Teck

The castle on the Teckberg, south of Kirchheim unter Teck, first appears in a treaty of 1152, though the building itself probably went up in the last quarter of the 11th century under the Nellenburgers. It sits on the Albtrauf above the valley of the Lauter, a tributary of the Neckar, on land belonging to Owen and bordering Bissingen an der Teck; in the rock below the walls opens the Sibyllenloch.

When the Nellenburg estates changed hands the Teckberg passed to the Zähringer, whose principal holdings had originally lain in this stretch of country. From 1187 they left what remained to them here to a younger branch of the family, which thereafter styled itself the dukes of Teck.

Money forced the dukes to break up their own seat. In 1303 they sold half the castle to the Habsburgs, and in 1381 the other half to the counts of Württemberg. The line died out during the 15th century, and in 1495 the ducal title itself passed to the counts of Württemberg.

In 1525 the old castle was completely destroyed in the German Peasants' War. Two centuries later Duke Carl Alexander of Württemberg meant to turn the ruin into a modern fortress; work began in 1736 and stopped in 1737 with the duke's death, and from 1738 the unfinished new building was partly taken down again. The Teck stayed a ruin.

Duke Alexander of Württemberg, a nephew of King Frederick I, married Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde, ennobled as countess of Hohenstein - a marriage below his rank, which barred his children from the succession. In 1863 King William I of Württemberg granted them the courtesy title prince of Teck by way of compensation, and in 1871 Alexander's eldest son Francis, born in 1837, was created duke of Teck.

Francis married Princess Mary Adelaide, a granddaughter of George III. Their daughter Mary of Teck became queen consort to King George V and empress of India, carrying the name of a Swabian ruin into the titles of the British royal house.

The Kirchheim beautification society raised an observation tower on the foundations of the old keep and inaugurated it on 1 September 1889, adding the Teck shelter hall on 24 August 1893. On 9 June 1892 Duke Francis came up to the Teck with Mary Adelaide and their then-unmarried daughter Mary, and left a considerable donation behind them.

A second hall went up beside the tower in 1933 and was named the Mörikehalle. The Schwäbischer Albverein has owned the site since 6 June 1941 and in 1954–55 converted the Mörikehalle into a walkers' hostel with a restaurant and sleeping rooms; in 1955 the 31-metre tower, until then vulnerable to wind, was brought into its present form. The surroundings were declared the Teck nature reserve on 9 November 1999.

In May 2010 a stump of tower from the Hohenstaufen period collapsed; it was secured in 2013 but not rebuilt in its old shape. In 2020 the Albverein put in hand extensive repairs to the tower and to the roof of the hostel. The ruin is protected as a Kulturdenkmal.