Absberg (noble family)
The von Absberg family was an old Frankish noble family (see also list of Frankish knight families ). Ecclesiastical dignitaries who are important for Franconia come from the family, such as the Regensburg bishop Heinrich IV von Absberg . With the persecution of Hans Thomas von Absberg in 1523, Absberg Castle was also destroyed. The family rose to the baron status.
history
Absberg reign
The seat of the von Absberg family that gives their name is the former Absberg Castle in Absberg , first mentioned in 1343 but certainly much older , today a market in the Central Franconian district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen . The noble family first appeared in 1238 with Adelhaidis de Appesperch; she was married to a Heinrich von Absberg, who was known from 1242 as “liber” (freer) and from 1254 as “nobilis” (noble). Accordingly, the sex belonged to the class of the noble free .
Absberg was raised to a parish in 1327 under Konradus von Absberg. In 1488, the Regensburg bishop Heinrich IV von Absberg had a chapel built in the village from the Absberg-Rumburg line.
High church dignitaries such as canons and abbesses came from the family. The Absberg line, promoted to barons, became Protestant in 1533, while the Absberg line to Rumburg in the bishopric of Eichstätt did not renounce the Catholic Church.
A special feature of the Absberg rule was its privilege of freedom . The persecuted found asylum in the Absberg clearance . The only exceptions were insults of majesty and murder . The privilege was first granted to the Absbergers by King Ruprecht in 1401 and confirmed several times by later rulers. The right was widely exercised and Absberg became a refuge for adulterers , debtors , bankrupts and duelists, among others . The last person who found refuge in Absberg and died there in 1830 was a shepherd from Löpsingen near Nördlingen , who had killed his wife in an argument. The right to asylum in this constellation was generally abolished in 1799.
Family members led several feuds against the imperial city of Nuremberg .
The best-known figure of the Absberg family was Hans Thomas von Absberg . He was considered a notorious robber baron . He kidnapped traveling merchants and citizens of up-and-coming cities and released them for ransom. To emphasize his demands, he sent family members a severed hand of the kidnapped man several times. In the lower nobility he had broad support and many helpers. This called the Swabian Federation on the scene in 1523 , which destroyed many small castles because they had given shelter to Hans Thomas von Absberg and his prisoners. At the same time, the peasant war raged in the region. Hans Thomas von Absberg was murdered a little later in 1531 by one of his comrades-in-arms.
In 1523 the Absberg Castle was destroyed by the Swabian Federation. The war correspondent Hans Wandereisen , as an eyewitness, produced the only known representation of the castle complex. As a replacement, the Absbergers built a new castle in 1593–1595, which they expanded in 1610.
With Hans Veit von Absberg, whose epitaph is still in the Evangelical Church of Absberg, the male line died out on April 9, 1647. The property of the Absbergers ( allod , imperial fiefs as well as Eichstättisches and Brandenburg fiefdoms) came after several years of dispute in 1652 to the Teutonic Order , who built a monastery palace ( Schloss Absberg ) instead of the castle from 1723–1726 .
Hans Veit von Absberg, the last of the line, as a child behind his father Hans Cunrad von und zu Absberg († 1611). Section from the epitaph
The wives and daughters of Hans Cunrad. The coats of arms are mentioned in the text with "Eltershofen" and "Senfftin" (probably Senft von Suhlburg).
Rumburg Castle
Towards the end of the 13th century, the von Absberg family came into the possession of Rumburg Castle , today in the Eichstätt district . The fiefdom complex that passed from the Emmendorfern to the Rumburg line of the Absbergers was considerable: it comprised properties of different sizes to Unter- and Oberemmendorf , Irfersdorf , Irlahüll , Aschbuch , Neuzell , Pfraundorf , Haunstetten , Wiesenhofen , Beilngries , Kaldorf , Kinding , Landerzhofen , Mettendorf , Raitenbuch , Litterzhofen and Berching , then also the Tafern (= tapping) and church day rights (= market rights at the church fair) to Röckenhofen , Herrnsberg (there also the smithy) and Günzenhofen .
Most of the ruins that have been preserved go back to the expansion of the fortress , which began in 1350 under the Absbergers. The first documentary mention of this castle comes from the year 1361. Heinrich von Absberg received in 1374 from Emperor Charles IV the permission to develop the place Enkering into a town. However, this project could not be realized.
In 1520 Erasmus von Absberg participated in an attack on Count Joachim von Oettingen, in which the Oettinger lost his life. In 1521, therefore, the troops of the Swabian Federation occupied the Rumburg, which was then placed under compulsory administration. In 1528 Erasmus was able to obtain his rehabilitation at the Bundestag in Augsburg . The deeds at that time were due to "his youth and ignorance", and he was seduced by his relative Hans Thomas von Absberg.
In 1540 a hunter set off a devastating fire. In the same year, the lord of the castle Erasmus died without a male successor. The heavily indebted heirs therefore sold the Rumburg in 1546 to the Hochstift Eichstätt . There was no reconstruction and the facility began to deteriorate. Security measures have been taken recently.
According to a legend, the Absbergers zu Rumburg successfully fought the lords of Kipfenberg around 1301 in association with the Eichstätter bishop . Another legend knows about a black poodle that guards a chest with gold and precious stones on the Rumburg.
coat of arms
The coat of arms of the von Absberg family shows a silver curved tip and divides the shield vertically into blue and red.
Coat of arms according to the Ingeram Codex
Coat of arms of the von Absberg family according to Siebmacher's book of arms
Plastic coat of arms in the choir arch of the Protestant church in Absberg
Coat of arms of the Kinding market
Personalities
- Hadmar Absberger (= von Absberg), from 1411 caretaker of the eichstättisch-episcopal nursing office in Hirschberg
- Barbara von Absberg , abbess of the Obermünster monastery in Regensburg (1435–1456)
- Heinrich IV. Von Absberg (1409–1492), Bishop of Regensburg (1465–1492)
- Dorothea, née von Absberg, see z. B. Götz von Berlichingen
- Hans Thomas von Absberg (1477–1531)
- Hans Christoph von Absberg († 1562)
literature
- Johann Gottfried Biedermann : genealogy The Reich Frey immediate knighthood country to Franken praiseworthy local Altmuhl ... . Bayreuth 1748.
- Joseph Baader: Negotiations about Thomas von Absberg and his feuds against the Swabian Federation 1519 to 1530. Tübingen 1873.
- Joseph Baader: The feud of Hanns Thomas von Absberg against the Swabian Federation. Munich 1880 (on panel 19 the burning castle from 1523).
- Rumburg castle ruins. In: The art monuments of Bavaria - Volume V / 2 District Office Eichstätt . Munich 1928 (reprint 1982), pp. 98-101.
- Heinrich Wilhelm: The nobles from and to the Absberg. A contribution to Franconian history. In: Alt-Gunzenhausen , Heft 8 (1931), pp. 3–197.
- Catholic parish Absberg: Brief historical outline of the cath. Parish Absberg and small church leader through the parish church of St. Ottilia .
- Helmut Rischert: Absberg family. In: Collective sheet of the historical association Eichstätt 76 (1983), Eichstätt 1984, p. 14f.
- Walter Bauer (ed.): Absberg - a thousand-year history . Wendelsheim 1993.
- Anton P. Rahrbach: Imperial Knights in Main Franconia: On coats of arms and history of Franconian noble families. Bauer & Raspe The Siebmacher's heraldic books. Neustadt an der Aisch 2003. S. 1f.
- Reinhardt Schmalz: The Franconian War 1523 and the guilt of the Sparnecker . In: Archives for the history of Upper Franconia. Bayreuth 2005.
Web links
- History of the market town of Absberg
- Another historical representation of the coat of arms from the book of arms
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walter Bauer (ed.): Absberg - a thousand-year history . Wendelsheim 1993. pp. 9-10.
- ↑ Johannes Müllner: The Annals of the Imperial City of Nuremberg from 1623, Part II: From 1351-1469 . Nuremberg 1972. z. BS 141, 143, 336-338.
- ↑ see also Wandereisen woodcuts from 1523
- ↑ see list of Swabian noble families / S