Rauheneck Castle

Rauheneck Castle (today commonly spelled Raueneck, "wooded corner, mountain spur") is the ruin of an administrative castle of the Diocese of Würzburg in the Haßberge mountains in the district of Haßberge, Lower Franconia, Bavaria (Germany). The severely dilapidated complex was closed until 2006 due to the risk of collapse, but has been accessible again since the beginning of the ongoing emergency stabilization.

The ruin of the hilltop castle is located on a western spur of the Haubeberg mountain, which lies north of the village of Vorbach, a western district of the former district town of Ebern. It is surrounded by the mixed forest stands of the Haßberge Nature Park.

The Castle

According to legend, Rauheneck Castle was built around 1180 by the expelled Brambergers after the destruction of the neighboring Bramberg Castle. The family then named themselves after their new castle. In 1231, the noble free Ludwig von Ruheneke, along with half the castle and other properties, placed himself under the feudal suzerainty of the Diocese of Würzburg. This certainly did not happen entirely voluntarily. The family of Rau(h)eneck is said to have died out a short time later (around 1250).

The Lords of Rauheneck, verifiable in written sources, are referred to there as "nobiles" (noble free). A genealogical connection with the noble free of Bramberg is indeed to be assumed. Friedrich von Rauheneck occasionally bore the epithet "von Bramberc". He opposed the Diocese of Bamberg in the dispute over the inheritance of the Andechs-Meranians (around 1248).

To protect their dominion, the family allied itself with numerous lower noble families in the area and passed on its own property to its vassals. Georg Ludwig Lehnes, in his 1841/42 history of the Baunach-Grund, counted the Lords of Lichtenstein, Kößeln, Gemeinfeld, Brünn, Hofheim, Ostheim, Scherschlitz, Kotzenwinden (Kurzewind), Redwitz, Breitenbach, Westheim, Mehried, Holfeld, Neubrunn, Schoder, and Kliebern among the retinue of the Raueneckers. The names of some of these servants prove that in the High Middle Ages, a local noble family was resident in almost every place in the area. However, all these clans died out or fell back into the burgher or peasant class over the centuries.

Possibly, the rapprochement with the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg was a reaction to internal family conflicts. Due to a dispute with his nephew Friedrich, Ludwig von Rauheneck enfeoffed his estates to the diocese a second time in 1244. In return, he was appointed as a castellan at Rauheneck.

The Prince-Bishopric occupied the castle with bailiffs and castellans after the extinction of the Lords of Rauheneck. In 1300, Konrad Staudigel held this office. In 1304, a Wolvelin (probably a Stein zu Altenstein) appeared as an official. In 1338, Heinrich von Sternberg is verifiable as hereditary castellan at Rauheneck. In the same year, Albrecht von Aufseß also paid homage as hereditary castellan at Rauheneck.

In 1341, Heinrich von Wiesen resided in the fortress, and in 1346, Hans Truchseß von Birkach. In 1364, Apel Fuchs was mentioned in a document. Before 1378, Gecke von Füllbach was bailiff of Rauheneck.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Marschalk von Rau(h)eneck family resided in the castle as Würzburg vassals. In 1378, Dietz Marschalk appeared as the first of his family in the fortress. Dietz invested 280 fl in the expansion of his administrative castle, which he was later to receive back from the Prince-Bishopric. He also had to deposit 120 guilders for the castle estate. Since his inauguration, the castle estate was connected with the bailiwick.

Until 1379, the Kemmerer family also lived in the castle as co-heirs. Apel Dietrich and Bernhard Kemmerer finally sold their shares to the Marschalk family. In 1430, the Marschalks invested another 200 guilders in the modernization of the fortress in view of the threat from the Hussites.

In 1445, the Prince-Bishopric enfeoffed Wilhelm Marschalk with Rauheneck again. Heinz Marschalk returned the fief to Würzburg in 1476. At that time, the castle was pledged and redeemed by the Prince-Bishopric with ready money. After this redemption, the gradual unification of the offices of Ebern, Seßlach, Bramberg, and Rauheneck began. Christoph Fuchs, previously bailiff of Ebern and Seßlach, now also administered the office of Rauheneck.

In 1483, the dominion was pledged again for 1000 guilders. After Hartung von Bibra redeemed the pledge for the Prince-Bishopric in 1486, the castle was assigned to him as a residence. He had to undertake to always keep three horsemen (mercenaries) and the associated horses there.

After the Marschalk family also died out with Friedrich Marschalk in 1550, the castle finally reverted to the Diocese of Würzburg. During the Thirty Years' War, the office was used as a recruitment place for 12 companies of infantry. In 1633/34, two cavalry units camped in the castle, which was then under Swedish administration. The Swedish bailiff Lorenz Scheffer had to give way to the Catholic Würzburg officials a little later.

The complex was maintained as a Würzburg administrative seat until the late 17th century and abandoned in 1720. The Würzburg double office of Bramberg-Rauheneck was moved to the nearby administrative town of Ebern in 1685. Both offices had already been united in 1560. As the last bailiff, Liborius Friedrich von Hausstein vacated the secluded hilltop castle and moved into the new administrative seat in the town.

Since 1829, the Barons von Rotenhan have been the owners of the castle complex, which has since fallen into disrepair almost unhindered. In July 2006, emergency stabilization of the castle began after the Haßberge district was able to lease the area for the next few decades. As a preparatory measure, an archaeological training excavation took place under the direction of a medieval archaeologist.

Chapel

As early as 1232, a chapel in the castle was mentioned, which was incorporated into the parish of Ebern. A chaplain is verifiable for 1428. The population of the surrounding villages of Jesserndorf and Bischwind attended services there and had to pay the Ebern parish priest five pounds of Heller annually as compensation (1435). The church was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and was already located in the castle's outer bailey. In 1436, the Bishop of Würzburg permitted the establishment of a cemetery. The church was still used until 1745 after the castle was vacated. The rectory, however, had already been abandoned in 1615.

Originally, the castle chapel was apparently on the ground floor of the palas next to the later gatekeeper's room. A narrow pointed arch window has been preserved there in the outer wall. Possibly, the ground floor even served as a prayer room after the construction of the new chapel. Two consecration crosses are still visible on the plaster remains of the round-arched passage to the small guardroom.

The Müllers of Raueneck

In 1842, Georg Ludwig Lehnes's "Geschichte des Baunach-Grundes in Unterfranken" was published in Würzburg by the author himself. He held the widespread view that the Marschalk von Raueneck family had died out in 1550.

On August 1, 1842, a G. K. W. Müller von Raueneck published a "Correction" of this opinion in Schleusingen. He claimed to be a descendant of this family. Allegedly, a Georg von Raueneck had lost his fortune due to family disputes and had therefore entered imperial military service around 1508. His wife, a born von Lichtenstein, is said to have died shortly before. The nobleman had therefore entrusted his four-year-old son Friedrich to the childless miller of Frickendorf for upbringing. The miller later appointed the Rauenecker as his heir but demanded that the family should henceforth be called Müller zu Raueneck. The Raueneckers were also said to be of the same lineage as the Austrian Rauheneckers. Lehnes, on the other hand, assumed a genealogical connection of the family with the Lords of Rotenhan.

This "Correction" was included uncommented in the 2005 reprint of the "Geschichte des Baunach-Grundes". In fact, the name Müller von Raueneck appears in some noble lists and directories to the present day, but it no longer seems to be used in Germany. The author of the "Correction" even added a family tree of the Müller von Raueneck and "document excerpts" that were not further explained to his statements.

The information provided by the mysterious G. K. W. Müller von Raueneck has not yet been seriously verified by experts. It is still unclear whether this is not a joke, perhaps from an academic environment. Lehnes was only a simple archive clerk without academic training, an early dedicated local historian, whose work might have been intended to be disparaged in this way.