In its current form the Wewelsburg was built from 1603 to 1609 as secondary residence for the prince-bishops of Paderborn, namely Fürstbischof Dietrich von Fürstenberg (also see Bishopric of Paderborn). Its location is near what was then believed to be the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
Predecessor buildings existed: Wifilisburg was used during the 9th and 10th centuries against the Hungarians; another one was built in 1123 by Earl Friedrich von Arnsberg. After his death in 1124, the building was demolished by farmers that he oppressed. In 1301, Earl von Waldeck sold the Wewelsburg to the prince-bishop of Paderborn. A document about this acquisition proves that two fortress-like buildings stood on the hill: the Bürensche- and the Waldecksche-house.
From 1301 to 1589, the prince-bishops of Paderborn assigned the estate to miscellaneous liege lords.[3]
The masonry of both predecessor-buildings was integrated in the now-existing triangular Renaissance castle, which was built from 1603 to 1609.
The Wewelsburg was destroyed several times during its history, during the Thirty Years' War in 1646[5] by the occupation of Swedish troops – namely by the army under the Swedish general Carl Gustav Wrangel. Since 1654, the widely destroyed castle was rebuilt by prince-bishop Theodor Adolf von der Recke and his successor Ferdinand von Fürstenberg. He carried out some architectural changes; the three towers of the castle got their baroque domes.
From 1589 to 1821, the castle was place of residence of a bursary officer. Two witch trials took place in the Wewelsburg in 1631 (a former inquisition room is placed in the basement next to the east tower).[8] Legend suggests that the castle held thousands of accused witches during the 17th century, who were tortured andexecuted within its walls.
During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the basement rooms were probably used as a military prison. Until the end of the prince-bishops' times in 1802, prison cells existed in a dungeon in the basement of the west tower.
In 1924, the castle became the property of the district of Büren and was changed into a cultural center. In 1925, the castle had been renovated into a local museum, banquet hall, restaurant and youth hostel. At the end of the Twenties, the North Tower again proved to be the weak point of the architecture, and had to be supported by guy wires in winter 1932/33; the preservation of the castle was supported by the "Club for the preservation of the Wewelsburg" (Verein zur Erhaltung der Wewelsburg). After 1925, the renovation activities decreased.
SS history
In 1934, SS-leader Heinrich Himmler signed a 100-mark, 100-year lease with the Paderborn district, initially intending to renovate and redesign the castle as a "Reich SS Leadership School" ("Reichsführerschule SS"). Whoever called Himmler's attention to the castle is unknown. There is speculation that Karl Maria Wiligut advised him; Wiligut allegedly was inspired by the oldWestphalian legend of the "Battle at the birch tree" (Schlacht am Birkenbaum).
The saga tells about a future "last battle at the birch tree", in which a "huge army from the East" is beaten decisively by the "West". Wiligut supposedly predicted to Himmler that the Wewelsburg would be the "bastion". Himmler expected a big conflict between Asia and Europe.
Another source reports that the NS district president of the city of Minden von Ohnhausen called Himmler's attention to the Wewelsburg. Nevertheless, Himmler certainly knew the apocalyptic saga of the "Battle at the birch tree", which takes place in the Wewelsburg region.
Himmler wanted a castle in the "core-region of Hermann der Cherusker" for the SS. He was seeking for a castle for the purposes of the SS-Rasseamt (SS-race-office). Originally he was interested in Castle Schwalenberg. Himmler visited the Wewelsburg for the first time on 3 November 1933. He was impressed by the triangular shape and north-south-axis of the castle. On the same day he decided to restore the castle. In January 1934, the voluntary labour service started with the rebuilding work. On 22 September 1934, a ceremonial transfer to Himmler took place.
It was to be enlarged to accommodate the planned SS-leader school (SS-Führerschule). In the planned school, besides physical training, a uniform ideological orientation of the leading cadre of the SS was to be realized. Courses for SS-officers in pre- and early history, mythology, archaeology, astronomy and art were intended as mental warehouse for an ideological-political schooling.
Actual instruction never took place. The first SS commandant of the castle, SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Erich Schupping, envisioned a kind of Nordic academy. Scientists in the SS practiced "Germanic applied research" ("germanische Zweckforschung") at the castle, with a purpose of supporting the racial doctrine of the SS. From the autumn of 1935, the projected work was called "SS-Schule Haus Wewelsburg" (that is, "SS School, House Wewelsburg")
Wewelsburg castle was also a center for archaeological excavations in the region. Fields of activity included study of prehistory and ancient history (directed by Wilhelm Jordan, who led excavations in the region), study of medieval history and folklife (directed by Karlernst Lasch from March 1935), build-up of the "Library of the Schutzstaffel in Wewelsburg" (directed by Dr. Hans Peter des Coudres), and strengthening the National Socialist worldview in the village of Wewelsburg (directed by Walter Franzius; this included such work as renovation of a timbered house in the center of the village of Wewelsburg – the "Ottens Hof" – between 1935 and 1937 for use as a village community center; Franzius also undertook various other architectural tasks).
The castle crew consisted of members of both SS branches, the "General SS" ("Allgemeine SS") and the "Armed SS" ("Waffen SS"). Also working at the castle were proponents of a kind of SS esotericism consisting of Germanic mysticism, an ancestor cult, worship of runes, and racial doctrines: Himmler, for example, adapted the idea of the Grail to create a heathen mystery for the SS.
sky view of wewelsburg
No proof exists that Himmler wanted a Grail castle, but redesign of the castle by the SS referred to certain characters in the legends of the Grail: for example, one of the arranged study rooms was named Gral ("Grail"), and others, König Artus ("King Arthur"), König Heinrich ("King Henry"), Heinrich der Löwe ("Henry the Lion"), Widukind, Christoph Kolumbus ("Christopher Columbus"),Arier ("Aryan"), Jahrlauf ("course of the seasons"), Runen ("runes"), Westfalen ("Westphalia"), Deutscher Orden ("Teutonic Order"), Reichsführerzimmer ("Room of the Empires Leader(s)"; "Reichsführer-SS", or "the Empire's Leader of the SS" was Himmler's title), Fridericus (probably in reference to Frederick II of Prussia), tolle Christian (probably referring to Christian the Younger of Brunswick, Bishop of Halberstadt), and Deutsche Sprache ("German language"). In addition to these study rooms, the SS created guest rooms, a dining room, an auditorium, a canteen kitchen, and a photographic laboratory with an archive.
Oak was used to panel and furnish these rooms, though (according to contemporary witnesses) only sparely. All interior decoration was shaped by an SS sensibility in art and culture; the preferred elements of design were based on runes, swastikas, and Germanically interpreted sense characters. Tableware, decorated with runes and Germanic symbols of salvation, was manufactured specifically for Wewelsburg castle, and Himmler's private collection of weapons was housed in the castle. From 1939, the castle was also furnished with miscellaneous objects of art, including prehistoric objects (chiefly arranged by the teaching and research group "Das Ahnenerbe"), objects of past historical eras, and works of contemporary sculptors and painters (mainly works by such artists as Karl Diebitsch, Wolfgang Willrich, and Hans Lohbeck – that is, art comporting with the aesthetics of National Socialism).
In 1934, the eastern castle bridge was built and the castle moat lowered. The exterior plaster was removed to make the building look more castle-like. The following year, a smithy was established on the ground floor of the North Tower for manufacture of the wrought-iron interior decoration of the castle. The western and southern wings of the castle were rebuilt between 1934 and 1938; the eastern, between 1936 and 1938. The first new building, the guardhouse (Wachgebäude), was constructed next to the castle in 1937; historical documentation of "Wewelsburg 1933–1945" has been housed there since 1982. An SS sentry post and a small circular location (Rondell) were placed next to the guardhouse, as was a no longer extant SS staff building (SS-Stabsgebäude). The North Tower was strengthened and rebuilt between 1938 and 1943.
North tower
The first commandant of the castle (Burghauptmann von Wewelsburg), from August 1934, was Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Erich Schupping. He was partial to Karl Maria Wiligut's religious theories. The opinion of other SS-scientists about Wiligut were absolute negative. SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Schuepping was succeeded by Siegfried Taubert on 30 January 1938. Because Taubert was consigned to various other tasks he was absent from the castle for longer periods.
So called "SS-marriage-consecrations" (SS-Eheweihen) took place at the castle.
Since 1936, Himmler (who was often present at the castle) wanted more and more to expand the Wewelsburg to be a representative and ideological center of the SS Order. Consequently, although at first planned to be an educational training center, during the 1930s increasing measures were taken to transform the castle into an isolated central meeting place for the highest ranking SS-officers.
For financing the project Himmler founded in 1936 the "Gesellschaft zur Förderung und Pflege deutscher Kulturdenkmäler e.V." (Association for the advancement and maintenance of German cultural relics (registered association)) and assigned the association as building developer. In contrast to the SS, the association was allowed to receive donations and loans. Until 1943, the project cost 15 million Reichsmark. In 1939, Himmler forbade publishing anything about the castle.
After the Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst FAD (voluntary labour service) the Reichsarbeitsdienst RAD (Reich Labour Service) carried out the modifications of the castle. In 1938, the RAD was relocated to the "Westwall" (Siegfried Line). Between 1939 and 1943, prisoners from the Sachsenhausen and Niederhagen concentration camps were used as labourers to perform much of the construction work on Wewelsburg, under the design of architect Hermann Bartels. Due to a decree of 13 January 1943, all building projects which were unimportant for the war – including the Wewelsburg – had to be stopped.
In 1938 after the Reichskristallnacht 17 Jews from the 10 km away Salzkotten were shut in the dungeon in the basement of the west tower before their further transport to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
In the middle of the Thirties Himmler had a private safe mounted in the basement of the west tower. Only the commandant of the castle knew about it. The whereabouts of its content after the Second World War is unclear.
wewelsburg in background
Swearing-in ceremonies were planned at the castle. Meetings of SS-Group-Leaders (equivalent to lieutenant-generals) at so called "spring conferences" were planned since 1939. Probably some talks took place at Wewelsburg Castle; the only documented "Gruppenführer"(generals')-meeting was held from 12 to 15 June 1941 – one week before the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. The highest ranking SS-officers, who planned the SS-operation in the Soviet Union or who were intended to be used for the operation, were called up by Himmler. Concrete decisions were not made. The meeting's purpose was the ideological preparation of the attendant SS-leaders for the campaign. Another source mentions three or four ceremonies a year of SS-leaders which took place at the castle.
Towards the end of the war Himmler ordered that Wewelsburg castle should become the "Reichshaus der SS-Gruppenführer" (Reich-House of the SS-Gruppenführer).
In 1938, Himmler ordered the return of all death's head rings (German: Totenkopfringe) of dead SS-men and officers. They were to be stored in a chest in the castle. This was to symbolize the ongoing membership of the deceased in the SS-Order. The whereabouts of the approximately 11,500 rings after the Second World War is unclear, but it has been suggested that they were entombed in a local mountain by blasting closed the entrance to a cave.
Death's Head Ring
Himmler's plans included making it the "center of the new world" ("Zentrum der neuen Welt") following the "final victory".[39] The monumental estate was never realized; only detailed plans and models exist. The installation of a 15 to 18-meter-high wall in the shape of a three-quarter circle[7] with 18 towers including the actual castle area centred on the North Tower of the castle, 860 m in diameter, was planned. The real purpose of the project was never clearly defined.[40] Inside of this castle area buildings were planned for the exclusive purposes of the Reichsführung-SS (Reich leadership SS).
The main road of an SS village was also to be centered on the North Tower of the castle with a diameter of 1270 m. This road was to be connected with three radial roads and gates with the castle area. The residential area was to be placed in the northwest, the center of the village in the north, and the SS-barracks in the west of the castle area; between the barracks and village a villa colony for higher SS-leaders; in the southwest farmsteads.
In the architectural plans from 1941, the estate had the shape of a spear pointing towards the north; the 2 km long access avenue with four tree rows ]road looks like a spear shaft with an access to the Rhynern – Kassel Reichsautobahn (freeway) to the south] The plan from 1944 shows the castle as the top of a triangular estate surrounded by further buildings. The plans also included a "hall of the High Court of the SS" (Saal des Hohen Gerichtes der SS), streets, parkways, magnificent buildings, a dam with a power plant, freeway accesses and an airport. From 1941 on (after Hitler's successful military campaigns against Poland and France) the architects called the complex the "Center of the World". It was to be finished within twenty years. The complex was to be a center of the "kind accordant" religion (artgemäße Religion) and a representative estate for the SS-Führerkorps (SS leader corps). If the plans had been realized, the entire village of Wewelsburg and adjacent villages would have disappeared. The population was to be resettled. The valley was to be flooded. 250 million Reichsmark were budgeted for the estate.
When the "final victory" failed to materialize, the castle commander (or Burghauptman), SS General Siegfried Taubert, fled on 30 March as the U.S. 3rd Armored Division closed in on the Paderborn area in the final phases of the war. Meantime, at his headquarters in Brenzlau, Himmler ordered adjutant SS Maj. Heinz Macher, with 15 of his men, to destroy the Wewelsburg. This took place on Saturday, 31 March only three days before the 83rd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Armored Division seized the grounds after reports from a nearby Burgomeister that "SS men had set fire to their barracks in the castle, changed into civilian clothes and fled." Because Macher's company ran out of explosives, they placed tank mines only in the unimportant southeast tower, the guard-building and the SS-cadre-building which was completely destroyed. The castle was set on fire and – according to information of the village citizens – the castle was given free for looting.
Heinrich Himmler
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