Kransberg Castle
Encyclopedia
Kransberg Castle is situated on a steep rock near Kransberg (incorporated into Usingen
in 1971), a village with about 800 inhabitants in the Taunus
mountains in the German province of Hesse
. The medieval building, which acquired its current appearance in the late 19th century, served military and intelligence purposes in World War II and during the Cold War. It was returned to its original representation purposes during the second half of the 20th century, and briefly became a business park for small information technology and internet companies in the early post-millennium years.
for Kranichsberg = Crane
mountain). In 1310 the castle was sold to Duke Philipp IV. von Falkenstein. It was inherited by the nobility of Eppstein
in 1433, and briefly fell to the Königstein
line in 1522 when Gottfried X. von Eppstein died. It passed on to the County of Stolberg
in 1535, to the Archbishopric of Mainz
in 1581, and was sold to the Waldbott von Bassenheim family in 1654.
The castle fell into disrepair from the late 18th century onward until it was sold to the Duchy of Nassau
in 1853. It fell to the state of Prussia
in 1866 which in 1874 sold it to Arnold von Biegeleben, a Baron from Darmstadt
who recreated and extended it in the neogothic
style. Only parts of the outward fortifications and the central tower remained essentially unchanged.
From 1939-1941 Albert Speer
adapted it for use as Adolf Hitler's main military command headquarters, under the title Adlerhorst
. A compound of air-raid standard concrete bunkers were disguised as seven cottages, under which was an extensive bunker
complex which linked them to the castle. But on completion the complex dismissed by Hitler on a visit in February 1940, and Speer subsequently adapted it to serve as the Luftwaffe
headquarters during Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Great Britain
. (Some characteristic elements of Speer's architectural style are still apparent in 2010.)
When plans for the invasion of Britain were abandoned in favor of Operation Barbarossa
, the invasion of the Soviet Union
, Kransberg was put to use as a rehabilitation center
for soldiers of all ranks, and as the personal retreat for Hermann Göring
.
From October 1944, the castle and Adlerhorst had become the headquarters of the Commander in Chief of OB West
, Gerd von Rundstedt
. After the failed 20 July plot attempt on Hitler's life, and the abandonment of the Wolfsschanze
due to the advances of the Red Army
, Hitler needed a new military base of operations for the forth coming Ardennes Offensive. Hitler arrived at Giessen on the Führersonderzug (train) on 11 December 1944, taking up residence at the castle until 16 January 1945. Von Rundstedt who was to command Operation Wacht am Rhein set up his headquarters near Limburg
, close enough for the generals and Panzer Corps commanders who were to lead the attack to visit the castle that evening. Von Rundstedt ran through the plans, that at 05:00 on December 15, envisaged the attack of three German armies consisting of over 250,000 men.
Shortly after Christmas, Göring arrived and took up residence in the castle. After an extremely downbeat briefing, Göring privately suggested to Hitler that a truce be sought via his Swedish
contacts. Hitler flew into a rage, and after threatening to have Göring put before a firing squad, mentally dismissed him as deputy Fuehrer.
After giving his 1945 New Year's speech from the Adlerhorst, at 04:00 Hitler walked to the commaned centre to watch the development of Operation Nordwind
, his counter-offensive on New Year's Day.
At midnight, nine Panzer divisions of Heeresgruppe G
commanded by Generaloberst
Johannes Blaskowitz
had mounted an all-out attack on Bastogne
. Then a faked diversionary attack was mounted by eight German divisions of Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein)
commanded by Heinrich Himmler
, against the thinly stretched 110 kilometres (68.4 mi) line of the U.S. 7th Army and French 1st Army positions near Lembach
in the Upper Vosges
mountains in Alsace
, 120 miles (193.1 km) to the southeast, to destroy them. However, as the Allies had cracked the Enigma code machines
, each German manouvere was either prepared for or out-flanked by an allied counter-move. This resulted in a bitter attritional campaign that was lost from the 25th January onwards, by the German's running out of replacement man power, machinery and supplies.
On 6 January 1945, a blockbuster bomb
was jettisoned on Ziegenberg by a returning Allied bomber, damaging the church and several houses, killing four residents. With the Ardennes Offensive failed, and no new military plans or the resources by which to carry them out, the German military high command accepted that the western front was lost. Hitler left on his train for East Prussia
on January 16, 1945 to bolster the defenders, with the Russians having already reached Danzig.
Having been made commander of OB West on March 11, on March 17 Kesselring ordered all classified documents and sensitive equipment removed from the castle. On March 19 the castle and surrounding area was subject to a 45 minute fire bombing air raid by a squadron of P-51 Mustang
s. This resulted in the loss of 10 civilian lives, and the castle plus many of the surrounding buildings being damaged, destroyed or set on fire.
On March 28, with the American Army only 12 miles (19.3 km) away, Kesselring and his troops abandoned the castle complex. A U.S. Army unit took Kransberg Castle on March 30.
, Wernher von Braun
, Ferdinand Porsche
, and the leaders of the IG Farben
chemical conglomerate. The highest-ranking of these persons of interest was Albert Speer, the minister for armaments and wartime production who was detained in one of the buildings which he had redesigned as Hitler's chief architect a few years earlier. During his detention between June and August 1945 he provided very open and detailed accounts of the inner workings of the Third Reich and the impact of Allied bombing of Germany. "Dustbin" remained in operation throughout 1946.
In 1956 the Organisation Gehlen, the U.S.-German intelligence unit that later became the nucleus of the Bundesnachrichtendienst
, moved in. It was later followed by the 5th U.S. Army Corps which operated an NCO academy, and by U.S. intelligence units which directed large parts of its espionage network in communist East Germany from here.
had burst, these efforts were stalled. In 2007 he was forced to cede ownership to a real estate management company, which terminated the remaining business park operation at the end of 2008.
According to the company, which is seeking a buyer, some facilities at Kransberg castle will be reopened in 2010.
Usingen
Usingen is a small town in the Hochtaunuskreis in Hessen, Germany. Until 1972, this residential and school town was the seat of the former district of Usingen.-Location:...
in 1971), a village with about 800 inhabitants in the Taunus
Taunus
The Taunus is a low mountain range in Hesse, Germany that composes part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. It is bounded by the river valleys of Rhine, Main and Lahn. On the opposite side of the Rhine, the mountains are continued by the Hunsrück...
mountains in the German province of Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
. The medieval building, which acquired its current appearance in the late 19th century, served military and intelligence purposes in World War II and during the Cold War. It was returned to its original representation purposes during the second half of the 20th century, and briefly became a business park for small information technology and internet companies in the early post-millennium years.
Medieval time to 19th century
The original Kransberg castle was constructed around 1170, presumably based on a fortification that dates back to the 11th century. The first documented owner (in 1250) was Erwinus de Cranichesberc (Middle High GermanMiddle High German
Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
for Kranichsberg = Crane
Common Crane
The Common Crane , also known as the Eurasian Crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes.It is a large, stately bird and a medium-sized crane at 100–130 cm long, with a 180–240 cm wingspan and a weight of 4.5–6 kg...
mountain). In 1310 the castle was sold to Duke Philipp IV. von Falkenstein. It was inherited by the nobility of Eppstein
Eppstein
Eppstein is a town in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany.-Geographical situation:Eppstein lies west of Frankfurt am Main, around 12 km north east of the state capital Wiesbaden, and is at the edge of the Taunus mountains....
in 1433, and briefly fell to the Königstein
Königstein im Taunus
Königstein im Taunus is a climatic spa and lies on the thickly wooded slopes of the Taunus in Hesse, Germany. Owing to its advantageous location for both scenery and transport on the edge of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region, Königstein is a favourite residential town...
line in 1522 when Gottfried X. von Eppstein died. It passed on to the County of Stolberg
County of Stolberg
The County of Stolberg was a county of the Holy Roman Empire located in the Harz mountain range in present-day Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.The town of Stolberg was probably founded in the 12th century as a mining settlement. The Counts of Stolberg probably derived from a branch of the counts of...
in 1535, to the Archbishopric of Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
in 1581, and was sold to the Waldbott von Bassenheim family in 1654.
The castle fell into disrepair from the late 18th century onward until it was sold to the Duchy of Nassau
Nassau (state)
Nassau was a German state within the Holy Roman Empire and later in the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, now extinct in male line, was the House of Nassau.-Origins:...
in 1853. It fell to the state of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
in 1866 which in 1874 sold it to Arnold von Biegeleben, a Baron from Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
who recreated and extended it in the neogothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
style. Only parts of the outward fortifications and the central tower remained essentially unchanged.
Third Reich
Emma von Scheitlein, of Austrian nobility, acquired the castle in 1926 and used it for society events until the Nazi government appropriated it in 1939 and put it to military use.From 1939-1941 Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
adapted it for use as Adolf Hitler's main military command headquarters, under the title Adlerhorst
Adlerhorst
Adlerhorst was a World War II bunker complex in Germany, located within Kransberg Castle , Wetterau in the Taunus mountains in the province of Hesse...
. A compound of air-raid standard concrete bunkers were disguised as seven cottages, under which was an extensive bunker
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
complex which linked them to the castle. But on completion the complex dismissed by Hitler on a visit in February 1940, and Speer subsequently adapted it to serve as the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
headquarters during Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. (Some characteristic elements of Speer's architectural style are still apparent in 2010.)
When plans for the invasion of Britain were abandoned in favor of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, the invasion of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Kransberg was put to use as a rehabilitation center
Physical medicine and rehabilitation
Physical medicine and rehabilitation , physiatry or rehabilitation medicine, is a branch of medicine that aims to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities. A physician having completed training in this field is referred to as a...
for soldiers of all ranks, and as the personal retreat for Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
.
From October 1944, the castle and Adlerhorst had become the headquarters of the Commander in Chief of OB West
OB West
The German Army Command in the West The German Army Command in the West The German Army Command in the West (Oberbefehlshaber West (German: initials OB West) was the overall command of the Westheer, the German Armed Forces on the Western Front during World War II. It was directly subordinate to...
, Gerd von Rundstedt
Gerd von Rundstedt
Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt was a Generalfeldmarschall of the German Army during World War II. He held some of the highest field commands in all phases of the war....
. After the failed 20 July plot attempt on Hitler's life, and the abandonment of the Wolfsschanze
Wolfsschanze
Wolf's Lair is the standard English name for Wolfsschanze, Adolf Hitler's first World War II Eastern Front military headquarters, one of several Führerhauptquartier or FHQs located in various parts of Europe...
due to the advances of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, Hitler needed a new military base of operations for the forth coming Ardennes Offensive. Hitler arrived at Giessen on the Führersonderzug (train) on 11 December 1944, taking up residence at the castle until 16 January 1945. Von Rundstedt who was to command Operation Wacht am Rhein set up his headquarters near Limburg
Limburg
Limburg may refer to:A province divided between Belgium and the Netherlands as consequence of the Treaty of London* Province of Limburg , a former province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, close enough for the generals and Panzer Corps commanders who were to lead the attack to visit the castle that evening. Von Rundstedt ran through the plans, that at 05:00 on December 15, envisaged the attack of three German armies consisting of over 250,000 men.
Shortly after Christmas, Göring arrived and took up residence in the castle. After an extremely downbeat briefing, Göring privately suggested to Hitler that a truce be sought via his Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
contacts. Hitler flew into a rage, and after threatening to have Göring put before a firing squad, mentally dismissed him as deputy Fuehrer.
After giving his 1945 New Year's speech from the Adlerhorst, at 04:00 Hitler walked to the commaned centre to watch the development of Operation Nordwind
Operation Nordwind
Operation North Wind was the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. It began on 1 January 1945 in Alsace and Lorraine in northeastern France, and it ended on 25 January.-Objectives:...
, his counter-offensive on New Year's Day.
At midnight, nine Panzer divisions of Heeresgruppe G
Army Group G
The German Army Group G fought on the Western Front of World War II and was a component of OB West.When the Allied invasion of Southern France took place, Army Group G had eleven divisions with which to hold France south of the Loire...
commanded by Generaloberst
Colonel General
Colonel General is a senior rank of General. North Korea and Russia are two countries which have used the rank extensively throughout their histories...
Johannes Blaskowitz
Johannes Blaskowitz
Johannes Albrecht Blaskowitz was a German general during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
had mounted an all-out attack on Bastogne
Bastogne
Bastogne Luxembourgish: Baaschtnech) is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes. The municipality of Bastogne includes the old communes of Longvilly, Noville, Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, and Wardin...
. Then a faked diversionary attack was mounted by eight German divisions of Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein)
Army Group Oberrhein (Germany)
The Upper Rhine High Command , also incorrectly referred to as Army Group Upper Rhine , was a short-lived headquarters unit of the German Armed Forces created on the Western Front during World War II. The Upper Rhine High Command was formed on 26 November 1944 and was inactivated on 25 January 1945...
commanded by Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, against the thinly stretched 110 kilometres (68.4 mi) line of the U.S. 7th Army and French 1st Army positions near Lembach
Lembach
Lembach is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-Geography:Lembach lies in the Sauer valley, surrounded by the woods and sandstone cliffs of the North Vosges natural Park...
in the Upper Vosges
Vosges
Vosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been...
mountains in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, 120 miles (193.1 km) to the southeast, to destroy them. However, as the Allies had cracked the Enigma code machines
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
, each German manouvere was either prepared for or out-flanked by an allied counter-move. This resulted in a bitter attritional campaign that was lost from the 25th January onwards, by the German's running out of replacement man power, machinery and supplies.
On 6 January 1945, a blockbuster bomb
Blockbuster bomb
Blockbuster or "cookie" was the name given to several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force...
was jettisoned on Ziegenberg by a returning Allied bomber, damaging the church and several houses, killing four residents. With the Ardennes Offensive failed, and no new military plans or the resources by which to carry them out, the German military high command accepted that the western front was lost. Hitler left on his train for East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
on January 16, 1945 to bolster the defenders, with the Russians having already reached Danzig.
Having been made commander of OB West on March 11, on March 17 Kesselring ordered all classified documents and sensitive equipment removed from the castle. On March 19 the castle and surrounding area was subject to a 45 minute fire bombing air raid by a squadron of P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
s. This resulted in the loss of 10 civilian lives, and the castle plus many of the surrounding buildings being damaged, destroyed or set on fire.
On March 28, with the American Army only 12 miles (19.3 km) away, Kesselring and his troops abandoned the castle complex. A U.S. Army unit took Kransberg Castle on March 30.
Cold War
Soon thereafter a British-American detention center, commonly referred to as Operation Dustbin, for high-ranking German non-military prisoners of war, was established in parts of the complex. Focused on key industrialists, scientists and economists, among those interrogated here were Hjalmar SchachtHjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic...
, Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
, Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche
Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer and honorary Doctor of Engineering. He is best known for creating the first hybrid vehicle , the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles...
, and the leaders of the IG Farben
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
chemical conglomerate. The highest-ranking of these persons of interest was Albert Speer, the minister for armaments and wartime production who was detained in one of the buildings which he had redesigned as Hitler's chief architect a few years earlier. During his detention between June and August 1945 he provided very open and detailed accounts of the inner workings of the Third Reich and the impact of Allied bombing of Germany. "Dustbin" remained in operation throughout 1946.
In 1956 the Organisation Gehlen, the U.S.-German intelligence unit that later became the nucleus of the Bundesnachrichtendienst
Bundesnachrichtendienst
The Bundesnachrichtendienst [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Chancellor's Office. Its headquarters are in Pullach near Munich, and Berlin . The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign countries...
, moved in. It was later followed by the 5th U.S. Army Corps which operated an NCO academy, and by U.S. intelligence units which directed large parts of its espionage network in communist East Germany from here.
Late 20th century to present
In the wake of the German reunification, the U.S. Army left Kransberg Castle in 1990 and returned it to the German government which sold it to Ulrike Brandis, a granddaughter of the disenfranchised Emma von Scheitlein, in 1993. Once again the complex became a center of culture and societal events. The costs of operating and maintaining the castle forced Brandis to sell her real estate to Klaus Landefeld, an information technology entrepreneur, in 2000. He converted parts of the complex into a business park for IT companies, and initiated the architectural reconversion of those parts that had been disfigured during the period of military use. When Landefeld's business suffered an economic downturn after the dot-com bubbleDot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
had burst, these efforts were stalled. In 2007 he was forced to cede ownership to a real estate management company, which terminated the remaining business park operation at the end of 2008.
According to the company, which is seeking a buyer, some facilities at Kransberg castle will be reopened in 2010.
External links
- Kransberg community website (German)
- Schloß Kransberg history website (German)
- Kransberg in the Rhein-Main region wiki
- Schloß Kransberg macht dicht. Frankfurter Rundschau online, November 20, 2008