Würting Castle

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The Würting castle lies in the village Würting the municipality of Offenhausen in Upper Austria . It goes back to the 9th century.

Würting Castle around 1674, copper engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer
Würting Castle 1849, lithograph by Leopold Weismann
Würting Castle 2009
Graphic of a Renaissance door from Würting Castle as an art-historical example of the German Renaissance
Würting Castle: entrance gate

Building history

There are no historical documents from the time when a noble seat was created in Würting. In particular, there is no precise information about the first structural form of the property. Assumptions speak of a Romanesque tavern at the time of the first documentary mention in the year 814. The other sources also give no picture of the structural condition in the Middle Ages. A fortified building in the sense of a moated castle is assumed to be protected by a moat.

The expansion to a Gothic moated castle in the basic structures that have been preserved to this day under Jörg II. Perkheimer and his wife Susanna until 1462 is certain. The year on the Perkheim's coat of arms stone above the entrance indicates the completion of the construction work.

The magnificent stucco ceiling on the basket vault of the entrance hall and other stucco work in the stairwell and arcade are attributed to the Italian sculptor and plasterer Elia Castello (1572–1602).

Another step in the expansion of the palace in the Renaissance style into the form largely preserved to this day was carried out under Christoph Weiß until 1610. There were no major changes to the external appearance of the building in the following centuries, the focus was on preserving the building fabric. This was no longer possible with the west tower, it collapsed in 1877 and was not rebuilt.

History and owner

Würting Castle was first mentioned in a document in 814 in the possession of a Count Richarius ("actum ad wirtingen"). From the 10th century the rulership belonged to the Counts of Wels-Lambach , whose last male representative, Bishop Adalbero von Würzburg, founded the nearby Lambach Benedictine monastery in 1056 . After his death in 1090, Würting passed to the Würzburg monastery .

In 1220, the Babenberg Duke Leopold Würting bought the rule, which went to the Dukes of Austria, who passed it on as a fief. In 1380 the Habsburg Duke Albrecht III enfeoffed. Jörg Rathalminger with Würting.

The Perkheimers

As the sole heir and fiefdom successor to her father, Susanna Rathalminger brought the rule into her marriage to Jörg II. Perkheimer in 1422. The Perkheimer family (different spellings) originally came from Salzburg. One line turned to the land above the Enns and owned many lordships and seats of the same name ( seat in Timelkam , Oberbergham near Gaspoltshofen , Bergham Castle near Linz, Bergheim Castle near Geboltskirchen , the Perkhaimerhof in Ebelsberg or Bergheim Castle near Feldkirchen an der Donau ). Jörg II. And Susanna died childless, so their nephew Kaspar Perkheimer (1454–1520), who - despite his origins from the lower aristocratic class - acquired the personal friendship of Emperor Maximilian I and was the first from 1498 to 1501 , inherited Vizedom in the state of whether the Enns was appointed. As the emperor's financier, Kaspar also received the rule of Pernstein near Micheldorf (today Altpernstein Castle ) as a pledge.

His son Jörg III. Perkheimer (1504–1559) took over Würting Castle after his father's death. He was here with his brothers Wolfgang and Kaspar the Elder. J. grew up and had a high level of education from the scholar Wilhelm Pullinger (1460–1534), who later became the personal physician of Emperor Maximilians I. Jörg III. like many members of the aristocracy and also the majority of the population in the land above the Enns converted to the Protestant faith. In addition to a steep political career (representative of the knighthood in the Linz state parliament from 1529, in whose name a delegate at several imperial diets in Regensburg, Speyer and Augsburg), he also became a forerunner of the Protestant cause and worked in his function on the Augsburg religious peace of 1555.

Jörg III was involved in his homeland. also socially. In 1534, at the request of the residents of Offenhausen and his intercession for the village that was subordinate to him, King Ferdinand I raised him to market . This had developed into a regional center of trade, industry and handicrafts. The Offenhausen elementary school ("common school") also goes back to a foundation in his will. The establishment of an evangelical landscape school for boys at Würting Castle, which was provided for in the joint will with his brother Wolfgang in the event that they remained without descendants, did not materialize. This school was later set up in the Linz country house. Jörg von Perkheim had already dedicated 6,000 guilders to the Protestant provinces of Upper Austria during his lifetime, and a further 18,000 guilders were added from his inheritance.

Brother Wolfgang (called Wolf) took over the rule of Rosseg Castle in the Carinthian Rosental , which his father Kaspar Perkheimer had acquired in 1514 . He too was politically active in the Carinthian estates as a representative of the knighthood. In 1547 the brothers jointly acquired the Weidenholz castle and estate in Waizenkirchen , where Wolfgang moved to. After his death in 1556 and the death of his brother Jörg III, who died childless. († 1559) the Perkheimer family died out in the male line and ownership passed to Wolfgang's daughter Christina in the possession of her husband Georg Achaz von Losenstein .

The Weiss family

1604 bought the wealthy merchant and castle vogt von Wels Christoph Weiß (1549-1617) Castle Würting. His wife was Felicitas von Alt, a cousin of the famous Salome Alt von Altenau. White hoped to be raised to the baron status and built the palace on a generous scale in the Renaissance style . By 1610 he had the palace added by a " Gaden ", expanded to the east and south and equipped the interior with "princely splendor". Numerous stucco work and ceiling paintings were installed in the palace during this time, including an artistically significant allegorical cycle of paintings attributed to Claude Aubertin or Pieter Isaacsz, in which Christoph Weiß paid homage to his patron Emperor Matthias , to whom he owed his social advancement. In 1612, Emperor Matthias visited Würting Castle personally. When Christoph Weiß died, his son and heir Christoph Ludwig (1599–1623) was still a minor. He died at the age of 23 and left behind his wife and three-year-old son Hans Christoph Weiß (1620–1651). Due to the longstanding guardianship and also due to the generally difficult economic situation (there was the Thirty Years' War ), the Weiss family suffered a rapid financial decline. Hans Christoph was born in 1651 by Emperor Ferdinand III. although he was still elevated to baron von Weißenberg, he died in the same year completely penniless.

The Seeauer

In the period from 1648 to 1650 the castle passed from the Weiss family to the Counts of Seeau. After a lengthy Krida process, Elias von Seeau (1608–1670) finally bought the Würting moated castle from an administrator in 1650. Elias von Seeau was related by marriage to the Weiß von Würting family through his first wife, Susanna Magdalena Alt von Altenau. The Seeauers came from the Salzkammergut. Their headquarters, the "Seeauergut" still exists today at the northern end of Lake Hallstatt in Bad Goisern. The Counts of Seeau have held the position of salt minister in the (salt) chamber property for generations. The Salt Office had state supervision over the entire salt production and trade in the region. The position was - not least because of the high economic income from the salt trade - correspondingly important to the Habsburgs and directly subordinate to the imperial family (court official).

In addition to Würting, the Seeauers owned countless other noble seats in extensive family lines. Johann Friedrich Graf von Seeau (1659–1729), son of Elias von Seeau, became the founder of the Würtingen line of the family. His full title read: "High and well-born Mr. Johann Friedrich, Count and Lord of the Holy Roman Empire von Seeau zu Mühlleiten, Baron of Würting, Lord of the Lords of Piberstain, Moos, Litzlberg and Helfenberg, the Roman Imperial Majesty real chamberlain, court chamber councilor and Salzamtmann in Austria ob der Enns, as well as pledge holder and inspector of the imperial counties and lordships of Ort and Wildenstein, also both imperial surcharges Ybbs and Särmlingstein. " Johann Friedrich was also in the possession of the Moos rulership in Offenhausen, which most likely brought his wife Maria Eleanora von Gera into the marriage and thus came to the Würting rulership. The couple are buried in the "Freyherrliche Seeauischen Crypt" in the St. Anna Church in the Timelkam parish .

Under allegations of mismanagement and corruption in the Salzkammergut, the Seeau house began to decline rapidly from 1707, which continued into the following generations. Count Johann Friedrich and his son Ferdinand Friedrich (1693–1768) fell out of favor with the imperial family, which led to the restriction of their competencies and also to a financial decline. His son Ferdinand Franz Anton (1743–1812) was a passionate farmer, perhaps due to the lack of larger tasks, and excelled as such in the reclamation of the Maxlhaid area near Wels. The Seeauhof he built was converted into the Maxlhaid station of the Linz-Gmunden horse-drawn railway in 1835 . The Seeau residents held Würting Castle until the 19th century, but did not make any major structural changes during this time.

Johann Grillmayer and son

After the male line of the Seeauers had expired, the last heiress Mathilde Földvary von Földvar sold Würting Castle in 1860 to the commoner Johann Evangelist Grillmayr (1809–1881), the founder of the Kleinmünchen spinning mill (now Linz Textil AG). Grillmayr and even more his son Johann Karl (1862–1915) put a lot of effort into the preservation of the castle. Numerous first photographs of the building were taken during this time. Johann Karl himself created a castle chronicle to deal with its eventful history. A detailed restoration was carried out in the appearance of the Renaissance. However, the west tower could no longer be saved. It collapsed in 1877 because its pilots were rotten and was no longer rebuilt. The castle chapel was also renovated under Grillmayr and equipped with a Coronation Altar made by Hans Greil in 1893, which is now a choir altar in the parish church of Vorderweissenbach in the Mühlviertel.

Johann Karl Grillmayer was also socially committed in Offenhausen. He supported the local associations (civic corps, fire brigade, music association) and in 1889 had the first "children's custody" built in the village and in the entire region, later the kindergarten. In 1900 he left Offenhausen and moved to Schwanenstadt, where he owned a factory. In the same year he sold Würting Castle to the Neu-Öttingen timber merchant Josef Welz, who bought it for speculative purposes, sold the Meierhof and its grounds, and finally in 1902 the castle to the wealthy Lily Alberti d'Enno, née Thornton, resold.

Countess Alberti d'Enno and Countess Hoyos

Lila Thornton (called Lily) came from a wealthy industrial family in Yorkshire, England. In 1900 she married Count August Alberti d'Enno , who came from an old Tyrolean noble family . On May 1, 1902, she acquired Würting Castle for 144,000 crowns (around 1 million euros). Countess Alberti d'Enno also distinguished herself as a patroness in Offenhausen. For example, she donated an engine sprayer and a new organ to the local volunteer fire brigade in the Offenhausen parish church . The castle, which with high maintenance costs without real estate brought no more economic income, she sold in 1918 to her friend, Countess Alice Hoyos zu Stichenstein.

Willy and Stefanie Gutmann

As early as 1919, Countess Hoyos sold to the wealthy Viennese industrialist Wilhelm Hermann Gutmann (1889–1966). He acquired the castle, which is now in poor condition, for his second wife Stefanie (1881–1952), née. Sobotka, after which it flourished again briefly. The palace building was renovated and furnished with valuable furniture and paintings, including oil paintings by the painter John Quincy Adams , Stefanie Gutmann's first husband.

During this time, Würting Castle was a place of retreat and creativity for scientists, artists, musicians and philosophers from the Gutmann family's circle of friends. The palace was also a meeting place for high Viennese society and international guests at that time. The chess player Arthur Kaufmann , a close friend of the playwright Arthur Schnitzler , lived from 1923 as a guest of the Gutmann family at Würting Castle for about 10 years. The founder of the Paneuropean Union , Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi , also enjoyed this right of hospitality .

In 1923 Coudenhove-Kalergi wrote his programmatic book Pan-Europa in what was allegedly only three weeks at Schloss Würting . The monograph in which the Count describes his ideas of a united Europe is considered the beginning of the Paneuropean Union .

The biologist Paul Kammerer , who became famous through experiments with midwife toads, also spent several summers at Würting Castle for relaxation and writing exams. This is where he got his nickname " Toad Kisser ": Theresa Bloch-Bauer, the sister of Adele Bloch-Bauer , portrayed by Gustav Klimt as the Golden Adele , called him that at a meeting in Würting. A colleague of Kammerer's also spent the summer of 1923 at Würting Castle, the internationally renowned entomologist Ivan Regen from Slovenia .

In August 1929, a work by the composer Armin Kaufmann (op. 14, 3rd sonata for violin and piano) was premiered at Würting Castle.

Nazi and post-war period

In December 1938, Stefanie Gutmann gave the castle to her "Aryan" son-in-law Emanuel Walderdorff in order to avoid the threat of expropriation. Even before the donation was approved and entered in the land register, a fraction of its value was given to the Reichsgau Oberdonau . Stefanie Gutmann managed to escape to Belgium in March 1939, where she survived the Second World War in an attic hiding place after the German occupation. The Gau Oberdonau left the castle to the SA group Alpenland, which housed a "leadership school" there. The valuable facility was sold or disappeared in unknown ways. When they were taken over by the SA, the valuables were verifiable in the castle, as they were expressly referred to in an estimate from 1941. After the end of the Second World War , American troops briefly occupied the palace in May 1945; from August 17, ethnic German refugees and bombed-out Viennese were housed there. From 1947 to 1951, a state school for girls was set up in the castle. Back from exile in Belgium, Stefanie Gutmann had already registered her claims to the castle with the legal successor of the Gau Oberdonau, the state of Upper Austria, in September 1945. After a protracted legal dispute, the restitution application was only granted by a settlement on March 13, 1952. The country had previously let the castle forest beat. Stefanie Gutmann had to immediately sell the property, which had meanwhile been badly affected, to finance the costs of the proceedings and the settlement amount for the provision. She died that same year. The buyer was the sawmill owner Josef Neuhofer from Stadl-Paura. In 1954 Anna Rogalla-Rumpel bought Neuhofer Castle and lived in it with her husband Rüdiger Rogalla.

Past decades and present

After Rogalla-Rumpel's death in 1969, the widower transferred ownership to a Liechtenstein foundation. In 1971 Rüdiger Rogalla also died and the important Renaissance ceiling paintings were brought out of the country in a lightning campaign. In 1994 these could be secured - already believed lost - by the association "Denkmalpflege Oberösterreich" with the help of the state and the Federal Monuments Office through a rescue purchase. After extensive restoration, they have since been exhibited in the Linz Castle Museum.

In 1975 the castle went to the artist and paleontologist Herbert Schaffer, who housed his paleontological collection there.

Despite support from the public sector, the castle is in poor condition today. The property is not open to the public.

Trivia

The "Black Woman" from Würting

According to tradition, there was also a ghost in Würting Castle: a lady of the castle was surprised by her husband during a banquet held in the large hall with her lover in the tower room of the east tower and was struck down by him on the spot. Thereupon this lady of the castle was condemned to walk through the rooms of the castle as a ghost in black robes at the hour of her death. The floor in the tower room also had yellow stains that are said to have been traces of human blood stains.

The family crypt of the Weiß von Würting family

In 1617, Christoph Weiß, the head of the rapidly growing family, died. His body was buried in the newly erected crypt under the southern side chapel of the Offenhausen parish church , which, as a family crypt, was to serve as the final resting place for all other deceased of the Weiß family. In the side chapel, a mighty tomb was erected in memory of Christoph Weiß, which is still in the opposite side chapel - although it has been converted into an altar. A magnificent bust of Christoph Weiß designed by Friedrich Thön is said to be in the castle to this day. In fact, Christoph Weiß 'wife Felicitas and his son and grandson were also buried there. After the Counter-Reformation, however, all coffins were removed from the crypt on July 22, 1776 under Pastor Johann Georg Wiringer and the corpses of the Protestant Weiss family buried in an unknown location in the ground.

From "Grillmayr" to "Grillmayer" - a supposed nobility elevation as a spelling mistake

After the successful textile industrialist Johann Evangelist Grillmayr acquired Würting Castle as a prestigious residence in 1860, he wanted to live up to his status as lord of the castle. He had a family coat of arms designed by a "coat of arms office", but this produced a spelling mistake in the name. From then on, Grillmayr called himself "Grillmayer". However, there was never an official elevation to the nobility.

Würting Castle and "Sound of Music"?

The connection between a former owner of Würting Castle and the Trapp family, which later became world famous, is also documented: Countess Alice Hoyos von Stichenstein (1851–1936), daughter of the British engineer Robert Whitehead , was the aunt of Agathe von Trapp, née. Whitehead, the first wife of Georg Ludwig von Trapp . The marriage resulted in seven children who later together with Georg Ludwig's second wife Maria Augusta, geb. Kutschera and their three other children became famous as the singing Trapp family in the USA. The Countess Hoyos only owned Würting Castle from February 1918 to October 1919. Besides Schwertberg Castle, her main residence was the Ringstrasse Palais of the Hoyos family in Vienna, now part of the Hotel Bristol .

Great wealth and extensive family trees

The Gutmann and Sobotka families belonged to high society in Vienna, which also explains their illustrious guests at Würting Castle. Willy Gutmann came from a large industrial family that had become very prosperous through coal mining. His grandfather David von Gutmann and his older brother Wilhelm founded the "Gebrüder Gutmann" company, which became the largest coal company in Austria-Hungary. At the turn of the century, Willy Gutmann was considered one of the richest men in Vienna. The Sobotka family were also extremely wealthy. Stefanie's father Moritz Sobotka founded a malt factory with Jakob Hauser in Vienna-Stadlau (today's STAMAG - Stadlauer Malzfabrik GesmbH). The extensive family tree of the Sobotka family included u. a. also the successful American dancer and actor Ruth Sobotka, the second wife of Stanley Kubrick . The first daughter of Stefanie Sobotka and John Quincy Adams, Harriet Daisy, married Count Emanuel von Walderdorff and was the owner of the Hotel Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg, where Stefanie Gutmann also spent the last years of her life after her return to Austria.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ from: The entire cabinet making with special consideration of the craft form. Theodor Krauth and Franz Sales Meyer (eds.) Leipzig. 1902, p.65. accessed on October 14, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c Seeau Foundation , accessed on December 17, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l People on Würting. Family-fate-time references. Reinhard Schotola, Offenhausen, 2016. ISBN 978-3-200-04788-4
  4. ↑ Homepage Artisti Italiani in Austria , accessed on November 26, 2016
  5. ↑ Historical Commission of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (ed.): Supplement to the archive for customers of Austrian historical sources, p. 351. Vienna: kuk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1851.
  6. ^ Max Doblinger: Jörg von Perkheim, a class diplomat of the 16th century. In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association , Volume 96, p. 89, Linz 1951, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
  7. ↑ The school system in the state above the Enns up to the end of the 17th century, Linz, 1900 , retrieved from the Upper Austria website. State Library on July 29, 2017.
  8. ↑ Biography on the website of the association “Around the Castle” e. V. , accessed on June 28, 2016.
  9. ↑ Juliette Roding, Marja Stompé: Pieter Isaacsz (1569-1625): een Nederlandse schilder, kunsthandelaar en diplomaat aan het Deense Hof , p. 31. Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 1997. ISBN 978-90-6550-145-5 .
  10. ↑ a b press release of the Upper Austrian State Museum from June 2007 for the presentation of the "Würtinger Tafeln" in the Schlossmuseum Linz , accessed on June 28, 2016.
  11. ↑ Family tree according to the Seeau Foundation , accessed on June 28, 2016.
  12. ↑ Johann Georg Adam von Hoheneck : The praiseworthy gentlemen estates Deß Ertz-Herzogthumb Austria whether the Ennß, as: prelates, gentlemen, knights, and cities or genealogical and historical description, of the same arrival, founding, building and planting , Coat of arms, shield, and helmets, your monasteries, lordships, castles, and cities [e] tc., [E] tc , Volume 2, pp. 832 to 834. Passau: G. Mangold, 1747.
  13. ↑ House Seeaugut, former. Outdoor seating Good Seeau , accessed on 20 December 2016
  14. ^ Stiftung Seeau , accessed December 20, 2016
  15. ↑ Church Leader St. Anna Church, Katholisches Pfarramt Timelkam, 2011 , accessed on March 28, 2017
  16. ↑ Homepage Gasthof Museum Maxlhaid , accessed on March 27, 2017
  17. ↑ www.bahnzeit.at - The horse-drawn railway museum of the southern route in Maxlhaid , accessed on March 27, 2017
  18. ↑ 175 years of Linz Textil, 1838–2013
  19. ↑ Chronicle of Wirting Castle near Offenhausen market, Johann Karl Grillmayer, Linz (Wimmer), 1903.
  20. ↑ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sankt_Peter_und_Paul_(Vorderwei%C3%9Fenbach)_-_Altar_of_Coronation_of_Mary
  21. ^ Entry about Wilhelm Hermann Gutmann on geneanet.org accessed on October 14, 2016
  22. ↑ Dirk Hermann Voß: Up to here and further commemorative article on the 90th anniversary of the Paneuropean Union ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 28, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / de.paneuropa.org
  23. ↑ Hartmut Wagner: The United States of Europe commemorative article on the 110th birthday of Coudenhove-Kalergis 2014 ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 28, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eurasischesmagazin.de
  24. ↑ The Paul Kammerer case: The adventurous life of the most controversial biologist of his time. Klaus Taschwer. Munich, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016
  25. ↑ Oral recollections of Bettina Ehrlich, recorded on March 25, 1970, Arthur Koestler Papers, University of Edinburgh Libraries (MS 2416/6)
  26. ↑ Catalog raisonné , accessed on June 28, 2016.
  27. ^ Daniela Ellmauer et al .: "Aryanizations", confiscated assets, provisions and compensation in Upper Austria , p. 400f. Berlin: Oldenbourg, 2004, ISBN 978-3-486-56779-3 .
  28. ↑ Confused criminal case about Würtinger Tafeln , Kronen Zeitung of June 28, 2007, accessed on January 19, 2017
  29. ↑ Information on Schaffer at Chello.at , accessed on June 28, 2016.
  30. ↑ Franz Knogler: Castle Würtings mysterious past. In: Oberösterreichische Heimatblätter, Volume 43, 1989, Issue 1, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
  31. ↑ Norbert Loidol, (2012): Friedrich Thoen noble serving clients. - Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association 157: 345-362.
  32. ↑ 175 years of Linz Textil, 1838–2013, published by Linz Textil Holding AG, p. 28f. , accessed December 9, 2016
  33. ↑ Entry on Palais Hoyos at www.planet-vienna.com , accessed on December 22, 2016
  34. ↑ http://www.malzfabrik-ag.at/historie.htm , accessed on July 29, 2017.
  35. ^ History of the luxury hotel Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg , accessed on July 29, 2017.

Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 45 ″  N , 13 ° 49 ′ 51 ″  E