Confessions of a Castleholic

After a week of sorting through all of my pictures from last weekend's wedding of Hereditary Prince Ernst-August and Princess Ekaterina of Hanover, here are some last pictures of the guests. If I am able to identify any more in the future, I will add them to this post, so make sure to check back every now and then. Prince Michael of Salm-Salm and his wife Princess Philippa, née Countess of Castell-Castell. Coordt and Inge von Mannstein. On the left: Baroness Helena of Cramm, née Countess Wolff-Metternich, and Baron Egbert of Cramm. I don't have a good picture of it but I saw Baron Egbert and Baroness Helena leaving the venue together in a car with Nikolaus and Anna von Veltheim. Pictured with the Cramms is Caspar von Veltheim. Baron Philip of Oldershausen and wife Baronee Thyra, née von Reden. In the foreground is Ludolf von Klencke, the couple behind him are Baron Ludolf of Oldershausen and his wife Baroness Sybille. Probably Count Philipp of Hochberg. ...

Back in March when I told you about Schloss Oelber , I also told you that it was most famous for its lovely Christkindlmarkt or Christmas Market taking place on the castle's grounds and the buildings surrounding it each year. I visited again last weekend and thought to share a handful of pictures with you... As always, click to enlarge! Royal nerd alert: I think I was possibly about the only person in the room to recognise the gentlemen on a painting hanging in the stables was... Indeed, it looks like King George IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover. You know that you own a seriously old castle if you have a painting of a King hanging in your stables, I guess.

After Schloss Nettlingen , Schloss Brüggen and Schloss Oelber , Schloss Bodenburg is the fourth castle either currently or formerly owned by the Baronial von Cramm family to be featured on this blog. The castle, which is still owned by a branch of the Lower Saxon noble family, is situated in the heart of a village by the same name near Hildesheim. Originally built in the 10th century, Schloss Bodenburg has been rebuilt and reconstructed numerous times over the past hundreds of years. For most of those centuries the moated castle of Bodenburg was owned by the Steinberg family. Originally part of the nobility of the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim and firstly mentioned in 1192, the Steinberg family held broad estates around Hildesheim and served in high offices at the Guelph courts and later in the Prussian military. The family had come into the possession of Schloss Bodenburg in the 14th century. Previous owners included the Bodenburg family. Schloss Bodenburg was oft...

Schloss Nettlingen located in a small village by the same name in southern Lower Saxony was built by Kurt von Salder around 1570. The Salder family, who changed their name to Saldern during the 17th century, had been present in Nettlingen since the 14th century.  However, the castle was sold to the brewer guild of Hildesheim in 1611 after five years of negotiations. Yet another year later, the guild sold the Schloss to Arend of Wobersnow for 28,000 Reichsthaler . The Landdrost (an official with local jurisdiction) Wobersnow had made a lot of money when he, as coin commissioner of of Duke Friedrich Ulrich of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, minted inferior coins but he was found out and, in 1620, it was Nettlingen where Wobersnow flew to when being persecuted by the imperial chamber. Somehow the Salder family apparently got the Schloss back after that though it also seems that the Bennigsen family owned it at one point or the other after the Wobersnows. Whoever owned the castle...

Behind some rather unremarkable outbuildings almost entirely shielding it from the public's view lies Schloss Brüggen in the Lower Saxon village by the same name located near Hildesheim. Sometimes also called a Rittergut (knight's manor), the castle's history starts in 1693 when it was inaugurated on May 6th. Built for Friedrich II of Steinberg, first court marshal of Duke Anton Ulrich of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, the construction plans by Johann Balthasar Lauterbach were carried out by Hermann Korb, who you might remember as one of the architects of Schloss Wolfenbüttel . The baroque-style castle was originally owned by the Steinberg family but through inheritance came into the possession of the baronial family of Cramm. Originally part of the nobility of the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim and firstly mentioned in 1192, the Steinberg family held broad estates around Hildesheim and served in high offices at the Guelph courts and later in the Prussian military. The l...

Why look so far afield when there is so much close at hand? While I have been to this particular castle and its surroundings about a gazillion times, I often tend to forget that it is indeed a castle and a lovely one at that. Formerly known as the home of the Baron of Tennis as he was nicknamed in Germany, two-time French Open champion and three-time Wimbledon runner-up Gottfried von Cramm, Schloss Oelber is now - at least in my family and circle of friends - best known for its fabulous Christmas market taking place every December. Located in a small village called Oelber am weißen Wege pretty much half way between the Lower Saxon cities of Wolfenbüttel and Hildesheim, the Schloss is owned by the baronial family of Cramm and has been since that last decade of the 13th century though they only became sole owners in 1766. Today's castle complex is based on the foundations of a 12th century moated castle which was firstly mentioned in 1274 when the noble family of Meinersen sol...