Dehrn Castle

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Dehrn Castle
Dehrn Castle

Dehrn Castle

Alternative name (s): Dehrn Castle
Creation time : Around 1100 to 1197
Castle type : Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status: Receive
Standing position : Count
Place: Dehrn
Geographical location 50 ° 25 '2 "  N , 8 ° 5' 30"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 25 '2 "  N , 8 ° 5' 30"  E
Dehrn Castle (Hesse)
Dehrn Castle

The castle Dehrn is a Spur castle on a mountain ridge above the Lahn in Runkeler district Dehrn in Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse .

description

The most striking part of the castle is the round 34-meter high castle keep octagonal pinnacles basement . While the tower with its walls up to three meters thick probably dates from the 13th century, the octagonal battlements were added in the 19th century. The residential building south of the keep is still of Gothic origin (13th century). This part was rebuilt in the late Gothic style in the 16th century. To the east of the Gothic residential building is a residential building with a four-sided mansard roof . This was probably added in the early 19th century. The western parts of the building were built after 1845 in the neo-Gothic style. The stepped gables are characteristic of these parts of the building .

To the south of the castle was an English landscape park with two bridges and a chapel . Only the foundation walls of the chapel have been preserved.

Two Burgmannenhöfe have been preserved near the castle, most of which were built in the late Gothic period.

In addition to being a listed building, the castle has been given the status of war protection under the Hague Convention .

history

In the 12th century, the castle was built by the Counts of Diez to secure the Lahn crossing and occupied by castle men. With Henricus Frio de Derne , a castle man appeared for the first time in 1197. The Frei von Dehrn family remained enfeoffed with the castle in the following centuries.

When the County of Weilnau split off from the County of Diez, the castle became joint property of both lines. In 1317 the County of Weilnau pledged its share to Siegfried von Runkel, the provost of Gemünden Abbey . On July 31, 1367, a Friedrich Frei von Dehrn stabbed the son of Count Gerhard von Diez, the only male heir of the Count's house, which died out 20 years later with the death of Gerhard at Dehrn Castle. In 1485, the Frei von Dehrn had their freedom from taxes confirmed by the now ruling House of Nassau . This was enforced several times against the Counts of Runkel. In 1492 the Frei von Dehrn built an extension to the tower for 300 guilders . During this time, the castle must have become the property of the family.

Castle-like modifications were made in the 16th century. With Franz Alexander Frei von Dehrn, the Frei von Dehrn family died out in 1737. The castle fell to the von Greiffenclau family and after their extinction in 1814 to the related house Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler . In 1818 the Limburg merchant Joseph Anton Trombetta acquired the partially dilapidated castle and had it repaired, expanded and a park laid out. The castle was given its current appearance through reconstruction and additions. In 1843/44 the castle passed into the possession of the von Dungern family , who had further renovations carried out on the castle. Among other things, the access roads were renewed, the tower renovated and raised. New farm buildings and a park enlarged the facility.

View into the courtyard

Shortly after the First World War, the von Dungern family lost their fortune, including Dehrn Castle. Its value was estimated at 3.5 million Reichsmarks, plus land of more than 85 hectares. In 1925 the castle became the “Fürstenhof” hotel for a few months, then came into the possession of the Hesse-Nassau province , which in 1925 turned it into an educational institution for young men. In 1933 the lands belonging to the castle were privatized. From 1934 the main building served as a BDM warehouse, the farm building as a children's recreation facility. With the beginning of the Second World War, the castle became a reserve hospital and from September 19, 1944 to March 26, 1945 the location of the high command of the German Air Force West. In 1945 the fleeing Wehrmacht blew up the chapel in the park where equipment was stored. In the 1960s the remains of the ruins were removed and a memorial stone was erected for the grave of the von Dungern family. The American occupation forces used the building from April 1945 to August 20 .

From August 25, 1946 to June 1949, the farm building served as a home for girls who had lost their loved ones in the war. From October 1, 1946 to July 1, 1951, the palace housed a home for the blind run by the Frankfurt Foundation for the blind and visually impaired . The farm building was converted in July 1949 and the castle in October 1951 into an old people's home of the State Welfare Association of Hesse for 240 residents. This phase ended in 1962 and the castle was renovated. From 1965 to 1982 it was the seat of a clinic of the state welfare association for speech and voice disorders with 84 beds and from 1986 to 1994 an asylum seeker home with up to 800 residents. The state of Hesse later became the owner. The castle has been largely empty since 1999. Several attempts to locate companies there failed. The historical complex is now in a neglected condition.

On June 18, 2012, the Bad Vilbel-based real estate entrepreneur Bruno Kling auctioned the castle for 251,000 euros in a foreclosure auction at the Limburg district court. The foreclosure auction had been requested by the city of Runkel because of the tax and fee debts of the last private owner. The new owner announced that they would set up apartments and possibly also company rooms in the complex. In February 2014, Kling sold the facility to the Limburg real estate entrepreneur Christian Mohri. He intends to renovate and use it as the seat of his family, some of whom come from Dehrn.

literature

  • Alexander Thon, Stefan Ulrich, Jens Friedhoff : "Decided with strong iron chains and bolts ...". Castles on the Lahn . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7954-2000-0 , pp. 40-43.
  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hesse: 800 castles, castle ruins and castle sites . 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , pp. 439-440.
  • Ingrid Krupp: Castles, palaces in Nassau . Wuerzburg 1987.
  • Hellmuth Gensicke: Die Frei von Dehrn (On the history of the Nassau nobility) , in: Nassauische Annalen, 97 (1986), pp. 172–192.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Goeckel: New lord of the castle. Entrepreneur from Bad Vilbel wants to invest in the historic complex. (No longer available online.) In: FNP-Online. Frankfurter Societäts-Medien GmbH, June 18, 2012, archived from the original on June 20, 2012 ; Retrieved June 20, 2012 .

Web links

Commons : Burg Dehrn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files