Hueth Castle

Schloss Hueth, pronounced Hüth, possibly formerly known as Bruckhuet, is a moated castle about 1.5 kilometers north of the Bienen district of Rees in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Kleve.

Shortly after its construction in the 14th century by the Knights of Hekeren (also Heckeren), the medieval complex became a fief of Kurköln. At the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century, the then castle came into the possession of the von Wylich family, in whose possession it remained for more than three centuries. Transformed into a castle in the 17th century, Hueth was sold to Friedrich Wilhelm von Borcke in the first half of the 18th century due to financial problems. His family redesigned the manor house of the complex in the Rococo style. Through marriage and inheritance, Schloss Hueth came into the possession of the von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld family in the 19th century, who are still the owners today. Since they use the buildings, most of which were destroyed during the Second World War, for private purposes, the complex is not accessible to the public.

On June 24, 1361, the knight Rutger von Hekeren declared that Johann, the Count of Kleve, had allowed him to build a castle in the Huether Bruch. The complex was the successor to a knight's seat, which had stood about one kilometer northeast of the new castle site and had burned down in 1346. Three years later, on September 21, 1364, Rutger, together with his wife Odilia, enfeoffed the newly built castle to none other than the Archbishop of Cologne Engelbert III, thus making it a fief of the greatest rival of the Counts of Kleve in the struggle for power in the area around Bienen, and at the same time making it an open house of the archdiocese.

At the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century, the complex came into the possession of Adolph von Wylich, the Kleve bailiff in the Hetter since 1394. He bequeathed Hueth Castle to his son Godert in February 1428. The von Wylich family subsequently almost without exception provided the Kleve bailiff in the Hetter, so that their castle became the official seat of office. In 1608, Johann Christoph von Wylich was appointed Baron due to the lordship of Lottum on the Maas acquired by his father. Subsequently, the members of the Huether Wylichs called themselves "von Wylich-Lottum".

During the Eighty Years' War, Spanish troops under their commander Francisco de Mendoza plundered the outer bailey in 1598 and subsequently set it on fire. An corner tower and all farm buildings were destroyed in the fire. The Spaniards, however, had not been able to capture the main castle. A contemporary report states: "That strong house Huit of the lord of Willach to Gronstein spoiled and what was located at sheepfolds, farms and other things nearby, burned down."

In 1647, Johann Sigismund von Wylich zu Lottum received Hueth, including the village of Bienen and the surrounding farming communities, as a fief. His family converted the castle into a representative palace in the second half of the 17th century. The moat separating the main and outer bailey was filled in, and the drawbridge to the outer bailey was replaced by a solid stone bridge. Two pillars flanking the bridge replaced the demolished gatehouse. In addition, the defensive wall to the right and left of the access was demolished and replaced by a wrought-iron gate. In the outer bailey area, the builders had elongated building wings erected along the curtain wall on the north and south sides and connected them to round towers at their western ends. Johann Sigismund was succeeded as owner of Hueth by his son Philipp Karl, who was elevated to the rank of count in 1701. He was a Prussian Field Marshal General and governor of the Wesel fortress and founded the Evangelical Reformed parish of Hueth in 1712, for which he set up a prayer room in the southern outer bailey wing. The Prussian King Frederick William I was also present at the wedding of his son Johann Christoph to Baroness Hermine Alexandrine von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld on July 26, 1714, at Schloss Hueth.

When the owner family was heavily indebted in 1736, they sold Schloss Hueth, including the associated Kleve sub-lordship, for 40,110 Reichstaler to Friedrich Wilhelm von Borcke, who was in Prussian service. In 1730, he had been appointed president of the War and Domain Chamber in Minden and Kleve and was therefore looking for a suitable residence in the area around Kleve. His family was elevated to the rank of count in 1790 and remained owners of the castle complex until 1872. In the second half of the 18th century, the von Borckes had the manor house of Hueth redesigned in the Rococo style. The existing stair tower in the central axis of the building was demolished and all Gothic gables were removed.

Friedrich Wilhelm's grandson, Friedrich Heinrich, set up an observatory and a cabinet of curiosities in the castle. He was a close friend of Field Marshal Blücher, who is said to have ridden his horse up the stairs to the first floor one morning after a long drinking bout to wake his friend. But the von Borcke family experienced a gradual economic decline, and Hueth was removed from the registers of estates eligible for the Landtag in 1846. When Friedrich Heinrich's son died without descendants in 1872, his sister Bernhardine inherited the castle. Through her marriage to a member of the von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld family, it came into her husband's family after her death in the second half of the 19th century. This family had the castle bridges renewed in the 19th and early 20th centuries and a modern farm built north of the castle island. Before 1945, extensive renovation work was carried out on the buildings, as the city of Oberhausen planned to set up a recreation home in the castle.

During the Second World War, the castle complex was fortified and was to be defended by the Volkssturm, but during the heavy fighting for the Allied Rhine crossing on March 26 and 27, 1945, it was hit by numerous bombs and grenades, which destroyed the southern part of the outer bailey and the main house. The burned-out manor house was finally demolished around 1960, with only a defensive tower remaining as a roofless ruin.

The complex is still owned by the von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld family, who still manage it. They had the undamaged north wing of the outer bailey repaired and converted for their own residential purposes. Due to its private use, the castle cannot be visited.