Hohenecken
This important Staufer castle is situated on the mountain Schloßberg above Hohenecken, a suburb of Kaiserslautern.
Its location on a cliff at the end of a mountain ridge is typical for the castles of the Pfalz.
In ancient literature it is often supposed that the castle was built shortly after the construction of Emperor Friedrich I. Barbarossa’s castle in Kaiserslautern in 1156. The oldest architectural elements, the impressive outer wall and the originally five sided keep suggest the period of its construction was circa 1200.
The Reichsinisterialen of Hohenecken were the descendants of the knight Reinhard von Lautern, to whom King Friedrich II. offered the patronage of Ramstein in 1214. In 1216 Reinhard held the very important office of a Reichsschultheis in (Kaisers)Lautern, which remained with this familiy for the next two generations.
The four eldest sons of this Reichsministerale held high positions inside and outside the Pfalz region. The youngest son who called himself explicitly Siegfried of Hohenecken (Syfridus de Hoenechen) remained in the region of his home simultaneously holding the positions of Schultheiß for Lautern and Hagenau. With his son Reinhard the family reached its pinacle, as he served as Schultheiß and also as the administrator for the entire imperial estates district of Lautern. Furthermore he was entrusted for a certain period with Trifels Castle, where the crown jewels were kept.
The decline of royal authority ended the illustrious situation which the Hohenecken family had maintained during the Staufer era and the Interregnum, the period without a king. Until 1481 they kept their main sources of income, particularly the profitable rights of escort and custom’s taxes in the Lauterer Reich, which were already owned by the ancestors of the Hohenecken family in 1216.
When Philipp Karl of Hoheneck died in 1806, the long lineage of Reichsministerialen ended. The descendants remained connected to the castle, which had been granted to them as an imperial fief in 1277, until the 17 th century.
The castle itself has a turbulent history. In the middle of the 14 th century several families inhabited the property, for which the archbishopry of Mainz and the counts of Saarbrücken owned entrance rights.
From 1394 to 1404 five partial owners are known, the knights Reinhard and Boermund of Hohenecken, Heinrich Kämmerer of Worms, the sovereigns of Scharfeneck and Gerhard of Kropsberg. A few years later the Kurpfalz had also apparently received the entrance right to the castle, because in 1411 the archbishop of Mainz made a castle peace contract with the Kurpfälzer of Hohenecken.
Although the relationship between the family Hohenecken and the Electors of the Pfalz was very close, the descendants of the Reichsministeralen quickly took the opportunity to get rid of their overpowering partner during the 30 Year War. The imperial declaration that the Elector had broken the peace was a good opportunity to seize his share of the castle. Elector Karl Ludwig’s attempt to regain his share after the 30 Year War was initially unsuccessful as the sovereigns of Hohenecken had assured the help of the dukes of Lothringen. His second violent attempt in 1668 was successful.
A few years later, during the Succession War of the Pfalz, French soldiers blew up the castle, which was already heavily damaged in 1688 by the artillery of the Kurpfalz. Hohenecken was never rebuilt.
