Hemhofen Castle

In 1650, Hemhofen came into the possession of Philipp Graf zu Pappenheim as a wedding gift from the Truchsess von Pommersfelden to his daughter upon her marriage. After the death of the Count and through remarriage, Hemhofen first came into the possession of Freiherr von Töstelberg in 1660. He began the construction of Hemhofen Castle in 1715. He must not have been very happy with his castle construction, as he decided on July 11, 1722, to sell the castle and the associated lands to the Winkler von Mohrenfels family. Wolfgang Christoph Winkler von Mohrenfels (1659–1729) was elevated to the nobility by Emperor Joseph I in 1709. He had achieved significant wealth through energy and knowledge.

He transformed the property acquired from Freiherr von Töstelberg into a family fideicommissum, the document for which dates from 1723. This document was confirmed by the Imperial Chancellery in Vienna in 1731. Wolfgang Christoph von Mohrenfels completed the construction of the castle, but it was only under his son Georg Christoph (1709–1748) that the castle and its outbuildings flourished to considerable size and beauty. However, Hemhofen Castle also served the Protestant community as a house of worship for a long time, as the Freiherren Winkler von Mohrenfels immediately employed castle preachers after taking over the castle, who were also private tutors to the noble family.

The jurisdiction over the Bamberg knightly fief of Hemhofen held by the Winkler von Mohrenfels was ceded to the Principality of Bayreuth, which had been Prussian since 1792, in the Prussian-Bavarian main state treaty of 1803, with which it fell to France in the Peace of Tilsit in 1807 and was ceded to Bavaria in 1810.

After the Second World War, displaced persons and elderly people found shelter in the castle. The building, largely renovated a few years ago, is no longer inhabited today.