Wartburg Castle was found in 1067 by Ludwig the Jumper. The legends goes that than he saw the castle he exclaimed: "Warte, berg - du sollst mir eine Burg werden!" ("Wait, mountain- you shall become a castle for me!"). The first two words thus supposedly gave the castle its name - Wartburg. The castle without a doubt has a special place in history of Germany. Richard Wagner described singing contests held here in his opera Tannhauser. Between 1211 and 1228 Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia lived here. And of course probably the most famous resident here was Martin Luther who spent 10 months from 1521 till 1522 here while in hiding after his excommunication by pope Leo X. It was here Luther wrote his German translation of the New Testament previously written only in Latin. Even though the castle was remodeled it still preserves its old charm and many of the rooms including that of Martin Luther are in original state
Significance in German history
The Wartburg is connected to the
history of Germany like hardly any other castle in Germany. From
1211 to 1227 Elisabeth of Thuringia, who was later canonized, lived
in the castle. In 1521/22 the reformer Martin Luther hid here as
"Junker Jörg" and during this time he translated the New Testament
of the Bible ("September Testament") into German in just eleven
weeks. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stayed here several times, for the
first time in 1777. On October 18, 1817, on the occasion of the
300th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of the theses (October
31, 1517) and in memory of the Battle of Leipzig (October 16, until
October 19, 1813) the first Wartburg Festival took place at the
castle. The second Wartburg Festival was held in 1848, the year of
the revolution. So it is not surprising that the castle was already
a national monument in the 19th century.
Ludowinger
The
Wartburg is the most famous castle of the noble Ludowinger family.
Their ancestor Ludwig the Bearded († 1080), the father of Ludwig the
Springer, came from the family of the Counts of Rieneck from Lower
Franconia, who provided the burgraves of the Archbishop of Mainz.
With his support he founded a small clearing lordship in the
Eisenach area and built the (now dilapidated) Schauenburg near
Friedrichroda.
Ludwig der Springer († 1123) moved the
headquarters of his house to the Wartburg. The dominant position of
the castle hill and the name suggest that there was a fortification
or an observation point on the mountain before the feudal castle was
founded. The founding legend mentions the oath swords of the
Wartburg. According to this legend, Ludwig the Springer is said to
be with the words “Wait! Berg, you should become a castle for me!
”Announced the founding of the Wartburg. The plan threatened to fail
because the mountain did not belong to him. He could not have
conquered it with his only twelve knights. So he came up with the
idea of bringing earth from his own domain and scattering it on
the mountain. The knights testified for him in court, rammed their
swords into the ground and swore that these swords were completely
in Ludwig's earth. The trick was successful and the construction of
the Wartburg could begin, according to the legend.
No remains
of the oldest castle have yet been found. The castle was first
mentioned in a document in 1080 on the occasion of an attack by the
castle team on a royal army division of Henry IV.
Later,
Ludwig the Springer, who was involved in an uprising against Emperor
Heinrich V, had to surrender the Wartburg to the Emperor in order to
regain his freedom. This documents the importance of the castle
complex at this early stage.
As partisans of the Archbishop
of Mainz, the Ludowingers quickly gained power and importance. In
1131 the son of Ludwig the Springer, Ludwig I, was taken over by
King Lothar III. raised to the status of landgrave and thus placed
on an equal footing with the dukes. The rapprochement with the
German imperial family of the Staufers led to the departure from the
Archbishop of Mainz. In the period that followed, the landgraves in
Thuringia expanded at the expense of the archbishops. Only minimal
structural remains of the castle from that time have been preserved.
Most of the buildings were probably made of wood.
All of the
information listed above is ultimately based on the unbelievable
Reinhardsbrunn chronicle and conjectures. The Ludowingers have only
been really proven as masters of the Wartburg since the 1150s.
Before that, it was apparently owned (as an allod or as a fief, but
not the Ludowinger) of a noble family, which also included the
Archbishop of Mainz, Heinrich, and which was closely associated with
King Konrad III. stood, but was ousted by Friedrich Barbarossa.
Landgrave Ludwig II (r. 1140–1172) was the most important
builder of the Ludowingians. His influence on the castle building of
that time was very significant. Under his leadership, the Palas,
which is extremely valuable from a cultural and historical point of
view, was built around 1156–1162, a separate, separately standing
representative building with a residential function. In addition to
the palace, the eastern curtain wall and parts of the gatehouse also
date from the 12th century. A keep, which stood at a different
location from today's tower and was much larger in size, did not
survive the centuries. The Landgrave House was built in 1172.
The last Ludowinger, Heinrich Raspe IV, ruled from 1227 to 1247.
He used the castle as his sole residence and thus anticipated the
historical development. Up until now it had been customary to
exercise wandering rule, that is, to move from castle to castle
until the court had exhausted the local resources.
Burgrave
of the Wartburg
The progressive expansion of the Ludowinger territory over parts of what is now
the federal states of Thuringia and Hesse, which are often spatially far apart,
led to a frequent absence of the ruling landgraves from the respective castles
with residence functions. This also affected the Wartburg, located roughly in
the center of the Landgraviate. It was therefore necessary to entrust all tasks
for the administration of the castle, in particular also the permanent security
and defense-technical improvement of the fortress system, to an authorized
representative and deputy; this held the office of burgrave of the Wartburg.
With the family of the Counts of Wartburg, who also appeared at the same time in
the early 13th century as burgraves of the neighboring Brandenburg, a sideline
of the Counts of Bielstein, who was not related by blood to the Ludowinger
family, was honored here.
Singers' War
Under Hermann I (1190–1216) the
Wartburg experienced its heyday. As a wealthy patron of art and culture, he made
the castle a magnet for artists and the main center of German poetry. Against
this real background, it becomes the alleged scene of the fabulous Singers' War.
But the story so vividly and dramatically portrayed is a fiction. Thuringian
historians such as Dietrich von Apolda (after 1298) and the Eisenach legal
scholar and chronicler Johannes Rothe (15th century) devised a historical event
from the literature that was still widely accessible to them. With precise
expertise, Rothe was even able to "incorporate" this event into the Thuringian
chronicle he wrote or added.
Landgrave Elisabeth
Until 1228 the
Hungarian king's daughter Elisabeth lived as the wife (from 1227 as a widow) of
Landgrave Ludwig IV of Thuringia on the Wartburg. From when she lived there is
not certain. When her husband was killed on a crusade, Elisabeth devoted herself
entirely to a life of poverty and service to the poor and sick.
Wettiner
After the death of Heinrich Raspe in 1247 and the subsequent War of the
Thuringian Succession, the castle came into the hands of the Wettins. In 1250
the Landgrave House was extended. After Thuringia fell to the Margraves of
Meissen, Albrecht the Degenerate, who received the newly acquired land from his
father Heinrich the Illustrious, took his seat again at the Wartburg. In the
13th century, the south tower was built in the rear courtyard.
The castle
was badly damaged by a fire caused by a lightning strike in 1318. Margrave
Friedrich der Freidige had repairs carried out on the palace and the keep in
1319 and a large heated building was built in the inner castle. Among other
things, the installation of the church in the Landgrave's house (1320) dates
from this era.
After the death of Landgrave Balthasar of Thuringia in
1406, the castle was only a secondary residence in the 15th century. This was
also expressed in the more modest construction. The cheaper half-timbering took
the place of natural stone blocks. The gatehouse (end of the 15th century using
older parts), the knight's house, the bailiwick (started in 1480) and the two
battlements of the outer bailey (after 1477) have been preserved from this
period.
Martin Luther
After the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther was
given an imperial ban; the papal nuncio Hieronymus Aleander had drafted the
draft. On May 26, 1521, the Reichstag imposed the Edict of Worms on him,
backdated to May 8 and drawn by the Emperor. With the imperial ban an outlaw
(declaration of peace and lawlessness) was issued, which extended to the entire
area of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and which went hand in hand
with the prohibition of his works and the distribution of his writings. He was
now "outlawed". In accordance with the promise made to his elector, he was given
safe conduct. Charles V later regretted this promise because the ensuing
Reformation destroyed the unity of his empire. The outlaw was secretly kidnapped
by Frederick's soldiers on the evening of May 4, 1521 on the way home near
Altenstein Castle in Bad Liebenstein and arrested at the Eisenach Wartburg to
keep him out of danger. From May 4, 1521 to March 1, 1522 Martin Luther stayed
at the Wartburg. His stay was to remain a secret, so he became "Junker Jörg"
during this time. Luther's spartan quarters were a small room above the first
courtyard, which was intended as a cavalier prison. Here he used the forced rest
to arm himself for future theological debates and to realize the project of a
Bible translation of the New Testament into German.
Fritz Erbe
In 1540 the Anabaptist Fritz Erbe, who had already been imprisoned
in Eisenach, was transferred to the Wartburg and locked in a cellar
dungeon in the south tower. The only access to the dungeon was an
opening in the floor of the tower center floor. After several years
of imprisonment, Fritz Erbe died in 1548. During clean-up work in
1925, the castle warden at the time, Hermann Nebe, discovered the
name Erbes above the rock, which Erbe himself had carved into the
rock. The presumed grave inheritance was found in 2006 below the
castle. Today a plaque on the south tower of the Wartburg reminds of
Erbe's fate.
Goethe and the Wartburg
During his visits to
Eisenach and Wilhelmsthal Castle, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe found
several opportunities to familiarize himself with the history of the
Wartburg on site; On such occasions some sketchy drawings of the
castle were made. In 1793 he arranged for weather observations and
records at the castle. Since 1815, Goethe was concerned with the
idea of setting up an art museum in the Wartburg. In this context,
the Grand Ducal Minister of State Christian Gottlob von Voigt was
consulted in Weimar in order to enable the procurement of mostly
sacred art objects. These later formed the basis of the carved
sculpture collections of the Thuringian Museum.
“These
objects would be all the more desirable because they could be used
to decorate the chapel on the Wartburg and that knight's castle
could be given an analogous decoration. With the current love and
passion for the remnants of old German art, this acquisition is
important and the Wartburg will count many pilgrims in the future. "
- J.W. Goethe: on plans for a Wartburg museum
Goethe was
impressed by the landscape, the mineralogy, the weather and many
building details; he was aware of the historical value of the castle
as the home of the landgraves and Martin Luther. Goethe's
involvement and interest in the castle later declined noticeably,
also as a result of the Wartburg Festival organized by the Jena
Urburschenschaft in October 1817.
Wartburg festivals
These
Wartburg festivals were mostly student assemblies that took place at
the Wartburg. The best known is the first Wartburg Festival on
October 18, 1817, to which all later referred: On the occasion of
the 300th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation and the
4th anniversary of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig, students
from various German universities met. The gathering of about 500
students and a few professors was a protest against reactionary
politics and small states and for a nation state with its own
constitution.
Since then, the Wartburg has been used as a
meeting point by German student associations. The Wingolfsbund has
held a Wartburg Festival every two years since 1850, and the German
Burschenschaft held its annual ceremony there until the 2013
Burschentag.
Reconstruction since the 19th century
In
1838, the Grand Ducal Saxony-Weimar-Eisenachian building officer
Johann Wilhelm Sältzer was commissioned to investigate the remains
of the Wartburg. His discoveries gave the impetus to restore the old
castle ruins. He had the palace arcades on the courtyard side opened
and supplemented, carefully measured the ruins and presented very
original and imaginative new building plans for the castle,
characterized by a castle romance.
After extensive
discussion, the castle was rebuilt in the historicizing style from
1853 onwards by the architect Hugo von Ritgen. In addition to the
local red rock, from which the majority of the new buildings were
built, Seeberger sandstone from the Großer Seeberg near Gotha was
also used. Several new buildings were erected, which today
significantly shape the image of the castle. In place of the
courtyard room, which was demolished in 1778, the Dirnitz with gate
hall was built in 1867, dividing the castle roughly in the middle.
The keep was built between 1853 and 1859. When the foundations were
being built, the first remains of the foundations of the previous
building were discovered, which had been offset slightly to the
north. This tower was already in a desolate condition in 1568, it
was gradually demolished, in 1774 people spoke of the "fallen castle
tower".
A separate area was required for the private rooms of the ruling
house. For this purpose, the new bower and the new staircase were
added to the keep; these at the same time close the gap between the
hall and the battlement of the outer bailey. Gaden took the place of
the brewery; the basement of the previous building was retained. The
knight's bath was added to the south of the restored palas after the
Wartburg water pipe was completed. The so-called bear kennel located
there was only built in the early 19th century as a popular
amusement. Further buildings (castle kitchen, brewery, house of hand
mills) on the west side were deliberately avoided; the space
available here is taken up by the commandant's garden with a
balcony-like arbor. Another building measure at the end of the 19th
century was the construction of the Wartburg Hotel on the
Gaisköpfchen. On June 11, 1859, the tower cross of the Wartburg on
the keep was inaugurated to complete the construction work. The
painter and mosaic artist August Oetken created the colorful mosaics
in the Elisabethkemenate from 1902 to 1906.
In addition, due
to its historical reconstruction, the building contains numerous
imaginative paintings of people and scenes from the German Middle
Ages.
One of the almost forgotten facts is that the
reconstruction of the Wartburg was made possible not least thanks to
Grand Duchess Sophie, who, as a patroness, supported the project
with significant financial resources.
The interwar period
Eisenach had become an important conference and congress city around
1900. The Kurbad-Eisenach-Gesellschaft was founded in 1905, which
resulted in numerous hotels and guest houses, a casino, baths, parks
and sanatoriums. The Wartburg administration looked at this building
boom with concern, because it permanently changed the previous
appearance of the Wartburg. In tough struggles with the city
administration and the state government, the “Blue Line” was issued
as the limit of permitted development as well as regulations for the
protection of the landscape around the Wartburg, which are still
valid today. Thanks to the burgeoning tourism in the city, the
Wartburg experienced a hitherto unknown influx of tourists. In order
to improve the accessibility of the castle, plans for the tram
connection and a modern access road for powerhouses and automobiles
were commissioned. The construction of the Wartburgallee was
realized and forms the basis for the "mass tourism" which continues
to this day.
The unintended consequences of the annual
visitor records were recognized from the early 1920s. The frescoes
created by Moritz von Schwindt began to fade, fungal attack and
chemical processes in the painting grounds were diagnosed during the
first damage image analyzes. A scientific committee of experts was
commissioned to give the restorers assistance in preserving the
works of art.
The members of the grand ducal family renounced
their political power after the November Revolution in Thuringia.
After the dethronement, however, the dispute over the private
assets, forest ownership, lands and art treasures of the abdicated
princes broke out in all German states. The Wartburg was "defended"
with particular interest by the grand ducal family - the dispute
with the repeatedly changing bourgeois governments in Weimar dragged
on until 1921 and was amicably settled with the signing of the
dispute agreement by Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst and the Weimar
Minister of State. The "Wartburg question" was seen as resolved with
the establishment of the Wartburg Foundation; However, the
foundation members who were initially active were closely related to
the Princely House and also prevented the Thuringian regional
church, formed in 1918, from being included in the foundation
council. All foundation members were confirmed by the respective
minister of culture of the Free State of Thuringia. In the 1930s,
Wilhelm Frick and the Thuringian Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel received
influence on the Wartburg Foundation as committee members. In 1930
Hans von der Gabelentz became the castle captain at the Wartburg. He
founded the Wartburg Museum and the Castle Archive.
1933 to
1945 (National Socialism and World War II)
During the time of
National Socialism, the Thuringian Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel planned
to make the Wartburg a "cultural center of the empire". Numerous
propaganda events and celebrations took place here, such as the 1934
Luther celebrations of the Nazi-affiliated “German Christians”. In
1938 Sauckel had the cross on the castle tower replaced by a
swastika. However, protests from the population meant that it was
removed again after a month and the Christian cross came back in its
place.
In the spring of 1939, 13 Protestant regional churches on the
Wartburg founded the "Institute for Research and Elimination of
Jewish Influence on German Church Life"; on May 8th of that year it
was inaugurated here, and was headed by the theologian Walter
Grundmann. The files of the “Entjudungsinstitut”, which disappeared
after 1945, only became known to the public in 1990 after the
regional church archive had moved.
After the Second World War
American artillery bombardment from April 1 to 5, 1945 caused damage
to the gate and knight house, Dirnitz, keep, Neuer Kemenate, Palas
and Gadem. These were largely remedied by 1946. Outsourced works of
art and valuable holdings of the Wartburg Foundation remained in
secret depots until mid-1946 for security reasons in order to
protect them from destruction or looting. The weapons collection
known as the armory of the Wartburg was still a victim of the
post-war occupation of Thuringia by the Red Army. This collection,
which is both materially and historically valuable, was confiscated
in 1946 and transferred to the Soviet Union, where its traces are
lost.
Since the 1950s, extensive restoration work has been
carried out in advance of important anniversaries (Reformation year,
Luther anniversary, Elisabeth anniversary). In accordance with the
preservation of historical monuments, many of the 19th century
fixtures were removed in order to better accentuate the Romanesque
components. Buildings of historicism are not generally sacrificed
but, where possible, preserved as evidence of the castle's history.
Modern times and world heritage
Building research has made
significant progress since 1990. This applies to both the
architectural archaeological investigation of the castle and the
restoration of the works of art. The technical equipment of the
castle was also renewed step by step, water and sewage pipes, access
roads and paths around the castle were renewed.
In 1999 the
Wartburg became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Since 2008 the
Wartburg belongs to the street of the monuments, a network of German
monuments and places of remembrance founded on the initiative of the
City History Museum Leipzig. The aim of the network is to "network
the places of remembrance as former focal points of the past more
closely and to make them more tangible as a whole through joint
marketing measures".
On May 17, 2010 the urn burial of
Elisabeth von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, who died at the age of 99,
took place in the Elisabeth Chapel. It was the first burial at the
Wartburg.
Since two large wind turbines were to be built
within sight of the Wartburg on the 461 meter high Milmesberg near
Marksuhl, the Wartburg was in danger of losing its UNESCO World
Heritage title. The dispute ended in November 2013 with a
settlement. In addition, the area in question was protected from
similar projects by revised planning regulations of the Free State
of Thuringia.
In 2015, the “Arraiolos Group” met the
incumbent German President Joachim Gauck as host at the Wartburg.
In 2017, the Wartburg played an important role in celebrating
the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Building
The
Wartburg rises on a narrow, rugged rock ridge about 220 m above the
city of Eisenach; it is a typical section castle that originally
consisted of four sections, of which only the outer and main castle
are preserved today. The Wartburg underwent the greatest changes,
which were not always beneficial for the structure, in the 19th
century, when the castle was restored on Goethe's initiative in line
with the ideas of historicism and the revived nationalism of the
German Empire.
The castle was besieged several times in its
history, but never conquered, and in its heyday was divided as
follows:
1st section
The first section of the castle was
located where the hill marks the entrance to the castle today. There
were fortifications here, which gave this section its current name.
The foundations of a tower (fishing tower) were exposed again in the
1990s and are now visible as a square hole. The buildings in this
section, which were visible as covered battlements until Goethe's
time, no longer exist. In its place is the place in front of the
drawbridge today.
Outer bailey
The outer bailey is entered via the drawbridge
through a gate building, which was originally a gate tower from the
time it was converted into a residence and was later reduced in
height and rebuilt. The buildings adjoining the gatehouse to the
right (Ritterhaus, Vogtei) date from the late Middle Ages. However,
indications of the presence of older building fabric were found. The
fountain in the first courtyard of the Wartburg does not date from
the Middle Ages, as the water was supplied by pack animals and a
cistern (in the main courtyard). The curtain wall, which partly
dates back to the 12th century, was provided with the projecting
half-timbered structure and roofed over in the 15th century. The
western part is called Margaretengang and the eastern Elisabethgang.
The outer bailey was probably closed off by a ditch towards the main
castle.
Main castle
The main castle is bounded by the line
of buildings Neue Kemenate, Torhalle and Dirnitz, all buildings from
the second half of the 19th century. The medieval buildings at this
point had already fallen into disrepair in Goethe's time, so that
the medieval condition of the courtyard also had to be reconstructed
through excavations. The main castle is dominated by the late
Romanesque palace, the landgrave house, next to the south tower the
only medieval building of the main castle, as well as the current
main tower, which was built near the original keep, which contains a
water reservoir to supply the city of Eisenach. Nothing of the rest
of the medieval buildings has survived. The Gadem, which is now used
as a restaurant, was renovated from 1874 to 1877; the basement with
barrel cellar was retained. The building previously served as a
warehouse, armory and court kitchen. Immediately to the south of it
was the brewery.
Southern section
The southernmost section
of today's main castle could have been separated from the main
courtyard by a wall at the height of the escape Palas-Gadem due to
the topographical conditions in the Middle Ages. At the southernmost
end of this section is the south tower, the last originally
preserved tower from the history of the castle. It covered the
southern slope in the direction of Eisenach Castle. The part used
today as the castle garden is already three meters lower than the
Gadem. For centuries the area was used as a dump to gradually
enlarge the area of the castle courtyard. During the renovation of
the south wall, which was still ongoing in 2012, foundations and
remains of a group of supporting pillars were documented on the
inside of the curtain wall.
Inn
In the years 1912 to 1914,
the Wartburg-Gasthof was built based on a design by the architect
Bodo Ebhardt.
Concert hall
The Wartburg holds one of the
most famous concert halls in Thuringia. The building's acoustics
played a major role in its success. It is also the work of Franz
Liszt, who brought his musical skills and expertise to the design of
the ballroom when the Palas was converted into a concert hall on
behalf of the Weimar Ducal House.
In its entirety, the
Wartburg is a typical example of the preservation of historical
monuments in the 19th century: the existing architecture was
supplemented with buildings in a historicizing, sometimes
romanticizing form, to reflect the historical significance of the
Wartburg, which was given a national aspect at the time of the
establishment of the German Empire to meet. Comparable sites in
German history are the Reichsburg Kyffhausen, Hohenzollern Castle,
the Hohkönigsburg and the Marienburg Order Castle.
The
Wartburg concerts have been broadcast on the radio since 1958. For
this purpose a studio was set up on the Wartburg.
Tour
A
guided walk through the castle touches the following exposed
buildings:
The main building (the Palas or the Landgrave's
House) originally dates from the middle of the 12th century.
Dendrochronological studies date the beams of the basement to
1157/1158. Borrowings from Roman palace buildings can be seen in the
exterior. The Palas is the only princely palace that has been
preserved from that period of architecture. From 1847 to 1870 it was
extensively restored by the Giessen architect Hugo von Ritgen at the
instigation of Grand Duke Carl Alexander (Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach).
The entrance to the lowest of the three floors, the partial basement
in the south of the castle, initially leads into the former armory
and the former horse stables. A stone staircase in the middle of the
building leads to the actual ground floor of the Palas. The
so-called knight's hall is a square room with a fireplace, the use
of which remains largely unknown to this day. This is followed by
the so-called dining room, which was assigned as the living room of
the old landgraves with the renovation in the 19th century. On the
ground floor of the Landgrave House there is also the bower of St.
Elisabeth, who, at the instigation and expense of the last emperor
of the German Empire, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was completely re-clad from
1902 to 1906 with glass mosaics in the neo-Byzantine style by the
Oldenburg church painter and mosaic artist August Oetken
(1868–1951). It has been proven that she has had her name since
1669. The focal point of the mosaicization of the Elisabeth bower is
an Elisabeth cycle with nine depictions from the life of St.
Elisabeth, Landgrave of Thuringia and Princess of Hungary. The
representations refer to the descent of the House of
Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach from the family of the Landgraves of
Thuringia. On the second floor, the visitor arrives at the Wartburg
chapel. Legend has it that Martin Luther preached here. Historical
facts do not confirm this. In the adjoining singers' hall, Moritz
von Schwind's frescoes, which take up the architecture of the room,
illustrate the saga of the singer's war. The Elisabeth Gallery,
decorated with 13 romantic depictions of Moritz von Schwind
(pictures of the works of the Mercy of St. Elisabeth, i.e. the
fairytale legends and miracles of saints) from 1855 was restored
from 2015 to 2017. The Landgrave's room shows visitors the founding
and other legends of the Wartburg. The third floor is occupied by
the 40 meter long ballroom, which was placed on the original
structure after the Wartburg became the residence of the
Ludowingers.
The museum of the castle with large parts of the
art collection is located in the gate hall, new bower and dirnitz
from the 19th century. The Dirnitz, built in 1867, once contained
the Grand Ducal Armory with a very important historical weapon
collection "of European rank". The most valuable items were 70
pieces of armor from well-known historical figures. This collection
was transferred to the USSR in February 1946. In the three buildings
a permanent exhibition presents the life of the famous guests,
residents and landgraves at the castle. Numerous exhibits and
pictures u. a. by Lucas Cranach show the eventful history of the
establishment in the 12th century, the stay of St. Elisabeth and
Martin Luthers, the decay and reconstruction in the 19th century.
The tour ends the path through the so-called Margarethengang
(western parapet walk) to the Vogtei, where the Luther parlor is
located, which was used by the reformer Martin Luther from May 4,
1521 to March 1, 1522 as a shelter and place of a part (New
Testament or September Testament) served to translate the Bible. The
Gothic so-called Nuremberg bay window in the neighboring Vogteistube
comes from a Nuremberg patrician house, originally served as a
chapel bay window for the Harsdörfer house in Nuremberg and was only
added to the south facade of the bailiwick in the 1870s. In the
upper Vogteistube there is also the so-called Pirckheimer Stübchen,
which was acquired in 1863 by Grand Duchess Sophie von
Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach for her husband Carl Alexander in Nuremberg
and brought to the Wartburg in 1867. The closet room, which was
unique in terms of construction and built around 1490, was long
ascribed to the humanist Willibald Pirckheimer (1470–1530), but was
probably commissioned by the printer and publisher Anton Koberger
(1440–1513).
Events
The Wartburg Festival has been held annually since 2004.
From May 4 to November 5, 2017, one of three national special
exhibitions was shown at the Wartburg on the occasion of the
Reformation anniversary in 2017. The exhibition “Luther and the
Germans” focused on Luther's stay at the Wartburg and the
developments that led to the rebuilding of the Wartburg and its
transformation into a “national monument” in the 19th century. It
also contained a reception of Luther from the 16th century to the
present day.
Since the turn of the year 2018, a newly
designed permanent exhibition can be seen in the rooms of the
castle.
Miscellaneous
Ludwig II of Bavaria took the
Wartburg as a model for his Neuschwanstein Castle in the Allgäu. The
palace and the castle not only resemble each other in silhouette
from some angles, the ballroom was also imitated for the palace of
the Bavarian king.
The Wartburg has become a literary venue
in many ways, best known through Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser. Before
the First World War, the literary magazine Wartburgstimmen also
appeared in Eisenach under the editorship of the novelist Ernst
Clausen.
In 1962 the Protestant Wartburg Church in Frankfurt
(Main) was named after her.
In July 2013, a tactile castle
model with inscriptions in Braille, created by students from the
Bauhaus University Weimar, was set up in front of the Wartburg
palace. The lettering enables the blind and visually impaired to get
to know the main buildings of the Wartburg in their cubature and
with many facade details by touch.
The Wartburg was included
in the Blue Book published in 2001. The Blue Book is a list of
nationally important cultural institutions in East Germany and
currently includes 20 so-called cultural lighthouses.
The
district of Wartburg is named after the Wartburg. However, the
Wartburg is not in the Wartburg district. This is because when the
district was formed in 1994, the town of Eisenach, in whose area the
castle is located, also belonged to this district. In 1998 Eisenach
became an independent city and thus left the district.
In
mini-a-thür (Ruhla near Eisenach), in the Miniwelt (Lichtenstein /
Sa.) And in Clingen in the Kyffhäuserkreis there are miniature
replicas of the Wartburg.
The geographical center of Germany
depends on the calculation method. A calculation of the center of
gravity of the area of Germany (excluding the twelve-mile zone)
determined a point on the Landstreit estate near Eisenach as the
center point (51 ° 0 'N, 10 ° 20' E). As a representative, the
Wartburg, about 10 km away, was declared the center of Germany.
The donkey station is at the foot of the Wartburg.
The
castle complex surrounds a forest area of around 27 hectares. The
Thuringian Forestry Office recommended that this so-called
foundation forest be forbidden.
For security reasons, the
Wartburg is located in a restricted flight area (ED - R 90). Around
the Wartburg, the so-called blue line marks a construction ban
within a radius of 500 meters. It goes back to the Eisenach city
planning director and castle building officer Karl Hofferbert, who
wanted to prevent the rapid expansion of the southern quarter and
thus the building of the castle in the 1930s.
The Pummpälzweg
hiking trail leads from Eisenach via the Wartburg, Ruhla and the
Kissel for 28 kilometers to Bad Salzungen.
During the art
project “Daily Painting” (World Heritage in Germany) in June 2011
almost 50 graphics and photos of the Wartburg were created by art
students from the University of Paderborn, which were published on
the WEB on 50 consecutive days.
In the facade of the Tribune
Tower in Chicago an original stone from the Wartburg is inserted and
provided with information about the origin of Luther’s Wartburg -
Eisenach, Germany.
The Wartburg can be easily reached with
the bus lines 3 and 23 of the Wartburgmobil transport company, which
run from the city center or the P + R car parks in Mariental. The
logo of this transport company shows a highly stylized Wartburg.
Legends
Luther himself reports that he was molested by the devil
in the Wartburg. With his statement that he then "drove out the
devil with ink", he referred to his translation of the Bible. This
quote from Luther was later interpreted to mean that he had thrown
an inkwell at the devil. The local geographer and historian
Melissantes alias Johann Gottfried Gregorii mentioned in 1713 that
visitors to the Wartburg were shown an ink stain in Luther's room.
This stain, which had to be renewed and re-colored on a regular
basis after visitors had repeatedly taken small pieces of plaster
home as souvenirs, could be seen in the Luther room well into the
past century.
Landgrave Friedrich the Freidige was the son of
Albrecht the Degenerate and was born on the Wartburg in 1257.
According to legend, his mother Margaretha von Staufen, who fled
from the Wartburg before her husband in 1270, overwhelmed by the
pain of parting, bit him on the cheek, and that is how he was called
the bitten one.
The city of Eisenbach lies at the foot of the castle hill was found in the late 12th century. It has many old architectural marvels like 16th century town hall, remains of fortifications and numerous churches. Besides the city has a house where Martin Luther moved. Now it houses a museum of his work. Besides Eisenbach is hometown of Johann Sebastian Bach who was born here in 1685. Unfortunately his house did not survive, but a museum was build here.
Rennbahn 6- 8
Tel. (03691) 77 21 2
Open: 10 am- 5 pm (Tue- Sun)
Frauenplan 21
Tel. (03691) 7 93 40
Open: Oct.- Mar. 1 pm- 4:45 pm- Mon; 9 am - 4:45 pm- Tue- Sun
Apr.- Sep. 12 pm- 5:45 pm- Mon; 9 am- 5:45 pm- Tue- Sun
Eisenbach is also famous for its old abandoned houses (especially car factory) that you can find here. Most are technically someone's property, but its doesn't seem that laws are strictly enforced here.