Frankenstein Castle exists - Kings Journal (Patreon)

In Kings Journal I write about a special topic each time.
This time I tell you about Frankenstein Castle.

Halloween is close and I think it is time for you to enter the space between reality and fantasy.
Reality:
Let´ s begin with reality. I live not far from Frankenstein Castle and I have visited it quite often. It is located on top of a chain of mountains surrounded by forests high above the plains. The name Frankenstein is easy to explain: The "Franks" were a germanic tribe and "Stein" means stone. It is an ordinary name for a german castle and of course it was home for the noble family Frankenstein. After the reformation the roman catholic Frankensteins got into conflict with local (more powerful) Protestant nobles and decided to sell them their castle. Their former home became a refuge and hospital for a while and was later abandoned and fell into ruins.
In the 19th century restoration works were done and the ruin was partly rebuild - but historically inaccurate.

The myth:
In 1673, Johann Conrad Dippel was born in the castle, where he was later engaged as a professional alchemist. It is suggested that Dippel influenced Mary Shelley´ s fantasy when she wrote her Frankenstein novel, though there is no mention of the castle in Shelley's journals from the time. However, it is known that in 1814, prior to writing the famous novel, Shelley took a journey close to the castle. Several nonfiction books on the life of Mary Shelley claim Dippel as a possible influence.

Dippel invented an oil, that according to him was an "elixir of life". He was also interested in anatomy and rumors say, that he dug up corpses from a villages graveyard nearby and took them into the castle for his research or as the villagers thought: His experiments.

Actually none of this is proven. Neither if Dippel stole corpses nor if Mary Shelley was inspired by his story. It happened long ago and time can create legends.

Frankenstein and Halloween:
After WW2 many american soldiers were based in a big city below the castle and they celebrated Halloween. Well, they celebrated Halloween on Frankenstein Castle, because the myth and name make it a perfect location for scary events.
Although the americans have returned home to the USA, their tradition of celebrating Halloween on the castle remained and became a very popular event with monsters (there are special castings to find good ones) and lots of scares. Halloween is not just one night on Frankenstein Castle - nearly all of October is Halloween there and tourists have to buy tickets and are brought by buses up the mountain. There are lots of people who want to meet monsters!

If you consider that Halloween does not really exist in Germany and does not have any roots here, this is a special event.
Of course times have changed since the end of WW2 and some germans start to were costumes and do private Halloween parties on October 31th, but Halloween still has a hard time here, because many germans refuse to accept or celebrate an imported holiday. Playing tricks is also a very bad idea, because damaging someones property is a crime in Germany and honestly I have no idea how other countries deal with this?!

Halloween:
I have carved some pumpkins before and it was fun. I also like monsters like werewolves  and I think Halloween can be a lovely holiday.
But I did never visit Frankenstein Castle at Halloween, because I feel very uncomfortable at crowded places and I would be very annoyed if the whole evening my doorbell would ring because of kids wanting sweats.
So I see good parts in Halloween and also annoying ones.
I guess Mister Dippel was also annoyed, when he was just curious about anatomy and everyone thought he was a mad alchemist, who just stole some corpses late night.

Happy Halloween!