Hohenasperg, located in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg near Stuttgart, Germany, of which it is administratively part, is an ancient fortress and prison overlooking the town of Asperg.
It was an important Celtic oppidum, and a number of very important "princely" burials are close by, in particular the Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave.
Geography
Hohenasperg is located on a 90-metre-high
Late Triassic hill. The hill is located in an upland area, but because of its steep overhangs and wide plateau, it is visible from a long distance and offers an ideal location for a
fortification.
History
Iron Age
Around 500 BC, during the Hallstatt period, the Hohenasperg was a
Celts principality with a fortified settlement, known as a 'princely seat'. Numerous Celtic burial sites in the surrounding area are aligned so as to offer a line of sight to the Hohenasperg, e.g. the large Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave, the
Ludwigsburg-Römerhügel grave, and the
Grafenbühl grave on the Katharinenlinde by
Schwieberdingen.
Kleinaspergle, which has been well-known since an excavation in 1839, is a burial mound lying 1,000 metres south of Hohenasperg, which offers an exceptionally good view of the Hohenasperg.
Iron Age finds
File:Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave reconstruction.jpg|The Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave
File:3D reconstruction of the central burial chamber from Asperg-Grafenbühl (Landesmuseum Württemberg, FaberCourtial; Thomas Hoppe, scientific reconstruction).png|The Grafenbühl grave
File:3D reconstruction of the burial chamber (tomb 1) from Ludwigsburg-Römerhügel (Landesmuseum Württemberg, FaberCourtial; Thomas Hoppe, scientific reconstruction).png|The Ludwigsburg-Römerhügel grave
File:Celts - drinking bowl from athens (4120473865).jpg|Greek pottery from the Kleinaspergle burial mound
File:Kleinaspergle 2016.jpg|The Kleinaspergle burial mound
Middle Ages
Around 500 AD, after the victory of the
Franks over the
Alamanni, Hohenasperg became the seat of the Frankish Lord and Frankish Thing, the legislative assembly. At this time Hohenasperg was called "Ascicberg."
The first time Asperg was referred to was in the year 819, as the Shire Gozberg granted local suzerainty to Weissenburg Abbey in the Alsace. The location however achieved more importance in the 13th century with the founding of the independent town of Hohenasperg, which lasted until 1909.
Early Modern period
Hohenasperg was officially chartered in 1510. In 1519, forces of the
Swabian League under George von Frundsberg laid siege to Hohenasperg where Duke Ulrich of Württemberg was holding out.
On 12 May 1525, the peasant leader, Jäcklein Rohrbach, was taken prisoner by the governor of Asperg. He was held there until the surrender of the Steward of Waldburg-Zeil. After 1535, the castle was expanded and turned into a fortress. The residents were resettled at the foot of the hill.
Between 1634 and 1635, during the Thirty Years War, the castle was defended against imperial troops by a garrison of Protestantism from Württemberg, reinforced by Sweden forces. The siege ended finally with the surrender to the imperial troops, who occupied the fortress until 1649.
After the Thirty Years War, the fortress was returned to the rule of Württemberg. In 1688 and 1693, it was occupied by French troops; afterwards it lost its importance as a defensive fortress and became a garrison and a state prison. In 1718, Asperg was integrated into the district Ludwigsburg, but 17 years later became its own district. In 1781, Asperg was permanently incorporated into the district of Ludwigsburg.
Prisoners
The use of the fortress as a prison is responsible for the fact that Hohenasperg is jokingly referred to as "Württemberg's highest mountain" as they say "it takes only five minutes to come to the top, but years to come back down again."
Holy Roman Empire
In 1737, Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, a Jew and the financial adviser to the Duke of Württemberg, was arrested and held at Hohenasperg for seven months before being executed in Stuttgart. The poet C. F. D. Schubart was held prisoner there between 1777 and 1787; Friedrich Schiller was mindful of Schubart's fate when he wrote his play "The Robbers," inspired by one of Schubart's short stories. Schiller himself escaped imprisonment in the Hohenasperg by fleeing to
Mannheim in the neighboring Electorate of the Palatinate.
19th century
During the rule of King Frederick of Württemberg, deserters, military prisoners, and separatists from the Radical
Pietist group from the circle of
Rottenacker were kept at Fort Hohenasperg. By 1813, about 400 prisoners were arrested on the fortress. When his son King William I of Württemberg became ruler in 1817, corporal punishment, such as running the gauntlet, was abolished.
Further inmates in Fort Hohenasperg included the writer Berthold Auerbach, who was kept here between 1837 and 1838; Friedrich Kammerer (1833); the doctor and poet Theobald Kerner (1850–1851); the theologian Karl Hase; the satirist Johannes Nefflen; the poet Leo von Seckendorff, the writer Theodor Griesinger; and many more, mostly political dissidents, who in general were held prisoner because of their anti-monarchistic views.
In 1887 and 1888 a water tower,[http://www.wasserturm-bw.de/ludwigsburg/bilder/hoaspergII1.jpg ][http://www.wasserturm-bw.de/ludwigsburg/hohenasperg1.html] was constructed, which also supports police radio antennas.
Since 1894, a prison for the civil penal system has been located on Hohenasperg hill. In the meantime the central hospital for the Baden-Württemberg penal system was placed on the Hohenasperg.
Early years of the Nazi era
During spring and summer 1933, numerous members of Hitler's opposition, the
Social Democracy and
Communism, were imprisoned at Hohenasperg. Amongst these prisoners was the Governor of Württemberg,
Eugen Bolz, who was murdered during
Aktion Gitter in Berlin in 1945. At least 101 prisoners died in Hohenasperg under its hard penal system, and 20 of their names have been identified by the
Ludwigsburg VVN, an antifascist organization. These names are remembered on a plaque in the Prisoner's Cemetery.
[Gedenkstätten für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Eine Dokumentation, Bd.I, Bonn 1995, S. 20f., ]
Transit camp for deportation to concentration camps (1940–1943)
In May 1940, the prison was used as a way station during the first centrally planned deportation of
Sinti out of southwest Germany, west of the Rhine River (
Mainz, Ingelheim, Worms). The deportation was carried using a special train, families were escorted through the village by foot, with police surveillance. In the prison, examinations were conducted by the Ritter Research Institute, which decided the fate of the inmates. The institute was named for the scientific racist
Robert Ritter. Further deportations were sent to the General Government, the area of Germany-occupied Poland. Non-gypsies were sent back.
[Arbeitslisten der "Forschungsstelle Ritter" (Bundesarchiv Bestand R 165/38), Deportationslisten und Schriftwechsel der Polizei in Mainz.]
At least until the beginning of 1943, the prison was used as a way station for Sinti who were being sent to concentration camps. Later deportations led to the Gypsy Family Camp, the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where prisoners were murdered.[Reutlingen 1930 - 1950; Nationalsozialismus und Nachkriegszeit". hrsg 1995 v.der Stadt Reutlingen, Schul-, Kultur- und Sportamt mit dem Reut
linger Stadtarchiv pp. 159-160.]
Post-war period
The U.S. Seventh Army used Hohenasperg as an Internment camp 1946-1947.
In the book, "The Prison Called Hohenasperg", American born and raised author Arthur D. Jacobs provides his experience as a twelve- and thirteen-year-old prisoner in Hohenasperg.
In June 1959 Karl Jäger, a former Einsatzgruppen officer, hung himself in Hohenasperg prison.
Today
The prison later became a civil prison for the detention of non-political prisoners and now also houses the central hospital of the prison service in Baden-Württemberg. The serial killer Heinrich Pommerenke died in Hohenasperg in the central hospital on 27 December 2008.
There is a small museum detailing the lives of some of the prison's notable inmates ("Hohenasperg. Ein deutsches Gefängnis").
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Schön, 1899. Die Staatsgefangenen von Hohenasperg. Stuttgart.
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Biffart, 1858. Geschichte der Württembergischen Feste Hohenasperg. Stuttgart.
Further reading
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M. Biffart: Geschichte der württembergischen Feste Hohenasperg und ihrer merkwürdigen Gefangenen. Stuttgart, 1858
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Theodor Bolay: Der Hohenasperg - Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Bietigheim, 1972
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Horst Brandstätter: Asperg - Ein deutsches Gefängnis, Berlin: Wagenbachs Taschenbücherei 1978.
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Erwin Haas: Die sieben württembergischen Landesfestungen Hohenasperg, Hohenneufen, Hohentübingen, Hohenurach, Hohentwiel, Kirchheim/Teck, Schorndorf. Reutlingen, 1996
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Paul Sauer: Der Hohenasperg - Fürstensitz, Höhenburg, Bollwerk der Landesverteidigung. Leinfelden-Echterdingen, 2004.
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Theodor Schön: Die Staatsgefangenen auf Hohenasperg. Stuttgart, 1899
External links
