Wolfstein, Rhineland-Palatinate
Wolfstein was founded in 1275 on Habsburg King Rudolph I's orders, which called for a “fortified and free” town near his castle, “Woluisstein”, now known as the "Alt-Wolfstein" (“Old Wolfstein”) ruin. Rudolph forthwith granted the new town the same town rights and freedoms as the town of Speyer. As an “everlasting marketplace”, it was to be a sanctuary for commerce, trade and dealing. The first townsmen and -women came from the surrounding, much older villages.
Wolfstein, Rhineland-Palatinate
From 1644 to 1788, the estate was run as an hereditary tenancy by the "Amtsschultheiß" at Odenbach am Glan and his heirs. After feudalism was abolished, the Ducal Württemberg Minister of State Emich Johann von Üxküll bought the estate for 22,500 "Gulden". He let the estate in 1796 to Christoph Burckhardt, who transferred the running of the estate to his son Ludwig Karl Friedrich (born 1779). In 1817, Ludwig Burckhardt bought the estate, and ever since, it has been in the family Burckhardt’s ownership. Even today, Ludwig Burchhardt’s descendants, through his son Heinrich, still run the "Hotel Reckweilerhof".