Gottfried Hagen

Gottfried Hagen (* 1230 ; † July 4, 1299 ) was the town clerk of Cologne , a specialist in German documents and also worked as a pastor. However, he was best known as the author of the rhyme chronicle of Cologne from 1270.

Life

Gottfried Hagen was born in Xanten in 1230 . His father Gerhard, canon of the Viktorstift , and his mother Blanza belonged to the Vetscholders. However, the patrician family did not support him in the further course of his life, so that he had to look after himself. He studied at the artist faculty in Paris . There he was probably not engaged in theological studies (following the example of his father) . Instead, following the fundamental studies of Artes, he studied liberal law . Because of his master's degree , he was also called “master”.

From 1262 onwards he developed into one of the most famous specialists for German documents in Cologne. According to the current state of research, Gottfried Hagen can be assigned 21 autographs . He wrote his first legal document on June 9, 1262 for an alliance between the city of Cologne and the Count of Berg . A week later he documented the atonement with Bishop Engelbert II von Falkenburg on June 16. In the following year he worked out civil pension contracts based on the Italian model. The city concluded such a contract with Count von Jülich . On August 25, 1263, a new atonement had to be negotiated with Engelbert. Six months later, Gottfried Hagen was obviously in considerable financial difficulties, because on February 27th he wrote a document for the bishop, although the patricians of the city were actually hostile to their bishop.

In order to earn money, he then possibly worked as the schoolmaster of St. Mary in the Capitol . During this time he met his partner Petrissa, with whom he had an illegitimate son named Gobelinus. The influential Gernegrois family of his lover helped him to get a job as a scribe for St. Peter and St. Apostles .

On August 2, 1268, the papal nuncio Bernhard de Castaneto threatened the city ​​of Cologne with the ban because the citizens had captured Bishop Engelbert. As procurator, Gottfried protested against the Nuncio's statements on behalf of the city , benefiting from his extensive knowledge of canon law . In October 1268 he accepted an order from the cathedral chapter and ran an errand to Neuss . When the nuncio announced harsher sentences in 1270 and the city of Cologne plunged into a crisis, Gottfried Hagen was forced to exhort the citizens to unity and wrote his rhyming chronicle on this occasion.

His education made him predestined to do so. Due to the statements of Ernst Dornfeld in particular, there was a controversy over the question of whether the town clerk and the author were the same person, but the identity is now considered certain. His extensive legal knowledge also gave Gottfried Hagen the necessary authority to describe the legal dispute, which forms an essential part of the plot in the rhyming chronicle.

His exemplary commitment against the aggressive clergy and his literary work helped Gottfried Hagen to gain a great reputation. In the spring of 1271 he was therefore able to take over the office of town clerk. In 1275 he also became pastor of Klein St. Martin . After intensive discussions, he prevailed against the author Alexander von Leysberg (also known as Alexander von Roes). He held the two offices until the end of 1287. In 1291 at the latest he appeared as dean of St. George . Gottfried Hagen finally died on July 4th, 1299 in Cologne.

literature

• Gottfried Hagen: rhyming chronicle of the city of Cologne . Edited by Kurt Gärtner , Andrea Rapp and Désirée Welter with the collaboration of Manfred Groten. Historical commentary by Thomas Bohn . Droste, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7700-7627-7 , ( publications of the Society for Rheinische Geschichtskunde 74).
• Hartmut Beckers: Hagen, Gottfried . In: Kurt Ruh ua (Ed.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon. Volume 3. 2nd completely revised edition. de Gruyter, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-11-008778-2 , Sp. 384-386.
• Hermann Cardauns :  Hagen, Gottfried . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 337 f.
• Ernst Dornfeld: Investigations into Gottfried Hagen's rhyming chronicle of the city of Cologne along with contributions to Middle Ripuarian grammar . Marcus, Breslau 1912, ( Germanistische Abhandlungen 40, ZDB -ID 501571-6 ), (Reprint: Olms, Hildesheim et al. 1977, ISBN 3-487-06194-5 ).
• Manfred Groten: Cologne in the 13th century. Social change and constitutional development . Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1995, ISBN 3-412-11294-1 , ( City Research Series A: Representations 36), (At the same time: Cologne, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1990/91).
• Hugo Stehkämper:  Hagen, Gottfried. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 478 ( digitized version ).
• Désirée Welter: Documented sources and urban chronicle. Creation and impact of Gottfried Hagens rhyme chronicle of the city of Cologne (1270/71) . In: Anton Schwob , Erwin Streitfeld et al. (Eds.): Source - Text - Edition . Results of the Austrian-German symposium of the Working Group for Germanistic Edition in Graz from February 28 to March 3, 1996. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 3-484-29509-0 , ( editio supplement 9), pp. 123-132.

Web links

• Hagen, Master Gottfried in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Collaborative Research Center 235 of the University of Trier
• Catholic Encyclopedia - Gottfried Hagen (English)
• Order of the Cologne cloth shearers from January 13, 1270 - document written by Gottfried Hagen