Dilborn Castle
We do not know when Dilborn Castle was built. It is first mentioned in 1363 under the ownership of the Seger family of Schwalmen, who received it under a tenure from Count Edward of Geldern. Gerhard von Elmpt built a new house in 1583 and Count Palatine Julius von Schaesberg-Thannheim acquired the moated castle in 1854.
Today the outer bailey installations are still visible, a two-storey brick structure dating back to 1752 with a mansard roof and three-storey forward corner towers. The old castle expanded in 1583 faced this structure, but was torn down – probably in 1850 – so that only gardens are found here today.
A chapel was built in the moat at the back of the structure in 1867. The outbuildings located on the other side of the street were erected in the neo-Gothic style around 1860. The family of the Counts of Westerholt assumed ownership in 1909. A “Village for Children and Youths” since 1945, for a time under the management of the Dermbach Sisters of the Poor Maids of Jesus Christ, it is now home to the “Dilborn Castle Youth Welfare”.
The artists and spouses Heinrich Nauen and Marie von Malachowski-Nauen lived in the castle from 1911 to 1937. Heinrich Nauen, born on June 1, 1880 in Krefeld, is considered one of the leading representatives of “Rhineland expressionism”. His works include paintings, watercolours, sketches and prints as well as monumental murals and mosaics.
Accepted into the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts in 1898, he was a professor there from 1921 to 1937. After his marriage to Marie von Malachowski, he travelled to Paris in April 1905 in order to study expressionism. After a few years in Berlin, the couple returned to the Lower Rhine in 1911 and moved into part of Dilborn Castle. Under the National Socialist regime, Nauen’s work was publicly condemned in the “Degenerate Art” exhibition in 1937 and Heinrich Nauen was forced to give up his professorship and enter retirement.
The couple moved to Kalkar in 1937. Weakened by illness and the circumstances of his time, Heinrich Nauen’s artistic creativity was severely restricted. He passed away in November 1940. Heinrich Nauen was buried in Kalkar. His tomb was created by Joseph Beuys based on a design by Ewald Mataré.
Art and culture remain very important in Dilborn Castle. The site is home to the “Lower Rhine Theatre” and the “Cult Castle Dilborn” frequently presents interesting and well-known artists.
