Aham (noble family)

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Family coat of arms of the Aham (Ahaimer)
Coat of arms of Count Aham on the cover plate of the former family crypt in the Reichersberg collegiate church

The Aham were an old Bavarian noble family , Catholic denomination, whose numerous representatives from the Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century played an important role in Bavaria . The old and influential family was one of the most important landowners , especially along the Inn , and maintained close contacts with Reichersberg Abbey .

history

The Ahamer (Aheimer, Ahaimer), who later rose to the rank of count, came from the village of Aham near St. Peter am Hart in what is now the Braunau am Inn district . They were an old Bavarian tournament enabled gender, the since 1383 Ansitz Neuhaus and Geinberg in today's Upper Austria had. Later the family split into the three main lines of Hagenau (not to be confused with the Lords of Hagenau ), Wildenau and Neuhaus. The Aham had the dignity of a treasurer of the Passau bishopric . After the Innviertel , the ancestral home of the family, became Austrian in the Peace of Teschen in 1779 , the Aham also received the rural team in the land above the Enns .

They traditionally had their burial place in the Reichersberg Abbey. First they found their resting place in the cloister , where several tombstones from around 1500 still remind of them. In the course of the new construction of the monastery after the major fire of 1624, a new Aham family crypt was built in a side chapel of the collegiate church, where members of the male line were buried until the family died out in 1881. The stucco altar of this chapel was created by Modler between 1761 and 1768 , the altarpiece with the apostles Simon and Judas Thaddäus comes from the Munich painter Kolbinger. The body of the catacomb saint Claudius has been kept in a shrine on this altar since 1709 . It was raised from the Kalixtus catacombs in 1668 and finally came into the possession of the then auxiliary bishop in Vienna, Johann Joachim Ignaz Count of Aham. After his death, the relics were donated for the crypt chapel by his brother and heir Johann Franz Graf von Aham .

In the course of time, the family achieved a number of elevations: With a diploma dated June 3, 1652, the knightly Aham family was elevated to the status of imperial baron when Emperor Ferdinand III. awarded this dignity to the five sons of Wolfgang Wiguleus von Aham (1591–1644) who were still alive at the time and their descendants. The Aham zu Neuhaus line was elevated to the status of imperial count with a diploma on July 7, 1691 and received an improvement in the coat of arms when Emperor Leopold I, following a recommendation by Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria, gave the two sons of Franz Alois Freiherrn von Aham, who were then still living ( 1621–1683) and their descendants awarded this status and also united the Aham's family coat of arms with the coat of arms of the Ruck von Tanneck (her relatives on her mother's side). Two years later, Emperor Leopold I also raised the line of Aham zu Wildenau to the rank of imperial count, as Johann Ignaz Freiherr von Aham (1616–1698) also received a corresponding diploma for himself and his descendants, dated December 30, 1693. The splendid aristocratic and coat of arms diplomas of the barons and counts of Aham have been preserved to this day and were shown in 2004 at the Bavarian - Upper Austrian state exhibition in Asbach Abbey . The Ahamers also had artistically furnished family books and heraldic books about their family history, which are also still preserved.

Counts Johann Adam and Johann Heinrich von Aham, probably sons of Count Johann Ignaz, were also resident in the state of Salzburg and were accepted into the rural team there. On September 16, 1691, her count was published in Salzburg. They appear with the indicated coat of arms on the country table from 1706.

The last representative of the family was Count Joseph Matthias Franz Xaver Benedict von Aham (1820–1881), royal Bavarian chamberlain , lord of Neuhaus near Gurten , the only son of Count Franz Xaver, who died in 1872, and the Walburga, born Countess von Tauffkirchen. He died unmarried at Neuhaus Castle in Geinberg in January 1881 and was buried as the last Aham in the family crypt in the Reichersberg collegiate church. The former family crypt of the Aham was rebuilt in 1975 as a burial place for the provosts of the monastery.

Possessions

In addition to the Counts Tattenbach , the Count Aham family was one of the most important landowners, especially in the area of ​​today's Innviertel , but was also wealthy in all of Old Bavaria and Upper Austria . Its extensive and numerous goods of Ahamer belonged among other things, Katzenberg castle , Schloss Wildenau , Hagenau Castle , Schloss Neuhaus and Thannenmais in Reisbach .

coat of arms

Aham v. Neuhaus, family coat of arms
Coat of arms of the Counts of Aham 1691

Family coat of arms

Blazon : The Aham family coat of arms shows a red lion in silver and two buffalo horns decorated with peacock feathers, red on the right and silver on the left, as well as red and silver blankets.

Imperial Count Coat of Arms

Blazon: The coat of arms of the Counts of Aham shows a squared shield with a golden border in 1691 ; 1 and 4 in silver a red, right-striding, crowned lion with a double tail on a green hill with three steps (= coat of arms of Aham); the lion's front paws are freely suspended, the right one higher than the left, and the right back paw is on the middle heel of the hill, the left on the left heel; 2 and 3 in black three silver cups, gold-plated on the inside and with a gold ring in the middle (after some with three gold rings), 2 and 1 (= Jerk von Tanneck); there are two helmets on the shield; the crowned helmet on the right wears a right-handing, growing, red, double-curled lion, the head of which is adorned with six peacock feathers; in his right paw he holds a lance divided by silver and red 2-16 times diagonally to the right, broken in the upper third, but a laurel wreath in the left; On the left helmet lies a red pillow with red tassels, on which there is a closed, black flight covered with the three cups of the 2nd and 3rd field; A red cloak with gold fringes and an ermine surrounds the shield and helmet.

Significant people

Genealogy (extract)

  1. Wolfgang Wiguleus von Aham (1591–1644), Herr auf Wildenau und Neuhaus ⚭ Eva von Haunsperg, and had 12 offspring (4 of whom died in early childhood), including:
    1. Johann Ignaz Freiherr and Count von Aham (1616–1698), Lord of Wildenau and Weiffendorf, Baron since 1652, Count since 1693 ⚭ Maria Elisabeth von Aham († 1692), and had 20 offspring (13 of whom died in early childhood) who founded the line to Wildenau of the Aham family
    2. Franz Alois Freiherr von Aham (1621–1683), lord of Neuhaus and Geinberg, baron since 1652 ⚭ Helena Klara Ruck von Tanneck, lady of the Star Cross , and had 13 descendants (6 of which died in early childhood) who left the Neuhaus line of the family of Aham established, including:
      1. Johann Joachim Ignaz Graf von Aham (1655–1702), auxiliary bishop in Vienna, count since 1691
      2. Johann Joseph Franz Graf von Aham (1652–1725), Lord of Neuhaus and Geinberg, Count since 1691 ⚭ 1681 Katharina von Franking († 1697), ⚭ 1701 Maria Christina Theresia von Guidebon Cavalchino († 1729), and had 13 descendants (of which 8 died in early childhood), including:
        1. Joseph Anton Franz Felix Graf von Aham (1684–1750), Herr auf Neuhaus und Geinberg ⚭ 1711 Maria Franziska Isabella Countess von Roedern , and had 5 offspring (2 of whom died in early childhood), including:
          1. Franz Joseph Adolph Cajetan Ignaz Graf von Aham (1718–1756), Lord of Neuhaus and Geinberg ⚭ Maria Susanna Walburga Josepha Johanna Countess von Alten Franking , and had 1 offspring:
            1. Joseph Eucharius Anton Aloys Graf von Aham (1753–1805), Lord of Neuhaus and Geinberg ⚭ Maria Anna Helena Johanna Nepomucena Catharina Countess of Rambaldi (1747–1813), and had 3 offspring:
              1. Joseph Ferdinand Graf von Aham (1783–1802), Bavarian page
              2. Joseph Maria Johann Matthaeus Clemens Graf von Aham (1778–?), Kk colonel
              3. Franz Xaver Clemens Carl Joseph Graf von Aham (1786–1872), Herr auf Neuhaus ⚭ Walburga Josepha Maximiliana Countess von Tauffkirchen (1786–1869), and had 1 offspring:
                1. Joseph Matthias Franz Xaver Benedict Count von Aham (1820–1881), Lord of Neuhaus, the last of the Aham male line


  • Picture gallery

  • Side chapel of the Reichersberg collegiate church with Claudius altar (stucco marble altar by Johann Baptist Modler , 1762), altarpiece: Apostle Simon and Judas Thaddäus von Kolbinger (Munich 1763). This chapel served as the burial chapel of the Aham.

  • Stiftskirche Reichersberg, burial chapel of the Aham: access to the former family crypt with epitaph of Franz Joseph Adolph Reichsgraf von Ahamb zu Neuhaus and Geinberg (1718–1756, see genealogy above)

  • Stiftskirche Reichersberg, burial chapel of the Aham: cover plate above the entrance to the former family crypt (detail)

  • Stiftskirche Reichersberg, burial chapel of the Aham: cover plate above the entrance to the former family crypt (detail)

literature

  • Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : German count houses of the present in heraldic, historical and genealogical relation. Volume 1, TO Weigel , Leipzig 1852, pp. 5-6
  • Franz Buchinger: The Ministerials, Knights, Barons and Counts of Aham as clerical and secular officials and dignitaries from 1140 to 1881. In: The Bundschuh. Series of publications by the Museum Innviertler Volkskundehaus, Vol. 2, 1999, pp. 26–36.
  • Franz Buchinger: family and coat of arms book of the Ahamer, coat of arms sample . In: Egon Boshof, Max Brunner, Elisabeth Vavra (eds.): Grenzenlos - Geschichte der Menschen am Inn (= catalog for the first Bavarian-Upper Austrian state exhibition in Asbach-Passau-Reichersberg-Schärding , April 23 to November 2, 2004), Regensburg 2004.
  • Konrad Meindl : Genealogical treatise on the old Bavarian noble family of knights, barons and counts of Aham on Hagenau, Wildenau and Neuhaus . In: Negotiations of the Historical Association for Lower Bavaria, Vol. 20, 1878, pp. 279-410.
  • Peter Fußl: The Ahamer family books . In: The Bundschuh. Series of publications by the Museum Innviertler Volkskundehaus, Vol. 2, 1999, pp. 37–49.
  • Petrus Stockinger : Saint Claudius, pray for us! On the story of a catacomb saint in Reichersberg Abbey . In: The Bundschuh. Series of publications from the Museum Innviertler Volkskundehaus , Vol. 6, 2003, pp. 29–32.

Web links

Commons : Aham  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Meindl, Genealogical Treatise, p. 285.
  2. ↑ a b www.nobility.eu
  3. ^ Stockinger, Saint Claudius, p. 29.
  4. ↑ 900 Years of the Augustinian Canons of Reichersberg, published by the Augustinian Canons of Reichersberg, Linz 1983, p. 270.
  5. ^ Stockinger, Saint Claudius, p. 30.
  6. ^ See the copies of the corresponding imperial diplomas in Meindl, Genealogische Abhandlung, pp. 382–395. From this it can be seen that the Aham always received their elevation of rank as barons and counts through the Roman-German emperor. Numerous erroneous information that can be found online in various ways (e.g. “In 1652 the family was elevated to the baron status on July 7th, 1691, Johann Ignaz was raised to the Austro-Erbland count status, the Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria on March 3rd, 1698 extended to the whole family. " or " Freiherrenstand on June 3, 1652 only for Johann Ignaz von Aham and his descendants; Herbländisch-Austrian counts on July 7, 1691 also for Johann Ignaz von Aham and his descendants; imperial counts on June 4, 1691 for Johann Joseph Franz von Aham and his descendants as lords of Neuhaus and Geinberg » ) may be due to errors.
  7. ↑ 900 years of the Augustinian Canons ' Monastery in Reichersberg, published by the Augustinian Canons' Monastery in Reichersberg, Linz 1983, p. 149. Copy of the imperial baron diploma in Meindl, Genealogical Abhandlung, pp. 382–386.
  8. ^ Meindl, Genealogische Abhandlung, p. 375. Copy of the imperial count's diploma from 1691 ibid, p. 386–391.
  9. ^ Copy of the imperial count's diploma from 1693 by Meindl, Genealogische Abhandlung, pp. 391–395.
  10. ↑ Prof. Dr. Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: "German count houses of the present: in heraldic, historical and genealogical relation", 1st volume AK, Verlag TO Weigel, Leipzig 1852, p. 5
  11. ↑ The Ruck von Tanneck (also Rugg von Tanneck) were servants of the St. Gallen monastery, their eponymous seat Tanneck was at the source of the castle in Switzerland. The family only died out in the 18th century, after which the Aham took the family coat of arms of the Ruck von Tanneck into their family coat of arms. See Kindler von Knobloch, Julius; Baden Historical Commission (Hg): Upper Baden Gender Book (Volume 3): M - R, Heidelberg, 1919 Page: 660 (accessed August 3, 2012 .