Neue Burg (Hamburg)

In the 11th century it was the biggest castle in northern Germany and the last one built in the traditional saxonian style, only consisting of wood and earth.

[2] Although the Neue Burg was the biggest fortification of northern Germany at its time, other castles consisting of wood and earth, built some hundred kilometers to the north, outsized it by a lot.

It is tiny in comparison to the Danish king Harald Bluetooth' Aggersborg built forty years earlier, which was nearly as big as the settlement of Hamburg.

Its construction is also quiet similar to medieval slawik castles, only that its Wall contains significantly less stabilising wodden structures in its core.

Minor wooden additions dated to the year 1024, were found during the newest excavations, but these were so insignificant that they could not count as part of the essential building process.

The following fifty years the castle was out of use, until Adolf of Schauenburg 1188 founded a new city district on top of what had been the Neue Burg.

For that purpose the abandoned castle got filled up with earth and a platform was formed to create a safe place against the tides and strormfloods.

The excavation site was severely damaged and disturbed by construction works at this time, so the undertaking was hasty and restricted in its possible outcome.

As a consequence his telling got proven wrong and the time gap between the existence of the Hammaburg and the Neue Burg was closed.

Adam misdated the castle about forty years and linked it to Ordulf, the son of Bernhard II, who is the real founder of the Neue Burg.

A total misconception, which was upheld until the start of the 21st century and also could be falsified with dendrochnological analysis in 2014, was that the famous medieval castles: Alsterburg, Hammaburg and the Neue Burg existed at the same time.