After the vacations in Madeira and Porto Santo, in September 1995 I went once to Frankfurt and once to Paris. Then, in early October, I went to Amsterdam and Brussels, and again to New York. On October 20th, 1995, I had a meeting at the European Monetary Institute. I flew home that night, just to return to Frankfurt on the 22nd, this time to go to the Deutsche Bundesbank Fachhochschule, for a seminar on the Law Governing Central Banks. There are a few photos from the event. The seminar was held in German and took place at the Hachenburg Schloss.
The Hachenburg Castle was first mentioned in 1222. Between 1717 and 1746, Georg Friedrich Graf zu Sayn decided to rebuild the old castle and it became then a baroque residence. In the nineteenth century, the castle belonged to the Dukedom of Nassau and later to the Kingdom of Prussia. From the beginning of the twentieth century there had been a forestry school in the Upper Castle, though the lack of money led to its gradual deterioration. In 1946 the castle became the property of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was sold in 1971 to the "Castle Hachenburg GmbH" to be converted into a hotel and owner-occupied apartments but in 1974 the company went bankrupt. The castle was put up for compulsory auction and was purchased by the Deutsche Bundesbank. The castle was rebuilt and entered use as a centre for basic and advanced vocational training centre.
"THE HISTORICAL STAIRCASE"
"THE GARDEN GATE - the group does not allow seeing the gilt metalwork which shows the initials of Georg Friedrich Burggraf von Kirchberg and of Sophie Amalie Burggräfin von Kirchberg Gräfin von Nassau-Saarbrücken..."
"THE TEN O'CLOCK GATE - Group at the gatehouse that used to be closed at 10:00 p.m.; thus the denomination"
"FOUNTAIN at the Castle's upper courtyard. This is what you see when you enter the ten o'clock gate"
