Johann von Werth

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Johann von Werth
Johann von Werth, Burgrave of Odenkirchen

Johann (Reichs) Freiherr von Werth , called Jan von Werth and also Jean de Werth , Jean de Weert or Johann von Weerth (* 1591 in Büttgen ; † September 12, 1652 at Benatek Castle ) was one of the most famous German equestrian generals in the Thirty Years War . Von Weerth came from a humble background and lived through the war from the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 to the Battle of Dachau in 1648. From the 1630s he shaped him as a military leader , first on the Spanish and Electoral Cologne , then on the Bavarian , and finally on the imperial side significant with.

Life

youth

There is no agreement about the place of birth of Johann von Werth. Apart from Büttgen , the places Linnich , Kleinenbroich and Puffendorf also claim to be the birthplace of von Werth. The majority of the sources assume Büttgen as the place of birth. His parents were the farmer Johann von Werdent († 1606) and his wife Elisabeth Streithoven. He was the oldest son and had eight siblings.

In his youth, as was customary at the time, Johann had to work on his parents' farm, which was about a kilometer west of Büttgen. With the death of his father, the economic situation of the family worsened, Johann had to move into a smaller house with his mother and eight siblings and henceforth hired himself out as a servant on foreign farms. His simple origins meant that he never learned to write, so there are no personal references from him.

Promotion to officer in the imperial army service until 1635

Around 1610 he entered the service of the Spanish army under General Ambrosio Spinola as a mercenary . In the following years he served in the cavalry and worked his way up to officer . In 1620 he took part as a cuirassier in the Battle of White Mountain , the first major battle of the Thirty Years War . In 1621 Johann von Werth changed to Kurkölnian services. During the siege of Jülich , he was promoted to Rittmeister because of his achievements .

Later he fought under Tilly in the troops of the Catholic League and in 1631 was chief sergeant in the Bavarian regiment "Eynatten" of the brothers Adolf and Winand von Eynatten . In December 1632 Johann von Werth was promoted to colonel and command of the "Eynatten" regiment. In the following years he won several victories against the Swedish troops, and so he was promoted to sergeant-general after defeating a Swedish corps near Herrieden in February 1634.

On August 24, 1634 , his troops set fire to Wassertrüdingen in Central Franconia . In the battle of Nördlingen on September 6, 1634, Johann von Werth and his cavalry succeeded in bringing about a decisive turning point in the battle. In gratitude for his performance in this battle, his employer, Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria , promoted him to Lieutenant Field Marshal and Sergeant General. Emperor Ferdinand II expressed his gratitude for the victory in the battle by making Johann von Werth a baron in April 1635 . The coat of arms donated by the emperor and carried by Johann Reichsfreiherr von Werth from this point on is also depicted on this survey document. In July 1635 Maximilian also promised him the enfeoffment of estates in Bavaria, the Upper Palatinate and Bohemia as well as the electoral Palatinate fiefs of the Lords of Helmstatt im Kraichgau in Ober- and Untergimpern and Berwangen , which Werth also received at the end of 1636.

Leader of the Bavarian cavalry and captivity in Paris until 1642

In October 1635 the French made an alliance with Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar and entered the war. In 1636 the duke besieged Liège in vain and then invaded Alsace . In August of the same year the Bavarian cavalry troops under Werth were involved in the long-planned Imperial Spanish campaign of the Habsburgs against France. In cooperation with a Spanish army, the French border fortress Corbie on the northern border with the Spanish Netherlands was occupied. The von Werth cavalry was then able to advance with a reconnaissance party within sight of Paris and not only put the population of Paris in a state of terror that went down in history. The fortress of Corbie could not be held against the popular army that was then set up in Paris. The planned attack on Paris from the north was canceled, especially since the planned simultaneous attack by an imperial army under Matthias Gallas on Paris from the south during the attempted crossing over the Saône in Saint-Jean-de-Losne finally failed when a French army there arrived under Marshal Josias Rantzau . Rantzau had taken over the army with 4,000 men from the army of Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar.

After September 19, 1636, Werth withdrew with the Bavarian army to the northeast and the French people's army began to siege the fortress of Corbie , which surrendered to the French on November 14.

1637 the French conquered the Kurtrierer Ehrenbreitstein in Koblenz and now controlled the important trade and supply route Rhine . Johann von Werth, who had already won over 30 victories against the French and was therefore known as the French Terror , then moved from Cologne , which feared a blockade of the Rhine, against the Ehrenbreitstein fortress. After a siege in which he succeeded in starving the French troops, the fortress surrendered on June 28, 1637.

Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar crossed the Rhine near Rheinau in the summer of 1637. On July 29th, Johann von Werth and 3000 men advanced from Darmstadt. Von Werth was seriously injured in the course of the fighting (a pistol bullet penetrated his cheek and got stuck in his throat). Duke Bernhard withdrew to Alsace.

After the harvest, General Weimar crossed the Rhine again with the French-Swedish army, and threatened to devastate Baiern, of which he was a sworn enemy. What a shock for us, since we had nothing less to fear than having to flee again in the winter of the future, and to lose all of ours. But the bravest hero Johann von Werth, who had often been our patron god, went to meet him and pushed him back across the Rhine with great loss. And he had to look elsewhere for his vivers and his winter quarters. It's a shame that there was only one Johann von Werth.

On March 3, 1638 Johann von Werth was captured under Duke Bernhard by General Georg Christoph von Taupadel in the battle of Rheinfelden near Nollingen . His horse had been shot from under him and he fled on foot to Nollingen to the Johann Joachim von Wahl regiment . At Richelieu's request, he was extradited to France . After the word of honor not to flee, Werth spent a few years in a very comfortable detention with audiences with King Ludwig XIII. and with hunting trips in the woods off Paris. On March 24, 1642 it was exchanged for the Swedish general Gustaf Graf Horn . While still in captivity, he had acquired the village and the castle in Grombach with the help of the Heidelberg governor Heinrich von Metternich in order to enlarge his possessions in the Kraichgau. In addition to these and the goods in Bohemia, Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate lent him by Elector Maximilian, Werth also acquired other goods in the area around Cologne and in the Rheingau. In October 1644 he was enfeoffed with Mückenloch near Heidelberg by the Würzburg prince-bishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn .

Monument to Jan von Werth at the Aldegundis Church in Kaarst -Büttgen

After his return from captivity, Johann von Werth received a stormy reception in Cologne, Augsburg and Munich.

On April 5th our hero Johann von Werth, valued above all, arrived in Munich with the greatest joy and hope for the future from his French captivity, which had lasted more than four years, and from which he had been ranciated to General Horn.

In Bavarian service from 1642

The Archbishop of Cologne, Archbishop Ferdinand of Bavaria , took him into his service and made him lieutenant general of his cavalry at Zons in August 1642 . By autumn of the same year Johann von Werth had conquered Bedburg , Grevenbroich , Hülchrath , Liedberg , Mönchengladbach , Neersen and finally Düren on October 24, 1642 . The remnants of the opposing troops escaped across the Rhine near Wesel .

During the battle of Tuttlingen on November 24, 1643, he almost succeeded in capturing the entire Franco-Weimar army. In the same year he became burgrave of Odenkirchen .

Only our adored Johann von Werth, to whom we owed the most to God and Mariam, saved us from our anxious fear. He often attacked the enemy in his winter quarters, killed many, drove them out of all of Württemberg, and took a lot of booty.

On March 31, 1644 Johann von Werth was promoted to general after the capture of Göppingen . In May of the same year, after a drinking bout in Cologne, he stabbed Count von Merode , who had challenged him. On July 27, 1644, together with Franz von Mercy , he liberated Freiburg im Breisgau from the Swedish occupation and then fought the battle of Freiburg im Breisgau against the French under Duke Enghien (later Ludwig II of Bourbon, on August 3 and 5 , Prince of Condé) and Marshal Turenne .

On March 6, 1645 he took part in the battle of Jankau , which was lost against the Swedes . Together with Mercy he won the Mergentheim on May 5th .

At the end of the war in the service of the emperor

After his employer, the Bavarian Elector Maximilian I, concluded the Ulm armistice between France, Sweden and Bavaria on March 14, 1647 without consulting the emperor, Johann von Werth and parts of his troops switched to the emperor's service. Maximilian I then granted Johann von Werth an imperial ban and confiscated the goods he had been granted. Emperor Ferdinand III. but declared the eight imposed by Maximilian in Vienna null and void and elevated Johann von Werth to the rank of count . In addition, he enfeoffed him as a replacement for the withdrawn curb-Bavarian fiefs with the rule of Benatek in Bohemia .

On behalf of the emperor, Johann von Werth led a campaign against the Swedes as general of the cavalry, defeated the Swedish general Carl Gustav Wrangel on October 6, 1648 in the battle of Dachau and forced the withdrawal of the Swedes and French.

End of war and death

Werth's possessions in Kraichgau were confiscated by the French commander of the Philippsburg Fortress towards the end of the Thirty Years' War . While the former Electoral Palatinate Helmstatt fiefdoms came back to the Electoral Palatinate and Helmstatt after the peace treaty in 1648, the acquired properties in Grombach and Mückenloch remained in Werth in Kraichgau from 1649.

Johann von Werth ended his active career in 1650. He retired to the castle in the Bohemian town of Benatek , which he had expanded to include a two-story wing , where he probably died of blood poisoning on September 12, 1652 after a brief illness. He was buried in the crypt of the Church of the Nativity of Mary in New Benatek.

Family turmoil after death

Von Werth was married three times, first with Gertrud von Genth zu Cönen , in 1637 in Straßberg (Zollernalbkreis) with Countess Isabella von Spaur and from 1648 with Countess Susanna Maria von Kuefstein , who was still underage , who only established the connection in obedience to her father Johann Ludwig received from Kuefstein . From the first and second marriage there were three sons, who all died at a young age before the death of their father, as well as the daughter Lambertina Irmgardis. At the time of Werth's death, his third wife, Susanna von Kuefstein (* 1630/33; † January 13, 1697), was heavily pregnant. Von Kuefstein loathed her uneducated older husband and had few secret extramarital relationships. Due to the apparent infidelity of his wife, von Werth had planned in his prepared, but no longer signed will , to adopt the son of his daughter Lambertina with Baron Winand Raitz von Frentz , Johann Wilhelm, so that Johann Wilhelm would take the place of a son who might not have been fathered by him Susanna should inherit. Since the will no longer had to be personally signed by witnesses, protracted inheritance disputes broke out between Susanna and Lambertine. By comparison from 1655, Werth's Rhenish goods came to daughter Lambertine, while Benatek came to the widow Susanna and the son Franz Ferdinand, born in 1652. After his early death in 1671, Lambertine inherited a fifth of the Benatek estate, which her husband sold back in 1682 to the widow Susanna, who was now her third marriage to Kaspar Johann von Cabbegg zu Saareck. All of Johann von Werth's descendants are descended from his daughter Lambertina and the survivors among her 16 children.

Legend of Jan un Griet

Jan von Werth monument in Cologne
Sign on the Severinstorburg with the legend of Jan von Werth

In Cologne and the surrounding area the following legend is told from the life of Johann von Werth: Jan was a poor servant who fell in love with the maid Griet. Since Griet could imagine a better match than poor servant Jan, she rejected his solicitation and his marriage proposal. Jan, badly hit by the rejection, was recruited for the army by a recruiter who was just in town and went to war. Since Jan was a capable soldier and luck was on his side, he was able to advance to general and achieve several victories. After defeating the Hermannstein Fortress, he entered Cologne with his troops in a triumphal procession through the Severinstor . He discovered his once great love Griet at the market, who was selling fruit at a farmer's stall. He directed his horse to her stand, dismounted, took off his hat and said to her: "Griet, who would have anyone!" (Griet, who would have done it!). And she replied to him: "Jan, who would have jewoss!" (Jan, who could know!). He then got back on his horse and rode away.

Reception of the legend

The punch line with Griet's final sentence: "Yeah, if ick't had known, would have 'ick't doahn." Is also used by Theodor Fontane in his ballad "Jan Bart". However, Fontane does not refer it to Jan von Werth, but - due to a mix-up or out of poetic freedom - to the West Flemish Rear Admiral Jan Bart , about whom such an anecdote is not even rumored.

There is also the following poem in Kölsch by Carl Cramer from 1837:

Zo Kölle em ahle Kümpchens-Hoff wont ens, ne Boerschmann, -
da hatt a girl, de is called Jriet, ne Knääch, the name is Jan. -

Dat Jriet, dat wor en fresche girl, jrad we from milk and blot, -
dä Jan, dat wor 'ne Staatse Poosch, the Jriet vum Hatzen jod. -

Ens säht da: "Sach," esu säht hä, "Sach, Jriet, am I avenging Deer? -
Take me to a man, do a better girl, and I, I'll have a boy. ”-

Do see it:“ Jan, do better a boy, and I’ve got a beautiful girl. -
Well , I don't think so. Halfen hann, with Oehs un Köh un Päd. ”-

Un we dä Jan dä Kall hooted, do trok have dä Krech, -
always go to the enemy if some six. -

We arguably have no Cologne com, soß hä op proud Pääd. -
Dä Jan, dä wo no field marshal, dä jan von Wäht. -

Un how hä an de pooz no kom sess en the pooz dat Jriet. -
It saess before singing Appelkrom, where it fried cuddly eggs. -

Un as dä Jan dat Jriet dät sinn, let her Pääd hä stonn, -
un jrößten it, un säht zo in: "Jriet, who et would have jedonn!" -

Un as dat Jriet dä Jan dät sinn, su blänkich usjeröß, -
do jrößt it in, un säht zo im: "Jan, who et would have ye voss!" -

Ehr Mädcher all, no notices Uech dat, un sitt meer nit zo friet, -
jar mencher would be sorry jedonn, dat leht vum Jan un Jriet! -

The Cologne street carnival opens every year on Weiberfastnacht with the history game "Jan and Griet". This parade has started every year since 1954 and moves to the Alter Markt , where dance games take place at the Jan von Werth monument. The "Reiterkorps Jan von Werth" , a traditional Cologne carnival guard, is named after Jan von Werth .

The material of this legend was set to music by the Cologne band BAP on the album “ Aff un zo ” in 2001 under the title “Die Moritat vun Jan un Griet” as a rock song.

Reception and late honor

25 Pfg. Emergency money note, Cologne 1921
Postage stamp for the 400th birthday
of Elisabeth von Janota-Bzowski , 1991

Through the imperial resolution of Franz Joseph I of February 28, 1863, Johann von Werth was added to the list of the "most famous warlords and generals of Austria worthy of perpetual emulation" , in whose honor and memory there was also a life-size statue in the general hall of that time The newly established Imperial and Royal Court Weapons Museum (today: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien ) was built. The statue was created in 1868 by the sculptor Ludwig Schimek (1837–1886) from Carrara marble and was dedicated by Emperor Franz Joseph himself.

In 1921, an emergency bill for 25 Pfg. Was issued in Cologne on which J. v. Werth are shown on the front and Jan and Griet on the back. For the 400th birthday in 1991, the Deutsche Bundespost issued a 60-Pfennig special stamp on March 12, 1991 (date of issue) with a contemporary depiction of Werth ( Michel catalog no. 1504).

An excursion ship of the Cologne-Düsseldorf Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt (KD) carries his name.

The St. Sebastianus Schützenbruderschaft Büttgen awards a Jan van Werth plaque every year .

There is a Johann-von-Weerth-Straße in Freiburg .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Christian Pantle: The Thirty Years War. When Germany was on fire . Propylaen Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-549-07443-5 , p. 225-230 .
  2. ^ Lothar Höbelt: From Nördlingen to Jankau. Imperial strategy and warfare 1634-1645 . In: Republic of Austria, Federal Minister for National Defense (Hrsg.): Writings of the Army History Museum Vienna . tape 22 . Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-73-3 , p. 162 .
  3. ^ Christian Pantle: The Thirty Years War. When Germany was on fire . Propylaen Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-549-07443-5 , p. 213 .
  4. ↑ Quoted from Maurus Friesenegger, p. 127, footnote 108
  5. ↑ Quoted from Maurus Friesenegger, p. 65
  6. ^ Emil Jegge: History of the Fricktal until 1803 , p. 157
  7. ↑ Quoted from Maurus Friesenegger, p. 74
  8. ↑ Quoted from Maurus Friesenegger, p. 76
  9. ↑ http://www.benatky.cz/omeste/historie/jan_z_werthu.php
  10. ^ Max Mauritz: Jan van Werth. 3rd expanded edition 2008, Volume 15 of the local history series of the St. Sebastianus Schützenbruderschaft Büttgen, here page 111
  11. ↑ Jan Bart (Fontane)
  12. ↑ Johann Christoph Allmayer-Beck : The Army History Museum Vienna. The museum and its representative rooms . Kiesel Verlag, Salzburg 1981, ISBN 3-7023-0113-5 , p. 32
  13. ↑ Details on the special stamp including illustration
  14. ↑ Ludger Heintz is the holder of the Jan van Werth plaque.Report of the daily newspaper Rheinische Post on September 23, 2017, accessed on September 13, 2018
  15. ↑ FreiGIS - The spatial data to information from the city of Freiburg i. Br. Retrieved March 8, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Johann von Werth  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Werth, Johann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Werth, Johann Graf von (full name); Werth, Jan von; Werth, Jean de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Equestrian General in the Thirty Years' War
DATE OF BIRTH 1591
PLACE OF BIRTH Büttgen near Neuss
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 1652
Place of death at Benatek Castle