Abandoned for nearly two and a half centuries, the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg became a place for walking in the 19th century. In 1862, it was classified as a Historic Monument then bought by the city of Sélestat three years later. The site was donated to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Hohenzollern in 1899 after the region was reunited with the German Empire. The Kaiser saw it as an opportunity to make it a symbol of his power and domination over the newly acquired territories of Alsace and Moselle.