page_title: Johann Reinhard III, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Johann Reinhard III, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg / Policy / Culture
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: View of the castle during the sommer months of 2014, whilst being renovated
context_page_description: Johann Reinhard III of Hanau-Lichtenberg was the last of the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg. He reigned from 1680 to 1736. From 1712 to 1736, he also reigned the County of Hanau-Münzenberg.
context_section_description: During the reign of Johann Reinhard II, the County of Hanau prospered culturally: he began building a grand castle in Bischofsheim am hohen Steg (now called Rheinbischofsheim), which was never completed, and in the Hanau-Lichtenberg of Buchsweiler (now called Bouxwiller), he created a park and expanded the castle. Between 1730 and 1736 he rebuilt the Hanauer Hof (or Hôtel de Hanau) in Strasbourg, which had been the city residence of the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg since 1573. This building now serves as Strasbourg's city hall.
  After he took office in Hanau-Münzenberg 1712, he completed the construction of the Schloss Philippsruhe, just outside the Hanau city gate, and the Philippsruhe Avenue, including the Heller bridge. He also created Chestnut Avenue and the Pheasant Park (at the later Wilhelmsbad) and completed construction of the stables of the city palace in Hanau (later Hanau's city hall; today the "Congress Park Hanau"), which Philipp Reinhard had started. Behind the city palace, the city wall was breached in order to obtain a direct access to the Turkish style gardens behind it.
  In 1727, he extended the St. John's Church in Hanau, in which the counts of Hanau were buried. He built Lutheran churches in Windecken, Steinau an der Straße, Nauheim (now called: Bad Nauheim), Kesselstadt and Rodheim (the "Reinhard Church") and Lutheran schools in many towns in the county of Hanau-Münzenberg. The reason for this was that Hanau-Münzenberg has adopted Calvinism during the Reformation, but had been ruled since 1643 by the Lutheran counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg. By the early 18th century, the contrast between the two main Protestant variants had mitigated to the extent that this building policy was now acceptable for the Calvinist majority of the population.
  In his capital city of Hanau, street lighting was introduced. The Frankfurt Gate was torn down and rebuilt in a Baroque style, and the same was done to the Hanau's city hall. 
  Personally, Count Johann Reinhard III lived rather modestly, which enabled him to finance his construction projects.
  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe reported, in his Dichtung und Wahrheit (Chapter 10) on a visit to Buchsweiler at the end of the 18th century: "Above all else, the name of the last Count, Reinhard of Hanau, was held in high esteem here and in the rest of this little country. His great intellect and ability in all his actions came to the fore, and many beautiful monument remain of his existence. Such men have the advantage of being double benefactors, for the present, which they delight, and also for the future, whose sense and courage they nurture and sustain."
caption: Schloss Philippsruhe, Hanau
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