Castle Frankenstein
Encyclopedia
Hilltop castle
A hilltop castle is a type of hill castle that was built on the summit of a hill or mountain. The chief advantage of such a strategically selected site was its inaccessibility. The steep flanks of the hill made assaults on the castle difficult or, depending on the terrain, even impossible...
about 5 km south of Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Modern claims of the castle having an influence on the work of Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
remain controversial.
History
Before 1250, Lord Konrad II. Reiz von Breuberg erected Frankenstein Castle and since named himself von und zu Frankenstein. The first document proving the existence of the castle in 1252 is bearing his name. He was the founder of the free imperial lordship Frankenstein, which was subject only to the jurisdiction of the emperor, with possessions in Nieder-Beerbach, Darmstadt, Ockstadt, Wetterau and Hesse. Additionally the Frankensteins held other possession and Sovereignty-rights as Burgraves in Zwingenberg (Auerbach (Bensheim)), in Darmstadt, Groß-Gerau, Frankfurt am Main and Bensheim. The hill whereupon the castle stands was probably occupied by another castle since the 11th century, which fell into ruins after Castle Frankenstein was built a couple of yards to the northwest. Claims of an even older predecessor upon the hill are widespread, but historically unlikely.In the year 1292 the Frankensteins opened the castle to the counts of Katzenelnbogen (County of Katzenelnbogen) Katzenelnbogen
Katzenelnbogen
Katzenelnbogen is the name of a castle and small city in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Katzenelnbogen is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Katzenelnbogen.-History:...
and leagued with them.
In 1363, the castle was split into two parts and owned by two different families of the lords and knights of Frankenstein. At the beginning of the 15th century, the castle was enlarged and modernized. The Frankenstein knights became independent from the Counts of Katzenelnbogen again.
Being both strong opponents of the reformation and following territorial conflicts, connected disputes with the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, as well as the adherence to the catholic faith and the associated "right of patronage", the family head Lord Johannes I. decided to sell the lordship to the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse between the four sons of Philip I, the last Landgrave of Hesse....
in 1662, after various lawsuits at the Imperial Chamber Court.
The castle was used as refugee and a hospital afterward, falling into ruins in the 18th century. Two towers, which are so distinctive today, are a historically inaccurate restoration of the mid-19th century.
Sometime prior to 1968, a restaurant was built within the castle. In 1976, American soldiers stationed in Darmstadt founded an annual Halloween festival at the castle, which has grown to become one of the biggest Halloween festivals in Europe. In 1977, the 440th Signal Battalion organized a 13 kilometer running race routed along steep forest trails from Cambrai-Fritsch Kaserne to the castle. The Frankenstein Castle Run was held until 2008, when American forces left Darmstadt and the base was turned over to the German government. The City of Darmstadt organized a final race in October 2008.
Johann Conrad Dippel
In 1673, the alchemistAlchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
Johann Conrad Dippel
Johann Conrad Dippel
Johann Konrad Dippel was a German pietist theologian, alchemist and physician.-Life:He was born at Castle Frankenstein near Mühltal and Darmstadt, and therefore once the addendum Franckensteinensis and once the addendum Franckensteina-Strataemontanus was used.He studied theology, philosophy and...
was born at the castle. He was very famous during his lifetime.
There have been claims of Dippel influencing Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
to write her Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
novel, though there is no mention of the castle in Mary's journals from the time. It is known that in 1814, prior to writing the famous novel, Mary took a journey on the river Rhine. She spent a few hours in the town of Gernsheim
Gernsheim
Gernsheim is a town in Groß-Gerau district and Darmstadt region in Hesse, Germany, lying on the Rhine.-Location:The Schöfferstadt Gernsheim, as Gernsheim may officially call itself – it was Peter Schöffer's birthplace – lies 18 km southwest of Darmstadt and 16 km northeast of Worms, right...
, which is located about ten miles away from the castle. In addition to this three hour stop at Gernsheim, the Shelleys knew several members of the so-called Darmstadt Society, which was known for meeting frequently at Castle Frankenstein for writing brainstorms; in particular, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, whose work influenced Mary, read portions of his then work-in-progress Faust
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
to members of this society while they sat in the castle's ruins. Though much of what has been said about Dippel to support this theory has turned out to be false, several nonfiction books on the life of Mary Shelley confirm Dippel as a possible influence.
Literature
- Art. "Frankenstein", in: Hessen, hg. v. Georg W. Sante, Stuttgart 1960 (= Handbuch der historischen Stätten Deutschlands, 4. Bd.), S. 117
- Nieder-Beerbach, in: Georg Dehio, Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler: Hessen, bearb. v. Magnus Backes, 1966, S. 622
External links
- Website der Burg-Frankenstein
- Halloween Burg-Frankenstein
- http://www.eberstadt-frankenstein.de/content/055_Frankenstein_Faltblatt_englisch.pdf