Albert Benningk

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Benningk's 48 pounder for the States General (1669), copper engraving by Abraham Blooteling after a drawing by Adriaen van de Velde (1671)

Albert Benningk , also Albrecht Benningk or Albert Benninck , (* before August 12, 1637 (baptized) in Hamburg ; † shortly before May 21, 1695 in Copenhagen ) was a German gun and bell founder . From his main place of work in Lübeck , he exported his products to the Netherlands, Denmark, Brandenburg and Russia.

Life

Lübeck casting house (photo from before 1886), Benningk's place of work from 1665 to 1686

Benningk came from a family of working in Luebeck and Hamburg founders whose kinship to Danziger is not fully understood caster family of the same name. It is assumed that the Hamburg foundryman Hermann Benningk (senior), who can be verified from 1647 to 1668, was his father, who in turn descended from Matthias (Ratsgießer 1561; † 1608) and Reinhard (Reinhold) († 1617) Benningk, who worked in Lübeck . His younger brother Hermann Benningk (junior, baptized on May 15, 1640; † in November 1679) succeeded his father as Hamburg council founder. From October 3, 1665, Albert Benningk is attested to succeeding Nikolaus Wiese as council founder in Lübeck. In 1686 he left Lübeck without completely giving up his foundry here and probably went to Copenhagen. In August 1692 he received a contract to take over the foundry house in Copenhagen from the Danish king and worked here for another three years. His body was transferred to Lübeck in 1695 and buried in the Petrikirche .

He was married twice, first from 1671 to her death with Sophie Helms and from 1688 with Elisabeth Balcke († 1739).

plant

Benningk is considered to be "one of the most excellent masters of his trade in the 17th century." His work is characterized by "sharp casting, excellent proportions, stylish decoration and careful chasing " ( Wendelin Boeheim ). His orders were so numerous that he had a second casting furnace installed in the Lübeck casting house.

Guns

Magnificent gun from 1669 in the Vienna Army Museum, drawing from 1884
Drawing of a magnificent Brandenburg gun cast (not preserved?) In 1691
Armory Delft, today Koninklijk Nederlands Legermuseum (Army Museum)
Tøjhusmuseet in Copenhagen

Of particular importance in Benningk's work was an order for 157 guns from the Dutch States General , which he produced and delivered from 1665. As a thank you for the punctual payment, Benningk poured two particularly artistically decorated cardholes as gifts for his clients in 1669 . The magnificent guns have a caliber of 18.8 cm and a length of 3.41 meters (18 caliber lengths) and were therefore designed for projectiles of 48 Nuremberg pounds (48 pounders) . The head is decorated with acanthus leaves in the manner of a Corinthian capital , the front piece shows in rich relief, between trophies and genii, the images of Mercury , Mars and Neptune , then the coats of arms and names of the heads of the guns of the States General Johann Eleman and Gerard Hasselaer; in the middle the representation of a sea battle, in which the foremost ships are marked by heraldic symbols as a Dutch, a Turkish and a French ship. On the rear piece the Dutch coat of arms with the motto: “ Vigilate deo confidentes ” (German: “Be vigilant, trusting in God”), on the rear visor the foundry inscription; the floor is adorned with rich trophies and the coat of arms of the Netherlands, the grape forms a closed visor helmet.

During the coalition wars, this pair of guns was first brought from the Delft arsenal to Paris as war booty in 1810 on the orders of Napoleon I and placed in front of the Invalides Cathedral; After the Allies moved into Paris on March 31, 1814, one came to the Army Museum, now the Army History Museum , in Vienna , where it is still on display today. The other came to Berlin in the armory , where it was described as a special ornament of the Prussian armory. After 1945 it was considered a loss in the Second World War and is recorded as such in the Lost Art database of the Coordination Office for the Loss of Cultural Property . However, it is now held as looted art in the Russian Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg .

In 1679 he worked for Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg and cast two bronze half cartoons (24 pounders), Pluto and Pallas-Athene . Pluto is not preserved from this pair . In the 19th century, Pallas-Athene was considered to be the oldest gun in Brandenburg-Prussia still ready to fire and was stationed in Gdansk at the time before it came into the collection of the Berlin armory. Today it will be shown (again) in the inner courtyard of the Berlin armory. The gun barrel is adorned with the Brandenburg coat of arms and the bust of the Great Elector. It is 3.94 m long with a wall thickness of 12 cm and a weight of around 3.216 t. The splendid artillery guns, designed with special effort, were never intended for artillery use in the field; rather, they served exclusively the representational needs of their clients, who used these guns on appropriate occasions to shoot gun salutes.

  • Pallas-Athene (1679)

  • Detail Albert Benningk mi fecit Lvbeck

  • Detail coat of arms of the Electorate of Brandenburg

  • Detail Pallas-Athene

In 1691 he delivered a 200-pound hanging mortar that weighed 103 quintals to Brandenburg. Like a 300 pounder delivered by Benningk in 1678, it was later melted down.

In 1687 he cast several twelve-pounders for King Christian V in Copenhagen, which became part of the Royal Arms Collection, today in the artillery exhibition in the Tøjhusmuseet arsenal .

  • Cannon from 1687 in Tøjhusmuseet

  • Detail with portrait of Christian V. Pietate et Justitia Ao 1687

  • Detail Albert Benningk me fecit

Bells

The broken bells of St. Mary's; on the right the pulse bell cast by Albert Benningk in 1669

1669 must be considered Benningk's most productive and best year. In addition to the ostentatious artillery, he cast his largest and most beautiful bell, the St. Mary's pulse bell. This was the fifth pulse bell in the history of the Church. Its predecessor from 1659 had become unusable after just a few years. Benningk cast them from mostly new metal. Below a wreath made of stylized standing foliage, three strips with rosettes framed the following double-row inscription on the bell neck:

HONOR TO GOD ALONE - ANNO 1668. LIKE H. MATTHAEUS RODDE . CASTLE MASTER. H . HERMANN VON LENGERKEN . ADVISER. HIERONIMUS PRUNSTERER
AND THOMAS PLONNIES, BURGERS. OF THE CHURCHES OF ST. MARIEN VOORSTEHERE WEREEN. GOT ME BY GOD'S ASSISTANCE. ALBERT BENNINGK. IN LÜBECK:

The part of the surface that is closest to the inscription is covered with lace-like openwork tendrils, which ends in a jagged shape at the bottom; between the spikes are the words LEICHTER DESPATCH to the southwest . AS MADE . On the south side, the central field bears the 58 cm high flat relief image of the Mother of God with child and scepter standing in a glory of rays on the moon and crowned by two angels; on the north side are the coats of arms of the above-mentioned four rulers, two next to each other, between the words DA PACEM DOMINE - IN DIEBUS NOSTRIS (Latin: Give peace, Lord in our days ). The brass knuckles, which are demarcated by a triple hoop framed by stylized foliage, shows the writing strip:

TO THE Sermon. TO BED. I ALSO SPEAK TO THE
CORPSE - WAR. FIRE ME ON. GEB FRIED. VND SIGN OF JOY -
GIVE IESU THAT IN FRIED VND FREUD I STILL SOUND -
TURN AWAY FROM THIS CITY. PEST. FIRE, RAID:

Below this inscription is a strip of foliage framed by two hoops with small putti making music. The bell bears the year 1668 - calculated according to the old Easter style; after that, Easter fell on April 11, 1669; According to the church accounts, the casting took place on April 2nd - according to the current calendar 1669. The bell rang from the 1st Advent 1669 until the night of Palm Sunday 1942 - for 273 years. That night the church burned down during the great air raid on Lübeck ; It is reported that the bells rang again due to the strong draft, until they fell and smashed on the ground. The remains of the pulse bell were left at the point of impact as part of the memorial.

The evening bell in Lübeck's Aegidien Church from 1662 replaced its predecessor, which had broken in 1661. The architectural and art monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck in the third volume give a detailed description of the bell with inscriptions and decorations .

The bell cast by Albert Benningk in 1672 for St. Menas (Mina) Church in Staraya Russa also made history in the 20th century. During the Second World War it was confiscated by soldiers of the 30th Infantry Division of the German Wehrmacht from Lübeck and sent to Lübeck during the Second World War because of the inscribed reference to Lübeck as the place of its origin . The Hanseatic city returned the looted art to Staraya Russa in 2001. During the war, the bell was placed in a corner of the Katharinenkirche and was then forgotten until the question about its whereabouts. It was not used in Lübeck.

Overview of the bells cast by Albert Benningk
year place Surname Weight in kg Diameter in mm Nominal comment
1669 Marienkirche (Lübeck) Pulse bell 7134 2260 f 0 Destroyed in 1942
1670 Ratzeburg Cathedral (2 bells) In 1893 the cathedral melted and crashed; melted down for a new bell
1672 St. Menas (Mina) ( Staraja Russa ) 100 from 1942 to 2001 as looted art in Lübeck
1673 St. Lorenz (Travemünde) f 1
1681 St. Georg on the mountain (Ratzeburg) Death bell 870 1140 f sharp 1
1681 Demern village church (municipality of Königsfeld (Mecklenburg) ) Little bell Cast in 1905
1681 Fleninge on Gotland
1682 St. Aegidien (Lübeck) Evening or small sermonis bell 1864 1399 dis 1 -8
1687 St. Sophia Cathedral ( Vologda )
1688 Sarau Church
1693 Rudkøbing Church

He may also be assigned bells in the Carlow village church (1681) and in the Herrnburg village church (1690).

literature

Web links

Commons : Albert Benningk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to Danish archive documents, see Otto Blom: Danske Stykkostøboro og Stykkostøborier for Metalskyts. In: Historisk tidsskrift. 4 (1883-84), pp. 375-438, here p. 391.
  2. ^ A b Albrecht Freiherr von Reitzenstein:  Benningk, Albert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 52 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ after Otto Blom: Danske Stykkostøboro og Stykkostøborier for Metalskyts. In: Historisk tidsskrift 4 (1883–84). Pp. 375-438; According to other sources, his wife reported him to the Lübeck City Council on August 20, 1690 as deceased, according to Boeheim (lit.), p. 14, according to the findings of Theodor Hach .
  4. ^ Wilhelm Erben, Wilhelm John (Ed.): Catalog of the KuK Heeresmuseum. 4th edition. Vienna 1903, p. 442.
  5. ^ Lost Art Internet Database - Institution Loss . Lostart.de. August 13, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2010.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.lostart.de
  6. ^ Russian Artillery Museum ( Memento of November 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 1, 2010.
  7. ^ A b Louis von Malinowsky, Robert von Bonin : History of the Brandenburg-Prussian Artillery. Volume 2, Berlin 1841, p. 6.
  8. ^ German Historical Museum Berlin . Dhm.de. Archived from the original on November 1, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2010.
  9. ↑ Description based on Gustav Schaumann, Friedrich Bruns (editor): The architectural and art monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck. Edited by the building deputation. Volume 2, part 2: The Marienkirche. Nöhring, Lübeck 1906, p. 432 f.
  10. ↑ Johannes Baltzer , Friedrich Bruns: The architectural and art monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck. Issued by the building authorities. Volume III: Church of Old Lübeck. Dom. Jakobikirche. Aegidia Church . Verlag von Bernhard Nöhring, Lübeck 1920, pp. 540-541. Unchanged reprint 2001: ISBN 3-89557-167-9
  11. ↑ Holger Walter: The bell of Staraja Russa. In: Spoils of War. 8, 2003, p. 105 f., Lostart.de ( Memento from March 16, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF 2.12 MB).
  12. ↑ Lübeck returns Russian bell. In: The world . February 3, 2001 ( welt.de ).
  13. ^ Website of the parish , accessed April 1, 2010.
  14. ^ After Richard Haupt: The buildings and art monuments of the province of Schleswig-Holstein. Volume 2, Kiel 1888, p. 368.
  15. ^ Theodor Hach: Lübeck bell customer. Max Schmidt, Lübeck 1913, p. 239.
predecessor Office successor
Nicholas Meadow Lübeck council founder
1665–1695 		Peter Christoph Geier
personal data
SURNAME Benningk, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Benningk, Albrecht; Benninck, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gun and bell founder
DATE OF BIRTH around August 12, 1637
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 1695
Place of death Copenhagen