Götz von Berlichingen went down in history as a ruffian and leader in the peasants’ wars – and not only because Goethe dedicated a play to him. He nevertheless found a home on the Hornberg hill above the Neckar valley – and led a life as a devoted paterfamilias and husband.
For one moment, there is complete silence. The visitors in front of the chapel have become quiet. The Asian couple that had previously been poring over a travel guide is now gone. The midday sun is shimmering through the plain bullseye panes. An autumn bouquet was placed on the modest altar and a white pillar candle next to it. Did he once kneel here? Götz von Berlichingen was a pious man, and here we are – in his castle chapel. It is very likely, therefore, that it was here where he married his second wife Dorothea Gailing of Illesheim, where his children were baptised and where he prayed, maybe also to Saint Odile, whose statue stood here once, the patron saint of the blind – because, little by little, the arguably last famous rogue knight of the Middle Ages lost his eyesight on the Hornberg.
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What is it like to live in an 11th-century castle? Baron Dajo von Gemmingen-Hornberg tells us all about it in our video.
There are quite a few places in the castle high above the Neckar that can tell a story of Götz, as he had bought the castle in 1516 and died here at the advanced age of 82 in 1562. Above the chapel was “his living room,” as Dajo von Gemmingen-Hornberg smilingly calls the spacious room with its large fireplace, which was recently re-roofed. Was it in the Upper Castle where he dictated the famous story of his life to Georg Gottfried, the pastor of the patronage from Neckarzimmern, which Goethe later turned into a play? This is not at all unlikely.
Götz’s made-to-measure armour weighing 30 kilograms, amongst other things, waits for visitors in the castle museum on the Hornberg hill.
Today’s owners of the castle, baron Dajo and his wife Daniela, set up a little museum in honour of the rogue knight in the Lower Castle. Engravings, arms and an early edition of the play by Goethe from 1784 are evocative of him. And, of course, his made-to-measure armour weighing 30 kilograms. Even his signet ring still exists at the place that researchers have deemed as a model castle with its keep, its gates and its residential buildings. “The perfect castle for him was impregnable,” the baron explains – after all, Götz, who had lost his hand on the battlefield in his early twenties, had been enmeshed in countless feuds throughout his life. Not least in the violent conflicts of the peasants’ wars.
Götz von Berlichingen gained world-fame not least because of his iron fist.
His castle thus had to be well-fortified – a fact that visitors can convince themselves of while exploring the castle complex situated on steep limestone rock on their own. It was renovated several years ago in an enormous feat, partially funded by subsidies, but not least by the family itself. And it is also the home of the couple owning the castle and their two children who now inhabit the premises in the twelfth generation – a family that by itself has a long und impressive history, that of the House of Gemmingen-Hornberg.
One starts to get an idea of how long and how impressive when strolling through the Lower Castle where the family lives. Here, paintings, coins, arms and pieces of furniture tell their stories of the lives of politicians, diplomats and scientists. “Things from all parts of the family were brought here, often just because this place has always been considered a safe place,” Dajo von Gemmingen-Hornberg says clicking through one of his bibliophiles’ treasures on the touchscreen in the castle museum – he had two beautifully illustrated volumes digitalised: the Turnierbuch der Kraichgauer Ritter (Tournament Book of the Kraichgau Knights) from 1616 and the Hortus Eystettensis, a copperplate print work weighing 14 kilograms in the original, a botanical book from 1613.
It’s 80 steps down to the garden
Daniela von Gemmingen-Hornberg
The castle, though, has not been inhabited continuously throughout its long history. “My family intermittently lived in a palace down in the valley,” the baron recounts – part of which is the town hall of Neckerzimmern today. This is why the castle was spared alterations during the 17th through to the 20th centuries. In 1932, however, Dajo’s grandmother returned to the castle on the hill. The traffic of the new federal highway had become so loud that the baroness ordered the massive castle complex made of rusticated embossed ashlars high above the Neckar valley to be turned into a space suitable for living again. At one spot, a staircase was even hewn into the walls, which were up to three metres thick, using jackhammers that were steam-powered at the time. This staircase today leads into partly splendidly adorned, but most of all cozy rooms. “It’s 80 steps down to the garden,” Daniela von Gemmingen-Hornberg shares about her daily life that has been centring even more around the preservation and the continuous development of the castle for many years now, since she, in 2017, even gave up her own dentist’s practice for that purpose.
Dajo von Gemmingen-Hornberg had two bibliophiles’ treasures digitalised: the Turnierbuch der Kraichgauer Ritter from 1616 and the copperplate print work Hortus Eystettensis, a botanical book from 1613.
The library vault of the Lower Castle houses the family chronicle from 1631, amongst other things – a work that the ancestral father, the law expert Reinhard der Gelehrte (meaning “the scholar”) (1576–1635), had worked on for 25 years. High above the filing cabinets, a cuirass, a chest-plate worn by Franz von Gemmingen, towers. Worn in the service of the German Emperor whose lifeguards he belonged to – the strong-built man of 1.9 metres that he was. Four horns hang next to it on the wall reminding of the “Mozart of the Neckar valley” (1759–1813). “Until today, there are stories in circulation about Ernst von Gemmingen, saying he only employed people in the castle that were able to play an instrument – so that he could try out new compositions with them right away,” the baron reports of his forefather. His library and former music vaults today are used by the family primarily for wine tastings.
High above the valley – the Hornberg hill rises high above the Neckar that also served as a natural protection against enemies.
After all, the oldest known owner of Hornberg Castle, Count Boppo von Lauffen, is said to have already owned vineyards here in 1184. The column capitals of his large residential building, which he had decorated with wine motifs, are reminiscent of this. “The building we live in is 900 years old,” Dajo von Gemmingen-Hornberg notes – its tower palace is probably the largest still preserved residential building of the Staufer era north of the Alps. High up on the steep slopes that Götz had already taken an interest in. “In the castle, he was far from being a ruffian; more the devoted agriculturist, vintner and husband,” as the baron describes it who himself underwent a training as a vintner and also studied viticulture.
There has always been a connection between the Hornberg and wine.
Götz had the vineyards expanded by at least a third. These are facts that make Dajo von Gemmingen-Hornberg and his wife proud, of course, – but they also give them pause. “To grow wine on these sites is simply no longer economically viable today,” the lady of the castle says who together with her husband consequentially decided to stop the winery – and look for alternatives. Together with the NABU (a national nature conservation organisation), they had a herb garden and plots for biodiversity created in the Upper Castle area that will be expanded to the steep slopes, too. The former fields that Götz had already cultivated around the Stockbronner Hof area a few kilometres away are to be turned into a solar park. “What is more, we develop the family property step by step,” the baroness shares – this is one reason why their son Paul now studies property management. Furthermore, one part of the family continues the forestry business, while another part of the family runs a hotel in one part of the castle.
There has always been a connection between the Hornberg and wine.
20,000 people come up to the Hornberg hill every year. Some come in busses, more than just a few as hikers via the Neckarsteig trail or as hotel guests. Many come because they take a special interest in castles, or because they look for traces of Götz von Berlichingen. In the castle museum, the statue of Saint Odile is gently looking down on the visitors – the patron saint of vintners and also of the visually impaired and the blind. “It isn’t improbable at all that Götz purchased her when his eyes got worse,” the baroness says. Given his piousness, that is. But maybe he was also superstitious. And probably, he was simply grateful considering his long life. And he definitely did not die in the dungeon, as Goethe has it in his play – but here. And that means – in the castle where he spent most of his life, 45 years to be precise. As a knight, but also as a paterfamilias, a vintner, an agriculturist and as a husband.
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