Naumburg Castle

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The castle 1980
A steel engraving from 1850 shows the unforested mountain and the terraces of the Naumburg vineyard.

The Naumburg Castle is a product derived from a former Benedictine monastery castle south of Erbstadt , a district Nidderaus , in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis in Hesse .

geography

The building is covered by tall trees

The castle stands on a hill in the Wetterau , on the northeastern edge of the Rhine-Main area , north of Frankfurt am Main , east of the Taunus and southwest of the Vogelsberg . It is located in an old cultural landscape that also shows traces of prehistoric and early historical settlement. In the immediate vicinity there was a Roman estate ( villa rustica ).

history

Salbuch of the Naumburg Monastery , document text

monastery

The Cyriacus monastery Naumburg is mentioned for the first time in 1035 as castello Nuwenburg . It was later consecrated to the Holy Cross . Heinrich IV donated the property to Rüdiger Huzmann , Bishop of Speyer , in 1086 . His successor, Günther von Henneberg , transferred the existing at that time Benedictines - provost in 1149 the monastery Limburg ad Haardt.

The monks of the monastery usually came from aristocratic families in the Wetterau. The monastery was so well equipped. The outstanding relic was a splinter from the wood of the cross of Christ . In the German Empire the monastery belonged to the Freigericht Kaichen .

Since the 13th century, the bailiwick over the monastery was with the lords and counts of Hanau . Since 1354 they have been able to claim free board and lodging when staying there. During times of war the monastery archives were saved several times in a castle belonging to the lords and counts of Hanau and the Hanau count settled disputes between the monastery and its neighbors.

The destruction of the complex in the turmoil of the Landshut War of Succession was followed by reconstruction in 1505, no longer by the Limburg ad Haardt monastery, but by the Seligenstadt monastery , which subsequently also claimed spiritual sovereignty over Naumburg.

A richly illustrated book from the year 1514 has been preserved in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg , the Salbuch of the Naumburg Monastery . It was created on the occasion of the measurement and stoning of the monastery property in the open court and contains representations of the event, the Reichsburg Friedberg , various saints, coats of arms of the Friedberg burgrave and various castle men as witnesses as well as the Naumburg monastery. At the same time, however, religious life in Naumburg was already in an advanced state of decline: the monks no longer celebrated divine services and also no longer held the hours of prayer , but did "nothing but eat, drink, play and whores", as a contemporary complained. The decline of monastery life is mentioned in the introduction to the fable Von einer Müller und Esel by Erasmus Alberus , which is located in the Hainmühle below the Naumburg, but with a good dose of Protestant polemics.

Naumburg winery

The decline of the monastery meant that it was initially bought by the County of Hanau-Münzenberg in 1561 . Shortly afterwards, the Naumburg became the scene of the Naumburg feud , a dispute between the County of Hanau-Münzenberg and the Burgraviate. The Hanau counts continued to run the estate as an estate until it was transferred to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel in 1642 as a pledge for the cost of relieving the Hanau Fortress (1636) .

privatization

Left column relief in the entrance area

Prince Georg von Hessen-Kassel bought the former monastery complex, had it demolished and built a hunting lodge between 1750 and 1754 . The ornate entrance portal also dates from this period .

After the fall of the Hessian state in the German-Austrian War in 1866, Naumburg also fell to Prussia . The plant was acquired by the municipality of Erbstadt and sold into private hands in 1882. As a result, the owner and use of the castle changed several times. In the years of National Socialism, the castle was used as a Landjahr camp in 1938. From 1949 the facility was used as an old people's home until 1972 - with different sponsorships.

In 1973 the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Christengemeinden Deutschlands (ACD) (today: Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden ) bought the castle and set up a conference and meeting place there. In 1981 the “1. National Training Camp (NTC) ”of the Christian Scouting Society Royal Rangers (RR). This is considered the official starting shot for RR work in Germany. In addition, the castle housed the "School for Discipleship and Missionary Congregational Services - Evangelium Offensiv (EO)" from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

Ingrid Schiener has been renovating the property since 1997. From 1997 to 2002 there was a café there called “Café Provisorisch”.

Naumburg Castle is now privately owned again. The castle building is almost uninhabitable and its existence is in danger. There are no guided tours through the castle, a tour is not possible. At the entrance there is only a board with important data on this building.

Silent decline

Aerial view of Naumburg Castle in 2011

The once well-kept property is falling into disrepair, as an aerial photo from 2011 shows. Open windows and a sunken roof structure give nature a free path to reclaim the building area. The area around the Naumburg is increasingly used as an illegal waste disposal point. The current owner does not take any measures to protect the historic building from decay or even to restore it.

literature

  • HP Brodt: The Naumburg. In: Hanau city and country. A home book for school and home . Hanau 1954, pp. 335-341.
  • Wilhelm Dersch : Hessian monastery book. Source studies on the history of the founders, monasteries and branches of religious cooperatives founded in the administrative district of Cassel, the province of Upper Hesse and the Principality of Waldeck . Marburg 1915. p. 93.
  • Michael Müller: The Naumburg and the Salbuch. In: published history book. Erbstädter history and stories from 775 years. Published by the “Geschter Geschichtsbuch” working group, Nidderau 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-037670-2 , pp. 52–67.
  • Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , pp. 275f.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Köbler : Historical Lexicon of the German Lands. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 4th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-35865-9 , p. 295.
  2. ↑ Treasures of the Marburg State Archives .
  3. ↑ Original text
  4. ^ Nidderau, Naumburg Castle Landjahr-Lager. Topography of National Socialism in Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on July 1, 2019 .
  5. ↑ G. Lori: Castle in Sleeping Beauty. In: Frankfurter Neue Presse of December 28, 2012.

Coordinates: 50 ° 15 ′ 9.6 ″  N , 8 ° 51 ′ 24 ″  E