The origins of the castle are largely unclear. Speculations concerning the possibilty of earlier constructions dating from the early Middle Ages, Roman or prehistorical times cannot be proven. References to the name “Drachenfels” which were made in the fist half of the 13 th century belong to another Drachenfels Castle on the Rhine near Bonn.
In approximately 1245 Walter of Drachenfels is mentionned in the first document refering to the Wasgauburg. Archeologists similarily draw the conclusion that the castle dates from around the middle of the 13 th century. Documents dating from the end of the 13 th century witness a conflict between the knights Rudolf and Anselm of Drachenfels, and the Bishop of Worms, which was settled in 1288. The oldest of the Drachenfels seals come from these knighted cousins. It shows a dragon in a pointed shield and is therefore a speaking coat of arms that paraphrases the family name “of Drachenfels”, meaning dragon cliff. In the early 14 th century the Drachenfels coats of arms showed antlers or a wild goose.
In 1314 the brothers Berthold, Anselm and Rudolf of Drachenfels suffered heavy damages on their properties due to the five weeks occupation of the neighbouring Berwartstein by the cities Hagenau and Strasbourg. Possibly this event caused further tension in the following period as in 1335 troops from Strasbourg came to Drachenfels Castle and forced the occupants to leave.
This had obvious economic affects for the Drachenfels family, such that they were forced from 1344 to gradually sell the partly destroyed castle. In this year the brothers Eberhard and Anselm of Drachenfels sold their family castle with all included properties to Count Walram II. of Zweibrücken and were hence no longer involved with the further history of the castle. The main feudel lord remained the Abbot of the monastery Klingenmünster. Count Walram granted Count Palatine Ruprecht I. Drachenfels Castle as a fief.
The situation stabilised as such the nature of the sovereignty remained consistant for a period. Sub fiefdoms with varying stakes in the estate can be found around the middle of the 14 th century. Examples of this are the brothers Gerhard and Johannes Hanarsch of Weißkirchen and in the 1380s Heinrich Eckbrecht of Dürkheim and Heinrich and Kuno of Ober-Otterbach. Until 1398 the Eckbrechte of Dürkheim succeeded in bringing the entire estate into a single fiefdom.
The property brought an income in the form of a 10 th of all charges, i.e. taxes, road and raft fees. With this income also came the obligation of the castles structural maintenance therefore Heinrich Eckbrecht of Dürkheim decided to take Gemeiner, members of the military, to subsidise costs. We do not know when the first Gemeiner acquired stakes in the castle, however we do know that in 1406, due to documental evidence, that the castle existed in a state of peace.
In1463 the imperial knighthood of the Oberrhein founded the Heilig-Geist-Gesellschaft, the association of the Holy Spirit, and chose Drachenfels as their meeting place. This association considered it their main duty to oppose the constantly diminishing position of the knighthood in the political fabric of the Empire.
The acts of this association contradicted the interests of the imperial princes. A key figure in this association was Franz of Sickingen, who from 1510 held the position of captain of the Gemeiner and was integral to the provocation of these conflicts.
As a consequence this Sickingsche Fehde, Sickingen feud, between 1522 and 1523 led to the destruction of Drachenfels Castle. On the 10 th May 1523 a considerable armed contingent consisting of three troops of lansquenet, 300 mounted cavalry and artillery marched on Drachenfels. After short dicussions the castellan surrended the castle. The next day Drachenfels was plundered and razed to the ground, it was prohibited to rebuild the castle.
After this the ruin served as a source of hewn stones used in the construction of the catholic parish church in 1760 to 1767 and in the construction of Count Franz Christoph von Eckbrechts country palace at Busenberg in 1778. In 1784 a family meeting took place in this building where it was decided to have their fief renewed. The palatine Elector Karl Theodor gave his consent for their application but demanded the reconstruction of the castle or a palace be made within two years. Karl Theodors predecessor had become the only liege lord of Drachenfels after the dying out of the Counts of Zweibrücken-Bitche in 1570. Until now no traces of a reconstruction have been found, Drachenfels Castle remained a ruin.
