Formerly monument protection and history
After a national awareness of history had awakened in the early 19th century, people also dealt with the ring wall of Otzenhausen. In 1345 the Dollberg is mentioned for the first time in the writings of the counts and barons of Hunolstein. The ring wall itself is only mentioned 250 years later in the Grimburger Salbuch from 1589, which speaks of the "Rinck walls". We know a first pictorial representation of the curtain walls from the features section of the Gazette de Metz from 1836. In 1836, Count Villers von Burgesch, member of the “Society for Useful Research” wrote a petition to the then Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm Ill. The content was the request to forbid the residents of Otzenhausen and the surrounding area from removing ring wall stones as building material. In response to this letter, the then Prussian Crown Prince and later Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1795-1861), brother of the later Emperor Wilhelm I, came to visit the "Hunnenring" in person in 1837. This not only put the importance of the complex in the right light, but also saved the ring wall from being destroyed. Almost 50 years later, the site plan drawn up by Forstreferender Neusser, drafted in 1883, still bears witness to the visit of the Prussian Crown Prince and its importance. The plan shows the entry of a so-called "Königsplatz". The crown prince was received there by local dignitaries. In the middle of the square is a tree surrounded by a stone wall, which was probably planted in honor of the royal visit. On the occasion of this visit, the staircase over the north wall, still accessible today, was laid out. A path marked on the map on the top of the wall of the north wall is interpreted to mean that a paving was laid in honor of the prince so that the noble gentleman could ride over the top of the wall on horseback. However, this anecdote is not confirmed. Source: Text information board