Burgk Castle

Burgk Castle in Burgk, Germany, is a schloss that began as a medieval fortification erected by the Vogts of Gera, a local German noble family and forebears of the House of Reuss; the site dates to the Middle Ages and was remodelled into a residential schloss around 1403, later receiving Baroque and 18th-century updates. The building belonged to the Reuss family from its medieval origins until 1945 and served at times as the seat of a small princely territory, giving it a long role in regional administration and noble residence.

During the Middle Ages the Vogts of Gera established the original fortification; control passed briefly to the Teutonic Knights before returning to the Gera vogts and, after that line died out, to the Greiz branch of the Reuss family. Around 1403 the defensive complex was transformed into a schloss. A wooden-plank parlour dated to 1402 was later found behind a Baroque interior wall, showing the continuity of occupation from the early 15th century onward.

From the late 16th century Burgk gave its name to the small principality of Reuss-Burgk. The schloss was the princely residence in the periods 1596 to 1640 and again from 1668 to 1697. Heinrich II Reuss of Burgk (1575–1639) established his household here, and in 1632 Albrecht von Wallenstein issued a letter of protection to the residence and village; that measure contributed to the preservation of the building and settlement during the Thirty Years’ War.

In 1697 Reuss-Burgk passed by inheritance to Heinrich XIII, Count Reuss zu Untergreiz (1675–1733), after which the castle served primarily as a hunting and summer house for the counts based at the Greiz lower castle. Heinrich III oversaw a major programme of modernization during his household years, completed in 1763, which altered facades, opened windows, removed an east tower and several outbuildings, and terraced a southern spur to create a formal garden and approach to a new pavilion, transforming the building into a representative pleasure residence.

After Heinrich III died in 1768 the property went to Heinrich XI Reuss zu Obergreiz, who was created an Imperial Prince in 1778. The monarchies of the Reuss older and younger lines ended with the German November Revolution of 1918, the nationwide uprising that led to the abdication of the imperial and many princely rulers and the end of their sovereign status. The older line fell silent in the male line with Heinrich XXIV in 1927, and the castle passed to his sister Hermine, who was married to the former German Emperor Wilhelm II; in 1933 Hermine transferred Burgk to her sister Ida, wife of Prince Christoph Martin zu Stolberg-Roßla.

The property remained in family hands until 1945, which allowed much of the original interior to survive intact; after the Second World War the castle was expropriated and became state property. It opened as a public museum in 1952 and later became a cultural centre for East Thuringia and the Vogtland. From 1980 the museum director Lothar Lang, collaborating with the Pirckheimer Society, greatly expanded an exlibris collection into one of the world’s most important holdings. The schloss has also served as a film and television set for productions such as the 1968 Im Himmel ist doch Jahrmarkt, the 1975 Til Eulenspiegel, and the 2013 Die goldene Gans.