Decorating and furnishing the château
The Hohkönigsburgverein (literally the
"Haut-Koenigsbourg club") was formed with the goal of creating a
museum that would be open to the public. It was responsible for
finding the necessary money to decorate and
furnish the château. Made up of university professors,
architects and archaeologists, this club was founded in 1904. Up to
the end of the First World War, it had almost 500 members from
Alsace, Lorraine, Switzerland and even the Tyrol region who were
actively involved in creating a collection of objects from the
Rhine region (arms, furniture) dating from the end of the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance period. At the same time, as had been the
case right from the start, the Club promoted the castle as a
tourist attraction. Even though building work was not yet finished
at the château, an entrance fee to the castle was charged from 1904
on.
The Club also organized the parade and historical pageant for
the unveiling of the château and asked Leo Schnug,
an Alsatian artist and specialist in military uniforms who was
fascinated by the Middle Ages, to design the clothes for the
parade. After the castle's public unveiling, the Club took on the
task of decorating the Lord's residence and asked Leo Schnug to do
the wall paintings for the Kaiser's room (the
banqueting hall) and the trophy room.
From the unveiling of the château to the present day
On May 13th 1908, watched by Wilhelm
II and many representatives from the government, the
château was unveiled to the public amidst a parade and historical
pageant. The taking of the castle by the Sickingens in 1533 was
re-enacted. At that time the castle would have been in a similar
state to that in which Bodo Ebhardt found it. Five
hundred performers in period dress paraded solemnly…in the rain!
Following the First World War and the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles, Alsace and the château became part of France once
again. The site became a tourist attraction but it remained
perfectly acceptable, even the 'done thing', to criticize the
castle restoration, as this had been carried out by the 'enemy'. It
wasn't until French-German relations improved that the restored
castle was looked at with fresh eyes. After two World Wars, through
which it passed undamaged, the entire structure was classified as a
Monument historique (listed building) in 1993. Now, 100 years after
its restoration, the château du Haut-Koenigsbourg stands proudly at
the heart of a more harmonious Europe.
The castle came into the ownership of the Conseil
Départemental du Bas-Rhin in 2007 (European Collectivity
of Alsace since 1 January 2021). It provides us with an amazing
insight into what a castle at the end of the Middle Ages would have
been like and it also reveals something of European history at the
beginning of the 20th century.