Kaiser Wilhelm II's dream
Kaiser Wilhelm II's dream for Haut-Koenigsbourg
Wilhelm II never wanted to turn Haut-Koenigsbourg into a personal residence and never slept there.
Moreover, he didn't want to settle for a ruin that needed consolidating, so he commissioned a complete restoration. From then on, he followed the work very closely and visited it every year.
His ambition was great. He wanted to bring the age of the knights back to life and give the Middle Ages its own museum. To attract visitors, he wanted to restore the castle to its prestige of around 1500. From the outset, the project was designed to be open to the public and to develop a tourist economy.
Moreover, he didn't want to settle for a ruin that needed consolidating, so he commissioned a complete restoration. From then on, he followed the work very closely and visited it every year.
His ambition was great. He wanted to bring the age of the knights back to life and give the Middle Ages its own museum. To attract visitors, he wanted to restore the castle to its prestige of around 1500. From the outset, the project was designed to be open to the public and to develop a tourist economy.
Political reasons also explain this restoration of the castle. This new property offered Wilhelm II an ideal opportunity to legitimise his power in Alsace, which had been annexed in 1871.
His programme was simple: to mark in stone that Alsace had been and would remain German territory. The construction of the new city of Strasbourg (the German quarter also known as the ‘Neustadt’: place de la République, Gallia, university palace) and the restoration of Haut-Koenigsbourg castle played a key role in this.
What's more, by combining his coat of arms with those of Charles V on the restored main gate, he established himself as the legitimate heir of this prestigious emperor, the former owner of Haut-Koenigsbourg.
The castle thus embodied the western frontier of his empire, just as Marienburg Castle (Malbork), now in Poland, marks its eastern frontier.