The Last Auerspergs at Turjak Castle

After the death of his father Leo in 1915, Herward took over Turjak Castle. In 1911, he married Marie Adamovich de Csepin from Velenje. Following the First World War, he moved into the castle with his wife and her parents. 

Both Leo and his son Herward, as well as Herward’s wife Marie, were well regarded by the castle staff and the surrounding population and were remembered as kind and approachable people. When Herward died in 1925, Marie remained at Turjak with their seven underage children. They faced increasingly difficult times, including agrarian reform, which in 1931 deprived the Auerspergs of nearly half of their forest estates. 

Despite these challenges, Turjak remained their home until the Second World War. The last members of the family left the castle in 1943, ending nearly 800 years in which Turjak had remained in the hands of one family – the Auerspergs. 

Herward Auersperg (1875–1925) was the eldest son of Leo Auersperg and Antonia, Baroness Schmidburg. At Turjak, he succeeded his father Leo, who had restored the family residence to the castle after a long absence. Leo had already undertaken a series of renovations in the 1870s, helping to revive the estate under new conditions. His concern for the local community included the establishment of a primary school at Turjak in 1899. In 1907, he had a steam-powered sawmill built below Mokrec near Golo and connected it to a cable system for timber transport the following year. The steam-powered sawmill also indirectly brought the telephone to this area, with its exchange located in the castle. 

After succeeding his father, Herward faced increasingly difficult circumstances following the First World War. In the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, all aristocratic estates were classified as large estates in 1919 and placed under state administration. At the time of Herward’s death in 1925, an agrarian reform was already being prepared and was eventually implemented in 1931. His heir was his eldest son, Herward Jr., who was only thirteen years old at the time of his father’s death. 

When the young heir later took over the estate during the economic crisis and land reform period, he delegated its management to the long-standing estate administrator, Jožef Göderer, who is said to have used his position for personal gain.