Velhorn Castle

The so-called Velhorn Castle was built by Johann Leonhard Velhorn, the Bavarian electoral administrator of Schnaittach, for private residence until 1727. The former court clerk and provisions administrator at Rothenberg Fortress had already served as administrator from 1689 to 1703. With the victory of the imperial-allied troops in the War of the Spanish Succession, Bavaria was occupied by the emperor, and in 1707, the dominion of Rothenberg was ceded to the Imperial City of Nuremberg. Velhorn fled the country and was only sent back to Schnaittach to his old post by the Amberg government after the peace treaties of 1713/14 and the re-instatement of the Bavarian Elector in 1714. His retirement may have already been in sight in 1722, as in that year the official acquired the plot of land previously occupied by a lime kiln from the lime burner Hans Georg Kolbmann and soon after began construction of a manor house.

The two-story building of unplastered sandstone ashlar with seven by five window axes received a high, three-story hip roof. The eastern main entrance, located in a basket-arch portal on the raised ground floor, is reached via a double-flight outdoor staircase. From the centrally located main hall, a doorway in the western enclosure led to the garden, which was equipped with parterres, a fountain at the path intersection, and a pavilion. The builder moved into the completed building in 1727 as a private citizen but died in the same year.

He was succeeded by his son Johann Friedrich Anton (1695–1767), who was ennobled in 1749. This allowed him to take possession of the landed estates of Tressau and Ursensollen, which he had acquired and which were privileged with noble freedom. In 1743, he married Susanne Maria Helena von Muffel auf Eschenau (1719–1757) in his third marriage. The third owner from the family was Johann Wolfgang Alois von Velhorn (1734–1789), who had married Sybilla von Loefen zu Diepoltsdorf. As a district judge, he took up the highest Bavarian electoral office in Schnaittach in 1767 but died already in 1789 without leaving a male heir.

The property passed to his daughter Josefa von Velhorn, who married the Schnaittach citizen Wolfgang Reiser in 1796. With the marriage of her daughter Ernestine, the castle passed to the Schnaittach brickyard owner Johann Baptist Schmauss in 1822. His son Leonhard Schmauss modernized the brickyard between 1857 and 1862 and also included the area west of the manor house for clay extraction. He was succeeded as owner by his son Albert, who ceased operations of the steam brickyard and lime kiln in 1918 due to unprofitability and sold the former Velhorn Castle to Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen.

The buyer, with his war and adventure books written for popular taste, was one of the most popular writers of the Weimar era, whose books achieved astonishing print runs until the 1960s. Monarchist in sentiment, Reck made no secret of his aversion to the National Socialists and died in Dachau concentration camp in early 1945 after a denunciation. Reck had already sold the Schnaittach castle again in 1922 due to high maintenance costs – "after it was haunted there."

In 1925, the castle was taken over by Caritas, which converted it into a welfare home and a nursery school. Between 1943 and 1945, a military hospital and an auxiliary hospital were housed in the rooms. Today, the castle is part of the extensive Caritas Youth Welfare Center, whose buildings extend into the former castle garden. The manor house was extensively modernized several times in the second half of the 20th century and adapted to its use, so it is likely that hardly any historical substance has been preserved within the enclosing walls. Even the stucco ceilings from the construction period, still inventoried in the 1960s, fell victim to the renovations.