Kommandeursburg Castle (Blatzheim)

The construction of Kommandeursburg took place in 1602 by Heinrich von Reuschenberg, a Teutonic Knight, who designed it as a summer retreat for the Commandery of the Teutonic Order, the Kommende Jungen-Biesen. Following the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine by French troops between 1794 and 1802, Joseph von Schaesberg retreated to the castle and died there in 1812 as the last Teutonic Knight in Blatzheim. In the course of the secularization of ecclesiastical properties in 1802 and the dissolution of the Teutonic Order in 1809 by Napoleon, Kommandeursburg was granted to the French General Georges Mouton de Lobau. Later, it came into German possession and was operated as an agricultural estate.