The Höhenburg is located in the northern foothills of the Soodener Bergland near the Witzenhausen district of Werleshausen, which is about 700 m northeast of the castle on the other side of the Werra in the Lindewerra-Werleshäuser Schlingen natural area; west of the castle is Wendershausen (to Witzenhausen) and southeast of Oberrieden (to Bad Sooden-Allendorf). The elevation belonging to this natural area (approx. 236 m above sea level) on which the castle stands falls to the east, north and west along the Werra, which tends to flow to the northwest. The tri-border region of Hesse-Lower Saxony-Thuringia lies about six kilometers north-northeast.
The castle was built from the summer of 1415 under Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse to protect the disputed border opposite Eichsfeld in Electoral Mainz and Hanstein Castle in Mainz. It has not been established whether there was an earlier fortification in the same place.
Until 1664 the castle was the seat of a Hessian bailiff and the center of administration and jurisdiction in the Hessian Werra area, but never had supra-regional importance. Hans von Dörnberg the Elder, previously a Hessian marshal and bailiff in Homberg an der Efze, became the first bailiff of the new Ludwigstein office and the Witzenhausen office, which was first mentioned in 1361 on April 28, 1416. According to a list of 1466 lands and income in the villages of Oberrieden, Wendershausen, Hilgershausen, Hundelshausen, Weißenbach, Roßbach, Kleinalmerode, Bischhausen and in Witzenhausen belonged to the office; in the 16th century further villages were added around Witzenhausen, Eichenberg and Friedland. Hans von Dörnberg was followed by a number of Hessian nobles - including members of the Berlepsch, Herda, Boyneburg, Buttlar, Diede, Hanstein, Meysenbug and Steinberg families. At times they were also pledges of the castle. Among them was Hans von Dörnberg the Younger (1427–1506), the son of the first bailiff, of outstanding importance; he was 1462-1497 Hessian court master.
From 1545 to 1574 the Ludwigstein experienced a brief interlude as a fiefdom and an independent aristocratic court. As a counter-deal to provide for relatives of his bigamistic second wife Margarethe von der Saale, Landgrave Philipp Burg and Amt Ludwigstein transferred his valet Christoph Hülsing and his descendants as a fief. It was only after long negotiations that Philip's son, Wilhelm IV of Hessen-Kassel, succeeded in buying back this property. After that, the castle was again the seat of Hessian officials, mostly civil officials.
In 1627, Ludwigstein Castle and Office belonged to the so-called Rotenburger Quart, the quarter of his country left by Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel to his second wife Juliane von Nassau-Dillenburg and the children from this marriage. In the course of the further division of the only partially independent Landgraviate of Hessen-Rotenburg, the castle changed hands several times in the branching Hessian-Rotenburg royal house. Only in 1834, with the extinction of these branch lines, did the Ludwigstein come back into the possession of the main line Hessen-Kassel.
In 1664, the Ludwigstein office was combined with the Witzenhausen mayor office and Ludwigstein lost its function as the seat of a sovereign bailiff. Instead, agricultural tenants moved in until the current domain administration was relocated to Wendershausen around 1830.
After that, the facility was used variously, including as a brewery, sheepfold and warehouse. The demolition of the outer castle began in 1862. After Ludwigstein was released from the maintenance obligation of the domain in 1882, the inner castle gradually fell into disrepair.
Old walls were very attractive to the romantic-inspired migratory birds. At the beginning of the 20th century, the castle was largely in ruins. The Ludwigstein was spotted on a hike from the Hanstein and henceforth traded as an insider tip. More and more groups of migratory birds met “by chance” “on the Lu”.
In 1913, the Freideutsche Youth Day took place on the nearby Meißner - which was officially called "Hoher Meißner" from now on. The region, which had long been known as the fairy tale land of the Brothers Grimm, acquired a special significance for the youth movement. The decision was made to acquire the vacant castle and to expand it into a spatial and spiritual center for the groups of young people. Before these plans could be put into practice, however, the First World War began.
The war left the youth movements in great turmoil. A year before the war broke out on the Hohe Meissner, a new era was invoked and Emperor Wilhelm II urgently asked in a telegram to keep the peace, but the flag was willingly followed. 50,000 migratory birds did not return from the war. The hiking bird Enno Narten and other youth movements founded the association "Jugendburg Ludwigstein" on April 4, 1920 and acquired the ruins in order to restore them as a memorial for those who died in the war and as a visible symbol of a new building. In long rows, young people handed the stones for the reconstruction from hand to hand from the Werra valley up to the castle. At the time of inflation after the First World War, the Ludwigstein created its own currency, and youth movements from all leagues moved from there as settlers to the countryside to take their lives into their own hands. The castle experienced a real heyday - until it was taken over by National Socialism.
At the beginning of 1933 the castle became the first regional leadership school for the Hitler Youth in Kurhessen; their sponsoring association submitted to the National Socialist Reich Youth Leadership. As a member of the Reichsverband Deutscher Jugendherbergen (Reich Association of German Youth Hostels) and converted into a circle of friends and sponsors of the Ludwigstein Youth Castle Memorial, the association was able to hold on until the final ban on September 17, 1941. Since 1933, however, the Ludwigstein has mostly been used, and since 1941 exclusively for the purposes of National Socialist youth work - from the training camp to the deportation to Kinderland.
After the end of the war, the castle initially served as a refugee camp. In 1946 it was returned to the re-approved association Jugendburg Ludwigstein.
The youth groups, however, were scattered in all directions, the archive was lost, the castle was again on a border - but it was still outwardly preserved. The youth leagues were newly founded; so on the Ludwigstein 1953 first the "migratory bird", which was the first driving association to admit to non-violence. In 1966, the “Ring of young fraternities” was formed at the same location. In addition to the migratory birds, there were also more boy scout associations and youth groups. The archive of the German youth movement was rebuilt and - like the castle - transferred to a foundation in 1970. Today it is an integral part of the Hessian State Archives. In addition, in 1982 there was an educational establishment that supports the contemporary continuation of the impulses of the youth movement.
In February 1997 the Independent Ecologists of Germany (UÖD), a non-partisan, right-wing extremist split from the ÖDP and, according to Oliver Geden, at that time the “most important of the brown-green organizations in terms of quantity and quality”, held their national meeting at Ludwigstein Castle under the motto “The tender Green of the home. Thoughts on Bioregionalism ”.
On the occasion of the 37th anniversary of Enno Narten's death, the foundation stone for the Enno-Narten building was laid on January 10, 2010. This extension was inaugurated on September 15, 2012. According to the builders, it is the "largest straw bale house in the republic". At the beginning of 2011, the project was named a UN Decade Project "Education for Sustainable Development" by UNESCO.
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