The wooden book set at Guttenberg Castle was created 200 years ago by Carl von Hinterlang, who was a Professor of Forest Botany at the University of Linz in Austria. A similar set by him exists in the observatory at Kremsmünster in Austria. Other botanists have created similar sets. All of the sets were created around 1790 at a time when there was a concern about forests.
A surviving relic of bygone ages is a collection of children’s toys mostly from the 19th century. There is a toy kitchen with a stove, tin ware, and a waffle iron. A miniature cook book with recipes for dolls is included. There is a doll shop with laces, frills, and hats, and, of course, there are dolls.
When you have a whole castle to live in and the staff is reduced due to a change in life style, it leaves a lot of space to store that "stuff" one never had time or the desire to throw away. Previously one had guards on continuous duty in the tower, but with more peaceful times they were redundant. So the Gemmingens held on to the rack and a suit of armor. Who knows?
In times past, the guards did many things, but one of the most important was to watch for fire. When they spotted a fire, they blew on their biggest horn, so as to wake and alert as many as possible. In general, though, they watched all activity within view, day and night. They ate food from the castle kitchen. To keep warm in cold weather, they had to carry wood to the top of the tower, where there were two fireplaces. The tower itself was open, as there was no glass in the openings. Truly, a guard might say that he felt a draft. The two fireplaces allowed one to choose the one which was the best protected from the wind. Obviously, the "room" was never heated; one could only hope that by getting next to the fire that part of the chill might be taken off.
From the tower, which at one time was higher than it is today, one could signal to four other castles, including the imperial castle at Wimpfen. This added height was achieved by a pointed steeple-like structure of wood, but it was removed due to maintenance problems.
I have been quoting from a booklet, " Life in Guttenberg Castle ", which appears to have written by the owner of the castle, Christoph Frieherr von Gemmingen-Guttenberg. If you are ever in the vicinity of Hüffenhardt (Utz and Hoffman descendants), or at Schwaigern (Willheit, Cook, Baumgartner, Reiner, and Lederer), or even if you have no ancestors in the area but are close enough to swing by, I recommend you take about two hours and visit.
Eleanor and I wondered if there was a connection to the Gutenberg of printing fame. Our references could not answer the question definitely but there seems to be a chance that the printer was descended from a family who was allied to the Gemmingens.
(05 Jul 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.