Frankenstein Castle in Mühltal

The beggining

For the past year, I have been living in a place called Mühltal, a municipality close to where I study, Darmstadt. When I was searching for funny things to do there, I found the “Frankenstein Castle”. At first, I thought it would just be a scary castle that was just called that for no reason, but then, after some research, I found out that it’s really the original castle from the myth!

The story begins with the Grimm brothers collecting fairy tales near Frankenstein Castle, where they hear a horror story about Johann Konrad Dippel von Frankenstein, an alchemist and doctor. According to local legend, Dippel attempted to create a new person using corpse parts and the blood of virgins, resulting in a monstrous being that escaped into the woods.

In 1813, Jacob Grimm shared this horror story in a letter to Mary Jane Clairmont, the English translator of their fairy tales. Mary Shelley, during a visit to Frankenstein Castle in 1814, was inspired by the legend. In 1816, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Claire Clairmont, Lord Byron, and John William Polidori read ghost stories to each other. Byron suggested they each write a ghost story, and Mary Shelley went on to create „Frankenstein.

The journey

So, after hearing this story, I couldn’t wait to visit this castle, and it was near my house, so I really needed to visit it. One year passed and I didn’t visit it, but finally I managed to go during Halloween week!

I was very excited to see all the decorations and all the scary parts. Although I couldn’t go to the big party that was on the 31st, I believed I could experience the scary environment anyway.

So, I checked the buses, and I found out that I also needed to hike there. I thought it would be fun because I wanted to hike in Germany for some time, so I got to do two things in one, so to speak.

The journey started at 11 a.m., and me and my friend took three buses to get to the beginning of the trail. It was a nice hike; it wasn’t so tilted, and we got to see some nice views of nature. It was about 30 minutes.

The castle

When we got to the castle, the worst thing that could happen: it was closed. It was a pity because I was excited to see it, but I got to see the view of the castle from outside, and it looked beautiful. We asked a man who worked there why it was closed, and he told us that it was because of Halloween.

We did it all the way back home, and the second worst thing happened: it started to rain. So, we caught some rain, waited for the bus for an hour, and got home at around 5 p.m.

It was a long day, and we didn’t see the castle, but at least I did my first of many hikes in Germany, and I hope I can come back there another day!