Ruine Hohenstoffeln: Three Aristocratic Hilltop Castles in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Ruine Hohenstoffeln is a group of three aristocratic hilltop castles in Germany, in the municipality of Hilzingen in Baden-Württemberg. The castles were Vorderhohenstoffeln, Mittelhohenstoffeln, and Hinterhohenstoffeln, within the historical Landgraviate of Nellenburg, a territorial principality governed by a landgrave.
Early records and noble ownership
Hohenstoffeln is first recorded in 1034. In 1056, Bishop Gebhard of Regensburg, brother of Emperor Conrad II, was imprisoned there because of secret alliances directed against Emperor Henry III, successive rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. Vorderstoffeln and Mittelstoffeln were built later, and all three castles appear together in written records in 1299.
Ludwig of Pfullendorf-Ramsberg zu Stoffeln is recorded as an owner in 1067. The Staufer dynasty, a medieval German ruling family that supplied several kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, later held the castles. The Lords of Stoffeln held them from 1236 until their line ended in 1399.
In the mid-fourteenth century, another family acquired the imperial fief of Mittelhohenstoffeln. An imperial fief was territory held from the emperor or the Holy Roman Empire in return for loyalty and service. After making the castle its principal seat, the family adopted the name Lords of Stoffeln. It acquired Hinterstoffeln in 1433 and continued until its extinction in 1579. The Reischach family occupied Vorderstoffeln from 1420, while the Lords of Hornstein are recorded there in 1623.
The Lords of Stoffeln included Kuno of Stoffeln, prince-abbot of St. Gall Abbey from 1365 to 1411. A prince-abbot was an abbot who also possessed the rank and territorial authority of a prince. Konrad of Stoffeln, a member of the thirteenth-century family, was a minnesinger, a medieval German poet and composer of courtly love songs.
Capture and destruction in 1633
In January 1633, during the Thirty Years’ War, René du Puy-Montbrun, seigneur de Villefranche and de la Jonchère, was captured at Randegg and taken to Hohenstoffeln. The war was a European conflict fought from 1618 to 1648 amid religious, dynastic, and territorial struggles. Georg Michael Wepfer’s diary records that du Puy-Montbrun escaped through a privy by climbing down a rope made from bed furnishings. He later retaliated by burning Weiterdingen and handed Weiterdingen Castle and the lordship of Grüningen to the Württemberg councillor Offenburger.
During the war, Rhinegrave Otto Ludwig of Salm-Kyrburg-Mörchingen destroyed the three castles. A Rhinegrave was a historical noble title associated with the counts of the Rhine. After capturing Rheinfelden, Laufenburg, and Waldshut, Otto Ludwig advanced against Hohenstoffeln on 14 July 1633 with 8,000 Swedish and Württemberg troops and heavy artillery.
A contemporary diary describes a prolonged assault. Heinrich Ludwig of Pappenheim, the only son of Count Maximilian of Pappenheim, was killed by a shot to the head on 27 June while attempting to attack Vorder- and Mittelstoffeln with Swiss mercenaries aligned with the Protestant side and acting on the orders of Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedish king whose intervention shaped the Protestant war effort.
On 20 July, artillery damaged the wall of the old castle near Weiterdingen. The defenders set the old castle on fire, either deliberately or after it was struck by an incendiary projectile, and withdrew to the new castle. The following day, artillery breached its round tower and fired into its rooms. The castle then surrendered under terms allowing the garrison to leave with sticks. Its commander, Lorenz Eckart of Bretten in the Palatinate, was pardoned, while twelve men from Engen were captured and some were later hanged. The castle was given to the soldiers for plunder.
On 21 July, the castles were plundered and damaged. About 200 wagonloads of grain, vegetables, household goods, and other property were removed, much of it belonging to inhabitants of neighboring settlements who had deposited it there for safety. Wepfer recorded acquiring 24 books from the soldiers. On 24 July, the new castle was set on fire by order of Otto Ludwig and the Duke of Württemberg and burned completely. Balthasar Ferdinand of Hornstein, who administered Vorder- and Mittelstoffeln, was reduced to poverty. Hinterstoffeln was held by Bilgeri of Reischach, although all three castles remained imperial fiefs.
Two citizens of Engen were hanged in retaliation for the death of the count’s son, and others were put in irons. The Duke of Württemberg later ordered inhabitants of surrounding settlements to demolish the remaining walls. The castles have remained ruins since the Thirty Years’ War. Their destruction through demolition and quarrying left only limited remains. Basalt extraction on the northern side of the former volcanic vent continued until 1939, while the writer Ludwig Finckh campaigned to preserve the mountain.
Remains
Three summit positions
The ruins occupy Hohenstoffeln at approximately 841.8 metres above sea level, about 1,800 metres east of Binningen in the municipality of Hilzingen, Konstanz district, Baden-Württemberg. The three castles stood at separate points on the hilltop. Hinterstoffeln occupied the northern summit, Vorderstoffeln the southern summit, and Mittelstoffeln the saddle between them.
The site formed a connected hilltop complex of three castles. A continuous wall linked the separate strongholds and contained a shared entrance, stables, and barns. Hinterstoffeln was the largest of the three castles, while the arrangement of the summit positions placed Mittelstoffeln between the northern and southern castle sites.
Surviving castle fabric
The remains of Vorderstoffeln include evidence of a palas, the principal residential and representative building of a medieval castle. Its sides measured approximately 18.5 metres, and it stood on a platform measuring 52 by 52 metres.
Only scant masonry survives across the complex. Demolition after the destruction of 1633 and extensive basalt quarrying affected the former castle sites, particularly on the northern side of the volcanic vent. The surviving masonry therefore represents a small portion of the three-castle arrangement that once occupied Hohenstoffeln.
