Ottokar from the Gaal

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Ottokar from the Gaal ( Otacher ouz der Geul , Ottokar von Steiermark ) (* around 1265; † between 1318 and 1322) from the family of the Lords of Strettweg was a Styrian historian and poet, he is the so-called Styrian rhyming chronicler .

The name Ottokar von Horneck , which was ascribed to him by the historiographer Wolfgang Lazius , is wrong, but made him known to a wide audience through Grillparzer's King Ottokar's Glück und Ende .

Live and act

Ottokar was born as the son of the episcopal castle captain of Schloss Wasserberg Dietmar ouz der Geul, presumably at the Galler Siedelhof around 1265, and was first mentioned in a document in 1287.

As a student of the court of Manfred's acclaimed Sicily Konrad von Rothenburg and chivalrous Dienstmann the Styrian Liechtenstein presented Ottokar from the standpoint of the Styrian nobility , the history of the years 1246-1310. For the Styrian country's history his descriptions are about the struggles in the period of interregnum of great value. So found z. B. the first documented mention of the Styrian coat of arms "... a banier green as a grass in a coat swept blanc, as if ez was alive ..." in Ottokar's rhyming chronicle.

Memorial plaque for Ottokar from the Gaal, Schloss Wasserberg

Due to his close relationship with Otto, the son of the minstrel Ulrich von Liechtenstein , he was well informed about the Styrian political situation at that time.

This his Styrian rhyming chronicle tells in almost 100,000 verses vivid reports about various events from a number of countries of the Holy Roman Empire , in particular Styria and Austria . It is the first comprehensive historical work in German.

In addition to the political events, court life in the form of weddings, court days and tournaments are also described . Natural phenomena such as a locust plague and unusual events such as the appearance of pelicans in Styria in 1309 are also described.

In addition to true reports, there are also many fictional stories, but his book remains an inexhaustible source for the cultural history of his time, although his descriptions are limited to court circles. The rhyming chronicle influenced Austrian historiography up to humanism .

Gravestone for Ottokar from the Gaal and his wife Elisabeth in the cloister of the Seckau monastery

Ottokar was married to Elisabeth and had two sons: Otacher the Younger and Dietmar. He is mentioned for the last time in a document in 1319 and dies around 1321. The Seckau collegiate church is his final resting place. According to new findings, two tombstones in the cloister of the monastery are assigned to Ottokar and his wife Elisabeth.

In 1894 Horneckgasse in Vienna- Hernals was named after him.

See also

expenditure

literature

  • Walter Brunner: The noble family "from the Gaal" and the Styrian rhyming chronicler Otacher from Gaal - history of living space and its inhabitants , self-published by the community of Gaal, 2000.
  • Bettina Hatheyer: The Book of Acre. The theme of the crusade in the Styrian rhyming chronicle of Ottokar from the Gaal. Investigations, translation and commentary , (Göppingen papers on German studies, vol. 709), Göppingen 2005, ISBN 3-87452-960-6 .
  • Rudolf Reichel: Outline of the Styrian national history , Leuschner & Lubensky, Graz 1884.
  • Winfried Stelzer:  Ottokar from the Gaal. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 716 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ferdinand Tremel: Land on the border, A history of Styria , Leykam-Verlag, Graz 1966.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ According to other sources, he belongs to the Lords of Gaal.
  2. ↑ The quality of this teacher-student relationship is not explained by Reichel.
personal data
SURNAME Ottokar from the Gaal
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Otacher ouz the Geul; Ottokar of Styria; Ottokar von Horneck (erroneously assigned nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Styrian historian and poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 1265
DATE OF DEATH between 1318 and 1322