Reisensburg Castle

Reisensburg Castle on the Danube near Günzburg, originally Reisensburg Fortress, was the seat of the Luitpolding Berthold von Reisensburg and other members of the Luitpolding ducal family, who were expelled from Bavaria in 955.

The University of Ulm, which operates a Science Center (WZR) there, incorporated the Reisensburg Castle property into the corporate assets of the University of Ulm as a non-independent foundation on January 1, 1997.

The area of the present-day castle was already settled 4000 years ago. Of the five prehistoric settlement groups, which did not directly follow one another, more is known today about one settlement each in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The first castle complex was mentioned in the first half of the 6th century by the Geographer of Ravenna, who referred to the Goth Athanarid.

In the 10th century, the castle was owned by Berthold von Reisensburg, who had been banished from Bavaria for his involvement in the uprising of his father Arnulf (II.) and King's son Liudolf against King Otto I, and who is said to have subsequently betrayed King Otto I's deployment plans to the Hungarians before the Battle of Lechfeld. After that, the castle disappeared from written sources and was only mentioned again in the 12th century in connection with various castle lords.

In the 16th century, the castle was converted into a palace. In 1604, "the last group of feudal lords lost Reisensburg" (University of Ulm). In 1632, the castle was burned down by Swedish mercenaries. After its reconstruction, Reisensburg was inherited by the Barons von Eyb in 1763. Their last descendant died on March 21, 1851. Maximilian Alexander von Riedheim bought the complex on June 17, 1852. After the forced sale in 1920 due to political unrest, the International Institute for Scientific Cooperation e. V. acquired the castle on March 6, 1966.