The Real Castle Frankenstein

As mountains go, Magnetburg is not that huge. In fact, a road leads to the top from Ebertsadt where you can visit a restaurant or the neighboring ruins of Castle Frankenstein.

Frankenstein's Castle

Burg Frankenstein is believed to have inspired Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein in 1818. Founded by the knightly family called Frankenstein in the 13th century, it was at the end of a line of castles overlooking the old Roman-built mountain road that linked Roman forts. In 1660-61, it was sold to the Hessen-Darmstadt royal house and remains in possession of the state of Hesse. It was put to use a number of times in different functions until it fell apart due to neglect. Stone from the castle found its way into various building projects in the area, hastening its deterioration. In the 19th century, it was partly restored, incorporating some of the romantic notions about medieval architecture of that era.

Castle Frankenstein is in ruins now, only a chapel, a couple of towers and section of wall remain. It shares it's mountaintop with a restaurant outside the front gate and a large, asphalted parking lot to the side. The maountain itself is heavily wooded, but covered with hiking trails and popular with mountain bikes. The mountain is assessible by a road from nearby Eberstadt, and it within sight of a number of nearby villages and the city of Darmstadt to the north and west.

Today, the castle hosts an annual Halloween haunted castle event over three October weekends, instigated and encouraged by the American GIs who are stationed in Darmstadt.

Shelley and the Alchemist's Story

Shelley's Frankenstein owes much to the story of an chemist who specialized in worked with industrial dyes. Johann Konrad Dippel, who claimed to be a von Frankenstein but apparently wasn't, was born in the castle in 1673. The darker, unconfirmed side of the story was that Dipple was an alchemist, experimenting in discovering immortality through experiments utilizing his chemical knowledge as well as bodies obtained by grave robbing. Dipple died in 1734, supposedly after unwisely partaking of a potion he had brewed.

Inspiration

Whatever the truth of the story about Dipple, Shelley is supposed to have heard the tale while traveling in the area in September 1814. She never admitted the sources of her inspiration for Frankenstein, so no one knows for sure about this aspect of it. Shelley was apparently one of those writers who believe in pure inspiration and was therefore incapable of admitting taking inspiration from legends and actual events.

Of course, for the most part the book was not actually set in Germany and there was nary a castle to be found. Another jarring note in the mythology of Frankenstein is that although Shelley took credit throughout her life for having Baron von Frankenstein bring the creature to life with electricity, a careful reading of the creation in the novel reveals that the single paragraph that covers the issue does not at all describe how the creature was brought to life.

Nevertheless, she did create a classic and, even if not the setting, with its name and story of Dipple, Castle Frankenstein seems to have a place in the tale.