Hey reddit! I’m doing some family research and am looking for drawings of a German castle that once belonged to my family but has since been destroyed. Here is what I know about it!
The castle was given to Maximillian Steiner by Ludwig of Bavaria in 1311, the castle was originally won in a battle against Günther, the bishop of Würzburg. The name changed from Günthersburg to Steindorf. Maximillian died in the battle against Fredrick of Austria at Mühldorf in 1312 and his wife died shortly after. Once the castle was run by Maximillians grandson, Ludwig gave the family name of Steindorf to (another) castle Bassenheim. When there were no male heirs the original Steindorf castle was then sold to Lord Von Kitzbüchel and later in the religious wars destroyed.
The Steiner and castle coat of arms is a red bear on a silver field if that helps any!
I’d love to have some type of image of this castle or any information anyone can find so that I can paint something for my grandmothers birthday as she loves our family history.
edit: formatting and elaboration
I'm guessing that this is one of your sources?
If so it appears that the schloss was at Steindorf and that the von Steindorf name followed the naming of the schloss rather than vice-versa.
The castle also appears to have been known as Bassenheim, you might have some research luck with that.
Worth of note in that story is the way in which Maximillian Steiner came to be favoured by Ludwig of Bavaria - he saved Ludwig from a bear attack by strangling the animal with his bare hands. Until that point he had little but his great strength to his name... soon he had a castle and the red bear arms that you noted. Ludwig had supposedly won the castle in a game of draughts, nice work if you can get it.
While the "draughts" story is nice it could be complete rubbish, but nevertheless it suggests another interesting research angle - look into Ludwig's dealings and you may get a better location for the castle.