The mercenary leader and the poet - the heyday and downfall of Ebernburg
Castle The Hutten-Sickingen Monument
If you take the B 48 to Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg, you will see the hill of Ebernburg Castle in front of you, as it has been rebuilt since the 19th century. A second glance reveals a group of figures halfway up the hill. There, cast in bronze, are the knight Franz von Sickingen (1481-1523) and the poet Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523), crowned with the poet's laurel by the emperor. Both stand for a moment in world history when Ebernburg castle was the focal point of events.In the early years of the Reformation movement, when Luther was threatened with the death penalty and his followers also faced persecution, the mercenary leader Franz von Sickingen gathered around him a circle of theologians who were early followers of Luther. These included Martin Bucer, Johannes Oekolampad, Kaspar Aquila and Johannes Schwebel. But Ulrich von Hutten was particularly close to the knight, who could be described as an unscrupulous war entrepreneur. Ulrich von Hutten was a widely known and highly honoured humanist poet. With his propaganda directed against the "rule of the clergy", against the papacy and above all against the financial exploitation of the German territories, he gave Sickingen the arguments for his actions, if he needed them. Incidentally, he had syphilis and used the mercury mined in the region for cures. The five-metre-high monument on the granite plinth the two larger-than-life figures. On the left, the poet shows the way to the listening knight with his scroll. He has the hilt of his sword, but he still hesitates. The sculpture, made by Hugo and Ludwig Cauer in 1889 after designs by their father Carl Cauer, is an expression of Protestant-Prussian, anti-Catholic national sentiment. The inscription celebrates both as "champions of German unity and greatness". Those so praised perished in this conflict. Sickingen died fighting against an alliance of princes he had challenged. The Ebernburg was destroyed. Hutten succumbed to his severe suffering on the island of Ufenau near Zurich.
