Frankenstein Castle is a hilltop castle in Odenwald about 10km from the city of Darmstadt in Germany. This castle may have been an inspiration for Mary Shelley when she wrote her 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus.
Frankenstein meaning in German? Frankenstein is a German name consisting of two words: The Franks are a Germanic tribe and “stein” is the German word for “stone”. Accordingly, the meaning of Frankenstein is “Stone of the Franks”. The word “stein” is common in the names of landscapes, places, and castles in Germany. Consequently, the term “Frankenstein” is a rather ordinary name for a castle in this region.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction.
Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, London, in 1797. Her mother was the philosopher and supporter of women’s rights Mary Wollstonecraft, and her father was the political philosopher William Godwin.
Additionally, she edited and promoted the writings of Percy Bysshe Shelley, her husband and a Romantic poet and philosopher.
Frankenstein Castle is in the southern part of the state of Hesse, Germany, on the spurs of the Odenwald mountain range at an elevation of 370m close to the southern outskirts of Darmstadt. It is one of many historic castles along the Hessian Bergstraße Route, also famous for its vineyards and its mild climate.
Before 1250, Lord Conrad II Reiz of Breuberg built Frankenstein Castle and thereafter named himself von und zu Frankenstein. The first document proving the existence of the castle in 1252 bears his name. He was the founder of the free imperial Barony of Frankenstein, which was subject only to the jurisdiction of the emperor, with possessions in Nieder-Beerbach, Darmstadt, Ockstadt, Wetterau, and Hesse. Additionally, the Frankensteins held other possession and sovereignty rights as burgraves in Zwingenberg, Darmstadt, Groß-Gerau, Frankfurt am Main, and Bensheim. The hill on which the castle stands was probably occupied by another castle from the 11th century, which fell into ruins after Frankenstein Castle was built a short distance away to the northwest. Claims of an even older predecessor upon the hill are widespread but historically unlikely.
In 1292 the Frankensteins opened the castle to the counts of Katzenelnbogen (County of Katzenelnbogen) and formed an alliance with them.
In 1363, the castle was split into two parts and owned by two different families of the lords and knights of Frankenstein. At the beginning of the 15th century, the castle was enlarged and modernized. The Frankenstein knights became, again, independent of the counts of Katzenelnbogen.
The family was a strong opponent of the Reformation, adhering to the Roman Catholic faith and the associated “right of patronage”. Following, in addition, territorial conflicts and connected disputes with the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, the family head Lord John I decided to sell the lordship to the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1662, after various lawsuits at the Imperial Chamber Court.
The castle was used as a refuge and a hospital afterward, falling into ruins in the 18th century. The two towers that are so distinctive today are historically inaccurate restorations carried out in the mid-19th centu
The Odenwald, the mountain range on which Frankenstein Castle is located, is a landscape with dark forests and narrow valleys shrouded in mystery and enshrined in legend. Many folktales and myths exist about Frankenstein Castle. None of them have been verified as fact, but all of them have influenced the culture and traditions of the region.
In 1673, Johann Konrad Dippel was born in the castle, where he was later engaged as a professional alchemist. It is suggested that Dippel influenced Mary Shelley’s fantasy when she wrote her Frankenstein novel, though there is no mention of the castle in Shelley’s journals from the time. However, it is known that in 1814, before writing the famous novel, Shelley took a journey on the river Rhine. She spent a few hours in the town of Gernsheim, which is located about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the castle. Several nonfiction books on the life of Mary Shelley claim Dippel as a possible influence.
Dippel created an animal oil known as Dippel’s Oil which was supposed to be equivalent to the “elixir of life”. Dippel attempted to purchase Castle Frankenstein in exchange for his elixir formula, which he claimed he had recently discovered; the offer was turned down. There are also rumors that during his stay at Frankenstein Castle, Dippel practiced not only alchemy but also anatomy and may have performed experiments on dead bodies that he exhumed. There are rumors that he dug up bodies and performed medical experiments on them at the castle and that a local cleric would have warned his parish that Dippel had created a monster that was brought to life by a bolt of lightning. (The use of lightning to bring Frankenstein’s monster to life comes from the 1931 film and isn’t in the novel.) There are local people who still claim today that this happened and that this tale was related to Shelley’s stepmother by the Brothers Grimm, the German ethnologists. However, none of these claims have been proven to this date, and some local researchers doubt any connection between Mary Shelley and Frankenstein Castle.
Johann Konrad Dippel (born August 10, 1673, at Frankenstein Castle (Odenwald); died April 25, 1734, at Wittgenstein Castle in Bad Laasphe ) was a German theologian, alchemist, and physician, who also used the pseudonym, Christianus Democritus, Ernst Christian Kleinmann, and Ernst Christoph Kleinman led.
One of the most famous legends is about Lord George and a dragon, by August Nodnagel (1803–1853). It is said that long ago a dangerous dragon lived in the garden near the well at the castle of Burg Frankenstein. The peasants of a neighboring village (Nieder-Beerbach) lived in fear of the mighty dragon. It is said the dragon would creep in at night and eat the villagers and their children in their sleep. One day a knight by the name of Lord George rode into town. The townsfolk were desperate; seeing a brave knight gave them hope, and they poured out their troubles and sorrows as he promised to help them. The next day, he put on his armor and rode up to the castle, into the garden, and straight to the well where the dragon was taking a rest in the sun.
Lord George got off his horse and attacked the dragon. The dragon fought for his life, puffed, and spewed out fire and steam. Hours passed as the two continued to battle. Finally, just as the knight was about to drop from exhaustion, and just as the dragon was going to drop from exhaustion, the knight plunged his sword into the underbelly of the beast and was victorious. But as the dragon struggled in agony, it coiled its tail with the poisonous spine around the knight’s belly and stung. Lord George and the dragon both fell. The villagers were so happy and relieved that the dragon was finally slain they wanted to give the knight a proper, honorable burial. They brought him to the Church of Nieder Beerbach, in the valley on the east side of the castle, and gave him a marvelous tomb. To this day, you can still visit and pay your respects to Lord George, the Knight who slew the Dragon in the 1200s.
The symbol of St. George is a red cross on white ground which is still seen on the English flag.
Hidden behind the herb garden of the castle, there is a fountain of youth. Legend is that on the first full-moon night after Walpurgis Night, old women from the nearby villages had to undergo tests of courage. The one who succeeded became rejuvenated to the age she had been on the night of her wedding. It is not known if this tradition is still practiced.
Contrary to popular belief, the fact is that Frankenstein’s Castle has nothing to do with the famous Mary Shelley novel of the same name. It gets its name from the lords of the castle.
Frankenstein Castle gained international attention when TV-Show Ghost Hunters International made a whole episode about the castle and claimed it showed “significant paranormal activity”. The investigators met with a Frankenstein expert and discussed its legends and paranormal sightings. The team used audio and video devices for their investigation. Sounds from the chapel and the entrance tower sounded like words and an ultrasonic recorder picked up signals in the chapel. A recorded sound was identified as a phrase in Old German that means “Arbo is here”, which was interpreted as “Arbo” probably meaning “Arbogast”, the name of a knight of the castle, announcing his presence and claim over the land. A second sound bite was interpreted to mean “come here”. The team left Frankenstein Castle convinced that there is some sort of paranormal activity going on.
In the 18th century, a gold rush caused some turmoil near Frankenstein Castle. It is believed that a legend and visions of fortunetellers caused local residents to believe that a treasure was hidden near the castle. In 1763, chaotic scenes took place and even the intervention of a priest from the neighboring village of Nieder-Beerbach could not stop. Even though no gold-filled vaults were ever found, fortune-hunters did not abandon the digging until one Johann Heinrich Drott was killed when his dig collapsed on him. He was given a suicidal burial. In 1770, 1787, and 1788, further, attempts were made, but nothing of any value was found. It was then that local authorities banned further gold digging.
In a remote part of the forest behind Frankenstein Castle on 417-meter-high Mount Ilbes, compasses do not work properly due to magnetic stone formations of natural origin. Local nature enthusiasts and witchcraft practitioners are said to perform rituals at these magnetic places on special occasions like Walpurgis Night or summer solstice. The magnetic stones can be visited by everyone, but it is advisable not to disturb ongoing ritual activities by any means. Legend has it that Mount Ilbes is the second most important meeting place for witches in Germany after Mount Brocken in the Harz.
Close to Frankenstein Castle, a large felsenmeer (“sea of rocks”) near the village of Lautertal is assumed to be a major scene of the Nibelungenlied. Allegedly, Siegfried the dragonslayer, on a hunting trip leading him from the Burgundian city of Worms into the Odenwald, was murdered by Hagen of Tronje at the Felsenmeer’s Siegfriedsquelle (“Siegfried’s wellspring”). In some stories, the region is connected to the apparition of legendary creatures, like knight George fighting against a man-eating lindworm near Frankenstein Castle or creatures of nature with magic potency (e.g. a water spirit that changed into a fox near Niedernhausen). There is some evidence that even the name of the entire region is a hint to a mystical background: Odenwald means “The Woods of Odin”.
The Nibelungenlied is a medieval heroic epic. The text known today was written in Middle High German at the beginning of the 13th century. However, the material belonging to the Nibelungen saga is significantly older.
The Nibelungenlied was considered the national epic of the Germans in the 19th and 20th centuries, with Siegfried the dragon slayer seen as a German national hero.
Despite being a well-known tourist destination, Frankenstein castle has never been developed into a commercial tourist attraction on a large scale. Local people use the mountain chain on which Frankenstein Castle is located for sports activities like hiking and mountain biking. Normally the castle is open to the public until late at night, on-site parking is possible right at the castle and a restaurant serves food and refreshments. Admission and parking are free except during special occasions like the Halloween festival when there is a charge for admission. However, there are no further tourist facilities on the site.
Since the year 2000, the chapel at Frankenstein Castle has been in use as a registry office for civil wedding ceremonies handled by the municipality of Mühltal.
In 1978, American airmen from the 435th Transportation Squadron stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base started an annual Halloween festival at the castle, which became one of the biggest Halloween festivals in Europe. In 1977, the 440th Signal Battalion organized a 13 km running competition routed along steep forest trails from Cambrai-Fritsch Army Housing Site in Darmstadt to the castle. The Frankenstein Castle Run was held until 2008 when all American forces left Darmstadt. The city of Darmstadt organized a final race in October 2008.
A restaurant with a sun terrace, located right below the castle towers, offers regular service as well as special events (e.g., Horror Dinner Nights).
