Overhagen Castle

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Overhagen Castle.jpg

The Castle Overhagen in the same area of the present city Lippstadt goes back to medieval precursors. The current building was built in 1619 in the Lipper Renaissance style and expanded in baroque style in the 18th century .

Castle history

The origins of today's building go back to the 13th century. A first mention comes from 1203. The first owners and possibly also builders were the gentlemen of Overhagen. In the same century, the moated castle became the property of the Lords of Schorlemer . There is little news about the centuries that followed.

Overhagen Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection
Castle chapel

The old building was demolished in 1619 and replaced by a new building in the Lipper Renaissance style . The builder was Laurenz von Brachum the Younger . It is an elongated, two-storey building surrounded on three sides by moats, framed by two corner pavilion towers with high stepped Baroque domes, which are offset diagonally to the main structure. On the plaster, the park-side façade shows a structure of red ribbons, which uses geometric shapes to incorporate Renaissance hardware motifs. Diamond cuboids and decorative figurative stones showing animal heads, human portraits and grimaces are inserted between the frames.

In 1720 the buildings in the outer bailey were built in the baroque style. It has been proven that Nikolaus Wurmstich and Michael Spanner were involved . Further alterations, including a portal project, date back to 1735. Franz Christoph Nagel was probably now the responsible builder. Another renovation and modernization of the interior followed around 1850. The Renaissance style gable also dates from this period.

The main house and bailey are built on two islands. The castle has a park and a castle chapel. The complex is surrounded by a moat .

The von Schorlemer family lived in the castle until 1945. In 1962 she leased the facility to a school association for 99 years. Since then, the building has housed a private grammar school. In 2014, the German Foundation for Monument Protection supported renovation measures on the roof with 90,000 euros.

School history

At Easter 1962, a handful of teachers, a secretary and a caretaker put their long-prepared plan into action. Made possible by the private school-friendly law in North Rhine-Westphalia, they opened a high school under their own sponsorship in order to realize their own views of school, teaching, homework supervision and meaningful leisure time activities. One year later, on June 22nd, 1962, the Overhagen Castle College was inaugurated.

On July 30, 1963, the founder and director of the private grammar school Overhagen had a fatal accident in a serious traffic accident on Bundesstraße 55 near the former station Bad Westernkotten. Due to the sudden death of headmaster Dr. Karl Hovermann threatened to collapse the entire school operation in 1963, but thanks to the commitment of all those involved, school operations could be secured and senior studies director Edwin Röttele took over the management of the Schloss Overhagen grammar school. Dr. After the severe loss of her husband, Erika Hovermann took over the management of the boarding school and chaired the school association, the sponsor of the school. The school buildings were expanded rapidly in the following years. This was followed by buildings for the scientific wing and, in the autumn of 1963, the start of the conversion of a former farm building, the so-called “castle bailey”, into a gym. By Christmas 1964 the gym was almost finished.

In February 1965 around 2:30 p.m., the gym caught fire, caused by manual welding between the attic and the slab ceiling. This could be contained by a chain of water with the water of the moat and finally extinguished by the called fire brigade with the help of the extinguishing water from the moat. In order to save the new hall floor, sawdust was scattered to soak up the extinguishing water. The damage to the gym, which had been badly affected, could be repaired in a very short time.

In the first few years the school was built in-house according to the old design, but later converted to prefabricated construction. Mr. Hendrikks (father of a schoolboy) designed the new prefabricated buildings and carried out advice and support.

In the second year after it was founded, the original boys' school turned into an educational facility for girls and boys, after parents had applied for and received special permission from the higher-level school authority. The number of girls increased from year to year and in some years was almost 50 percent. In 1970 the first female high school graduate could be passed.

In 1973 the school was completed. In the same year Ewald Wippermann succeeded the outgoing headmaster Edwin Röttele.

The “pill kink”, however, also brought dangers to this relatively young school, as the number of pupils, as in many other places, was declining. In 1981 the question arose whether the grammar school was still needed. The parents, students and teachers managed to avert the threat of the high school being closed. However, the city of Lippstadt also played a decisive role in this by giving in to this matter.

Under the direction of Oberstudienirektor Wolfgang Brülle, the Gymnasium Schloss Overhagen had around 600 pupils and 35 teachers by 2013. In the course of G8, over 400 pupils go to the castle high school. The castle park still surrounds the school grounds with its water surface, rich tree population and lawns. The actual castle building, in which it all began, is only used for the grammar school with the exception of a few rooms. The high school is located in a new flat-roof building behind the castle grounds.

On October 20, 2011, a letter from parents announced the closure of the Schloss Overhagen high school.

Thanks to the renewed commitment of the students, parents and teachers, the school could not be closed.

The grammar school sees itself well on the way to re-establishing itself as a new school in the Lippstadt school landscape. Since August 2015, the school has been headed by Head of Studies Dirk Zacharias. With the help of the parents' support, generous donations and donation funds, a large part of the castle roof could be renovated within three years and the equipment of the school in many areas was further developed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive Herringhausen: The Overhagic building industry and related contracts concerning the outer buildings, wall, chapel, etc.
  2. ↑ Newspaper article from November 26, 2011, Lippstadt am Sonntag (PDF; 129 kB)

literature

  • Handbook of the historical sites of Germany North Rhine-Westphalia. Stuttgart 1970, p. 600.
  • Newspaper article "A dream for 49 years" from November 26, 2011, Lippstadt am Sonntag

Web links

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

Coordinates: 51 ° 39 ′ 29.5 ″  N , 8 ° 18 ′ 27.1 ″  E