Kransberg Castle

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Kransberg Castle
Kransberg Castle

Kransberg Castle

Alternative name (s): Cransberg
Creation time : around 1175
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Preserved, private property
Standing position : Nobles
Place: Usingen - Kransberg
Geographical location 50 ° 20 '43 "  N , 8 ° 35' 25.4"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 20 '43 "  N , 8 ° 35' 25.4"  E
Height: 292  m above sea level NHN
Kransberg Castle (Hesse)
Kransberg Castle

The Kransberg Castle is a castle in the Kransberg district of the city of Usingen , in the Hessian Hochtaunuskreis , about 30 kilometers north of Frankfurt am Main and about 50 kilometers northeast of Wiesbaden .

history

A so-called field court had existed in the area for a long time and was mentioned in a document as early as the 7th century . It was only about 500 m as the crow flies from the location of today's castle on a hill on which a chapel still stands today. In the 11th century a simple defense system was operated in the area of ​​today's castle , probably in the same, strategically favorable location.

First mention

In 1170 Kransberg was built by the Staufers as part of a defense chain Friedberg -Kransberg- Königstein - Kronberg to defend against the Limburg bishops as one of the first stone castles. As the only and oldest element of the overall system is from this time keep maintained. The first separate documentary mention of the castle in connection with the expansion of the complex and the construction of the palas and the staircase tower dates from 1220 . Both buildings exist today as part of the main building.

Change of ownership

In 1310 the von Cransperk family perished , and the castle passed to the von Falkenstein family . 123 years later, in 1433, the castle fell to the Lords of Eppstein and the intermediate building was added. From 1522 to 1533 the castle briefly belonged to the Lords of Königstein and then passed into the possession of the Counts of Stolberg .

In the course of the peace treaty in 1590, the complex came into the possession of the Archbishop of Mainz . The residential extension to the main building was created. The Count Waldbott von Bassenheim acquired the property in 1654 after the destruction of the Thirty Years War . The property was expanded to include an estate and stables, and it was primarily used for agricultural purposes.

In 1854, Count Hugo Waldbott sold the property to the Duchy of Nassau . This became Prussian after the lost war against Prussia in 1866 . In 1875 the von Biegeleben family bought the property and completely renovated it. The former castle was now known as Cransberg Castle .

In 1920 Frau von Scheitlein bought the property.

Military use

In 1939 the palace was confiscated by the Nazi regime and, as part of the Adlerhorst complex, was again fundamentally expanded and renovated . The underground bunker , the knight's hall and the garages were built during this time until Kransberg Castle was conquered by the American armed forces in 1945 .

From 1945 the British armed forces used the complex and operated the Camp Dustbin interrogation center there , where, compared to Camp Ashcan , the heads of science, technology and armaments organizations of the Nazi regime, Albert Speer , Wernher von Braun , Hermann Oberth , Karl Saur , Hans Kehrl , Fritz Thyssen , Hermann Röchling and others were arrested and questioned. In the summer of 1946, the first conference in world history on biological weapons took place here.

As a result, the occupancy changes, always by military users. The Gehlen organization , the forerunner of the Federal Intelligence Service , also worked here from 1947 to 1961, primarily in the field of telecommunications intelligence . Units of the Bundeswehr and the American armed forces also used the facility.

Todays use

The American armed forces left the building in 1990. It returned to the Federal Property Administration , which sold it in 1995 to the heirs of the former owner, Mrs. von Scheitlein. An entrepreneur bought the property in 1999 from the community of heirs . A civil use was applied for, the property was given a mixed use of office, event and residential use. Due to financial difficulties of the owner, the castle was foreclosed in 2007 and came to HmcS Real Estate GmbH. In 2011 the castle, like the village itself, served as the backdrop for the Tatort episode Das Dorf .

At the end of 2012 the castle was sold to a Turkish group of investors who want to use it as an educational institution. However, urgently necessary maintenance measures were not carried out, so that the system is falling into disrepair. Since various parts of the wall and a balcony are in danger of collapsing, the Schloßstraße running below the castle had to be closed in the meantime. The first security measures began at the beginning of February 2014. On March 28, 2014, a smoldering fire broke out inside the building, which caused considerable damage and affected some ceiling beams that had to be propped up afterwards. There are concerts and a registry office here.

literature

  • Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hesse: 800 castles, castle ruins and castle sites. 3. Edition. Wartberg publishing house. Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , p. 449.
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 347.
  • Bodo Hechelhammer : The roots of the BND in the Taunus. From "Dustbin" to the "Capitol": Kransberg Castle and the "Organization Gehlen". In: Yearbook Hochtaunuskreis 2016. Bad Homburg vd Höhe 2015, ISBN 978-3-95542-159-5 , pp. 8–24.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus-Dietmar Henke : The American occupation of Germany. Oldenbourg, 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-59079-1 , p. 535.
  2. ↑ Bodo Hechelhammer: The roots of the BND in the Taunus. From "Dustbin" to "Capitol": Kransberg Castle and the "Organization Gehlen" . In: Hochtaunuskreis (Ed.): Yearbook Hochtaunuskreis 2016 . Frankfurter Societäs-Medien GmbH, Bad Homburg vd Höhe 2015, ISBN 978-3-95542-159-5 , p. 8-24 .
  3. ↑ Schloss Kransberg - the history at a glance. ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Website of Kransberg Castle.
  4. ^ Taunus newspaper. December 31, 2012.
  5. ↑ Ownership obliges.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Usinger Anzeiger. 15th November 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.usinger-anzeiger.de  
  6. ↑ Schloss Kransberg: A scaffolding is already in place. In: Frankfurter Neue Presse . February 4, 2014, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on February 3, 2019 .
  7. ^ Smoldering fire in Kransberg Castle. In: Frankfurter Neue Presse. April 1, 2014, archived from the original on August 22, 2017 ; accessed on January 30, 2019 .
  8. ↑ On the way in and around Usingen. In: hr-online. glorious Hessen, accessed on November 29, 2016.