Burg Reineberg: A Medieval Territorial Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
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- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Burg Reineberg, also called Reineburg, is a former hilltop castle in Germany, near Lübbecke, whose medieval origins are associated with the bishops of Minden and Osnabrück. The castle was first documented in 1221, although its foundation is partly surrounded by competing traditions. Minden episcopal chronicles attribute its foundation to Bishop Konrad I of Rüdenberg, who held office from 1209 to 1237, while records from Osnabrück state that Bishop Adolf of Tecklenburg, bishop from 1216 to 1224, helped build it.
A joint episcopal stronghold
By the late thirteenth century, the bishops of Minden and Osnabrück jointly owned Reineberg, a status confirmed by an agreement of 1306. A bishopric was an ecclesiastical territory governed by a bishop, who exercised both religious and secular authority. In this setting, Reineberg served as a fortified base from which the bishops of Minden asserted their authority against the Bishop of Osnabrück, the Counts of Tecklenburg, and the noble lords of Diepholz. Its administrative importance increased as the territory governed from Minden expanded.
The castle also formed part of the political alliances of the region. In 1362, Rabodo Schele, who held Reineberg, joined an association created by the ecclesiastical territories of Minden and Osnabrück together with the towns of Minden and Lübbecke. A fifteenth-century description by Tribbe, a canon of Minden Cathedral, portrayed Reineberg as a strongly fortified bulwark.
The siege of 1412
Reineberg became the centre of a dispute in 1412. The knight Dietrich von Münchhausen held the castle as a pledge, a form of secured possession in which a ruler transferred control of a castle or office in return for money, with the possibility of later redemption. Without the consent of his lord, Bishop Wulbrand of Hallermund, or the Minden cathedral chapter, the body of clergy assisting in the administration of the cathedral and bishopric, Münchhausen attempted to pledge Reineberg to Count Nicholas II of Tecklenburg.
Wulbrand responded by besieging the castle. Tecklenburg forces came to relieve it, but citizens of Lübbecke, supported by Allhard von dem Busche, the bailiff of Limberg, drove them away. A bailiff, also called a Drost, administered a territorial office or fortress on behalf of its ruler. The episode illustrates the castle’s place in the continuing territorial competition between Minden, Tecklenburg, and neighbouring powers.
Pledges, recovery, and destruction
Financial shortages among the territorial rulers meant that Reineberg was repeatedly pledged. Johann Tribbe served as its bailiff around 1525, and in 1543 the castle was pledged to Clara von Hatzfeld and her sons Meinolf and Joachim. After Bishop Georg came to power in 1554, he attempted to recover all pledged castles belonging to his ecclesiastical territory. He therefore ended the pledge held by Hilmar von Quernheim, although Hilmar obtained an extension for several years.
When the pledge was finally terminated in spring 1564 and Hilmar did not respond, the bishop ordered the castle to be stormed on 2 May. A settlement followed, and in 1567 Hilmar was again permitted to hold Reineberg as a pledge, this time for twelve years. The castle thus remained both a military position and a financial asset within the administration of the Minden territory.
During the Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict fought from 1618 to 1648, Reineberg was severely affected and plundered three times, in 1636, 1638, and 1640. On 9 September 1636, the Imperial officer Heister ordered the entire archive at Reineberg to be burned. The castle’s political role declined after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 transferred the Principality of Minden to Brandenburg, although the site continued to be connected with territorial administration.
From territorial castle to administrative office
In 1719, Frederick William I ordered the union of the County of Ravensberg with Minden. Between 1723 and 1808, the War and Domain Chamber in Minden expanded its role as the higher administrative authority for five Minden offices and eight Ravensberg offices. Reineberg and its associated office continued to be pledged several times during this period.
On Frederick William I’s order, the castle was demolished in 1723 because it had fallen into disrepair. Reusable materials were partly incorporated into the government building in Minden and partly into a new office building at Reineberger Feld, also called “zum Siek,” where several farm buildings already stood. The castle had come under the general authority of the Bishop of Minden and had developed into a territorial castle of Minden. Its sphere of authority became the Minden office of Reineberg.
The old Office of Reineberg, also called the Office of Reineberger Feld, existed from 1723 to 1807 within the Prussian Principality of Minden. The name Reineberg also survives as that of a district in the municipality of Hüllhorst, whose coat of arms depicts Reineburg. An official survey of the visible remains took place in 1951. The local historian Friedrich Langewiesche of Bünde established that five outer baileys had formerly stood in front of the main castle. Reineberg is designated as an archaeological monument.
Remains
The hilltop fortress
The castle occupied the summit of the 275.9-metre-high Reineberg in the Wiehen Hills, within the Reineberger Hagen in the southern part of present-day Lübbecke, in North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minden-Lübbecke district. Its position on the hilltop formed the physical setting for a fortress associated with the territorial authority of Minden and Osnabrück. The castle complex occupied the summit, while forward fortifications indicate the use of medieval siege techniques.
The castle moat
The surviving visible feature is a castle moat measuring 310 metres in total length and between 15 and 22 metres in width. It marks the defensive enclosure of the former summit complex and provides the clearest surviving indication of its scale. The moat remains as the visible element of a castle whose reusable building materials were removed during the demolition of 1723 and used in buildings at Minden and Reineberger Feld.
The outer baileys
Five outer baileys formerly stood in front of the main castle. An outer bailey was an enclosed area outside the principal castle that could serve defensive, administrative, residential, or service functions. Their presence was established through the 1951 survey and the subsequent work of Friedrich Langewiesche. Together with the forward fortifications and moat, these baileys show that Reineberg consisted of more than a single fortified summit enclosure.
