Anton von Ortenburg

Count Anton von Ortenburg, depicted on his tomb of Hans Pötzlinger in the market church of Ortenburg .

Count Anton von Ortenburg (born September 5, 1550 in Augsburg , † May 23, 1573 on the Danube between Regensburg and Kelheim ) was Imperial Court Councilor and appointed curator of the Heidenheim office in the Duchy of Württemberg . He was part of the network of high nobility , with which Elector Friedrich III. surrounded by the Palatinate in order to secure his Protestant policy.

family

Anton zu Ortenburg came from the family of the Counts of Ortenburg , who ran a small, Protestant county in what is now Lower Bavaria in a predominantly Roman Catholic environment that was dominated by the Duchy of Bavaria , with whom they lived in constant conflict. Anton was the only son of Count Joachim von Ortenburg and Countess Ursula von Fugger von Kirchberg and Weißenhorn (* April 21, 1530 , † September 7, 1570 in Neu-Ortenburg ). His father had already had an extensive humanistic education with study visits to Italian universities and took this as a model for his son's education.

education

Anton was born in the Sultzer House, part of the Fugger City Palace . At the age of five, Anton was enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt on October 28, 1555 ; it was a tradition for his family to study there. At that time, of course, he did not yet take part in teaching, but then probably from the age of eight. Together with Maximilian Fugger (1550–1588), who later became Commander of the Teutonic Order in Sterzing , he was tutored by private tutors, which also included the languages Latin and ancient Greek . On February 2, 1559, Sebastian Röttinger , who had studied at the University of Wittenberg under Philipp Melanchthon , was hired as a preceptor (teacher) for Anton. In 1560, he thought about moving to another place of study, either to Wittenberg or Basel. Wittenberg was preferred because the Saxon nobility studied there and also taught Melanchthon there. After a short stay in Augsburg with his uncle Raymund Fugger, Anton returned to Ingolstadt. Classes continued there until 1561 and then at Bourges University . On the way there he met the reformer Johannes Calvin on June 30, 1561 in Geneva . A few days later, on July 10, 1561, they met again. In May 1562 Anton and his teachers had to flee to Strasbourg before the outbreak of the Huguenot War, stayed there for a year and then returned to the court of Count Joachim von Ortenburg in Mattighofen . From 1563 the dispute between his father and Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria turned into an open military conflict. Anton and his teachers moved to the University of Tübingen . His mother's brothers from the Fugger family helped him over the financial difficulties that arose for his family as a result of the conflict with Bavaria . Ulrich Fugger financed the studies that were resumed in Tübingen from October 1564. From 1565 he began his cavalier tour and initially stayed in Paris , from where he also traveled to parts of northern France. He received lessons in French , law , dancing , fencing and horse riding . He did not return home until 1567, but then immediately made a trip to Italy , where he learned Italian and attended the universities of Padua and Siena . The country was also toured here.

Career and marriage

Initially, Anton sought a position at the Imperial Court of Justice . However, this failed due to the lack of a vacancy. For this he received a position at the Reichshofrat from the emperor and therefore went to Vienna in 1569 . Now that he was professionally established, his family began negotiations about his marriage. Finally, Countess Dorothea von Hanau-Münzenberg (* February 4, 1556 - September 5, 1638), daughter of the late Count Philipp III, was selected. from Hanau-Munzenberg . She was not only a niece of Count Palatine Friedrich III, but one of her guardians, Wilhelm der Reiche von Nassau-Dillenburg , was a close ally of the Count Palatine, especially in matters of the Reformation. The marriage was also intended to strengthen the alliance of the Ortenburg counts with one of the leading powers of the Reformation in Germany and was thus indirectly directed against Bavaria. Dorothea also had a sizeable dowry of 10,000 guilders to offer, while the Ortenburgers were short of money during this time due to their disputes with Bavaria and the effort required by Anton as Reichshofrat caused considerable costs - he had to B. have your own carriage and six horses. Before the matter became official, Anton and Dorothea were allowed to see each other at the court of the Palatinate Elector in Heidelberg in May 1570. Anton had officially traveled to the Reichstag in Speyer . The marriage took place on June 17, 1571 at Alt-Ortenburg Castle. The celebration lasted four days and cost 8,000 guilders.

Given the tight budget of the County of Ortenburg, the costly position for Anton as Reichshofrat could not be paid in the long run. His father therefore found him the position of the caretaker of the Heidenheim office. Together with his wife he traveled on the Danube from Vienna to Ulm to take up the new position.

death

Death shield of Count Anton von Ortenburg with his coat of arms

He died suddenly on May 23, 1573 on the ship between Regensburg and Kelheim . The contemporaries assumed a stroke . The Imperial Court of Justice had confirmed to his father a few days earlier that the County of Ortenburg was directly imperial , and thus granted Count Joachim, in accordance with the Augsburg Religious Peace, the right to apply the principle of Cuius regio, eius religio here and evangelical worship throughout the country - so far only had been held in the castle chapel - to be ordered. The funeral for Anton was also the first Protestant service since 1563 in the Marktkirche in Ortenburg .

Posthumously Count Anton was born on December 1, 1573, a son, Friedrich, who only survived four days.

His father, Count Joachim, leaving him 1574/75 by the sculptor Hans Pötzl Inger and Steinmetz Christoff Stiber a Renaissance - tomb built in the Market Church of Ortenburg.

literature

• Gerhild Hausmann: Anton Graf zu Ortenburg (1550–1573) - A contribution to the educational history of the Protestant nobility in the 16th century . Diss. Graz 1968.
• Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their subsidiary lines , In: Ostbairische Grenzmarken - Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte Kunst und Volkskunde , No. 36, Passau 1994, p. 9– 62.
• Martha Schad : The women of the Fugger von der Lilie family (15th – 17th centuries) Augsburg - Ortenburg - Trient . Swabian Research Foundation at the Commission for Bavarian State History, Series 4 Volume 22. Studies on Fugger History Volume 31. Tübingen 1989. ISBN 3165454787
• Walther Ludwig : The humanistic education of Count Joachim and Anton zu Ortenburg . In: Förderkreis Schloss Ortenburg (ed.): Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 years Reformation 1563–2013 . Ortenburg 2013, pp. 76-78.
• Gunter Wieland: Count Anton zu Ortenburg (1550–1573) - early end of a great hope . In: Förderkreis Schloss Ortenburg (ed.): Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 years Reformation 1563–2013 . Ortenburg 2013, pp. 96-100.