Affalterbach (Schwarzachtal)
Coordinates: 49 ° 21 ′ 37.4 ″ N , 11 ° 16 ′ 44.1 ″ E The hamlet of Affalterbach has been a place of pilgrimage , especially for Nuremberg citizens,since the Middle Ages because of its Marienkapelle. Its location in the border area made it a constant bone of contention between the imperial city of Nuremberg and the Margraves of Ansbach . The escalating disputes culminated in the destruction of the hamlet and the burning of the church in 1552. The settlement was rebuilt and was still inhabited until the Thirty Years War. The chapel, however, remained in ruins and still retained its cultic and political significance until the beginning of the 19th century, when the remains were finally removed. Only anotice board put upby the municipality of Schwarzenbruck in 1999 reminds of this place.
Origin of name and location
At a place "by the brook where the apple trees stand" (that is what the name Affalterbach means , pronounced "Alfalterbach" in the vernacular - see also Affalterbach (Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm) - history) a small chapel was once built in the Middle Ages and dedicated to the saint Consecrated to Mother Mary.
The former place of pilgrimage was about 2.5 kilometers east of Schwarzenbruck on a terrace height and south side of the Schwarzach . Since no stream flows into the Schwarzach here, the Schwarzach itself was probably the namesake. Today a "Kappelweg" or "Kapellenweg" in Ochenbruck on Mimberger Straße (LAU 34) and an extension of the path and field name "Auf der Kappel" on the border of the Schwarzenbruck municipality indicate the pilgrimage church . A "Kappelwiese" and a "Kappelacker" became the property of the State Association for Inner Mission (today Rummelsberger Anstalten ).
From the east, the path leads from Pattenhofen over the Schwarzach Bridge.
history
founding
The exact time and the reason for the construction of the church as well as for the pilgrimages "to the miraculous image of Our Lady" is not apparent from the available sources. It was assigned to the Nuremberg parish Feucht and thus belonged to the diocese of Eichstätt .
The pastor and church of Feucht belonged to the Electorate of Palatinate until 1504. Since King Rupprecht of the Palatinate bequeathed the income from this to his University of Heidelberg , it had - with the express confirmation of Pope Gregor XII. - to provide a pastor for Feucht "forever". The Feucht market had belonged to the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg since 1427. In the course of the introduction of the Reformation, Feucht also came to Nuremberg in 1526 as a church (treaty between the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg and the Palatinate Wittelsbachers).
When the settlement was founded is also not known, but its existence can be proven as early as 1349. After a document at that time pledged Mark Hard Seitz the Forsthube to "Affalterpach" the Council of the City of Nuremberg. Another document from 1443 lets us know that Ulrich Rummel sold an estate in Affalterbach to Hans Rieter , which was an imperial fief and was managed by Fritz Rechenbacher . In a council decree in Nuremberg of February 26, 1488 it says: "The chapel in Affalterbach should remain unchanged and neither be demolished nor moved to a different location than had been agreed in Eichstätt" , which indicates that the church is already old and was in need of renovation. However, an ordination by the Eichstatt bishop cannot be dated. Another council decree of 1495 gives the patron Seibolt Schürstab a free hand "to build the church or not" .
Parish fair protection in the border area
The reason for the now beginning dispute was the church consecration protection , which the Nuremberg councils claimed for themselves. To the parish fair, which was celebrated every Sunday in St. Veit (June 15), they first sent town servants to protect the pilgrims , and then 50 sticks the following year (1499) . For the margrave bailiff zu Burgthann, however, the hamlet was on his territory, as he saw the Schwarzach as a border, and he claimed the Fraiss (jurisdiction), which also included the protection of the parish fair, for himself. The Nuremberg residents claimed the place because it was a half forest hatch belonging to the Reichswald Lorenzi , which together with the half to Ochenbruck formed a whole. After all, the chapel belonged to the Nuremberg parish of Feucht. So both believed they were right.
Battle at the gates of Nuremberg
The protection of the parish fair here was not the only point of contention between Nuremberg and Ansbach, by 1502 a number of such disputes had already accumulated. After many fruitless attempts to settle this, a meeting in Erfurt was finally determined to reach an agreement. Various princes, such as the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, the dukes of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, were intended to act as mediators. But the margrave increased his hostile actions as the day approached, and so the council had no choice but to arm, in particular against any attacks on the occasion of the upcoming church festival in Affalterbach. On Saturday after St. Veit (June 18, 1502) the council commanded the captains Hans von Weichsdorf and Wolf Haller with 2000 men and a wagon castle and 12 guns to protect the parish fair in Affalterbach. To protect the town, Captain Ulmann Stromer was given command of the townspeople - 800 citizens and 50 sticks - as a backup for those who marched to Affalterbach. When Margrave Casimir (not yet Margrave at the time, he was only leading the margravial contingent against the Nuremberg residents) heard about it from his spies, he changed his original plan to attack Affalterbach and instead left his troops - 7,000 foot servants and 450 sticks - on Sunday move to Nuremberg. They raided the suburb of Lichtenhof and drove the cattle away from the farmers. This challenge prompted the Council to act. So Stromer received the order to drive away the enemy with his crowd, 6 field snakes and a few wagons. Contrary to the express order, he entered the forest and unexpectedly came across the main force of the enemy, who struck him with his superior force. The associations recalled by Affalterbach could not change that. After a five-hour walk, the warriors were very tired and fled to the protective city walls themselves. In the panic at the gate, a crowd, including curious spectators, was crushed or pushed into the ditch. The people of Ansbach managed to capture the Nuremberg flag , it was hung in the church in Schwabach and was intended to distract from the losses. They were considerable on both sides, the Nürnberger lost about 300, the margravial but 600-700 men, including many knights and other nobles.
Restoration of the church
Now Anna Schürstab , the wife of Councilor Sebald Schürstab , who came from the family of Groß , had the dilapidated wooden church restored in 1503, using stone for the sake of permanent preservation. It was reddish castle sandstone, the church then measured 80 × 54 feet, that is about 24 × 16 m, with a height of about 5 m. She arranged that the early knife from Feucht should read a mass every women's day (Marienfest) and hold a high mass there on high festive days . This displeased the church wardens of the chapel, Hans Schuster silk from Affalterbach, and it came because of the income from the church to tensions with the moist pastor Heinrich Nagel . The differences were amicably settled in 1509 through a written stipulation of who should receive what. On this basis, no parish fair protection on the part of the Nuremberg people was necessary.
Again disputes - destruction
From 1536, however, the bailiff Jörg von Ems claimed for his part the protection of the parish fair and demanded that the margravial shopkeepers were allowed to sell their goods, including gingerbread and brandy , on the day of the parish. The people of Nuremberg complained that all sorts of games such as dice over the " little circle" and bowling were played, the margraves replied, "The gentlemen wanted to turn the little church into a stable" . So the mutual harassment escalated until finally in 1552 there were again armed conflicts between the Nuremberg and Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades . The hamlet was completely burned down, the chapel for the most part. Waging war at that time was mainly about burning down the opposing villages and devastating enemy lands.
The question of the meaning of church consecration protection
In 1560 the chapel burned down by "own fire" (lightning strike or carelessness) and was not rebuilt. In the following years the ruins were used by the residents of the hamlet as a barn and cattle shed. Since he now considered the protection of the church consecration to be nonsensical, the Burgthann bailiff, Sebastian von Muslohe , made the proposal to revoke it in 1563 , but the Nuremberg residents refused, with reference to a pending case at the Reich Chamber of Commerce. Around the turn of the century, the Nuremberg councils intended to completely tear down the chapel and move the stock house to Ochenbruck in order to end the quarrels. But it was not until 1616 that the sacristan's house built into the chapel was torn down, which ended the “actus parochialis” practiced by the Feuchter pastor . Now (1617 - a few months before the outbreak of the Thirty Years War) the properties were combined with those of the other half of the Forsthube at Ochenbruck.
Thirty Years' War
At the height of the Thirty Years' War , on July 30, 1632 (according to a report by Franz Freiherr von Soden in 1841) the "Battle of the Schwarzach Valley" took place between the troops of Gustav Adolf and those of Wallenstein 's General Sparr . After his victory, Gustav Adolf held a thanksgiving service in the Schwarzachklamm , after which he pursued Sparr , who was probably planning an attack on Altdorf . The Affalterbach farmers wanted to keep the war events away from them and removed the pavement from their Schwarzach bridge , so that the Swedish riders had to move to Pattenhofen to cross the river. The Swedes did not go unpunished, and the ruins of the chapel were probably also affected. In the following year farms in the area were burned and looted by foreign troops.
Curiosities
The quarrels about the protection of the parish fair were not suppressed by the religious war, they started again a few years after the end of the war. Finally, in May 1660, a comparison was made between Ansbach and Nuremberg, according to which both parts should exercise the protection of the parish fair. For the next church fair, the Nuremberg Lieutenant Wittich was delegated with 40 horses and musketeers , the margrave Kastner von Oberferrieden appeared with 50 farmers. In front of the ruin, they shouted the "Peace Law" to each other and parted again.
Church use of the ruin
According to entries in church registers, seven Affalterbach children were baptized and five couples were married between 1556 and 1611. Although the chapel was ruined and had no door since 1694, a sermon was still held there on the day of the church consecration in 1710.
The hamlet and its last inhabitants were victims of the Thirty Years' War, it was not rebuilt.
Leftover recycling
In 1782, the Nuremberg forest clerk Kreß suggested to his adversary, Justizrat Cella zu Oberferrieden, that both sides refrain from protecting the church. But his rule, the Nuremberg Council, hesitated and could not bring himself to do so until May 27, 1786, provided that Ansbach was not allowed to take advantage of it. With this decision the chapel had lost all political value, but now there was a dispute about the use of the stones. In Nuremberg it was learned that Ansbach had given the stones to judge Georg Leuchs from Feucht and that he had already started with the removal. In February 1803 he was summoned by the forestry officer von Haller and he was initially forbidden from further removal. Nuremberg hired a master builder to estimate the ruin. He determined that there were still 140 stone blocks that would be well suited for a bridge in Ochenbruck and set the value at 24 kreuzers per piece. When Leuchs continued to insist on the donation, the ruins were offered to Senator von Scheuerl for sale in 1806 , but the latter only wanted to pay 125 guilders including the land. Although there was no sale in the following years, the stones gradually disappeared. It was farmers from neighboring villages who demolished and secured the best specimens. The rest were brought to Ochenbruck in 1848 to build a barn. Affalterbach has finally disappeared and only a sign reminds the passing hiker of the once highly competitive Franconian pilgrimage site.
background
The Reformation (and with it the evangelical confession) was introduced in Nuremberg and Feucht in 1525, in the church district Oberferrieden 1) responsible for the margravial office of Burgthann, and in Ansbach itself in 1528. This apparently did not detract from the veneration of Mary . So religion played no role in the disputes about the protection of the church fair, it was purely political reasons for responsibility.
- 1) “In Unterferrieden ... the citizens had resisted the Reformation for the longest time, but then had to obey the orders of the authorities, abandon the Catholic religion and abolish pilgrimages. ("Whoever has the throne determines the religion".) "
swell
- Hans Wedel: Burgthann - Hessel-Verlag Feucht (1982)
- Raimund Derks in the commemorative publication 800 Years of the Church in Feucht (1990)
- Homepage of the municipality of Burgthann (2007)
- City Archives Ansbach (2007)
- Gerhard Deininger in the anniversary publication Fifty Years of the Rummelsberg State Deaconry (1945)
