Heessen Castle

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Heessen Castle
Aerial photo (2014)

Castle Heessen is listed on the lip situated castle in the Hammer district Heessen and the most notable knight's seat in the area of today's city of Hamm. The typical features of a large Westphalian moated castle have been preserved in the architectural complex. Between the graves and the lip, the castle and the buildings of the outer bailey are opposite each other in an elongated oval. The three-wing main building is built of brick over the remains of centuries-old limestone castle walls and has a tower as the most striking component, the two stepped gables of which protrude over 30 meters in height. Neo-Gothic stepped gables also close off the three wings of the castle, while spiral staircases and bay windows show decorative forms of the Renaissance. The Landschulheim Schloss Heessen has been housed in the building since 1957 , and since 2018 it has been called Schloss Heessen - private grammar school and boarding school .

history

Property Rights and Political History

Curtis hesnon - The Oberhof Heessen as a fief

The place name Heessen is mentioned as Hesnon for the first time in a document from Emperor Otto II from the year 975, namely as the inheritance of Bishop Ludolf von Osnabrück. It is about the village of Heessen with several farms and a fortified upper courtyard, the curtis hesnon, which served to protect a crossing of two important trade routes and a Lippe crossing. Around 1200 a Countess Mathilde or Mechthild von Holland brought the property into her marriage to Count Arnold von Altena as a marriage property . The Oberhof, called "curtis hesne" or "borch tho hesen", came to the Counts of Altena-Isenberg . It is not to be confused with Haus Heessen, a moated castle.

The assassination of Cologne Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne by Arnold's son Friedrich von Isenberg led to the execution and expropriation of the assassin and subsequently to a bitter inheritance dispute between Friedrich's son Dietrich von Altena-Isenberg , who is now after his new Hohenlimburg Castle as a Count of Limburg addressed, and his cousin, Count Adolf I. von der Mark , the so-called Isenberger Wirren . The peace of 1243 ended the armed conflicts between the houses of Altena-Mark and Isenberg- Limburg and awarded the curtis hesne to the house of Limburg. The Hof zu Heessen remained Limburg, then Bentheim-Tecklenburger fiefdom until it became property through allodification in 1775 .

The Counts of Limburg did not use the court as a residence themselves, but handed it over to their ministerials in accordance with servant law. Initially, it was given to the von Rinkerode, who also carried the Oberhof (Dren-) Steinfurt as a fief. Gostie, the daughter of the last Rinkeroder named Gerwin, brought the Rinkeroder legacy to Dietrich II von Volmerstein at the beginning of the 14th century .

Haus Heessen - Owned the moated castle

The Westphalian noble family von Volmerstein had experienced a continuous rise in the past centuries and almost achieved the dignity of count. In an empire-wide war between the parties of two aspirants to the imperial throne in the Holy Roman Empire, the Volmersteiners fought on the side of the losers at the beginning of the 14th century and lost considerable importance and property in 1324 with the loss of Volmerstein Castle. In addition to extensive fiefs, they had a considerable free float in Westphalia on which they wanted to build their position again.

After 1360 Dietrich IV and his mother Agnes von Döring built a new moated castle in the vicinity of the curtis , about 500 meters to the east, which is better protected than the old Oberhof due to its location on the Lippe . This became a temporary fiefdom of the Brandenburg region in order to place it under the protection of the more powerful Count von der Mark. A contract between the pastor Dietrich von Heessen and the widow von Volmerstein with her son gives an indication of the dating of the castle foundation. Pastor Dyderike certified that “he en wessele ghedan with the vrowen van Volmestene unde Dyderike, eren sone”. The change made with the wife of Volmerstein and her son was an exchange between the pastor and the lordship, with whom the Volmersteiners acquired a contiguous piece of land of their own for the construction of a water castle befitting their rank. In contrast to the Heessener Oberhof (“borch tho hesen”), the new building is referred to in contemporary sources as “dat huis tho hesen”, from which today's Heessen Castle was created through multiple modifications. The "Hoch- und Herrlichkeit Heessen" comprised extensive administrative, fiscal, military and judicial tasks in addition to extensive manorial rule and patronage over the parish and the school system. In addition to the court and peasant courts, the gentleman at Heessen Castle also performed functions of criminal jurisdiction and so "the court of high and glory Heessen can be described as a noble regional court."

The goal associated with the castle building project of regaining the old Volmerstein power and greatness was not achieved.

When Johannes II von Volmerstein died in 1429 without any living descendants, the Heessen and Steinfurt houses fell to his sister Agnes. This in turn was the wife of Godert von der Recke zu Heeren . Their son Dietrich von der Recke was enfeoffed by Emperor Sigismund in 1437 with Vollmerstein man fiefs and free chairs. With him, a branch of this important Brandenburg noble family took possession of Heessen for ten generations.

Around 1440 Dietrich had the castle converted into a comfortable and aesthetically impressive mansion. "It was a two-story central building with wings and richly decorated with towers and bay windows", a Gothic building that might have been quite similar to today's castle.

Between 1580 and 1590, his descendant Jobst VII von der Recke renovated the buildings in the outer bailey. In increasingly warlike times, the Jobst von der Recke and his wife Elberta von Ketteler fortified the manor. In addition to the gatehouse with a tower in front of it, a number of farm buildings were erected which, as connected structures, were intended to improve the defense function of the complex. Gatehouse, tower, stable building and the reindeer house have loopholes in their outward-facing brick walls. The ensemble is built in a restrained Renaissance style throughout, the walls are decorated with a diamond pattern made of glazed bricks, the gate tower is crowned by a Welsh (Italian) Renaissance hood and all new buildings are marked with the alliance coat of arms of the two Westphalian noble families. On December 8, 1598, eight years after the fortification of the outer bailey was completed, a “Spanish party” “rushed” the gentlemen of the Heessen house and “took away his golden chains and two of his best Henxte.” The Spanish party were marauding parts of the Habsburgs Troops trying to put down the Calvinist Dutch revolt. The eighty year war for the independence of the Dutch northern provinces did not end until 1648. The weakness of the Heessen defense system, which had become evident during the Spanish attack, was remedied very soon after the loss-making episode with the construction of a gate system at the north entrance of the site. Here, too, the builders present themselves with their coats of arms and date with the year 1600.

The Thirty Years' War brought tremendous devastation to Heessen, so that - as an old chronicle reports - at the end of the day it was more likely to come across a wolf than a farmer. In the first years of the war Jobst organized the troops of the Oberstift Münster . He died in 1624. The following year there was a fire on Haus Heessen, which necessitated extensive “repairs”, during which a fourth, western wing was apparently built on the manor house. In the gable wall of the south wing, traces of a walled up door to this wing of the building can still be seen.

In 1745 Adolf von der Recke died childless. Thereupon Heessen and the associated estates Wolfsberg, Kurl and Dahl fell to his sister Anna Elisabeth. This in turn was married in a childless marriage to Franz Arnold von der Recke from the Steinfurt line, which was divided off in 1468. After his death in 1762 Steinfurt fell to the barons of Landsberg. Heessen, on the other hand, bequeathed childless Anna Elisabeth von der Recke to a grandson of her aunt Joanna Rosine von der Recke, Baron Friedrich Joseph von Boeselager zu Nehlen and Höllinghofen.

The evangelical side of the von der Recke family did not agree with this donation, so that von Boeselager's acquisition of ownership in 1778 triggered a decade-long legal dispute at the Reichshofrat with the von der Recke zu Stockhausen family from the Steinfurter line - with varying results. The von der Recke's legal representative was Eberhard Friedrich von der Recke-Stockhausen , Prussian Minister of Justice since 1784 . At that time, Heessen was still a " glory with jurisdiction " (repealed in 1812). There were places of justice in the village of Heessen, in front of the castle gate or on the bridge to the castle. The court sword is now in Höllinghofen, the residence of the Barons von Boeselager.

The legal dispute was mainly decided by changes in "big politics". When the Prussian rulers became the new sovereigns in 1803, this was done to the advantage of von der Recke. King Friedrich Wilhelm III. finally decided by virtue of his office in 1806 to return the property to von der Recke.

In 1806 the war between France and Prussia began, which ended with the defeat of the Prussians in the battle of Jena and Auerstedt . Napoleon Bonaparte took the house of Heessen together with the allied Dutch. As a result, the Prussian Commission was repealed.

After the incorporation of the Münsterland into the Grand Duchy of Berg , the von Boeselager were temporarily reinstated in their old ownership rights on February 16, 1808. On September 21, 1810, von der Recke and von Boeselager reached a settlement. Against 66,000 Reichsthaler they ceded all claims.

In the Wars of Liberation of 1813, Heessen also suffered badly, for example from plundering soldiers from Poland, France, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Hanover. As was often the case in these years, the weather was a cause for concern. Winter and spring were often extremely cold. In 1816, the so-called year without a summer , continuous rain and floods destroyed the harvest. In the winter of 1820, temperatures dropped to as low as −16 degrees Celsius. This put the lock at the lock and the buildings in danger. Fish froze to death in the ponds and there was a shortage of drinking water.

Building history

The gatehouse remained largely unchanged over the centuries.

Haus Heessen has been rebuilt over and over again over the centuries. The foundation from the 14th century consists of thousands of massive oak piles on which the entire walls rests and which already served as the foundation of the previous buildings. They are constantly below the water table, so that they have survived the centuries almost undamaged. The pile foundations and foundations of today's castle are, like the still existing moat systems, remains of the moated castle from 1360.

The Gothic mansion

Historical reconstruction of the old mansion from 1905. Gothic structures and Renaissance elements on the castle building.

When the castle was converted into a Gothic mansion in the 15th century, the complex was architecturally upgraded with bay windows, battlements, ornamental gables and roof decorations. Written descriptions and drawings, which the stylistic reconstruction in the early 20th century could use as a basis, reported on this state of construction. The images have since disappeared.

The classicist country house

House Heessen after the renovation in 1780 in a classical style. Color lithograph from 1864 by Alexander Duncker .

In 1782, under the prince-bishop's chief building director WF Lipper, the now four-wing Gothic manor house was converted into a simple, three-wing classicist country house, which is shown in the lithograph from 1864. By this time, the areas immediately surrounding the building had gradually been filled in. The character of a moated castle was largely sacrificed to the demands of contemporary housekeeping and a classic sense of shape.

With the abolition of the manorial patrimonial jurisdiction in the course of the Prussian reforms, the marriage of the "Herrlichkeit Heessen" as a small state rule ended. From 1812 the property was run exclusively as a large estate used for agriculture and forestry, including its own brickworks and brewery, the property of which grew steadily through the acquisition of surrounding farms and areas. Solid paths were laid out in 1816. Running water entered the house via a pumping station and in 1825 there was a sewage system. In 1826 the house was considerably rebuilt and whitewashed. Open fireplaces have been replaced by cast iron stoves. The first "water closet" from England was installed in 1846. It had its own brick factory and a castle brewery (from 1837). The so-called “Bavarian Cellar” was built as a storage vault from 1839 (today at the intersection of Schlossstrasse and Dolberger Strasse).

Garden architecture and landscape garden

At the same time, the parks surrounding the palace were rebuilt. To the northwest in front of the gate, in the direction of the village of Heessen, there was a baroque garden that had been overgrown in the 19th century , the bridle path and center of which can still be identified. In addition, in the second half of the 18th century, the "rose garden" was built east of the castle, an architecturally oriented park with a path between geometric flower beds, a baroque pavilion and goldfish pond. Carl von Boeselager (1802–1869) and Adolfine von Wolff-Metternich (1808–1879), friend of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , who was also a guest in Heessen, celebrated their wedding here on September 18, 1826 .

In 1828 the so-called "Love Island" was created, a small park landscape on the triangular parcel between the Lippe and the lock canal. This English-style landscape garden was planted with native and tropical trees. Nowadays the island consists of a small wooded area with a circular path, a pond and the historic lock keeper's house.

Reconstruction of the Gothic structure in the 20th century

Filigree fan vault in the neo-Gothic chapel

Rebuilt and redesigned several times under its various owners between 1905 and 1908, the property was given back its old form, as it had existed before 1780, and thus got its present form. The architect was the Münster government building director Alfred Hensen , who gave the building a neo-Gothic look with towers, Gothic battlements and bay windows . The reconstruction plans are signed by the local architect Wucherpfennig. The English church builder Sidney Tugwell was commissioned to design a castle chapel in the English style. One of the few legends about Heessen Castle is the claim, repeated in several publications, that this “neo-Gothic gem” was discovered “by chance” in 1982.

For the reconstruction of the historical structure, as well as old representations, reference buildings from the late Gothic and Renaissance periods were available. The stair tower in the palace courtyard is designed based on the example of Drostenhof in Wolbeck. Here you can also find the distinctive stepped gables. The stairway to the mezzanine floor had long been considered historic. In 2010, Andreas von Scheven proved that the renaissance staircase at Lübeck City Hall was used as a template by the builders. In the Höllinghofen aristocratic archive of the von Boeselager family there is still a sketch of the Lübeck staircase, drawn by Engelbert von Kerckerinck zur Borg , who, as a friend of the family and an expert advisor, accompanied the construction planning.

Since the death of Baron Dietrich von Boeselager in 1920, Heessen is no longer the family's residence. For a short time, a branch of the von Fürstenberg family still lived at the castle until, with the beginning of the Nazi era, the National Socialist German Student Union , Gau Westphalia, organized so-called science camps here. During the bombing war, several Heessen families and the residents of a Münster old people's home that had been destroyed in the war found alternative accommodation in the buildings. The women's beds were in the large dining room and the men's in the smaller one.

Current use of the building

The Landschulheim Schloss Heessen has been housed in the old walls since 1957 and is now known as "Schloss Heessen - Private School and Boarding School". In the decades after its foundation, the country school home has spread over numerous historical buildings on the site. The main building of the moated castle offers a large and small dining room, a staff room, kitchen and chapel, the drinks store, secretariat, sickroom, management offices, classrooms and living rooms for boys and girls from lower and middle school. However, as the number of students grew, it soon became too tight here.

The Rentei was therefore converted into quarters and school rooms. The so-called "vault" located here is an in-house restaurant where celebrations are also held. The gatehouse and the adjoining former stable building offer several classrooms in addition to quarters.

On the ground plan of a former forester's house and the orangery of the castle, an additional two-wing school building was built in 1968 on the northern edge of the castle grounds. Originally there were quarters here, which today serve as classrooms, specialist and course rooms. Another small staff room can also be found here. The upper level center, built in 2013 - located a little north of the actual castle grounds - offers state-of-the-art boarding quarters, a number of functional and specialist rooms, a third teachers' room, the school library and a central foyer for larger meetings and projects.

For decades, the castle and castle grounds have been used as a performance location and backdrop for plays and concerts. In 2008, the movie Die Wilden Hühner and life in and around Heessen Castle was shot, and in 2017 the TV series Parfum , inspired by the novel by Patrick Süskind . The Humboldt Institute has long been using the buildings for language courses during the summer holidays; The landscape park on the island can now be booked as an adventure space and event location for groups of children and young people. The newly renovated historic lock keeper's house from 1828 is then available for refreshment purposes and as a relaxation room.

The entire area of ​​the private school is not accessible to unregistered visitors outside of public events.

See also

literature

  • Wolfhard von Boeselager: Nobility obliged - also on the Lippe . in: Wolfgang Gernert [rsg.]: Hamm-Heessen. Gateway to the Münsterland . Hamm, 1989.
  • Horst Conrad, From the history of the House of Heessen an der Lippe from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th century . in: The Märker. Regional history journal for the area of ​​the former Grafschaft Mark and the Märkische Kreis, vol. 45, Altena 1996
  • Nikolaus Kindlinger: History of the family and rule of Volmestein. A contribution to the history of the peasant and feudal system and the state constitution . Two volumes. Osnabrück, H. Blothe, 1801. The book contains the most extensive information on the history of the noble family.
  • Ursula Knäpper: The high and glory Heessen. History of a court and its jurisdiction with a special look at the proceedings against the crimen magiae (1543 - 1612). Dissertation. Hamm 2013
  • Ludwig Albert Wilhelm Köster: Diplomatically practical contributions to the German feudal law and to the Westphalian Fehmgericht constitution . Parts 1-2. Dortmund, Leipzig: Blothe 1797–78. The text is relevant for an understanding of the inheritance dispute between von der Recke and Boeselager and can be found digitized on the Internet. Köster represents Boeselager's party. The explanations are almost incomprehensible to laypeople.
  • Rita Kreienfeld: Karl von Boeselager took care of the farmers. The gentleman at Heessen Castle near Hamm proved himself during the social upheavals in the period around 1830 . In: Unser Westfalen 2007, pp. 107-108.
  • Rita Kreienfeld: Hamm-Heessen as it used to be . Gudensberg-Gleichen, 2001.
  • Robert Krumbholtz (arrangement), document book of the von Volmerstein and von der Recke families up to 1437 , Münster 1917.
  • Adelbert von der Recke-Volmerstein: feudal service and noble economic management in the late Middle Ages. Depicted on the life of Dietrich von Volmerstein. Dissertation. Heidelberg, 2002. Here all available information on the economic and social circumstances of the owner of the original Wasserburg Heessen are compiled, interpreted and placed in a larger economic, social and rulership-historical context.
  • Helmut Richtering: Noble seats and manors in the area of ​​the city of Hamm . In: Herbert Zink: 750 years of the city of Hamm . Hamm 1976.
  • Klaus Rübesamen: Searching for clues on the building. On the building history of Heessen Castle. Münster 2012.
  • Emil Steinkühler: Heessen (Westf.) - History of the community . Hamm, 1952.
  • Festschrift of the Landschulheims Schloss Heessen. On the occasion of the 50th school anniversary in 2007. Hamm 2007.

Web links

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

Remarks

  1. ↑ Certificate No. 100 in: Theodor Sickel (Ed.): Diplomata 13: The documents Otto II. And Otto III. (Ottonis II. Et Ottonis III. Diplomata). Hanover 1893, p. 114 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
  2. ^ Emil Steinkühler: Heessen (Westf.) - History of the community . Hamm 1952, p. 16.
  3. ^ Emil Steinkühler: Heessen (Westf.) - History of the community . Hamm 1952, p. 19.
  4. ↑ Gerd Wunder: What is a frater germanicus? The family of the Count of Altena . in: ders .: farmer, citizen, nobleman. Selected essays on social history . Sigmaringen 1991, pp. 332-336. From historical sources, aristocratic custom of inheriting names and contemporary political circumstances, Wunder shows that “Mechthild, the wife of Count Arnold von Altena, was not, as originally assumed, a born Countess of Kleve, but a Countess of Holland”, namely a daughter of Count Floris III. von Holland and his wife Ada from the Scottish royal family. The name variants Mechthild and Mathilde are updates of the first name Methildis given in the source of 1200 .
  5. ^ Emil Steinkühler: Heessen (Westf.) - History of the community . Hamm 1952, p. 21 writes: "On December 18, 1775 the property was allodified and free property of the Heessen house." Horst Conrad dated differently ( from the history of the Heessen an der Lippe house from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th . Century. In: Der Märker. Landeskundliche Zeitschrift for the area of ​​the former Grafschaft Mark and the Märkische Kreis, vol. 45, Altena 1996, p. 106) the allodification of the upper court including all lower courtyards and accessories to the year 1778.
  6. ^ Adelbert Graf von der Recke von Volmerstein: Lehndienst and aristocratic economic management in the late Middle Ages depicted on the life of Dietrich von Volmerstein . Dissertation, Heidelberg 2003, p. 232.
  7. ^ Emil Steinkühler: Heessen (Westf.) - History of the community . Hamm 1952, p. 28.
  8. ↑ Ursula Knäpper: The high and glory Heessen. History of a court and its jurisdiction with a special look at the proceedings against the crimen magiae (1543–1612). Dissertation. Hamm 2013, p. 130.
  9. ^ Emil Steinkühler: Heessen (Westf.) - History of the community . Hamm 1952, p. 39.
  10. ^ Johann Diederich von Steinen: Westphälische Geschichte . Third part. Lemgo 1757, p. 103.
  11. ↑ Horst Conrad, From the history of the house of Heessen an der Lippe from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th century , p. 106.
  12. ↑ Horst Conrad, From the history of the House of Heessen an der Lippe from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th century , pp. 107–110.
  13. ^ Emil Steinkühler: Heessen (Westf.) - History of the community . Hamm 1952, p. 43 gives the sum of 116,000 thalers.
  14. ^ Emil Steinkühler: Heessen (Westf.) - History of the community . Hamm 1952, note 1 on p. 45.
  15. ↑ A plan by Lipp-Strohm ... shows the rose garden in 1773 east of the four-winged palace at the time the map was taken. Path axes between geometrically arranged rose beds lead to building axes or refer to the triangular floor plan of the site. (Source: Lipp Strohm's plan from the Dolberg area to the Heessen house or from N: 370 to N: 386 , 1773, scale in Rhenish Ruthen, approx. 1: 772, colored pen drawing, Münster State Archive Map collection A 4126 and A 6894; Digitized by the German Research Foundation
  16. ↑ Horst Conrad, From the history of the Heessen an der Lippe house from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th century , p. 114 f.
  17. ↑ Rita Kreienfeld: chapel Heessen: A precious treasure , in: home leaves. Supplement to the Westfälischer Anzeiger. History, culture and customs in Hamm and Westphalia. Episode 17, Hamm, September 2010.
  18. ↑ Dorothea Kluge: Discovered by accident. Schlosskapelle Heessen , in: Westfalenspiegel 32, Heft 2, Münster 1983, p. 24f and also Klaus Gorzny: Lippeschlösser. Castles, palaces and aristocratic residences along the Lippe. Marl 2004, p. 112.
  19. ↑ Andreas von Scheven: Lübeck's town hall stairs are in the Heessen castle courtyard . in: Heimatblätter. Supplement to the Westfälischer Anzeiger. History, culture and customs in Hamm and Westphalia. Episode 8, Hamm, April 2010.

Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 55 "  N , 7 ° 50 ′ 52"  E