Schlössle Dettingen

Dettingen an der Erms, The county of Reutlingen

Today, the town hall of the municipality of Dettingen is located in the more than 500-year-old Schlössle. Count Eberhard im Bart had it built from 1502 to 1504 as a monastery building for the "Brothers of Common Life", who sought internal church reforms. After their dissolution in 1517, it was inhabited as a Württemberg fief by various nobles until Duke Christoph gave it to the Urach bailiff Claus von Grafeneck in 1551 as a family and retirement home. From 1575 to 1596 it served as the residence of Susanna von Grafeneck, married Zillenhart. It is possible that the nickname "Geißköpf" for the people of Dettingen traces back to her, as the Zillenhart coat of arms features a half ibex. After her death, the estate passed by inheritance into the hands of the Counts of Degenfeld. In the beginning of the 19th century, they sold it to Adam Daumüller, Dettingen's first industrialist. In times of crisis, he resold to the merchant Friedrich Hönniger. At the end of the 19th century, the Dettinger municipal council considered using the castle for school purposes: the council then bought the building at auction and set up school rooms and official apartments for teachers' families. Probably, the famous writer and pacifist Anna Haag (1888-1982) also lived sometime in the building because her father Jakob Schaich worked as a teacher in Dettingen from 1901-1913. Over time, more and more structural deficiencies were found in the school, and there was also a lack of space for a drawing room, a gymnasium and a handicrafts room. However, it was not until 1970 that the castle was converted and served as a second town hall: the council clerk's office, the notary's office and the meeting room were housed here. In 1984, three years of construction work began on the Schlössle, so that the new town hall could move in here in 1987.