The castle was possibly first mentioned in 1151 as an
imperial castle of the
Hohenstaufen emperors which was managed by the
ministerialis, Landolfo de Gudenburc, or it may have been connected with Ulrich of Guttenberg (
Udelricus de Gudenburhc) who gifted it in 1174 to
Eusserthal Abbey. The first confirmed record occurs in 1246 when Isengard of Falkenstein, on behalf of her husband, the imperial steward (
Reichstruchsess), Philip I of Falkenstein, transferred the castle to King
Conrad IV. In 1317, half of the castle was enfeoffed to the
counts of Leiningen, whilst the other half went, a little later, to
Electoral Palatinate. In the division of the Palatinate of 1410 the castle was allocated to
Stephen, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken. The Leiningens lost their share in 1463 when it went via the
Hanau-Lichtenbergs to the
House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken branch of the
Wittelsbach dynasty. In 1525, during the
German Peasants' War Guttenberg Castle was destroyed by a Lorraine peasant mob. The ruins were never rebuilt and its associated office or
Amt moved to Dörrenbach. With the extinction of the Heidelberg line in 1559, Palatine Zweibrücken also inherited the other half of the Barony of Guttenberg including the related part of the ruined castle. From 1680 to 1697 the region was under French hegemony as part of the successes achieved under France's
policy of reunion. From 1792 to 1815 the region was part of the
First French Republic and was assigned to the
département du Bas-Rhin (Department of Lower Rhine). In November 1815 the area between the rivers
Lauter and
Queich, including the ruins of Guttenberg, came under the sovereignty of the
Empire of Austria as a result of the agreements reached in the
Second Treaty of Paris. Finally in April 1816 the region of the
Palatinate was surrendered in the
Treaty of Munich to the
Kingdom of Bavaria, becoming the
Circle of the Rhine. After the end of the
Second World War the site became the property of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, but was under French administration from 1949 to 1986. From 1989 to 1995 safety measures were implemented with the support of the Advisory Board for the Preservation of the
Mundat Forest (
Kuratoriums zu Erhaltung des Mundatwaldes). == References ==