History
Brief history of the Burg Schaumburg
The castle is the namesake of the Counts of Holstein-Schaumburg.
The Burg Schaumburg, Location on the Nesselberg 225 meters above sea level is a typical hilltop castle with a keep, outer bailey, ring wall and dry moats located in the region of the town of Rinteln, in the district of Schaumburg, Lower Saxony. The castle's name, formerly, Scowenburg, Schauenburg, likely derives from the wide view over the Weser Valley. It is the namesake of the House of the Counts of Schaumburg and Holstein, and of the Schaumburg region, whose emblem the castle has represented since the 13th century. For this reason, the district of Schaumburg bears the nettle leaf from the ancestral coat of arms of the Counts of Schaumburg in its own coat of arms.
1110 Adolfe "zu Scowenburg" is first attested in chronicles for the year 1110, with its earliest documented mention dating from 1119.
1392 Count Otto I (1366-1404) builds the outer bailey wall with a walled-up front keep and another tower. He adds fireplaces and large windows.
1400 Planting of the Court Linden tree under Otto I in front of the front keep of the outer bailey.
1524 Count Anton (1439-1526) rebuilds the castle and its other buildings.
1560 Construction of the inn behind the castle now called the Schaumburger Ritter
1594 Structural changes are made to the main castle.
1600 Individual parts of the castle fall into disrepair, the counts leave the castle to live in Bückeburg and Stadthagen.
1640 With Otto V (1614-1640) the Holstein-Schaumburg family dies out, the Schaumburg castle serves as a dowager house for Otto's mother.
1647 With the division of the county, the castle becomes the property of the Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel. The castle serves as a court of law and becomes inhabited by officials, a prison is erected to the west of the front keep of the outer bailey.
1728-1735 More and more parts of the building become dilapidated and some are demolished.
1735 Schaumburg has long been the administrative seat and also serves as the place for the collection of tithes, with 60 villages being governed from here.
1746 The bell tower (Kühner Henke) is mentioned as a prisoner's tower, which is still there today.
1807-1815 Under Napoleon's brother Jerome, the castle is plundered, many inscriptions and coats of arms are destroyed.
1866 The Schaumburg castle became the property of the German Emperor, the Hohenzollerns, when George William, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe sided with the Austrians in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War.
1873 The Schaumburg castle serves as an inn, Burg-Gaststätte and farm workers from the Coverden domain live there.
1889 Prince Wilhelm, a son of Prince Adolph Georg of Schaumburg-Lippe, marries Princess Viktoria, the sister of the German Emperor Wilhelm II.
1893 The east wing of the front keep, outer bailey is demolished except for part of the front wall.
1907-1913 For the royal couple's silver wedding anniversary, Georg and Marie-Anna of Schaumburg-Lippe receive the Schaumburg as a personal gift from the Emperor. The Emperor has the beautiful access road from the valley side built. Two wings are built onto the front keep tower of the outer bailey, the half-timbering comes from old half-timbered houses in Osnabrück. The castle is renovated, re-roofed and so-called George's Tower is raised to 30 meters. The front keep, outer bailey receives a curved slate roof. All destroyed coats of arms and inscriptions are renewed.
1921 Establishment of a restaurant, Burg-Gaststätte, at the upper castle.
1935 A small museum opens in the front keep of the outer bailey.
1945 The east side of the George's Tower is hit in April 1945 bythree advancing American tanks via the Burgstraße, the impact of these grenades are still visible today in the George Tower.
