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Founded: c. 1345Category: Castles and fortifications in Germany
Historical period: Habsburg Dynasty (Germany)
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Stickhausen Castle is situated on the banks of the Jümme. This river, together with the nearby Leda forms the so-called East Frisian Mesopotamia, the Leda-Jümme area. Both rivers were important trade routes in the Middle Ages and early modern times, because they flowed in an east-west direction.
Unlike the other castles of East Friesia, Stickhausen Castle was never the seat of the East Frisian chieftains. It was built around 1345 by the city of Hamburg to protect their westbound trade routes. It was built as the replacement for the older border fortress Schlüsselburg in Detern. This fortress had been part of a border defense line against the adjacent County of Oldenburg and secured access to East Frisia. After the Schlüsselburg fortress had been destroyed and rebuilt several times, it lost its importance after the construction of Stickhausen Castle and is no longer mentioned in documents.
Stickhausen Castle initially consisted of a stone house surrounded by a moat. In addition, it had a gatehouse and a bailey with farm buildings. A second wall and a second trench surrounded and protected the entire complex.
Count Edzard I added the round tower around 1498 which still exists. After the Reformation, Countess Anna built an outer wall in 1558 using stones from the abandoned Barthe Abbey and from Uplengen Castle, which had been razed in 1535 at the behest of Count Enno II. The castle was further extended by Count Johan II, who died at the castle in 1591.
During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was fought over several times. In the years 1622 to 1624, the dreaded mercenary troops of the Ernst von Mansfeld occupied the castle. They reinforced the castle by constructing several outworks. After von Mansfeld's troops withdrew, the counts of East Frisia held the castle for a short period, until it was occupied by Hessian troops from 1637 to 1640. They completed the expansion of the fortress by building a fortified substation as a complement to the existing ravelin and the actual castle. The entire complex comprised at that time a three-winged main castle with corner tower, the old bailey to the gatehouse, stables, peat barn, burgrave's mansion and garrison church on the upper floor of the gatehouse, outer wall with powder tower and a ravelin on the south side, between the Jümme and the main complex. On the east side was the new substation, consisting of barracks, houses and farm buildings. In total, there were four batteries, four in the main castle and one in the substation.
After Prussia gained control of East Frisia in 1744, the castle no longer served any purpose and Frederick the Great ordered it razed. Today only the large round tower from 1498 remains and traces of the fortifications. In 1822, the gatehouse was extended and converted into the bailiff's office. On the outside wall of this building, a coat of arms dating from 1578 can be seen. The round tower was used as a prison, as well as the bailiff's residence. The former substation evolved into the village of Stickhausen. In 1885, the castle came into private hands.
Today the tower is a heritage and folk art museum. On the ground floor are the prison cells with instruments of torture such as the rack and clamps. On the first floor of the living conditions of the prison guard are shown, while the second floor is devoted to the history of the castle. In the attic, finally, a bird and bird egg collection are on display.
References:Doune Castle was originally built in the thirteenth century, then probably damaged in the Scottish Wars of Independence, before being rebuilt in its present form in the late 14th century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (c. 1340–1420), the son of King Robert II of Scots, and Regent of Scotland from 1388 until his death. Duke Robert"s stronghold has survived relatively unchanged and complete, and the whole castle was traditionally thought of as the result of a single period of construction at this time. The castle passed to the crown in 1425, when Albany"s son was executed, and was used as a royal hunting lodge and dower house.
In the later 16th century, Doune became the property of the Earls of Moray. The castle saw military action during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Glencairn"s rising in the mid-17th century, and during the Jacobite risings of the late 17th century and 18th century.