Wernau (noble family)

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Family coat of arms based on Scheibler's book of arms
Prince-Bishop Konrad Wilhelm von Wernau

The von Wernau family is an old Swabian noble family.

history

The von Wernau family is a Swabian noble family (see also list of Swabian noble families ). The name-giving headquarters is the small hamlet of Wernau (today the city of Erbach , Alb-Donau district). The city of Wernau in the Esslingen district in Baden-Württemberg was not created until 1938 through the merger of the two communities Pfauhausen and Steinbach. Decisive for this renaming were the local rule and the property of the Lords of Wernau in the two places.

The family is first mentioned in a document in 1264. They were ministerials to the Counts of Berg-Schelklingen (hence the right diagonal bar in the coat of arms) and the Lords of Steusslingen (Alb-Danube district). Initially, the Lords of Wernau owned extensive estates, especially on the Hochstrasse ( Altheim , Gleißenburg Castle ) and in the town of Schelklingen ( Hospital of the Holy Spirit ). The sex also had close ties to the Urspring Monastery , which several female family members entered as nuns. In 1473 the von Wernau family donated a family altar , the so-called Wernausche Kaplanei, to the original monastery church .

Later the property and living space of the Lords of Wernau relocated to the central Neckar area . Around 1400 they acquired the city of Wendlingen , the Freihof in Kirchheim unter Teck and goods in Pfauhausen and Steinbach. The family's hereditary burial is located in the Eusebius Church in Wendlingen. While further acquisitions added to and rounded off the property up to the beginning of the 16th century, those of Wernau were forced to sell from the middle of the 16th century due to increasing debts. When the relative Hans von Ehingen died childless in 1552 , his property passed to four brothers from the Wernau family. One of these is Hans Veit, who also commissioned Valentin Salomon von Fulda in 1592 to write a family chronicle, which today is an important source. The family is at its peak, only a generation later the division of the extensive estates becomes necessary. By the beginning of the 17th century, the family split into two lines that decided to forego mutual inheritance claims. The Unterboihinger line died out in the male line in 1684, the line to Dießen , Dettingen , Bittelbronn and Baisingen with Hans Georg von Wernau in 1696. The Würzburg prince-bishop Konrad Wilhelm von Wernau , who died shortly after his election, was the last bearer of the name of the Unterboihinger line.

Due to the various possessions, the family is organized into three Swabian knight cantons , namely the canton Kocher , the canton Danube and the canton Neckar-Black Forest .

coat of arms

The people of Wernau wear a black sloping bar as a coat of arms in silver , covered with three golden spheres. The three balls symbolize the legend of St. Nicholas, according to which Bishop Nikolaus von Myra threw three poor girls three times three gold bags through the window at night and thus made the wedding possible for them.

Personalities

unsecured membership of the noble family

literature

  • Immo Eberl : The Counts of Berg, their domain and their noble families. In: Ulm and Upper Swabia. 44: 29-171 (1982). (including about the Lords of Wernau, servants of the Counts of Berg-Schelklingen).
  • Gerhard Köbler : Historical lexicon of the German countries. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 7th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54986-1 .
  • City of Schelklingen: Hospital for “St. Geist ”in rogue blades. City administration, Schelklingen 1992 (including the Lords of Wernau).
  • Walther Hubatsch: Regesta Historico Diplomatica Ordinis S. Mariae Theutonicum 1198-1525 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965, p. 418.
  • Bernhart Jähnig: Young noblemen at the court of the grand master in Marienburg around 1400. In: Werner Paravicini, Jörg Wettlaufer (Ed.): Residency research. Volume 13 Upbringing and Education at Court. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, p. 21 ff.

Web links

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