Eschelbronn Castle

Eschelbronn Castle is an abandoned aristocratic seat in Eschelbronn in the Rhein-Neckar district in Baden-Württemberg .

The so-called castle was actually an estate. In 1794, the area of ​​over 15 acres included two separate courtyard houses, a double barn, pigsties, a wine press and a lake. In addition, the castle estate included around 150 acres of arable land , 28 acres of meadows, two acres of vineyards , three acres of gardens and over 42 acres of forest. The estate was owned by the von Venningen family for several centuries and was the residence of the local rulers.

history

Residence of the Baron von Venningen

The castle was built in the 18th century by Carl Philipp von Venningen a few meters southwest of the older Eschelbronn moated castle , which was abandoned in favor of the new manor house and whose stones were used to build the castle. During the construction there was a rebellion of the population and the refusal to build the necessary stone wagons, as Carl Philipp von Venningen demanded much higher labor than his predecessors. The case was heard at the Higher Appeal Court . As a reaction to the uprisings, von Venningen delivered the four leaders of the uprisings Johann Michel Maurer, Johann Christof Scholl, Christof Wetzel and Philip Wolff to the Mannheim penitentiary in 1763 and, on the orders of Elector Karl Theodor on June 11, 1763, quartered a penal squad of a NCO and twelve dragoons in town, which cost the community 45 cruisers a day for the NCO and 30 cruisers each for the soldiers. These should remain stationed until all parishioners had committed themselves in writing to performing the required labor services. With a declaration on June 23, the insurgents initially gave up their resistance, but on August 4, 1763 they submitted a supplik to the elector to improve their living conditions. As tensions continue to rose, one was in 1765 Frondienstvergleichsvertrag to improve the living conditions of farmers and day laborers completed. Accordingly, taxes in kind were paid annually with 100 Reichstalers or 150 Rhenish guilders . In return, the residents were obliged to be available to their landlord for driven hunts and to run errands in manorial or official matters to Neidenstein, Spechbach and Zuzenhausen. Von Venningen also had lead and silver mines on the Eschelbronn district.

Lease from 1857

After the Venningen family moved their residence to the family-owned Eichtersheim Castle , the Eschelbronn property was leased to the Streib family for several generations from 1857 (the tenants were popularly known as "Schloß-Streib").

During the Second World War , the main tenant Georg Streib and twelve helpers cultivated a total of 26 hectares of arable land belonging to the estate. A further 69 hectares were leased to several Eschelbronn farmers. After some of the small tenants gave up the leased land due to the decline in agriculture and the contract between the Lords of Venningen and the castle leaseholder expired in 1941, it was only extended until 1943, after Streib asked for the lease to be increased to 40 to 50 hectares, had refused due to a lack of resources and means of production. After the Reichsnährstand criticized the tenant's management of the property, the castle meadow was plowed for a short period of time with oat cultivation as an agricultural area to increase yield.

For new leases from 1943, the owner wrote out the property with an area of ​​50 hectares. The local farmer leader Georg Stier, with several written statements and the support of the then mayor Georg Braun, put pressure on the lessor to hand over the farm exclusively to a local operator. Foreign tenants would be sabotaged by the village community. The district farmer leader Holdermann and the Reichsnährstand in Bruchsal , on the other hand, spoke out in favor of a foreign tenant. Streib left the farm after he was dismissed on November 9, 1942 and from then on managed the five hectare property of Pastor Kaiser in the adjacent Neugasse . The local farmer Georg Hauck got Eschelbronn Castle on April 13, 1943 with the approval of the Sinsheim District Office and was also its last tenant until his retirement.

Demolition and construction of the palace hall

The palace hall built after the palace was demolished

For the construction of the sports and culture hall, after negotiations with the owner and the mayor Philipp Dinkel , the municipality bought the property, which was in dire need of renovation, at the end of the 1960s in order to demolish the building and at the same place, under Philipp's successor Dieter Janitza, which is still named after it today Schloßstraße to build the sports and culture hall (castle hall) completed in 1974 on the former “castle courtyard”.

Others

A painting of the castle by Elisabeth Kasper served in 1994 as the third motif of the Christmas cups that have been produced annually for the Eschelbronn Advent Singing since 1992.

literature

• Wilfried Wolf: The castle estate at Eschelbronn in 1200 years Eschelbronn, 789–1989 , p. 39 f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eschelbronn Your Home , 1957, p. 45
2. ↑ The Wasserburg in Eschelbronn at eschelbronn.de
3. ↑ Heimat- und Verkehrsverein: Eschelbronn - Deine Heimat, 1957, Die Herrenfrohnden, p. 36 ff.
4. ↑ The story of Eschelbronn at eschelbronn.de
5. ^ Gabriele Guggolz: The local lords of Eschelbronn in 1200 years of Eschelbronn, 789–1989 , p. 23 ff.
6. ↑ Heimat- und Verkehrsverein: Eschelbronn - your home, 1957, lead and silver mines, p. 96 f.
7. ↑ Wilfried Wolf: Das Schloßgut zu Eschelbronn in 1200 years Eschelbronn, 789–1989 , p. 39 f.
8. ↑ Advent Singing , Eschelbronn Local History and Tourist Association

Coordinates: 49 ° 19 '6.3 "  N , 8 ° 52' 9.2"  E