Itter Castle

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Itter
Itter Castle in 1979.jpg
Creation time : unknown (9th - 12th centuries)
Castle type : Hill castle
Conservation status: now in ruins, rebuilt in the 19th century, inhabited
Place: Itter
Geographical location 47 ° 28 '14 "  N , 12 ° 8' 23.5"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 28 '14 "  N , 12 ° 8' 23.5"  E
Height: 720  m above sea level A.
Itter Castle (Tyrol)
Itter Castle

Itter Castle is a splendid 19th century building in Itter in the Brixental in North Tyrol . The battle for Itter Castle on May 5, 1945, in which soldiers of the US Army and the Wehrmacht fought against members of the Waffen-SS , also made it historical.

history

Itter Castle

The time the castle was built is unknown. It was a border fortress of the Regensburg Monastery to monitor the entrance of the Brixental against the diocese of Salzburg and could have been created as early as 900 (the Brixental came to Regensburg in 902), but maybe later. In 1380 Itter was sold to Salzburg by the Regensburg Cathedral Chapter ; the first known documentary mention comes from 1241 (together with the village of Itter and Count Palatine Rapoto II of Ortenburg as lords of the castle).

In the 14th century, the court and care center Itter resided at the castle, the castle and village were set up as a truce , which meant that the population not only supplied the administrative center with firewood and food, but also built roads and provided military contingents. The carers - who changed frequently - included the Freundsbergers .
In 1526 the castle was destroyed by Pinzgau farmers in the peasant uprisings , but rebuilt in 1532.

When the court was moved to Hopfgarten in the 17th century, the seat, like so many castles, was left to decay.

In 1806, during the occupation of the Napoleonic Wars , the Bavarian government left the ruins to the Itter municipality for a symbolic construction penny of 15  guilders . This allowed the local farmers to use it as a quarry and to help themselves with building materials.

Itter Castle

In 1878 Paul Spieß, an entrepreneur from Munich, bought the area. He had today's castle built on the foundation walls. As a result, a guesthouse with 50 rooms was set up - unsuccessfully. In 1884 the pianist Sophie Menter bought the property, Liszt and Tchaikovsky , for example, were guests here. In 1902 a new owner, Eugen Meyer, had the building rebuilt in neo-Gothic style with echoes of the Tudor style. Under these owners - with great effort - the building became a representative seat of the Belle Epoque .

The castle in World War II

(more precisely: see Battle of Itter Castle )

From 1943 to 1945 there was a satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp in Itter , among other things for prominent prisoners (special prisoners). They were interned here, for example

The west facade in 1979, when the castle was then used as a hotel

In the summer of 1944, the regular concentration camp inmates deployed for forced labor at Itter Castle developed an escape plan to Switzerland for themselves and the prominent inmates . The escape failed because the celebrities refused to attend.

When the advance of the US Army towards Dachau was announced in April 1945 , Eduard Weiter , the last camp commandant of the Dachau concentration camp , left for Itter and shot himself here on May 2, 1945. After the SS guards withdrew , a handful took over U.S. soldiers under Captain John C. Lee Jr. and a dozen soldiers of the Wehrmacht under Major Josef Gangl , who had joined the Austrian resistance, protected the liberated prisoners of honor and defended the castle against the attack of a scattered Waffen SS unit. Gangl died in the process; the castle buildings were badly damaged by artillery fire (see also Battle of Itter Castle ).

After 1945

After the war, a luxury hotel with a helicopter landing pad was set up, again without economic success ( Schlosshotel Itter owned by Ittag-Hotel AG, Vaduz). The property has been privately owned and residential since 1980.

Today the building ensemble is a listed building . The remains of two mountain tombs and the connecting wing have been preserved from the old castle .

Itter family

There is no connection between Itter Castle in Tyrol and the important noble lords of Itter , a noble noble family with property in the Ittergau and Hessengau , who are in the allegiance of Charlemagne .

literature

  • Dehio Tirol, Dehio-Handbuch , Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs. Tyrol. Vienna 1980, p. 374.
  • Stephen Harding: The Last Battle. When US and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe. Da Capo Press, Philadelphia 2013, ISBN 978-0-306-82209-4 .
    • German edition: The last battle - When the Wehrmacht and GIs fought against the SS . Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-55205718-0 .
  • Georg Clam Martinic : Austrian Castle Encyclopedia - Palaces, castles and ruins. 1991, p. OA
  • Josef Weingartner , Magdalena Hörmann-Weingartner: The castles of Tyrol. A guide to castles through North, East and South Tyrol. 3. Edition. Innsbruck / Bozen 1981, p. 58 f.

Web links

Commons : Itter Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Stephen Harding: The Last Battle. When US and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe. Da Capo Press, Philadelphia 2013, ISBN 978-0-306-82209-4 , pp. 11-12 ( excerpt (Google) )
  2. ^ Itter Castle in Brixental . on: burgen-adi.at
  3. ↑ a b c Volker Koop : In Hitler's hand. Special prisoners and honorary prisoners of the SS. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20580-5 . Augusta Léon-Jouhaux: Prison pour hommes d'État. Denoël / Gonthier, 1973.
  4. ^ A b Bernard L. Rice: Recollections of a World War II Combat Medic. In: Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 93, No. 4, December 1997, pp. 312-344, especially pp. 340-343. ( JSTOR 27792041 )
  5. ↑ Stephen Harding: The Battle for Castle Itter . World War II Magazine, August / September 2008 issue ( online copy at history.net )
  6. ^ Marc von Lüpke: Battle of Itter Castle. When the Wehrmacht and the Americans fought together against the SS. In: Spiegel Online . February 24, 2015, accessed March 1, 2015 .
  7. ↑ http://oe1.orf.at/artikel/401164 The last battle, when the Wehrmacht and GIs fought against the SS. (Book review) Context - non-fiction books and topics, ORF.at, broadcast March 6, 2015.
  8. ↑ DEHIO TYROL
  9. ↑ Deutschlandfunk.de , March 9, 2015, Günter Kaindlstorfer : An interesting piece of Tyrolean regional history