Kapfenburg Castle

Schloss Kapfenburg is situated in the Ostalb region of Baden-Württemberg on a hill 130 metres over the town of Lauchheim.

After the fall of the Staufers, the Earls of Oettingen and their liege lords, the lords of Gromberg, took over a large part of the land around Kapfenburg. In 1364 the house of the Teutonic Order in Mergentheim acquired the castle. It was the last seat of the Teutonic Order to be founded in southern Germany. The Teutonic Order State in Prussia and their houses in the Empire already existed separately. So Schloss Kapfenburg is above all a testimony to a small residence of clerical knights in the late middle ages and the early modern times.

In the Rhein Alliance of 1806 Napoleon abolished the Teutonic Order and granted Kapfenburg to King Friedrich of Württemberg. Since then it has been the property of the Federal State. Kapfenburg was never destroyed. It was adapted and extended according to the conversion from a military castle to residential and administrative one and became an idiosyncratic ensemble of buildings, incorporating architectural styles from several completely different periods of history.

Since October 1999, the International Music School Academy and Cultural Centre has been accommodated within the walls of the former stronghold of the Teutonic Order stronghold. Schloss Kapfenburg has thereby become a place of musical and creative activity for many people from Germany and abroad.

You can read more about the history of Schloss Kapfenburg, the architecture, the Teutonic Order and the famous personalities at www.schloesser-magazin.de