Deutschorden Castle (Kloppenheim)

The Teutonic Order Castle Kloppenheim is an 18th-century castle building in Kloppenheim, city of Karben in the Wetteraukreis in Hesse.

At the site of the present castle in the west of the elongated village of Kloppenheim, an older castle complex or a larger, possibly fortified, estate of the Teutonic Order is presumed. Possession by the Teutonic Order in Kloppenheim, first mentioned in 792, is traceable since 1269. In 1409, the estate itself was first mentioned in a document.

The Order succeeded in acquiring exemption from tithes from the Burggrafschaft Friedberg in 1659, to which the village of Kloppenheim with the Freigericht Kaichen belonged. In 1719, the Order was able to acquire full sovereign rights over the place. Almost simultaneously (1718), the Order's property was converted into an independent commandery within the Bailiwick of Franconia. The claim to ownership found its external expression in the construction of the present Teutonic Order Castle from 1708–1718 by the Landkomtur Philipp Benedikt Forstmeister von Gelnhausen (inscription above the main portal) and the further redesign of the place.

With the dissolution of the Order's property under Napoleon, the castle fell to the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1809. Just two years later, it was sold to the Counts of Walderdorff. In 1929, the State of Hesse acquired the castle. Since the 1960s, it has been back in private ownership and was extensively restored in the 1980s.