years and Director of the Botanical Garden in Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland), where he died on 16 March 1858. Until the mid 19th century, the castle was undergoing continual changes in noble ownership. From 1876 to 1924, the castle, now styled Schloss Reichenberg, was used as a private upperclass boys’ school. Thereafter, the Siefert family from the Frohnhof took over the palace. They sold some of the buildings in 1963 as a holiday home to Deutsche Bundespost. In July 1979, Schloss Reichenberg was bought by the ecumenical community Offensive Junger Christen (OJC, literally “Young Christians’ Offensive”, but known in English as the Reichenberg Fellowship). They converted it into a publicly accessible international meeting and conference centre with a palace café. The upper, older part of the palace, the so-called Crooked Building, is currently being renovated. Economy and infrastructure Transport By way of Bundesstraßen 47 (Nibelungenstraße between Michelstadt and Worms) and 38 (between Roßdorf bei Darmstadt and Weinheim/Mannheim), which together run through the community, Reichelsheim is linked to the long-distance road network. Bus connections to Bensheim, Fürth im Odenwald, Reinheim and Michelstadt afford a link to the public railway network (Deutsche Bahn and Odenwaldbahn). Sons and daughters of the community Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (1776-1858), botanist and natural philosopher Carl Geist (1870-1931), German landscape painter Seligmann Meyer (1853-1925), Rabbi and community leader in Regensburg, Bavaria Claude Howard Haring (1903-1967) American Major League Baseball broadcaster in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh References External links Reichelsheim’s official website Unter-Ostern Beerfurth Odenwaldkreis