Castle

The history of Hohenzollern Castle goes back to the 11th century, which corresponds to the date of the first historic document in which the dynasty of that same name was mentioned. A chronicle kept in Reichenau Abbey contains an entry recording that two sons of the “Zoller” family, Burchard and Wezil, were killed in battle in 1061. It seems likely that the Zollers were descendents of the Alemannian Burkhardinger family, but that has never been proven beyond doubt. Nor do we know for certain where the name came from. There were various early versions, such as “Zolorin” and “Zolre”, but these finally stabilised as “Hohenzollern” in the 14th century.

Nothing has survived to tell us what the old citadel, which was first mentioned in a document from 1267, used to look like. However, it is clear that even in those distant days it must have been an impressive complex, for descriptions written at the time call it the “the best-fortified building anywhere on German territory” and the “crowning glory of all the castles in Swabia”. It was in 1192 that Count Friedrich III of Zollern (who died sometime after 1200) was given the title of Burgrave of Nuremberg in exchange for a pledge of service (a so-called “enfeoffment”). The succession was split after just one generation, leading to the establishment of the two main lines of the House of Hohenzollern, both of which have survived to the present. Whilst the Swabian branch continued to live in the region near the ancestral castle, the Franconian branch ascended, a step at a time, to become prince electors of Brandenburg, kings of Prussia and, finally, German emperors.

In the family’s original homelands in south-western Germany, a squabble over inheritance broke out between two rival brothers in the early 15th century. At the same time, disputes with the free imperial towns in the region led to a siege of the castle in 1423, which lasted ten months and ended in its complete destruction. For some time, a ban was placed on rebuilding the castle, but Count Jos Niklaus (1433-1488) was permitted to commence reconstruction work in 1454. The chapel of St. Michael, which was constructed at that time and consecrated in 1461, has survived to the present.

In 1623, the Hohenzollerns were elevated to the rank of princes and moved their residences to the towns of Hechingen, Haigerloch and Sigmaringen, maintaining the castle solely as a place of retreat in times of war. In the Thirty Years War, it had an additional defensive ring of bastions built around it somewhat lower down the hill, but that did not prevent it from being surrendered without a fight to the Swedish and Wurttemberg troops in 1634. Following a rapid change of owners, it acted as a military outpost of the Habsburg (Austrian) lands in Upper Swabia between 1667 and 1771, but its state deteriorated over time and by the early 19th century it was basically no more than a ruin.

That was the condition it was in when it was visited in 1819 by the Prussian Crown Prince and later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1795-1861), which gave him the idea of rebuilding it. Many years passed before that idea became reality – not least on account of the limited financial resources available. The project began to take shape, however, with the appearance of Baron Rudolf von Stillfried (1804-1882) from Silesia, whom the heir to the throne had commissioned to carry out research into the early history of the Hohenzollerns, of which little was known at that time. In 1846, the individual branches of the family agreed on a joint project to rebuild the castle and they called on the architect and senior Prussian building surveyor, Friedrich August Stüler (1800-1865), to draw up plans. Stüler was probably the best known representative of the Berlin School of Architecture, with the possible exception of his teacher, Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841). Stüler took his inspiration mainly from late-gothic architecture in Germany, Britain, France and Italy, while Stillfried laid down numerous specifications for designing the substance.

The revolution of 1848 and the resulting cession of the Hohenzollerns’ homelands to Prussia changed the starting situation for rebuilding the castle and also led to the desire for new fortifications, which were devised by a military engineer called Moritz von Prittwitz (1795-1885). The ramp up to the castle, in the shape of two overlapping ellipses, and the all-round bastions erected on the foundations of the earlier citadel structures are today still regarded as masterpieces of the mid-19th-century art of constructing fortifications.

With the incorporation of the Chapel of St. Michael, which had survived from the 15th century, and the addition of the Protestant Christ’s Chapel, a picturesque hill-top castle was built around a courtyard reminiscent of a theatrical stage. When the third castle on the site was finally inaugurated in 1867 by King Wilhelm I (1797-1888), the brother and successor of the actual initiator, it was intended to act less as a residence and more as a dynastic monument, embodying in an impressive manner the origin and ascent of the House of Hohenzollern.

The rebuilt Hohenzollern Castle developed into an attraction for tourists from near and far even before construction work had been completed – and all the more so with the opening of the railway line between Tübingen and Hechingen in 1869. Members of the ruling family, on the other hand, were only rare visitors and usually only stayed for a few hours, although it must be said that Emperor Wilhelm II (1859-1941) did visit the ancestral family seat five times while on the throne. Following his abdication in 1918 and the disputes with the Prussian state as to who owned what, it was eventually agreed that the Hohenzollerns would be permitted to keep the castle as their private property. As a consequence of the Second World War, the Hohenzollerns lost nearly all of their former landed possessions, and so Hohenzollern Castle took on a new significance for the family, especially for its Prussian branch.

Crown Prince Wilhelm (1882-1951), the son of the last German emperor, spent the final years of his life in the nearby town of Hechingen, and his successor, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1907-1994), began moving numerous outstanding works of art into the castle to illustrate his ancestors’ history from a family perspective. In 1952, he arranged for the coffins of Friedrich the Great and his father, Wilhelm I, the “soldier king”, (which had been taken to a safe place during the Second World War and moved to Marburg in 1945) to be transferred to Hohenzollern Castle. In the aftermath of German reunification, they were taken back to Potsdam in 1991. At the same time, new life was brought into the Hohenzollerns’ ancestral family seat with the creation of a foundation named after the prince’s consort, Princess Kira of Prussia, which since then has made it possible for thousands of children and teenagers to have free holidays in the castle.

Hohenzollern Castle is still run jointly by the two branches of the family, but managing the operation so that it more or less breaks even all the time represents a constant challenge. Regular organised events, including concerts, open-air film shows and special exhibitions as well as the annual Christmas market held against the romantic backdrop of the castle courtyard, ensure that there is always something attractive going on in this symbol of German history and famous landmark of supra-regional significance.