Castle History

Even though the House of Hohenzollern is person-related mentioned as early as the 11th century, the first mention of the castle building dates back to 1267, when its geographical location is given as "sub castro zolre", i.e. "below the Zollern Castle", in the land register of the Stetten monastery near Hechingen.

The name Zoller is probably derived from the Latin "mons solarius", meaning "mountain of the sun". It is possible that the Romans, who lived here until the 3rd century, used the mountain as a place of worship. The word "solarius" became "zolorin", then "zolre" and finally "Zollern". From the 14th century onwards, the counts added the prefix "Hohen" to their name to "Hohenzollern" in order to emphasise their geographically and socially elevated status.

The exact date of construction of the first castle is unknown, but archaeological investigations suggest that the castle was built in the first half of the 11th century. For the time, it must have been a large and well-equipped fortress. In contemporary sources, it was praised as the "crown of all castles in Swabia" and "the strongest house in German lands".

The cone-shaped Zoller Mountain, which was still unwooded at the time, was ideal for the construction of a fortress. An undetected enemy approach was almost impossible here.

In 1819, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia visited the castle ruins on the Zoller Mountain. The romantically inclined Hohenzollern was a friend of the fine arts and architecture. He decided to have the ancestral seat of his family dynasty rebuilt. In 1844, now as King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, he wrote in a letter: "The memory of the year 19 is immensely sweet to me and like a beautiful dream, especially the sunset we saw from one of the castle bastions ... Now it is a childhood dream - a wish to see the Hohenzollern made habitable again..."

From 1850, the king realised his long-cherished dream and created the third and current fortress on the Zoller Mountain, one of the most imposing castle complexes in Germany in the neo-Gothic style. A horseshoe-shaped, multi-storey high castle, protected by a bastion ring, was built on the foundation walls of the previous castles. The king had the plans for this designed by the famous Berlin architect Friedrich August Stüler. The fortress architect Moritz of Prittwitz was also called in to design the spiral ramp in front of the castle complex - a masterpiece of military architecture.

The Catholic St Michael's Chapel, the only remaining building from the previous 15th century castle, was integrated into the new building. As a devout Protestant, the king also had the Protestant Christ Chapel added to his castle.

King Friedrich Wilhelm IV died in 1861, even before his great dream was completed. The completion of the third castle thus fell to his brother and heir to the throne, King Wilhelm I of Prussia. On 3 October 1867, he and his wife, Queen Augusta, inaugurated the rebuilt ancestral home of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Two thirds of the building costs were shared by the Prussian and one third by the Swabian branch of the Hohenzollerns. This ownership structure still applies today.

Even though a "knight's castle" no longer offered adequate protection in the 19th century due to new weaponry, the re-established Hohenzollern ancestral seat still had a military function in addition to its representative character. After the Swabian Hohenzollerns abdicated in favour of their Prussian relatives in the course of the revolutionary unrest and Hohenzollern became a Prussian exclave, the Prussian king stationed up to 180 men here, as a kind of Prussian outpost, to show his presence near the French border. The castle continued to function as a garrison during the First World War, although the garrison was probably more concerned with maintenance and repair work on the building. During the Second World War, the castle was neither used for military purposes nor attacked.

From 1952, the then landlord, Louis Ferdinand Prince of Prussia, had the castle furnished with artistically valuable and historically significant artefacts relating to the history of Prussia and its kings. In addition to paintings by renowned painters (including Anton von Werner, Franz von Lenbach and Philip Alexius de László), the collection also includes gold and silver jewellery from the 17th to 19th centuries. To this end, he had the former castle kitchen converted into a treasure chamber, which completed the character of the Hohenzollern Museum at Hohenzollern Castle. Since then, the castle has presented itself as the tourist flagship of the Zollernalb region named after it and as one of Germany's best-known destinations for visitors from all over the world. As a privately run business, it earns its living from entrance fees, the castle's own catering and numerous events.

Also in 1952, Prince Louis Ferdinand and his wife, Princess Kira of Prussia, set up the foundation named after her for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to give them a carefree holiday. Rooms similar to a youth hostel were set up on the third floor of the north wing of the castle, where children and young people from social institutions still spend free holidays every year. Today, the Princess Kira of Prussia Foundation is run by Princess Sophie of Prussia, the wife of the current landlord Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia. To date, the foundation has welcomed around 16.000 young guests to the castle.