Frankenstein Castle

The castle was built around 1250 by a family who took the name Frankenstein, and by the eighteenth century it was a ruin. Johann Konrad Dippel, an alchemist and theologian born there in 1673, experimented with animal remains and claimed to have made an elixir of life, and this has often been offered as the source for Mary Shelley's 1818 novel; there is no evidence she knew of the castle or of Dippel, and the connection appears to have been proposed much later. Since 1978 an American-influenced Halloween event has run at the ruin each October, now one of the largest in Germany.

History

Before 1250 Lord Conrad II Reiz of Breuberg built Frankenstein Castle and afterwards called himself von und zu Frankenstein, and the first document proving the castle's existence, of 1252, bears his name. In 1292 the Frankensteins opened the castle to the counts of Katzenelnbogen and allied with them, in 1363 it was divided between two branches of the family, and after long disputes with the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt the head of the family, Lord John I, decided to sell the lordship to the Landgraves (Wikipedia, Frankenstein Castle).

Highlights

• The hill ruin - thirteenth-century walls and towers above the Rhine plain.
• The Dippel story - an alchemist born here and the disputed novel link.
• The chapel - a restored chapel within the walls, used for weddings.
• The Halloween event - a large annual October festival at the ruin.

When to go

April to October; the Halloween event runs through October and is ticketed and crowded. The rest of the year the ruin is free and quiet.

Before you go

The link to Mary Shelley's novel is not established and is probably a modern invention. The ruin is modest. October events restrict normal access.

Nearby

Darmstadt lies north; the Odenwald rises south.

Key facts