I have mentioned the Guttenberg Castle which we visited. (See Guttenberg Photos) I will now spend a little time on talking about various aspects of life in a castle, especially the Guttenberg Castle. I make no claims that any ancestors lived there, but considering its age, it is entirely possible. It could have been that the ancestor was an owner, more likely it was a cook or a guard, and the most probable is "all of the above".
Many of the castles were built along rivers, because the rivers provided transportation. (This is the situation that existed in Virginia in the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century.) So, the river (the Neckar in this case) provided transportation, and the castle could control this "road". However, a castle was primarily a defensive measure, because it was fixed to one spot. Defensively, it depended upon several things, but especially on its thick stone walls; but, even these were no match for gunpowder. So, the true defensive castle was significant for only a few centuries.
Guttenberg Castle was built circa 1200 to help protect the imperial palace in Bad Wimpfen. Therefore, it was important to communicate with other elements of the imperial infrastructure. This was most easily done by having the castle, to which a tower was added, located on a higher elevation. The tower, besides being a part of the communications system, was useful as an outlook for unusual activity in the neighborhood. That is, it was supposed to be a part of an early warning system. An alarm system is good only if it is used, so it was necessary to have people who were on continuous duty as sentries. They lived and worked in the tower, even if they were bored to death.
The original owners of the castle, the Lords of Weinsberg, lived in, and governed from, the castle until 1449. Then it was bought by Hans "The Rich" von Gemmingen, for 6,000 Rhenish Gilders, and has remained in possession of the Barons von Gemmingen for 550 years. Members of the family still live in the castle today.
The castle had most of the elements that one studies in grade school. The innermost structures were living and working quarters for a select group of the owners, their immediate servants, and the soldiers. A shielding wall surrounding this inner group, with the walls of buildings being a part of the wall. The tower was incorporated into this structure. All of this was surrounded by another wall, and the space between the inner wall and the outer wall formed an outer courtyard. Access to the castle was by a drawbridge over a moat into the outer courtyard, and through another gate into the inner courtyard. Another set of structures was outside the outer wall, and this is where there were servant living quarters and stables for the animals. Two other outside structures were the well house and the chapel. Provisions were made for emergency water supply within the confines of the castle itself.
The arrangement of the buildings was dictated, in part, by the geography of the location. The castle sits on a hill top, and this was both an advantage and disadvantage. The defensive advantage was that potential attackers would be working uphill and be at a disadvantage in attacking. Being on hilltop limits the geography available for building, and that was the disadvantage.
(28 Jun 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.