtenstern, who had been the owner since 1718/19. In 1783 Johann Baptist Heeg bought half of the estate belonging to the Graf family. Until 1895 Altenweiher remained in the possession of the von Heegs, who were raised to the nobility of Bavarian spa in 1782, and then passed to the Dorfner family, who were related to the von Heeg family; Konstantin Dorfner bought the estate from his aunt Kathinka von Heeg.

For the expansion of the Grafenwöhr military training area, numerous places and goods were forcibly bought up by the German Reich. When it was replaced on April 15, 1937, the Reichsumsiedlungsgesellschaft mbH Berlin took over the estate.

building

Coming from Heringnohe the manor was approached through an avenue of lime trees. Next to the tavern you entered the courtyard through a gate. In the north this was limited by a three meter high wall. The distillery was in the south. In addition to stables, sheds and barns, there were several day laborer's apartments. In the east there was the castle and the bell tower at the Hammerweiher. The hammer hut, the cutting saw and the grinding mill were located on the Hüttenbach, which was fed by the pond.

Hammer lock

The hammer lock was built in the late 16th or early 17th century. It was three-story, had curved gables and a polygonal stair tower at the northeast corner . At the southeast corner there was also a three-storey extension, in which the palace chapel, which was only accessible from the outside, was on the ground floor.

Floor plan of the palace chapel

Altar of the castle chapel from 1612 at the new location in Dürnast

Castle chapel

The St. The Gothic castle chapel, consecrated to St. John the Baptist (St. Joh. Bapt.), Was an extension on the southeast side of the hammer castle. The chapel, accessible through an external door on the west side, was a room closed on three sides with a net vault on a yoke and ending in three hexagonal sides . The hollow ribs grew out of the wall without mediation. The early baroque altar has two panel paintings by the painter Hans Krapp. The main panel from 1612 shows the baptism of Christ, the gable above the adoration of the three wise men. The coats of arms of those of Schaumberg and Leonrod are attached to the predella. The altar has been in Dürnast since 1937 . The last owner of the estate, Theresia Dorfner, donated it to the local community on the condition that a monastery fair for her deceased husband Florian Dorfner was held annually for 50 years. The coat of arms of the Hegner was on a keystone. The frescoes were whitewashed after the removal. On the vaulted ceiling, the four evangelist symbols could be seen between the Christ and Hegner keystones and the apocalyptic riders from the Hegner keystone to the west wall . There was a representation of Christophorus on the south wall .

Klausnerschule

Around 1750, the then owner of Altenweiher Johann Graf made the decision to build a school for the children of the localities Altenweiher, Heringnohe, Altneuhaus, Birnhof, Sorghof, Grünwald, Kittenberg, Seeg and Schmierhütte. The Prince-Bishop of Bamberg approved the plan to build the school building on the site of the former customs house between Altenweiher and Heringnohe and provided free timber. This first schoolhouse was built in 1751. The second schoolhouse with a wooden tower and an iron bell, which was built after a fire, was ceded to the school community in 1834 by Franz Georg von Heeg (presumably without the reason that it was still part of the estate when it was replaced in 1937) and by the school community two years later converted into a one-story building. The poor structural condition of the school building and the falling number of pupils due to the closure of the hammer mills led to the school being closed. From 1876 the children attended the newly built school in Altneuhaus. The Klausnerschule, including the school desks, tiled stoves and garden fence, was auctioned on the condition that the building was demolished by spring and that the construction material obtained was removed. The one-story school building was 13.90 m long, 6 m wide, 2.60 m high and had a cellar.

Buildings and conversions in the 20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century there were several major conversions and new buildings. In 1904 the distillery was completely rebuilt according to plans from 1901. In 1916 a dynamo was planned and implemented in the mill building, which also replaced the previous mill wheel. In 1924, the cowshed destroyed by fire had to be replaced by a new building. In 1922 a diversion canal was built at the Hammerweiher, through which the elongated pond was divided into two parts by a dam.

Time to demolish the building

At the end of 1955, the last residents of Altenweiher, who still took care of the agriculture and the pond, were relocated to Sorghof. The stables, barns, day laborer's houses and the 3 m high enclosure wall were auctioned off, demolished and the material transported away for further use. The listed castle, the gatehouse, the bell tower and the inn have been preserved for the time being. The bell was in the tower of the Vilseck camp chapel in 1956. After the southern side wall of the chapel collapsed in 1963 and part of the southern castle wall in 1964, the castle was finally torn down by the US Army in 1967.

In 1956, the remaining ruins of the castle, bell tower, gate and tavern were used as the backdrop for the film Time to Live and Time to Die .

Web links

Commons : Altenweiher  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Oberpfälzer Jura January 31, 1956, local supplement of the Amberger Volksblatt: The Klausnerschule near Altenweiher
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Griesbach, Eckehart: Grafenwöhr military training area . Behringersdorf 1985.
3. ↑ Dorfner, Konstantin: The fishing in Vilseck and surroundings. Reprint from the "Allgemeine Fischerei-Zeitung" No. 3, year 1931.
4. ^ Register of the diocese of Regensburg. Edited by Joseph Lipf. 1838. page 138.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Handover protocol from April 15, 1937
6. ^ Lease agreement with the Reichsumsiedlungsgesellschaft mbH Berlin from December 18, 1936
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Oberpfälzische Heimatzeitung from April 16, 1963: Past witnesses left to decay
8. ↑ Purchase contract for half of the Hammergut between Johann Baptist Graf (seller) and Johann Baptist von Heeg (buyer) . Altenweyher, May 27, 1783.
9. ↑ von Heeg, Johann Baptist: Draft or copy of the letter to the Bishop of Bamberg . Amberg, July 14, 1795.
10. ^ ^{A b} Hager, Georg: The art monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Administrative regions of Upper Palatinate and Regensburg. XV. District Office Amberg. Munich, 1908. Pages 9-11.
11. ^ Register of the diocese of Regensburg. Edited by Joseph Lipf. 1838. page 139
12. ^ Plößl, Maria: Chronicle of the Marienkirche Immaculata in Dürnast for the 75th anniversary. September 20, 2009.
13. ^ The Klaus School of Altenweiher. From: Vereingemeinschaft Sorghof: Chronicle of the village of Sorghof on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the town in 1988 , pp. 187–190. Salesianer-Druckerei Ensdorf 1988.
14. ↑ Amberger Zeitung of September 3, 1963: Witnesses of the past left to decay
15. ↑ Amberger Zeitung of April 8, 1967: Altenweiher razed to the ground.

Coordinates: 49 ° 38 ′ 27.9 ″  N , 11 ° 45 ′ 12.5 ″  E