Old Limpurg
The aristocratic inheritance of the Alten Limpurg family is a patrician society of former patrician families in Frankfurt am Main , which dates back to the establishment in 1357 as the Zum Römer room association and which still exists today as a legal entity . Until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, it represented the interests of its members in the council of the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt as a noble inheritance . Until the reform of the council constitution after the Fettmilch Uprising in 1613, the members of the Alten Limpurg Society made up the majority of the 42-member council, after which a maximum of 14 councilors were allowed to be Limpurgers.
Today the family association is dedicated to cultural tasks, especially to the foundation system . The society includes the von Humbracht and von Glauburgsche Foundation , the Cronstett and Hynspergian Evangelical Foundation in Frankfurt am Main and the Schadsche Foundation .
Members
Most of the old Frankfurt families (122 in number according to the society's coat of arms book of 1558, which at that time had partly already expired in the male line) had come together at Alten-Limpurg and since 1497 at the latest only accepted a person if they came directly from their ranks or had joined one of the families through marriage and also provided evidence, as it was specified in 1585, “that he, also his father and mother, likewise his grandfather and grandmother, targeted, received and received in the marriage of noble people Born, he too, his father, mother, grandfather and grandmother did not do any trade, nor had any common groceries, and sat in the same grocery store in the open shop, also there balanced with the small weight and measured with the cubits, but such persons, all and each, either their honest pensions and income or handsome, stately handling or distinguished offices and commands s I was honestly nourished, I came here with good rumors and all my life I would have honestly, behaved as an honorable person, kept their life and life praiseworthy, respectable and well ”.
As a result, families who had made their fortune in trade or handicrafts had no chance of social recognition or promotion to political offices and dignity among the Alten-Limpurgern. At best, the wholesale trade was considered appropriate. Since the Reformation, most of the patrician families no longer carried on trade, but lived exclusively on property and its rents.
Alten-Limpurg was by far the most powerful of the patrician associations even before the Zum Frauenstein Society , which provided the majority of councilors until the 17th century. The gradual decline in the influence of the Limpurger was not least due to the rigid demarcation of the Limpurger, which prevented a refreshment of blood, led to the decline in membership with increasing marriage and in this way significantly narrowed their scope, while the Frauensteiner also new citizens, for example Reformed refugees from France and the Netherlands.
The fundamental problem was the extinction of entire families in the male line over time, because membership in the female line could not be inherited. This thinning meant a potential loss of power, because it was a matter of filling the right positions in the council.
Political influence
The companies Alten-Limpurg and Zum Frauenstein had a majority in the city council until the reform of the council constitution after the Fettmilch uprising . The civil contract of December 24, 1612, however, stipulated that, among the 42 councilors, only 14 Limpurgers were to sit on the council at the same time, and that (as was determined 100 years later) they were not allowed to be related or related by marriage. The Frauensteiners and the law graduates were to be given special consideration. This provision restricted the Limpurgers, who were related to one another, in such a way that in the 18th century they could no longer occupy the 14 seats that had been promised to them, while on the other hand the customary law of the Frauensteiners emerged in the following decades, always represented by 6 members in the council to be. This resulted in a kind of parity between Limpurgers and Frauensteiners in the city regiment.
Society's meeting places
As the original name of Zum Römer suggests, the company's historic meeting place was the Haus zum Römer , after which the Römerzeile with its five houses is named. When this building was to be converted into the town hall in 1405, the company had to leave it and found its new domicile south of the Römerzeile, separated from it by the then so-called Alhardis-Gasse (later Limpurger Gasse ), in the Limpurg house, which was called that because there the woolen weavers from Limburg an der Lahn maintained their warehouse. The company changed its name and was now called Auf Limpurg .
The company had to move two more times. First, in 1486, she took over the Löwenstein house, which is adjacent to the Römer to the north, from the room society of the same name, which had been dissolved. In 1495 it acquired the other, southern neighbor house of the Roman from the company Zum Laderam , which had also been liquidated and was once owned by Hartrad . With the approval of the council, she transferred her name to this house, which still causes a bit of confusion today, as there was the original Limpurg house (on Alhardis-Gasse south across the street, called Little Limburg until its demise in 1944 ) and that of it Separated by the alley, the new Limpurg house now of the same name. In this deed of purchase the company is called Alte Lympurger , and that is how it is called Alten-Limpurg to this day.
The city of Frankfurt acquired the Alt-Limpurg building in 1878, together with the Silberberg behind it, for 24,000 marks and added it to the town hall complex. The wine bar of the Frankfurt winery is on the ground floor, the Limpurg Hall on the first floor, the seat of the city council from 1867 to 1919.
Similar societies
In many other European cities there are similar, patrician political societies, such as the Seven Noble Houses of Brussels , the Tribes of Galway , the Paraiges of Metz , the Estendes of Verdun or the Twelve Dishes of Soria .
Web links
literature
- Franz Lerner: The Frankfurt patrician society Alten-Limpurg and its foundations. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1952.
- Hans Körner: Frankfurt patrician. Historical-genealogical handbook of the noble inheritance of the Alten-Limpurg house in Frankfurt am Main. Vögel, Munich 1971.
- Frankfurt Historical Commission (ed.): Frankfurt am Main - The history of the city in nine contributions. (= Publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XVII ). Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1991, ISBN 3-7995-4158-6 .
- Alain van Dievoet: Lignages de Bruxelles et d'ailleurs. In: Les lignages de Bruxelles. = De Brusselse slaughtered. n ° 166, 2010, ISSN 2032-779X , pp. 363-371 (about Alten Limpurg , French).