Wachenburg

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Wachenburg
The guard castle

The guard castle

Creation time : 1907 to 1928
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Place: Weinheim
Geographical location 49 ° 32 '58 "  N , 8 ° 41' 8"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 32 '58 "  N , 8 ° 41' 8"  E
Height: 314  m above sea level NN
Wachenburg (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Wachenburg
The Wachenburg during the Weinheim Conference 2010
Keep of the Wachenburg 2011
Wachenburg heraldic gate
Model of the Wachenburg in the Weinheim Municipal Museum
WachenburgWeinheim2017-06-11-13-54-32.jpg

The Wachenburg is a corporation house that stands on the Wachenberg above the town of Weinheim . It was built in the style of a Romanesque hilltop castle between 1907 and 1928 by the Weinheim Senior Citizens' Convent (WSC), a corporate association of student corps , as a conference and meeting place. It was financed exclusively by donations.

location

The Wachenburg (330 m above sea level) is located on the western edge of the Wachenberg (400 m above sea level) in the Neckartal-Odenwald nature park and offers a beautiful view over the Odenwald and the Upper Rhine Plain. It can be reached both by car and via its own hiking trail. The hiking trail begins in Weinheim and leads over the Windeck castle ruins to the Wachenburg and further into the mountain landscape of the nature park. The ascent from Weinheim takes about an hour for the inexperienced.

history

In advance, efforts were made to create a memorial for the members of the WSC who died in the Franco-German War . This was followed by the idea of ​​connecting the memorial with a festival area for the annual conference. The Windeck castle ruins were ideal for both purposes in 1896. The Domain Directorate of the Grand Duchy of Baden had approved the designs, but shortly before construction began, the Grand Duke sold the Windeck castle ruins to the Count of Berckheim . This did not allow any additional buildings.

A lookout tower with a refuge was to be built in 1903 on the Wachenberg, which is partly within the boundaries of what was then the municipality of Leutershausen (today Hirschberg an der Bergstrasse ) . The mayor of Weinheim informed the Weinheimer Alte-Herren-Vereinigung (WAHV), later Weinheimer Verband Alter Corpsstudenten (WVAC). A long lease for 99 years was concluded through joint negotiations between the city of Weinheim, the WAHV and the municipality of Leutershausen. The contract obliged the WAHV to build a castle complex and includes the option of a further 99 years of lease.

Out of 14 designs, Arthur Wienkoop's design was selected in 1906 , which offered the advantage of carrying out the construction in several stages. Aute Bode and Emil Hartmann have made further contributions . All three were honorary citizens of the city of Weinheim. At the beginning of 1907 the building permit was granted; on May 16, 1907, the foundation stone for the hall of honor and the fairground was laid. The inauguration of the keep took place on May 31, 1908.

When the construction work on the Palas building ended , the Wachenburg was completed in May 1913. However, the Fuchsenkeller in the building was left unfinished for the time being.

From 1928, electric lights were installed. The ballroom was lit with candlelight until 1959 . The road up to the castle was built between 1929 and 1934.

After the forced dissolution of the WVAC in 1938, the Wachenburg became the property of the city of Weinheim. It was returned in 1950 when the WVAC was re-established. The city of Weinheim left the long-term lease agreement with the municipality of Leutershausen in 1956.

In 1949 the Union of European Youth (today Young European Federalists ) was founded on the Wachenburg . Only a few years after the end of the war, the youth organization of the Europa-Union Germany saw European integration as a project of hope.

The space in the hall of honor with the memorial plaques was expanded in 1963 according to plans by Wilhelm Gottsauner for the corps students who died in World War II . In 1965, WVAC bought the Wachenburg site from the municipality of Leutershausen.

In the years 2009 to 2013 the Wachenburg was completely renovated by the WVAC for over one million euros. In 2010, the Wachenburg was also connected to the sewer network of the city of Weinheim.

The annual WSC conference takes place on the Ascension weekend to this day at the Wachenburg.

investment

The Wachenburg is structurally completely intact and has several buildings:

Various event rooms are housed in the Palas:

Residential buildings are missing. The hall is usually only accessible to members of the Weinheim Senior Citizens' Convention and is used for events. The building is open to the public on special dates published on the castle's website. There you can also find the opening times of the castle tavern. Castle courtyard, castle tavern and viewing platform are freely accessible.

On the roof of the tower are VHF transmitting antennas from Deutsche Telekom, via which the program of "Rainbow 2" is transmitted on the VHF frequency 107.7 MHz with a radiated power of 100 watts.

The building gave its name to the association magazine Die Wachenburg .

literature

  • Thomas Biller: Castles and palaces in the Odenwald. A guide to history and architecture. Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1711-2 , p. 81 f.
  • Hans-Joachim Rudolph: Planning, construction and expansion of the Wachenburg over Weinheim . In: The lectures of the 73rd German Student History Conference Hannover 2013 . Edited by Sebastian Sigler . Munich 2014, pp. 53–70

Web links

Commons : Wachenburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homepage of the association , accessed May 2017.
  2. ^ FAZ: Corps students - compulsory and cosmopolitan
  3. ↑ Stephan Munder: A piece of radio history: From Radio Wachenburg to Rainbow Two. In: radioWOCHE - Current radio news, FM / DAB + news and radio jobs. June 30, 2016, accessed on September 25, 2019 (German).