Schaumburg Castle (Germany)

A castle may have been built on the mountain as early as 915 when the area was mentioned in a donation to the Weilburg monastery. The name "Schowenburg" or "Schauenburg" appears for the first time in 1197 for the castle, as the center of a rulership of the same name. In addition to the castle at that time, this included the towns of Biebrich, Cramberg and Steinsberg. In the 12th century the castle was owned by the Counts of Leiningen.

When the male counts died out around 1220, the castle fief was divided and ownership changed several times. Part of the castle was owned by Elise, daughter of Count Emicho III. von Leiningen and wife of Ruprecht the arguable from Nassau. With her death, this share was transferred to the county of Virneburg via her daughter. Another share in the castle fell to the County of Diez and from there to the County of Weilnau. A third part of the Schaumburg fell to the Isenburg family. When the estate was divided in 1232, the Schaumburg share came into the possession of Gerlach I of Limburg. However, the Limburg family had to forego part of the castle in an arbitration award in favor of Kurköln as early as 1266. The Archbishop of Cologne Siegfried von Westerburg transferred the Kurkölner share to the House of Westerburg in 1276.

The Westerburg house expanded the Schaumburg from 1279. In order to weaken the position of the castle, Balduin of Luxembourg built Balduinstein Castle near the Schaumburg. A lengthy dispute ensued, as a result of which Balduinstein was separated from the Schaumburg rule in 1321 and made a town.

Up until the 15th century, the Westerburg house was able to acquire all other parts of the castle. From 1557 the house of Leiningen-Westerburg-Schaumburg, a side line of the house of Westerburg, resided on the Schaumburg. In 1656 Georg Wilhelm von Leiningen sold the castle and the lordship to Agnes von Effern, the widow of Count Peter Melander von Holzappel, who united the lordship of Schaumburg with the county of Holzappel. Agnes died that same year; the Schaumburg remained in the possession of their female descendants: House Nassau-Dillenburg (1656–1707), Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg (1707–1812), Habsburg-Lothringen (1812–1867).

Archduke Stephan of Austria owned the Schaumburg from 1847 to 1867. In the course of the revolution in 1848, he had to leave his native Hungary, and from 1850 to 1855 he lavishly converted the Schaumburg into the current palace in a neo-Gothic style, according to plans by the architect Carl Boos, who was also entrusted with the construction management. Stephan of Austria set up a picture gallery and a library, he also collected coins, left behind a considerable collection of minerals and also maintained a small zoo. The two larger-than-life figures, made on his behalf in Berlin, adorn the main entrance to the palace as heralds. The grand hall, with the projecting window in the bay window of the facade framed by two corner towers to the west, was never finished. Neither Archduke Stephan nor later owners expanded it inside as planned, and so it is still unplastered in the shell condition from 1855. With the construction of the Lahntalbahn in 1862, the Schaumburg was easily accessible and a meeting place for nobles from all over Europe.

The childless Archduke Stephan bequeathed the castle to the youngest son of his cousin Peter, his great cousin Duke Georg Ludwig von Oldenburg. The House of Oldenburg managed the castle from 1867 to 1888. But the House of Waldeck-Pyrmont also laid claim to the complex. After a court process lasting over twenty years, it was awarded to Georg Viktor zu Waldeck-Pyrmont in 1888.

The castle passed to its last aristocratic owner in 1967 with the death of Josias zu Waldeck and Pyrmont. His son and heir Wittekind zu Waldeck and Pyrmont sold it together with the inventory and land for 15 million DM in 1983. The Schaumburg was to be converted into a hotel with an attached golf course. This planning failed, however, and the deterioration of the substance continued. After another sale in 1990 to a businessman from southern Germany for six million German marks, the palace complex was up for sale again in 2011 for 1.3 million euros. At that time, a large part of the land had already been sold. At the end of 2012, the Schaumburg was sold to a Turkish group of investors who, according to their own statements, intended to set up an educational facility there. Corresponding construction work was not carried out. After one of the investors left the project in the meantime, the new and now sole managing director of the Turkish investor group announced in 2015 that he wanted to turn Schloss Schaumburg into an international wine institute. The group of investors acquired several listed properties in Germany.

The entire Schaumburg archive, which has been kept through the centuries, was acquired by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and has been in the state main archive of Koblenz since then.