Oberwiederstedt Castle

Oberwiederstedt Castle is a former manor house in Wiederstedt in the Mansfeld-Südharz district in Saxony-Anhalt. It is home to the Novalis Research Center for Early Romanticism Research.

From 1261 until the Reformation and the associated secularization, the Renaissance castle served as an alternative residence for the relocated Dominican nuns, who had previously resided in Kupferberg near Hettstedt.

In 1772, the estate, which the baronial family von Hardenberg had acquired through marriage in the 17th century, became the birthplace of the poet Friedrich von Hardenberg, who called himself Novalis.

Among others, Hans Freiherr von Hardenberg (1824–1887), who became district administrator of the Mansfeld mountain district and vice-president of the government, was born in the castle.

Until the expropriation and expulsion of the family in October 1945, the manor house remained the family seat of the Barons von Hardenberg.

In the GDR, the estate was used as a retirement home until 1981, then it was abandoned and fell into disrepair. In the mid-1980s, it was removed from the list of architectural monuments to be preserved. However, before it could be finally demolished, a citizens' initiative for the preservation of the complex was formed in 1989. This was followed by the founding of the "Novalis Interest Group", today the Novalis Birthplace Board of Trustees e. V.

The Novalis Museum was included in the Blue Book published in 2001. The Blue Book contains a list of so-called cultural places of memory.