Hohenfels Castle

Since 1931, the lower school of the Schule Schloss Salem boarding school, with grades 5-7, has been housed in the castle. The owner of Hohenfels Castle is the non-profit association "Schule Schloss Salem e.V." Around 20 adults live in Hohenfels Castle together with 80 boys and girls between 10 and 13 years old.

At Hohenfels Castle, four building wings enclose an almost rectangular courtyard. The castle courtyard with peripheral buildings has round corner towers in the southwest. The former manor house faces south, the gate north. The south wing, in which the manor house has an irregular position, is flanked by two corner towers, one of which - like the chapel on the outside - has late Gothic forms. The castle's circumference measures around 1700 square meters.

Hohenfels Castle is a Baroque palace in the castle style; the old castle was destroyed in the 17th century. The main part and also the oldest part of the palace dates from the middle, or rather the second half, of the 16th century. The gate is Baroque, framed with rusticated ashlar. In the chapel in the west wing, there is Rococo furnishing (1761). The manor house has stepped gables, a spiral staircase tower, and on the west gable a coat of arms of the Komtur (1553). On the ground floor of the east wing building, there are Renaissance arcades on round pillars and cross-rib vaults. Through alterations and design, especially under the Teutonic Order master builders J. C. Bagnato from Altshausen in the 18th century, the palace received its current appearance. A coat of arms of the Komtur on the gable, who built the top floor around 1760, bears witness to this period. Inside, there are still rich stucco ceilings and old ovens.

Today, the property, largely preserved in its Baroque building fabric, presents itself to residents and visitors as an ensemble of buildings where both the contemporary use as a boarding school and the careful handling of the history of this place have their place. The tithe barn was converted into a refectory under architect Richard Scholtz.

Hohenfels also includes a chapel, the manor house, Josenberg House, Zeiserhof, the oil mill, a stable, a castle garden with a greenhouse and school garden, a gymnasium, a climbing room, an all-weather sports field, an observatory, a log cabin, and a clearing with self-built huts in the forest.

A visit to the complex is not possible due to the boarding school operation. Only the "Hohenfels Castle Museum" in the old restored prison wing of the castle is accessible by prior arrangement. The museum displays genuine archival documents, a collection of old views and maps of the Hohenfels region, grouped around the fireplace rediscovered under plaster, evidence of the building's history in stone and metal, objects of daily life, including excavation finds from the old kitchen waste pit, the history of the chapel bells, as well as memorabilia and anecdotes from the eventful school history.

With its German premiere on May 19, 2005, ZDF broadcast the four-part experiential documentary "Die harte Schule der 50er Jahre" (The Hard School of the 50s), filmed at Hohenfels Castle by the production company Tresor Entertainment GmbH from August 10 to September 4, 2004. ZDF isolated 24 16- and 17-year-old boarding school students from the present and sent them on a time travel to a 1950s boarding school for the reality soap. The look back at the tough boarding school routine of 1954 lasted four weeks. Discipline, order, and punctuality prevailed. An initial and a final test were to show whether the old-fashioned drill led to impressive learning successes.

Furthermore, Hohenfels Castle is the subject of the 25-minute episode 66 of the children's TV series "Willi wills wissen" (Willi wants to know), a production by Megaherz Film und Fernsehen on behalf of Bayerischer Rundfunk with FWU Institut für Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht gGmbH. Under the title "Wie läuft´s im Internat?" (How's it going at boarding school?), KI.KA broadcast on August 8, 2004, in its German premiere, how presenter Willi Weitzel followed the daily life of boarding school students at Hohenfels Castle for a whole week.