Lubowitz Castle

Since 1173, the area belonged to the newly created Duchy of Ratibor. In 1327, it was subordinated by Duke Lestko as a fief of the Crown of Bohemia, which was held by the Habsburgs from 1526. In 1532, the Duchy of Ratibor reverted to the Crown of Bohemia. After the First Silesian War, Lubowitz fell to Prussia in 1742 with most of Silesia. As a result of the Second World War, the area of the former Duchy of Ratibor came to Poland in the spring of 1945, and the place has been called Łubowice ever since.

The place name was first mentioned in a document as "Kirchenort Albowitz" in 1376; thereafter, the place names Lbowic, Olbowitz, and Elbowitz also existed. In 1489, Georg and Johann von Lbowic sold the village to Waniek Hossek from Gregorowitz. From 1646 to 1723, it was owned by Adam, then Franz and Edmund Jaroslav Lichnowsky from Woschczytz. The latter sold Lubowitz in 1723 to Anton Ferdinand Harassowsky von Harras. Hans Wilhelm Josef von Harass sold it in 1756 to Gottlieb Rudolf Gusnar from Komorno, who then sold it in 1765 to Eleonore and Karl von Kloch. From 1784 to 1822, Lubowitz was in the possession of the Adolph von Eichendorff family for about 38 years. In 1823, Wilhelm Zölmer, a senior regional court councilor, bought it at auction, then Karl Wichura bought Lubowitz in 1839 and sold it to Salomon Meyer von Rothschild. In 1852, Viktor Moritz Karl Hereditary Prince zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (since 1840 Victor I, Duke of Ratibor) acquired Lubowitz for 51,000 thalers. Subsequently, the Lubowitz estate remained in the possession of the Dukes of Ratibor, who lived in the secularized Rauden Monastery, for about 93 years. In a fire in 1825, the village center was completely destroyed. The property, with an area of 1003 Morgen, was leased in 1873 to Captain (ret.) Zawadski. After his father's death in 1893, Victor II Amadeus von Ratibor inherited it. His son Victor III von Ratibor was the owner from 1923 to March 1945.

After the Thirty Years' War, Hartwig Erdmann von Eichendorff from Zerbow came to the Duchy of Troppau and inherited the estates in Deutsch-Krawarn and Kauthen near Troppau in 1667. His descendant in the sixth generation, Adolph Rudolph von Eichendorff, was born on January 9, 1756, in Deutsch-Krawarn. At the age of eleven, he lost his father. In 1777, he came of age and later served in the Falkenhayn Fusilier Regiment. In 1782, he sold the estates in Deutsch-Krawarn, which had been the ancestral seat of the Silesian-Moravian Eichendorffs for over 155 years, to the Chief Court Marshal Anton Schaffgotsch. In 1783, he bought the agricultural estate Radoschau near Kosel for 26,000 thalers from the Royal Prussian Major Karl Wenzel vom Kloch, who became his father-in-law in 1784. In 1784, he ended his military service and married the eighteen-year-old Karoline Freiin von Kloch, daughter of Karl Wenzel von Kloch and his wife Marie Eleonore, née von Hayn, on November 23. Seven children were born from the marriage, of whom only three reached adulthood: Wilhelm, Joseph, and their daughter Luise von Eichendorff as the youngest child. On August 23, 1785, he acquired the Lubowitz estate from his mother-in-law for 41,000 thalers, which she had already bought in 1765 in a "devastated state." Baron Adolph von Eichendorff belonged to the Bohemian-Silesian landed gentry and was a baron, feudal lord, estate owner, and liege lord. The village of Lubowitz was located about ten kilometers northwest of Ratibor, on the left bank of the Oder. South of the village, on a hill, stood the manor house with a park, "Grasbank," "Hasengarten," and a pond. The total price for Radoschau and Lubowitz, amounting to 67,000 thalers, was paid for by a quarter from equity, which came from the sale of the Eichendorff estates in Deutsch-Krawarn. As capital service, 2500 thalers annually had to be raised for Lubowitz and Radoschau. In addition, from 1785 to 1786, the expensive renovation of the manor house continued. In the first appraisal of October 1801, the baron's manor house is described in the appraiser's report as a stately, solidly built residential building with two floors in perfectly good condition. On the ground floor were six rooms, a large hall, and a pantry. A staircase led up to the upper floor with seven rooms. Next to the manor house stood a brick outbuilding with four rooms and a vault, as well as a passage to the main building, a brick washhouse with some rooms, a kitchen building, called "Küchel," along with a room for the servants, and a brick coach and carriage shed. Away from the manor, there was a large ornamental garden with a summer house and a large orchard on the slope to the Oder. According to the appraisers, the value of the estate was 21,286 thalers, thus far below the purchase price of 41,000 thalers. In the appraisal of February 1817, a value of 31,177 thalers was determined, still below the purchase price of 1785.

Adolph von Eichendorf continued to buy and sell estates. In 1791, he sold Radoschau, which he had already bought in 1783, to his brother Rudolph. Seven years later, he bought it back. In 1795, he bought the knight's estate Slawikau with Grzegorzowitz, Oderwald, Gurek, and Summin for 106,000 thalers and in 1791 the dominion of Tost-Peiskretscham. When he made a profit of 250,000 thalers from the sale of the dominion of Tost in 1797, this was not enough to service the mortgages. On June 19, 1801, Adolph von Eichendorff fled from his creditors. His journey began in Breslau, led via Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and ended after more than eight months in Schillersdorf. When the repayment of a loan of 20,000 thalers was delayed, his sister Sophie von Kaminietz filed a lawsuit in the Brieg court on July 9, 1801. All of Adolph von Eichendorff's estates came under forced administration. When Napoleon triumphed over Prussia in 1807, a moratorium on enforcement was ordered. On St. Martin's Day 1810, subservience and serfdom were abolished in Prussia. Against the impending foreclosure, Adolph von Eichendorff achieved an extension of the general moratorium until 1814. The bankruptcy could be delayed until 1818. When Adolph von Eichendorff died on April 27, 1818, Karoline von Eichendorff and her daughter Luise kept the Lubowitz estate as a widow's residence for life. The appraisal in 1821 determined the value of the estate to be 56,867 thalers. After the death of her mother on April 15, 1822, who had lived in Lubowitz for over four decades, Luise von Eichendorff left Upper Silesia forever. The Lubowitz estate was forcibly auctioned in 1823. Wilhelm and Joseph von Eichendorff, 18 months younger, were taught by the private tutor Chaplain Bernhard Heinke in the manor house in Lubowitz. On October 5, 1801, they left Lubowitz and traveled with their mother and Chaplain Heinke to Breslau. They attended their first lessons at the Catholic Matthias-Gymnasium on October 16, 1801. This began the eleven-year training phase for the two in Breslau, Halle, and Heidelberg, which ended in Vienna in the spring of 1812. They spent two weeks of winter holidays and two months of summer holidays in Lubowitz. When the university in Halle was closed by order of Napoleon in October 1806, they stayed in Lubowitz for nine months before further studies in Heidelberg were possible from mid-May 1807. When Wilhelm and Joseph arrived in Lubowitz in the autumn of 1817, the Eichendorff family met for the last time in Lubowitz. Joseph von Eichendorff, who had left Lubowitz at the age of 13 in 1801 for his education, never visited his birthplace again after 1817. His children Hermann, Rudolf, and Marie Therese were also never in Lubowitz. The orphaned Luise left Lubowitz forever at the age of 18 in 1822. In the autumn of 1834, Wilhelm von Eichendorff traveled with his wife from Tyrol to Ratibor and visited the manor house and the graves in Lubowitz. The Eichendorff brothers inherited the Lehn-Sedlnitz estate in Moravian Silesia, which was beyond the reach of creditors.

Since 1852, Lubowitz was in the possession of three generations of the Dukes of Ratibor. From 1858 to 1862, the manor house underwent extensive renovation in the Tudor style, an architectural style from 1530 to the beginning of the 17th century, mixed with elements of late Gothic and German and Italian Renaissance. After the renovation, little remained of the former simple Eichendorff manor house, which was also called "castle."

The structure of the Ducal Ratibor Castle consisted of a significantly larger three-story main building, oriented on the west-east axis, and an annex that had been built at a right angle to the corner of the eastern wing. The approximately twelve to 15-meter-high central part of the main building was erected as a projecting tower-like risalit. Four rows of windows and three oculi were installed above it. The two lower wings each had two rows of windows. The main building was provided with a flat roof divided into three levels. A wall with embrasures and eight defensive turrets at the roof corners ran around the stepped roof cornice. The annex was oriented along the north-south axis. It was a two-story residential building with a basement, seven vertical window rows, a main entrance with stairs, and a side entrance. The facade was smoothly plastered. Above the roof was a wall with seven embrasures. Around 1936, the chief administrator Harhoff was the tenant of Lubowitz. After 1938, the interior rooms of the castle were leased to the German Eichendorff Foundation in Oppeln. On November 26, 1940, the 83rd anniversary of Joseph von Eichendorff's death, a memorial was opened in the castle's ballroom in the presence of Duke Victor III von Ratibor. In addition to gifts from the German Eichendorff Museum in Neisse, presented by its director Willibald Köhler, two portraits of the poet's parents, painted by the portrait restorer Lucas Mrzyglod, were displayed. An Eichendorff bust in bronze by the sculptor Leopold Hohl was also added. Display tables with first editions, facsimiles, and plaques were set up in the ballroom. At the entrance, a cast-iron memorial plaque with the inscription "Birthplace of the poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, born March 10, 1788 Lubowitz, died November 26, 1857 Neisse. Eichendorff Memorial expanded 1939–40" was installed.

As the front approached, a Wehrmacht unit set up a position on the hill at the castle. During the bombardment by Soviet artillery, the building complex was completely destroyed and burned down. The ruin was left ownerless for over four decades, exposed to the elements and decay. The old trees in the castle park were cut down in 1946/47. The former park area was overgrown with wild growth and weeds. A sand pit was set up nearby. Horst Bienek traveled to Silesia in May 1987 and wrote about the castle ruins:

A new approach only took place after Helmut Kohl's visit to the Third Polish Republic in November 1989.

During the meeting between Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki on November 14, 1989, it was agreed to develop the birthplaces of Joseph von Eichendorff in Lubowitz, Gerhart Hauptmann in Agnetendorf, and Helmuth James Graf von Moltke in Kreisau. In 1989, the Eichendorff Association was founded in Lubowitz on the initiative of the German minority. The aim of the association was to care for objects, documents, and memorabilia related to Joseph von Eichendorff. Through voluntary efforts and several months of work, the rubble and construction debris at the ruin were removed after about 44 years, and the grounds of the former Eichendorff park were restored as a lawn. In the Lubowitz cemetery, the Eichendorff graves were put in order. Subsequently, the association acquired adjacent plots of land with an area of 3.5 hectares, which were formerly owned by Adolph von Eichendorff. On the facade of the former annex, a replica with the right profile of Joseph von Eichendorff and above the door opening the inscription "No poet has ever been released by his homeland," a quote from Eichendorff's novel Dichter und ihre Gesellen, was affixed. In 1999, the Upper Silesian Eichendorff Cultural and Meeting Center (OEKB) was founded, which took over the entire complex, including the ruin, from the Eichendorff Association. At the opening of the OEKB Cultural Center on July 12, 2000, Jochen Welt, the Federal Government Commissioner for Resettlers, participated. Thomas Gottschalk, whose parents were born in Silesia, participated in the event on July 12, 2000, gave a speech, and presented a donation. The main building of the OEKB houses two conference halls and 24 guest rooms with 54 beds. The training building has three training rooms and a computer room. In Lubowitz, a memorial to the poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff – Lubowitz (Izba pamięci poety barona von Eichendorffa – Łubowice) was established in a house on Zamkowa Street. For many years, the Upper Silesian Eichendorff Cultural and Meeting Center in Lubowitz has been advocating for the reconstruction of the castle. With the essay "A monument should not be invented. The ruin in Lubowitz is that of the Ducal Ratibor Castle, not that of Eichendorff's birthplace," Franz Heiduk questioned the reconstruction of an object in the Tudor style. An alternative would be to leave the ruin in its current state as a memorial to the war, as in Berlin and Hiroshima. The previous initiatives refer to the birthplace of Joseph von Eichendorff alone. His older brother Wilhelm wrote about 40 poems, including canzones, romances, and sonnets. Since 1813, he was an imperial-royal district commissioner in Upper Italy, district captain in Trent, and gubernatorial councilor in Cisleithania. The youngest sister Luise was a trusted pen pal of Adalbert Stifter for decades.

Joseph von Eichendorff (1788–1857), German poet-jurist of late Romanticism, Prussian civil servant Luise von Eichendorff (1804–1883), sister of the poet-jurists Joseph and Wilhelm von Eichendorff Wilhelm von Eichendorff (1786–1849), German poet-jurist, Austrian civil servant (k. k.)