Eschenau Castle

The castle from the southeast

The Eschenau castle is a rococo - Castle in Eschenau , in the municipality Obersulm in the district of Heilbronn , northern Baden-Württemberg . It was built in the 16th century in the Renaissance style instead of a castle destroyed in 1504 and rebuilt in 1745 by Leopoldo Retti in the Rococo style.

history

Eschenau Castle is located roughly in the middle of the village on a hill on which its predecessor, the castle of the former local nobility, the Lords of Eschenau, was destroyed by Duke Ulrich in the Landshut War of Succession in 1504 . The remains of this castle are probably a vaulted cellar under the orangery in the castle garden and the square tower in the north-west of the castle, presumably the former keep of the castle.

The castle from the south behind the former Gemmingen administrative building (later town hall)

The lords of Gemmingen were proven to be landowners in Eschenau as early as the 15th century . They exercised local rule by 1518 at the latest , and a Renaissance castle was built on their behalf in place of the destroyed castle . The year of construction and the builder are not exactly known. The master builder of the palace was probably Balthasar Wolff from Heilbronn , who built several other castles for the Gemmingen, or a master builder from his environment. The result was a regular, rectangular Renaissance building with a gable roof , with a cellar along its entire length so that the wine from the vineyards belonging to the manor could be accommodated. The tower of the previous castle, which was at least partially still in existence, was integrated into the new building.

In 1650 the von Gemmingen family sold the castle and village of Eschenau to the Moser von Filseck family. After several changes in local rule, from 1736 the castle was in the possession of the new local lord of Eschenau, the ducal Württemberg war commissioner Johann Melchior von Killinger (1689–1747). The previous owners, who for the most part rarely actually lived in the castle, do not seem to have changed the building significantly. Killinger, who presumably wanted to use the palace as a representative summer residence and was apparently quite wealthy, commissioned the Italian architect Leopoldo Retti , who was very busy in southern Germany, to convert the palace, which was carried out in 1745/46 under the direction of the Neckarsulm master builder Georg Philipp Wenger . Retti retained the basic structure of the building and essentially added a central risalit on the west side facing the town and garden , on the rear east side a central, outwardly protruding staircase and inside a raised, larger hall that penetrates into the roof truss . The interior of the castle is decorated with rich rococo stucco . In addition to the renovation of the castle in the Rococo style with early echoes of classicism , an orangery building and a tea house were built in the park .

Coat of arms of the Barons von Hügel in the gable of the central projectile

The childless Johann Melchior von Killinger died shortly after the castle was remodeled on July 5, 1747. The castle and estate were passed on to his brother Georg Friedrich. After 70 years in family ownership, the von Killinger family sold the Eschenau manor together with the castle in 1806 to the Württemberg State Minister and Count Friedrich Emich Johann von Uexküll-Gyllenband (1724-1810). By marrying his granddaughter Marie Elisabeth (1811–1862) Baron Albert von Hügel (1803–1865) came into possession of the manor and castle in 1831 and remained so after his wife divorced him in 1843 and the doctor and poet Theobald Kerner married. The Hügel family coat of arms in the triangular gable of the western central projection goes back to this time.

Hill's heirs sold substantial parts of the manor. The rest of the castle went into private hands, initially in 1867 to a buying community made up of Louis and Albert Betz from Heilbronn and August Krämer from Cannstatt . From 1877 Albert Betz (1834–1913) was the sole owner. In 1904 he sold the castle to Erwin Bubeck (1865–1927), after whose death it came in 1928 to the poet Alexander von Bernus (1880–1965), whose descendants are now the owners of the castle.

Use as a forced retirement home

In December 1941, the SS confiscated the castle (which was vacant at the time because von Bernus lived in his other estates) and set up a so-called “Jewish old people's home” ( forced retirement home ) there, as in other communities . Older Jews from all parts of the country were forcibly committed to these old people's homes before they were deported to concentration camps such as the Theresienstadt concentration camp . About 100 Jews from Stuttgart, mostly 70 to 80 years old, were brought to Eschenau, where they were crammed into the castle, which was not intended for such a number of people. Most of the admissions to the forced retirement home took place from December 20, 1941 to January 7, 1942, until August 6, 1942, a few other Jews, including those from Heilbronn, were admitted. A total of 116 people were accommodated in the palace from December 1941 to August 1942. Twelve of them died between January and August 1942 and were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Affaltrach , the neighboring town. All the others were taken by train in August 1942 to a collection camp on Stuttgart's Killesberg , from where on August 22, 1942, 1042 Jews from Baden and Württemberg were deported to Theresienstadt in a large collective transport .

description

Drawing by the builder Georg Philipp Wenger on the occasion of the renovation in 1746 (not all details executed like this)

The renaissance castle of the Lords of Gemmingen was a regular, rectangular building, more like a large house than a castle, with a central supporting wall, a gable roof and two gables . The south gable facing the street, still preserved in this form, has an edging with s-shaped curved stone and a decorative shell at the end. Under the entire length there was a large, rectangular cellar with a barrel vault to accommodate the wine from the vineyards belonging to the manor . The square tower of the predecessor castle, which was at least partially still present, now on the north-west corner of the castle, was integrated into the new building. Two protruding oriels reaching to the eaves flanked the corners of the west side facing the town, the northern one with the basement neck as access to the cellar. The inner walls were probably made of half-timbered houses .

During his renovation in the Rococo style with early echoes of classicism in 1745/46, Retti gave the ground floor the appearance of a rusticated plinth by means of grooved ashlar layers made of stucco . He also optically separated the two upper floors with horizontal cornices . On the west side, he added a central risalit with a portal, pilasters, triangular gable, a balcony on the first floor supported on protruding consoles and an outside staircase . The rear east side received a new, outwardly protruding staircase in the middle . He emphasized the corners of the main structure and the protruding extensions with grooved pilaster strips .

The back stairwell. In the background the tower

Inside, he added an additional service staircase (which, in contrast to the main staircase, leads to the roof truss), a longitudinal central corridor set backwards on each floor and, on the second floor, a higher, larger hall that extends into the roof truss , the one with reddish Böttinger marble lined marble hall . The premises are adorned with a wealth of rich Rococo stucco work, which, according to their quality, must have been carried out by foreign artists and artisans, perhaps from Ansbach or Stuttgart.

The limited space in front of the west facade left little room for a garden. Retti placed a vase-studded balustrade with two gravel paths in front of the building , to which the main entrance leads through a portal in the southern perimeter wall of the complex. To the west of the balustrade are a small courtyard and the garden, which ends at a high retaining wall towards the town in the west . On the north side of the garden an orangery building and a tea house were erected, which probably also go back to Retti.

Later owners made little changes to the building. Albert von Hügel had the coat of arms of the Killinger in the gable of the central risalite replaced by his own family coat of arms and removed the dilapidated upper part of the tower, which originally protruded a few meters above the rest of the castle. A lock clock with chiming bells, which was probably installed under the killers, no longer works because the partly wooden clockwork was sold without a replacement in the 20th century.

Remarks

1. ↑ On the one hand, Philip the Rich von Gemmingen (1518–1571) and the construction period 1536–1550 are assumed - according to Noller in the Heimatbuch Eschenau (see literature), p. 137 -, on the other hand Pleickhard von Gemmingen (1536–1594) - according to Ferdinand Ludwig Immanuel Dillenius , description of the Oberamts Weinsberg , Stuttgart 1861, p. 230 - or Pleikard von Gemmingen before 1573 - so Julius Fekete, art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn , 2nd edition, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062- 1662-2 , p. 271 - or in 1573 - so Obersulm. Six villages - one community , Obersulm 1997, p. 198. Walther-Gerd Fleck (see literature) names Pleickardt von Gemmingen as the builder, probably in the 1570s.

Individual evidence

1. ^ After Noller: Heimatbuch Eschenau (see literature), p. 136
2. ↑ Obersulm. Six villages - one municipality (see literature), pp. 105–106
3. ^ "Jewish old people's home" in the castle in Obersulm. Six villages - one municipality (see literature), pp. 343–345; Martin Ulmer, Martin Ritter (ed.): The Jewish forced old age home Eschenau and its residents . Barbara Staudacher Verlag, Horb-Rexingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-928213-20-2 .

literature

• Eschenau Castle. In: Walther-Gerd Fleck: Castles and palaces in Northern Württemberg. Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-8035-1014-7 , pp. 162-172
• Friedrich Abendschein, Helmut Noller: Heimatbuch Eschenau. Noller, Eschenau 1984, pp. 56-61, 107-145
• Obersulm. Six villages - one municipality . Obersulm municipality, Obersulm 1997.
• Martin Ulmer, Martin Ritter (ed.): The Jewish forced old age home Eschenau and its residents . Barbara Staudacher Verlag, Horb-Rexingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-928213-20-2 .

Web links

Commons : Schloss Eschenau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 8 ′ 15 "  N , 9 ° 24 ′ 12.4"  E