Upper Castle Ehningen

Since the Middle Ages, there were two small castles in Ehningen, with a third rising a few kilometers away in Mauren. All three are first mentioned in documents in the course of the 14th century, but certainly existed for longer. The two Ehningen castles were located south of the Würm, while the village spread north of the Würm.

In the early 14th century, the Upper Castle belonged to the Lords of Ehningen. It had the typical form of the time: a wide moat, well over a man's depth, surrounded the curtain wall, which enclosed an area of 37 x 33 meters and, with a thickness of 1.50 meters, was 7 meters high. In one corner was the keep, a residential tower with a base area of 15 x 8 meters, which did not protrude beyond the curtain wall. Below the top of the wall, on the inside, a battlement ran around the entire complex.

The castle changed hands several times. In 1515, Martin Klemm von Ringelstein, forest master in Nagold, acquired it and had the property rebuilt and expanded. A picture of what the castle looked like is provided by Andreas Kieser's Böblingen Forest Book from 1681, which depicts both Ehningen castles and the Mauren castle. According to this, the curtain wall in the north and west had plastered or bricked superstructures; a three-story half-timbered structure had subsequently been placed on the keep in the northeast corner. The appearance of the castle apparently changed little until 1754; however, the owners changed several times initially. Since 1564, the castle belonged to Franz Kurz, private chamber secretary to Duke Christoph of Württemberg. In 1573, he compiled a description of the castle and, above all, of the associated property and all "rights," which is preserved in the castle archive. Among the rights and duties of the lord of the castle was a claim to four times the share of the yield (of wood, hay, fruit, etc.) of the common land, as was due to a citizen of Ehningen. The community also had to supply timber if the lord of the castle undertook renovations.

In 1580, his widow sold the entire property to Duke Ludwig of Württemberg, who enfeoffed it to his chancellor Dr. Johannes Brastberger. Since then, the castle has always been inherited within the same family.

In 1639, the castle was taken over by a great-grandson of Chancellor Brastberger, Felix Wilhelm Breitschwert. His son also acquired the Lower Castle in Ehningen in 1681, where the family apparently lived until they sold the property again in 1714.

In the 18th century, the family's financial situation seems to have deteriorated. Already in the late 1720s, the Duke of Württemberg ordered the renovation of the dilapidated castle. (The Duke was the owner; the Breitschwerts, as feudal tenants, had the hereditary right of use, but also duties). But it was not until 1754 that the then owner, Eberhard Felix Wilhelm Breitschwert, could comply with the ducal order. Since he "was unable to do so with his own means," his wife contributed more than 3000 guilders in cash from her fortune. The next lord of the castle, Karl Heinrich Felix Breitschwert, managed the property so poorly that he was eventually even placed under guardianship. After his death in 1796, his younger brother Johann Ludwig Christian (1758-1841) took over the inheritance and apparently decided on a comprehensive renovation. He renovated the residential building, renewed the stable and barns, drained several meadows, and had the moat around the castle filled in.

The next fundamental renovation was only necessary at the beginning of this century. Siegfried von La Chevallerie, who had inherited the property in 1913, had the buildings renovated before moving in in 1919. In 1927, the farm buildings, i.e., the southeast and south wings of the castle, burned down. The stable and barn were rebuilt using half-timbered construction; additionally, the east wing was extended to the south. The barn, which formerly occupied the southwest corner, was not rebuilt for safety reasons.

The medieval curtain wall, formerly surrounded by a moat, has been preserved to this day, albeit with many repairs. The north front of the castle, facing the village, has always been the show and entrance side. Formerly, the road led directly to the castle entrance and ended there. The entrance gate occupies the center, today as 500 years ago, formerly accessible by a drawbridge over the moat. In the northeast corner of the curtain wall, the main residential building rises on the foundations of the 14th-century keep. Already after 1515, a three-story residential building was erected there, and in the same place, the new residential building was built in 1755. Its mansard hip roof, a typical architectural form of the second half of the 18th century, still characterizes the overall appearance of the castle today.