Hans Schweiner

Presumably self-portrait of Hans Schweiner at the foot of the outer spiral staircase of Kilian's Church in Heilbronn

Hans Schweiner (* 1473 in Weinsberg , † 1534 in Heilbronn ; also Hans Schweyner ; Hans von Weinsberg , Hans Steinmetz or Janus Porcius ) was a stonemason , master builder , sculptor and architect .

Live and act

Nothing is known about Schauer's apprenticeship and journeyman years. His life data were reconstructed from archives, such as from witness statements from 1533 about the events of the Peasant War .

Schweiner's family has been documented in Weinsberg since 1443/44. From 1494 he was employed as a stonemason in the building works of the Kilian's Church in Heilbronn . On August 14, 1496, he married Apollonia Maurer, a Heilbronn native, and thus received Heilbronn citizenship. The marriage produced at least four children: the three daughters Barbara, Benigna and Achilla and the son Hans, who also became a stonemason.

The Kiliansturm in Heilbronn is considered to be Schweiner's highlight

In 1507, despite major competitors, Schweiner was commissioned to build the west tower of Kilian's Church, the design of which was also his. The tower of Kilian's Church is considered to be Schweiner's most important work and an early important work of the Renaissance north of the Alps. After foundation work, the actual tower construction was started in 1513 and completed in 1529. Schweiner was a follower of Lutheran doctrine from an early age , which is also reflected in his work, for example in the decorations on Kilian's Tower that mock clerics, monks and nuns.

Another thirty works of Schweiner or at least his participation can be proven from documents. In Heilbronn, for example, he built the town clerk's house in addition to other secular buildings, made wayside shrines in Heilbronn and Gundelsheim and also worked for the Heilbronn Carmelite monastery . Orders of the Teutonic Knight Order are documented . In 1508, Schweiner was also active in Wimpfen , where he prepared an appraisal for the construction of the Protestant town church in Wimpfen am Berg. In 1513 a trip to Frankfurt am Main , Mainz “and elsewhere” is documented, during which he was supposed to buy a crane for the city of Heilbronn . In 1515 he took part in a steelworks congress in Strasbourg . Schweiner was also called in as a tower specialist for expert reports on the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1517 and for the main tower of St. Michaelis Church in Schwäbisch Hall in 1533. At the end of 1531 he drafted the first fire extinguishing regulations for the city of Heilbronn for the Heilbronn council .

As the construction manager of the St. Kilian construction works in Heilbronn, Hans Schweiner received a basic salary of just 6 guilders per year. Further work on other structures was billed separately. In a good year, such as 1514, he earned a total of 77 guilders. He enjoyed a high reputation and was named among the captains for carpenters and masons in 1517. From 1531 on, Schweiner was also a member of the Heilbronn council. Schweiner was not rich all his life, although he had some money in the meantime, he was financially poor at the end of his life. After his death, his widow turned down the inheritance because he only left debts.

The "Männle" on the top of the Kiliansturm stands on a pedestal whose inscription - the so-called large completion inscription - also mentions Hans Schweiner:

HOC OPUS AUSPICIIS SUB CAESARE MAXIMILIANO

COEPTUM SECUNDIS ELEGANS FROM OMNI

ARTE QUOD INGENII DEXETERA PIUS ARTIFEX SAGACIS

JANUS FIDELI PORCIUS SUB ANNUM

IMPERII DECIMUM TIBI CAROLE REDDIT ABSOLUTUM

TUI SUB ISTO UT COEPTUM ITA ET PERACTUM EST

Translated, the text means that the tower was started under Emperor Maximilian by Hans Schweiner and was completed under Emperor Charles V in the tenth year of his rule.

At the foot of the outer spiral staircase of the west tower, which begins on the square platform, there is a portrait of a master craftsman, who is probably a self-portrait of Hans Schweiner. In assessing his architectural achievements, Schweiner is compared to Hans Seyfer in a certain way : what he meant for Heilbronn as a carver and sculptor in the field of sculpture was what Hans Schweiner was in the architectural field.

literature

• Simone Farys: Building in the Imperial Reformation Heilbronn. An exemplary analysis of the work of Hans Schweyner von Weinsberg (1473–1534) (= Karlsruhe writings on art history. Volume 4). Lit-Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7778-7 .
• Stephan Hoppe : Northern Gothic, Italian Renaissance and beyond. Toward a 'thick' description of style . In: Monique Chatenet (ed.): Le Gothique de la Renaissance. Actes des quatrième Rencontres d'architecture européenne. Paris, 12-16 June 2007. Paris: Picard 2011, ISBN 9782708408685 , pp. 47–64, here pp. 50–52 ( digitized on ART doc ).
• Stephan Hoppe: style discourses, architectural fictions and relics. Observations in Halle, Chemnitz and Heilbronn on the influence of the visual arts on Central European foremen around 1500 . In: Stefan Bürger, Bruno Klein (Hrsg.): Werkmeister der Spätgotik, Vol. 1: Position and role of architects in the construction industry of the 14th to 16th centuries. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2009, ISBN 9783534223466 , pp. 69–91 ( digitized on ART doc ).
• Hans Koepf : The Heilbronner Kilianskirche and their masters (= publications of the archive of the city Heilbronn. Volume 6). Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1961.
• Christhard Schrenk (Hrsg.): The Kiliansturm: Tower of the Towers in Heilbronn (= publications of the archive of the city of Heilbronn. Volume 47). Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2005, ISBN 3-928990-94-2 .
• Simone Farys-Pauls: A city architect from Heilbronn. Hans Schweiner von Weinsberg (1473–1534) . In: Christhard Schrenk , Heilbronn City Archives (ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe. Life pictures from four centuries. Volume 4, Heilbronn 2007 (Small series of publications from the Heilbronn Archives, 52), ISBN 9783928990998 , pp. 235–250.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Simone Farys: Hans Schweiner von Weinsberg (1473-1534) . In: The Kiliansturm: Tower of the Towers in Heilbronn . Heilbronn 2005, pages 33 to 43

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Schweiner in the catalog of the German National Library