Gambler's Luck
In the shadow of the wealthy Kapfenburg the town of Lauchheim that lay below it also achieved an economic heyday in the late Middle Ages. A town ordinance ordered the lives of the inhabitants and did not fail to include gambling in the process: "the XXI commandment: also, where two gamble with each other, the one who has lost is not to be indebted for more than he is carrying and wearing."
In 1648
Following the end of the Thirty Years' War, during which Kapfenburg Palace had also been plundered, there was great need among the inhabitants of Lauchheim. The Pastor there, named Mühlich, noted, "Nothing in the cellar, nothing in the attic, nothing in the stall, nothing barn, nothing in the field; the towns were depopulated, the fields overgrown, the houses empty. In most towns only one or two families were unharmed, there were many widows and childless parents; there were fires everywhere."
Kapfenburg Palace
Imperious and bold, standing on a base of rock, Kapfenburg Palace looks down dominatingly from a freely protruding forested rounded mountain peak on the northern rim of the Hertsfeld (plateau) into the blessed Jagst valley, with a far-reaching, unobstructed view of the entire area. (...) In the fire of the evening son a beautiful, gilded landscape painting unrolls itself to our view sweeping in all directions from the palace, expansive and yet closed within itself. At our feet in the valley a long chain of hills rises up delightfully with fruitful basins, friendly corridors, succulent meadows, shining ponds and forest-covered heights.
Dr. August Gerlach, Stadtarzt von Lauchheim: "Chronik von Lauchheim", 1907