Álvaro Dinis

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Álvaro Dinis , Alberto , Albertus , Albrecht , also: Semuel Jachia or Albert Dionis , (* around 1576 in Amsterdam ; † after 1645 in Glückstadt or Amsterdam) was a Portuguese merchant , mint master and functionary of Jewish communities.

Live and act

Álvaro Dinis was a son of the merchant Filipe Dinis, also known as Salomon Marcos, and the Gracia alias Abigail Furtado. His father was from Porto ; The ancestors of the families were well-known Portuguese Marranos . His parents lived in Cologne for a short time in 1583 and then went to Venice , where Álvaro Dinis spent childhood and youth together with his sister Ana (* 1573). The local inquisition arrested Filipe Dinis in 1576 because of alleged Judaization. Álvaro Dinis came to Hamburg in 1605 at the latest . There he lived with his wife Beatriz (Abigail), whose father Henrique Dias Milão was a respected merchant from Lisbon , who was executed at the stake in 1609. Dinis' sister Ana also moved to Hamburg with her husband Henrique de Lima alias Mose de Lima. The couple lived there after 1608.

Álvaro Dinis was involved in the small Jewish community in Hamburg , for which he held important positions. He had a house that could accommodate one of three synagogue communities led by Rabbi Selomo Cohen from Porto. In 1611 he was one of the three people who signed the purchase contract for the Portuguese cemetery. He earned his living as a trader in grain, sugar and salt that came from Spain, Portugal and Brazil. Diniz was one of the first Jews to initiate regular goods business with Lübeck and the Baltic States. He expanded his business in 1612/13 to include a trading office in Danzig . In the following years Dinis was also active in the coin business: in 1614 he briefly supplied silver for coins that were minted in Bremervörde, in 1616/17 he took over the supervision of the coins of the Duke of Saxony-Lauenburg as a tenant , for which he also provided the metals delivered. During the Kipper and Wipper era , Dinis participated in much-discussed coin deals on behalf of nobles and princes from 1616 onwards, and in 1617 the Schauenburg mint from Altona was added.

In 1617, the city of Hamburg decided not to extend the privileges for Portuguese Jews that had been in effect until then. Álvaro Dinis, who was criticized for his coin business, tried to leave the Hanseatic city. Ernst von Schauenburg tried to protect Dinis by threatening Hamburg to sell Dinis' Altona or the entire Holstein-Pinneberg county to Denmark in the event of sanctions . This did not prevent the city of Hamburg from confiscating Dini's silver holdings and deporting him in 1619. Since the city of Hamburg bequeathed him 200 Reichstaler in 1644 due to his services, it can be assumed that the councilors later regretted this decision.

Dinis left Hamburg for Altona. After his coachman had caused an accident in August 1619 in which a child died, there were violent protests on the part of the residents of Altona. The allegations were directed against Dinis and his brother-in-law Paulo Dirichsen alias Mose Abensur, who was not involved in the accident. Since Dinis was accused of possibly acting out of “hostile Jewish intent”, he was expelled from the city and settled in Glückstadt that same year

Álvaro Dinis was one of the first Jews to settle in Glückstadt. Gerhard Rantzau , who held the office of Danish governor in the royal part of Schleswig-Holstein, made it possible for Portuguese residents to trade with Portugal and overseas since 1618. Álvaro Dinis took this opportunity and was given a special right to trade with the Iberian Peninsula. He also encouraged other Portuguese from Amsterdam and Hamburg to settle in Glückstadt. A short time later, Dinis took over the office of mint master. After protests by the estates and the Hamburg Valvation Day, which determined the value of foreign coins, it no longer minted any more coins from 1625. In February of the same year, there was a great flood that threatened to cause problems for the Portuguese living in Glückstadt. In addition, it seemed uncertain whether the Hamburg Portuguese were allowed to keep the privileges granted to them. For these reasons, Dinis turned to Charles I , Duke of Liechtenstein based in Prague , who allowed him to settle in the Duchy of Opava and the Duchy of Jägerndorf . From 1627 to 1630 Dinis was allowed to mint coins again.

In the years around 1630 Álvaro Dinis lived in Hamburg as a confidante of the Danish heir to the throne Friedrich . In 1629 he published a compilation of speeches there that were written in Portuguese. Few examples of this are known to this day. Dinis turned to the Danish prince several times in the interests of Jewish fellow citizens. His request from 1633 to receive a letter of introduction in order to be able to attend Central German masses is well known. It is also recorded that he was reported to the Inquisition in Lisbon in 1644.

Álvaro Dinis' time and place of death cannot be precisely dated. Besides a death in Glückstadt in the mid-1640s, it is possible that he died in Amsterdam about a decade later. In the cemetery of Ouderkerk near Amsterdam there is grave number 189 of David Denis, who died in 1655. The graves of his wife, who died in Hamburg in 1632, and his mother-in-law can be found in the Portuguese cemetery . There is also the tombstone of Selomo Jahia, who died in 1599 and was reburied 16 years later. The tomb may also have served as a resting place for Álvaro Dinis' father Filipe Dinis.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Treichel: Dionis, Albert . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 4. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1976, p. 57
personal data
SURNAME Dinis, Álvaro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jachia, Semuel; Dionis, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese merchant, mint master and functionary of Jewish communities
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: 1576
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH after 1645
Place of death Glückstadt or Amsterdam