Wolfsburg Castle

The Wolfsburg is medieval lowland and water castle in North Germany that was first mentioned in the records in 1302, but has since been turned into a Renaissance schloss or palace. It is located in eastern Lower Saxony in the town of Wolfsburg named after it and in whose possession it has been since 1961. The Wolfsburg developed from a tower house on the River Aller into a water castle with the character of a fortification. In the 17th century it was turned into a representative, but nevertheless defensible palace that was the northernmost example of the Weser Renaissance style. Its founder and builder was the noble family of von Bartensleben. After their line died out in 1742 the Wolfsburg was inherited by the counts of Schulenburg.
The name Wolfsburg does not indicate that the region of the Vorsfelder Werder in which the castle is located had a large number of wolves, even though there were certainly wolves in the nearby wet meadows of the Drömling. The wolf that gave its name to the castle is a heraldic beast on the coat of arms of the von Bartensleben family who built the edifice. Their coat of arms comprises a leaping wolf above two sheaves of corn. The family brought the name "wolf" with them, because they can be traced back to 1188 when they were still living at Bartensleben Castle in the village of Bartensleben about 40 kilometres to the south. In the 20th century, the city built here in 1938 was named after Wolfsburg Castle. Initially it was called the Stadt des KdF-Wagens because of the industrial plant established to build the Volkswagen. After the end of the Second World War, the city council decided to rename the city Wolfsburg on 25 May 1945.

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