Waldsteinburg

Waldsteinburg
The ruin of the castle
Alternative name (s):	Red lock
Creation time :	First mentioned in 1350
Castle type :	Höhenburg, summit location
Conservation status:	Ruin. In 2007, parts of the wall broke out
Standing position :	Knighthood
Construction:	occasional humpback cuboid
Place:	Zell im Fichtelgebirge - " Großer Waldstein "
Geographical location	50 ° 7 '44 "  N , 11 ° 51' 18"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 7 '44 "  N , 11 ° 51' 18"  E
Height:	877  m above sea level NHN

The Waldsteinburg , also known as the Red Castle , is the ruin of a hilltop castle at 877  m above sea level. NHN on the Großer Waldstein in the Fichtelgebirge . It is also referred to as the western castle to distinguish it from the older eastern castle .

history

The western castle, first mentioned as early as 1350, was built to replace the older eastern castle, which no longer met the requirements of a fortified complex. The builders and owners were the Knights von Sparneck .

The ministerial family of the Sparnecker

For centuries, the Lords of Sparneck ruled over an area that roughly corresponded to the former Münchberg district . Waldstein Castle was an integral part of the property of this once powerful family. The best-known representative on the Waldstein is Rüdiger von Sparneck (around 1300-1364 / 68), who was named as Count Palatine in Eger in 1336 . When the Bohemian king was crowned Emperor Charles IV , the center of power of the Holy Roman Empire moved within the immediate reach of the Sparnecker; Waldstein Castle played an important role in the power structure of the western Egerland and the neighboring regions. The time is considered the heyday of the Lords of Sparneck and so the powerful become Rüdiger awarded on July 13, 1364 Münchberg the Nuremberg municipal rights . His son Hans I. von Sparneck was accepted into the cathedral chapter of Bamberg on April 28, 1352 . Among other things, he pledged the Waldstein to Konrad von Neuberg . However, together with his brothers Erhard (1364–1417), Friedrich I (1364–1415) and Pabo II (1364–1373), he succeeded in transferring the Waldstein to the emperor as a fief.

Destruction of the castle by the Swabian Federation in 1523

The inner courtyard of the main castle

In the middle of the 15th century, many once powerful lords operated in a way that was later referred to as robber baronism in order to preserve their possessions and, if possible, to enlarge them. Here, Hans Thomas von Absberg stood out, who terrorized all of Franconia around 1500 . He kidnapped merchants several times and demanded a large ransom for their release. On June 24, 1520, he attacked a group of travelers on the Hahnenkamm . Count Joachim von Oettingen , who moved with the group, was so badly wounded in the scuffle that he succumbed to his injuries on July 6th. This event was also reported to the Swabian Federation and to Charles V , who had just been elected German Emperor. Thereupon he imposed the imperial ban on the Absberger . In May 1521 Absberg attacked a group of returnees from the Reichstag in Worms in the Knittlinger Steige. He fell into the hands of Hans Lamparter von Greiffenstein (spokesman for the emperor) and Johann Lucas, who handled financial transactions on behalf of the emperor. After several stops, the prisoners were taken to the Waldstein, the safest castle in the entire Fichtelgebirge, which belonged to Wolf and Christoph von Sparneck.

In January 1523, after a year and 38 days of imprisonment, they managed to escape with "God's help" and they named the Sparnecker in Nuremberg as the Absberger's helpers. On June 1st a huge army, consisting of 10,000 foot soldiers and 1,000 horsemen and carrying 100 rifles , 33 cannons and 900 pounds of black powder , was raised. On July 11th, the troops reached Waldstein Castle and burned it down to the ground. The castle fell into disrepair and was not rebuilt by the Sparneckers, whose end was thus sealed. The fiefdoms of Burg Sparneck , Waldstein and Stockerode (with another 22 villages subject to tax) were confiscated by the Crown of Bohemia and sold to Christoph Haller von Hallerstein at Burg Ziegelstein († 1581), Councilor of Emperor Charles V. The last of the Sparneck family died in Wunsiedel in 1744 .

The woodcut by Hans Wandereisen

Main article: Wandereisen woodcuts from 1523

Afterwards colored woodcut by Hans Wandereisen from 1523

Representation of the woodcut by Joseph Baader from the 19th century

In the woodcut by war correspondent Hans Wandereisen , the castle is depicted as being enthroned above the surroundings. Measured by the number of floors, it is shown exaggerated, but the ruin still rises impressively on a rock plateau.

The forest around the mountain spur has been cleared, allowing a view of the federal troops. In the original files published by Freiherr von Reitzenstein, there is talk of a Schaffhausen . One can identify the wooden house as such.

If you follow the path up, on which a rider is depicted with powder kegs , you come to the outer bailey , of which one side of the castle gate is still preserved. This outer bailey is well protected on all sides and only on the back can you see a simple palisade fence that takes advantage of the natural rock formation. In the left half of the outer bailey you can see a stone house that, according to Schwarz, was used as a warehouse.

The main castle consisted of a Palas , a Gatehouse , a walkway with flock guard turrets (on the wooden section in the middle and Burg shown oversized) and a square keep . Access to the main castle was secured by a drawbridge, which cannot be seen on the woodcut. Various researches, including by Karl Dietel, support this thesis.

The war records of 1523

"Waltstain, ain the Sparnecker closed, thereupon those prisoners who got by themselves are with the help of the almechtigen: Item of the same day is arranged by Wolffen von Freyburg, a nobleman, so from Augspurg to Haubtmann. What, Waltstain concluded, so that Cristoffen vnd Jorgen von Sparneckh, brothers who were west, on whom the prisoners lay and got along, namely Johann Lampartter and Pamgartner, burned and the poultry sprinkled with powder and tore. The same castle is actually a murder pit and nothing is sniffed at, in a wild place in a forest and nothing has been found in it. "

Transcription : Waldstein, a castle of the Sparnecker family, on which lay the prisoners who escaped themselves with the help of the Almighty: On the same day, Christoph von Freyburg , a nobleman who was appointed captain by the city of Augsburg, found Waldstein Castle , which belonged to the brothers Christoph and Jörg von Sparneck, in which the prisoners lay and escaped, namely Johann Lamparter and Baumgärtner, burned and the prison was blown up with powder and torn apart. This castle is a murder pit and was built in a wild place in a forest. There was nothing left in it. (The Sparnecker fled from the approaching troops and took what they could carry with them)

Wait in the War of the Spanish Succession

In 2007, parts of the wall fell from the castle

After the destruction in 1523, the castle fell into oblivion. Only during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was it used again as a warehouse and the gatehouse roofed over as a waiting room . The red bricks used for this earned it the name Red Castle , which the Hof school director Helfrecht first used for the castle in his work published in 1795. The cartographer Johann Christoph Stierlein completed a very precise map of the castle area for the first time in 1816 with the existing inventory.

The castle today

Only the foundation walls are left of the once proud rock castle . In 2007 a small part of the wall fell down. The State Office for Monument Preservation is considering saving the facility.

The Waldstein Festival

The Waldstein Festival was staged by the Fichtelgebirgsverein Münchberg for the first time in 1923, 400 years after the destruction of the Veste Waldstein. In 1995 the association Felsenbühne Waldstein e. V., which currently has 150 members and has already performed four historical pieces, three of which were written within the association, on the stage at the foot of the Waldsteinburg since it was founded.

literature

• Tilmann Breuer : District of Münchberg . The art monuments of Bavaria , brief inventories, XIII. Band . Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 1961, pp. 51–53.
• Karl Dietel : The Great Waldstein in the Fichtel Mountains , Saalfrank, Helmbrechts, 1968, (Between Waldstein and Döbraberg ; Volume 7)
• Johann Theodor Benjamin Helfrecht : Ruins, antiquities and still standing castles on and on the Fichtel Mountains. Court 1795.
• Karl Freiherr von Reitzenstein : The Swabian Confederation in Upper Franconia or the House of Sparneck Fall 1523 . Weimar 1859.
• Reinhardt Schmalz: The Franconian War 1523 and the guilt of the Sparnecker ; In: Archive for the history of Upper Franconia 85 (2005), pp. 151–158.
• Steffen Schwarz: The newer fortress on the Waldstein - A treatise on castle history .
• Waldstein Festival: The Legacy .
• Joseph Baader : The Franconian War , In: Anzeiger für Kunde der Deutschen Vorzeit No. 1 to 3: January to March 1866. [1]
• Joseph Baader: Negotiations about Thomas von Absberg and his feud against the Swabian Confederation from 1519 to 1530 . Tubingen 1873.
• Dr. Hans Vollet and Kathrin Heckel: The ruins drawings by the Plassenburg cartographer Johann Christoph Stierlein . 1987.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
2. ↑ Homepage Felsenbühne Waldstein

Web links

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

• History of the Waldsteinburg on the homepage of the municipality of Zell