Schöneberg Castle (Ruin) (Hofgeismar)

The castle ruin Schöneberg, also called Schöneburg, is a castle ruin from the 12th century consisting of a few remains, located near Hofgeismar in the district of Kassel in Hesse (Germany).

The castle ruin Schöneberg is located on the steeply rising basalt cone of the high Schöneberg, not far north of Hofgeismar, west of the village of Schöneberg (northeastern district of Hofgeismar) and south of Hümme (northern district of Hofgeismar). West of Schöneberg and the Schöneberg castle ruin runs the Diemel tributary Esse, to which – measured near the farm/hamlet of Schießbach – there is a height difference of about 190 m.

The castle can only be reached via forest paths on the Schöneberg.

Count Hermann II of Winzenburg is considered the builder of the hilltop castle, who erected the castle around 1122 to protect his possessions. After Hermann's murder in January 1152, the castle passed to the Archbishops of Mainz, who gave it as a fief to the Lords of Eberschütz (since 1170 of Schonenberg). In a document from 1303, when severe fighting occurred between Kurmainz and the Landgraviate of Hesse in the Hofgeismar area, the Lords of Schonenberg (Schöneberg) promised that the castle, as well as the nearby Trendelburg castle in Tindirberg (today's Trendelburg), should always be open to the Archbishop. After the final victory of the Landgraves over Archbishop Konrad III of Dhaun in the Mainz-Hessian War of 1427 in the battles near Fritzlar and Fulda, almost all formerly Mainz possessions in North Hesse came under the sovereignty of the Landgraviate – including the Schöneburg, which was probably finally bought by Landgrave Ludwig I in 1429. War debts from the Mainz Diocesan Feud (1461–1463) led to the remaining Mainz possessions between Diemel and Weser being pledged to the Hessian Landgrave Ludwig II; Hofgeismar also came into Hessian possession as a result.

The castle was demolished in 1582/83. Today, only a few remains of the formerly extensive castle complex commemorate the castle, including a recently restored castle well.