Burg Bärwalde: A Gothic Water Castle Ruin in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Margraviate of Brandenburg
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Burg Bärwalde is the ruin of a Gothic lowland water castle in Meinsdorf, Germany, within the municipality of Niederer Fläming. Its origins reach back to a Slavic fortification built on the site during the tenth or eleventh century, while the later castle developed in the medieval period as a strategically placed stronghold above the village.
Early fortification and medieval rule
The earthworks of the earlier fortification were reshaped in the thirteenth century. The foundation of the medieval castle remains uncertain. It may have been established by Saxon or Brandenburg rulers, or founded or enlarged by Wichmann of Seeburg, the medieval bishop of Magdeburg, a major ecclesiastical principality in the region. An earthwork about 500 metres from the castle is regarded as a probable predecessor site.
The Lords of Bärwalde appeared in the entourage of the Margrave of Brandenburg. The Lords of Slawtitz, also known as Slautitz, followed them in 1366, and Bärwalde was first mentioned as a stronghold in 1375. During the fifteenth century, the von Wollenfels, or Waldenfels, family held the castle and estate as a fief. After the Slawtitz family, ownership passed to the von Leipzig family around 1470.
Territorial changes and estate division
After the Niederlausitz came under Bohemian rule, its rulers also claimed the Bärwalder Ländchen, the small historical territory centred on Bärwalde. The Treaty of Guben in 1462 transferred the territory to the Electorate of Brandenburg. It then remained a Brandenburg exclave within the territory of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg until 1680.
Inheritance divisions reshaped the estate during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. One division created an estate at neighbouring Herbersdorf, while a later division left the Bärwalder Ländchen shared among five owners at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The manor residence
In 1734, Gottfried Emanuel von Einsiedel, a Royal Prussian lieutenant general, reunited the territory by purchasing the villages of Bärwalde, Weißen, Rinow, Herbersdorf, Kossin, Meinsdorf, and Wiepersdorf. After his death in 1745, his daughter Sofia Dorothea inherited the villages. She initially leased Bärwalde and sold it, effective 10 February 1780, to Joachim Erdmann von Arnim for 98,000 thalers.
Under Joachim Erdmann von Arnim, the castle was enlarged into a manorial residence. Bettina von Arnim, a German writer and cultural figure, may have spent summers at Bärwalde because of its more agreeable climate. Two paintings made above doorways at Wiepersdorf in 1880 show the Bärwalde palace as it appeared around 1784. Bärwalde became part of Prussia in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna.
Demolition and preservation
After the Second World War, the von Arnims were expropriated, and the building was designated for demolition under SMAD Order No. 209. The SMAD, or Soviet Military Administration in Germany, governed the Soviet occupation zone after the war. New farmers reused material from the demolished building in their own farmsteads. The work exposed a medieval tower made of bog ironstone, an iron-rich natural stone formed in wet, marshy ground. Because the stone was difficult to reuse, the tower survived.
From 1996 onward, the Niederer Fläming administrative office initiated measures to secure and develop the complex. The tower was repaired in 1998, and its emergency roof was replaced with a freely reconstructed roof. An information board about the complex and its surroundings was installed nearby. The site is listed in Brandenburg’s state monument register as “Burgruine und Gutspark,” meaning castle ruin and manor park.
Remains
The castle complex occupied one of two earth mounds measuring approximately 120 by 60 metres and 120 by 45 metres. Both mounds were encircled by a water-filled moat. The later palace was a three-storey, L-shaped building with a comparatively steep roof covered in red material. Its appearance is partly preserved in the 1880 paintings made at Wiepersdorf, which depict the palace around 1784.
Surviving structures
Residential tower
The principal surviving structure is a three-storey residential tower from the medieval castle. It was built of bog ironstone, laid in weakly regular courses with only a few cut stones at the corners. A small number of surviving window reveals are formed from masonry bricks. The tower remains within the castle ruin and received a reconstructed roof during the 1998 repair.
Vaulted rooms
The complex also preserves the ruin of an elongated room that originally had a barrel vault. A second room extends from it at a right angle. Together, these remains form part of the surviving fabric of the castle, while the palace itself was demolished after the Second World War.
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