Möckmühl Castle

Möckmühl Castle stands on a mountain ridge, clearly visible from a long distance, above the picturesque half-timbered village in Southern Germany. In its essential features it goes back to the time before 1250. Again and again the castle and its walls are altered. For example, in 1486 to 1488, and for the Möckmühl inhabitants the construction work wasn’t always pleasant, because they had to do unpaid work as feudal subjects. However, in 1488 they were freed from the duty of transporting water up to the castle.

From 1517 Götz von Berlichingen is castellan in Möckmühl. However, the term of office of the knight with the iron hand ends rather ignominiously, when the “Schwäbische Bund” besieges the castle in 1519. Both the people and the horses share the wine supplies, because there is no water. The lead from the windows and doors of the castle has to be used for ammunition. When the besiegers get another 1,000 reinforcements and artillery, Götz attempts an escape. But he is captured. However, his imprisonment in Heilbronn seems to have been bearable: his prison is an inn, which he is only allowed to leave on Sundays to go to church.

In 1901 the Prussian Cavalry General von Alvensleben buys the castle. He builds the castle in its present form. The watchman lived up in the keep. He had to ring the hours with the bell which still exists today. Nowadays the castle is privately owned and cannot be visited.

 

You can watch a short and entertaining YouTube clip about Möckmühl Castle on our YouTube channel SchreiberBogen.