| Stickhausen Castle | |
|---|---|
Burg Stickhausen | |
| Detern-Stickhausen | |
 Stickhausen Castle | |
  Stickhausen Castle | |
| Coordinates | 53°13′05″N7°38′36″E / 53.218012°N 7.643212°E |
| Type | Concentric castle |
| Site information | |
| Open to the public | yes |
| Site history | |
| Built | c. 1345 |
Stickhausen Castle is located on the western edge of the village Stickhausen, a district of the East Frisian municipality Detern in the Landkreis of Leer in Lower Saxony.
The 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.
The name of the castle as well as the village is composed of the words Sticke (stick, pole) and Hause (house) and means a house fortified with palisades. [1]
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. After intense debate, the Hamburg pledged them in about 1453 to the chieftain and later to Count Ulrich I of East Frisia. This castle 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. [2] 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. It still exists. Edzards participation in the Saxon feud led to a siege of the castle by a coalition of princes led by George, Duke of Saxony. The caste was conquered and occupied by the coalition for three years.
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. [3] 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. During the Second World War, the tower was damaged by artillery fire. In 1951, the first measures were taken to preserve the tower. 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.
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East Frisia or East Friesland is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia and to the west of Landkreis Friesland.
Leer is a town in the district of Leer, in the northwestern part of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Leda, a tributary of the river Ems, near the border with the Netherlands. With 34,958 inhabitants (2021), it is the third-largest city in East Frisia after Emden and Aurich.
Jümme is a collective municipality (Samtgemeinde) in the district of Leer in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is named after the River Jümme which flows through all three constituent communities. It has an area of 82.34 km² and a population of 6,421. It is situated in the region of East Frisia. Along with the Samtgemeinde of Hesel, it is one of two in the district. It was formed in the wake of local government reform in 1973. Filsum serves as the administrative centre.
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Frisian freedom was the absence of feudalism and serfdom in Frisia, the area that was originally inhabited by the Frisians. Historical Frisia included the modern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, and the area of West Friesland, in the Netherlands, and East Friesland in Germany. During the period of Frisian freedom the area did not have a sovereign lord who owned and administered the land. The freedom of the Frisians developed in the context of ongoing disputes over the rights of local nobility.
The County of East-Frisia was a county in the region of East Frisia in the northwest of the present-day German state of Lower Saxony.
Edzard I, also Edzard the Great was count of East Frisia from 1491 until his death in 1528.
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The House of Cirksena was the name of the ruling family of East Frisia. They descended from a line of East Frisian chieftains from Greetsiel.
The Brokmerland is a landscape and an historic territory, located in western East Frisia, which covers the area in and around the present-day communities of Brookmerland and Südbrookmerland. The Brokmerland borders in the east on the Harlingerland and in the north on the Norderland. The historic Brokmerland is usually written with only one "o". Occasionally one also finds the spelling "Broekmerland", while today's communities have chosen to spell the name with a double "o".
The Battle of Detern on 27 September 1426 marked the prelude to the East Frisian rebellion against the rule of the tom Brok family over East Frisia.
The Treaty of Berum was a treaty concluded on 28 January 1600 at Berum Castle between the Count Enno III of East Frisia and the County of Rietberg, which regulated the sale of the Harlingerland to East Frisia.
Berum Castle is located in the Berum district the East Frisian town of Hage in Germany. It is one of the most important sites in East Frisian history.
The Saxon feud was a military conflict in the years 1514–1517 between the East Frisian Count Edzard I, 'West Frisian' rebels, the city of Groningen, and Charles II, Duke of Guelders on the one hand and the Imperial Frisian hereditary governor George, Duke of Saxony – replaced by Charles V of Habsburg in 1515 – and 24 German princes. The war took place predominantly on East Frisian soil and destroyed large parts of the region.
The Lordship of Frisia or Lordship of Friesland was a feudal dominion in the Netherlands. It was formed in 1498 by King Maximilian I and reformed in 1524 when Emperor Charles V conquered Frisia.
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