Bärenfels (noble family)

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Coat of arms of the von Bärenfels in the Zurich coat of arms roll (approx. 1340)
Coat of arms of the von Bärenfels in Basel

Bärenfels (also Baerenfels ) is the name of two noble families . One, the knightly Basel family attested from the end of the 13th century , held the mayor's office in Kleinbasel for several generations . In the 14th and 15th centuries, members of the von Bärenfels were represented on the Basel Council several times. The opposite sex comes from Mecklenburg and was raised to the imperial nobility in 1709 under the name "Baerenfels von Warnow" and carries the name "von Baerenfels-Warnow" without objection .

Bear Rock

The ancestors of the Bärenfelser were the Hachbergian bailiffs , who resided in the Wiesental in the Brombach moated castle. Around 1300 they built another castle near their Steineck castle near Wehr , which they named Bärenfels . Werner, Vogt von Brombach, was mayor of Kleinbasel around 1290 . At that time, this office in the lesser town was firmly in the hands of the bailiffs from the Wiesental and the Bärenfelsern that emerged from them. Johann, Vogt von Brombach, was the first to name himself after Bärenfels Castle. He first appeared as Johann von Bärenfels in 1299, and around 1305 he held the office of mayor in Kleinbasel. In 1309 there was a dispute over the successor to the Basel Bishop Otto von Grandson, who died on the trip to Avignon . During this time, the reign of the diocese of Basel lay with Johann I von Bärenfels. Through his marriage to Margarita von Hertenberg , he came into the inner circle of Basel's urban nobility. John I of Baerenfels died around the year 1314. In the 14th century the name "Bear Rock" also went to the earlier Aesch castle called Burg Baerenfels in Duggingen about.

Outline of coat of arms for Adelberg III. von Bärenfels by Hans Baldung Grien (around 1526)

Konrad von Bärenfels (* around 1305, † before March 19, 1373) was the first of the Basel family to become mayor. In 1377 the Bishop of Basel granted Konrad's sons Lütold and Arnold von Bärenfels (* before 1371, † February 20, 1414) the gift of gift as an inheritance. Konrad's son Lütold von Bärenfels was mayor in 1380, and from 1379 to 1386 he was the Austrian bailiff in Basel. He fell in the battle of Sempach in 1386 . Knight Arnold von Bärenfels († 1414) was mayor of Basel from 1394–1408, 1411 and 1413. From 1457–1494, Arnold III's son, Johannes von Bärenfels (* before 1451, † shortly before June 18, 1495), held the office of mayor of Basel.

Adelberg III. von Bärenfels, painted in 1526 by Hans Baldung Grien
Coat of arms of the von Bärenfels in Sebastian Munster's " Cosmographia "

Christian Wurstisen noted a total of nine Bärenfels knights in his "Bassler Chronick" in 1580, including five mayors in the 14th and 15th centuries and the Bärenfels brothers and cousins who died on the Habsburg side near Sempach in 1386 .

After 1300 the Lords of Bärenfels bought parts of Arisdorf , in 1446 it belonged entirely to them. In 1532 Adelberg III sold von Bärenfels the rule Arisdorf with the villages Ober-, Mittel- and Unter-Arisdorf to the city of Basel. A coat of arms on a console in the sacrament house of the Church of St. Leodegar in Grenzach-Wyhlen from 1494 commemorates the marriage between Adelberg III. von Bärenfels and Ursula von und zu Schönau .

In the 17th century, the Bärenfels family split into a Hegenheim and a Grenzach line. Ernst Friedrich von Bärenfels (around 1687), episcopal Meier in Biel , belonged to the Grenzach line . This line expired in 1779 in the male line , the Hegenheim line in 1835. Friedrich II. Von Bärenfels (* 1674, † 1737) had sold his rule Grenzach in 1735 to Margrave Karl August von Baden (* 1712; † 1786).

Hegenheim Castle was the headquarters of the Hegenheim line. Friederike Auguste Sophie von Anhalt-Bernburg (* 1744; † 1827), wife of Prince Friedrich August von Anhalt-Zerbst (* 1734; † 1793), brother of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great (* 1729; † 1796), came in 1764 to Basel and stayed in the city until 1793. Susanna von Bärenfels (* 1750, † 1837) from the Hegenheim line became her lady-in-waiting, her sister was Friederike Wilhelmine von Bärenfels († 1846), wife of pastor Hans Rudolf Thurneysen, the brother was Johann Ludwig von Bärenfels, the court marshal of the princess of Anhalt-Zerbst. Since he died childless, he was the last man in the Basel Bärenfels family.

In his “New Prussian Adels Lexicon” in 1839, Zedlitz stated in his information about the Lords of Bärenfels: “An ancient noble family in Switzerland, whose parent company of the same name on the Birs , not far from Grellingen in the canton of Basel, has long since gone out. Werner v. B. with several of his family at Sempach in 1386 against Austria. Knight Johann v. B. was field captain of the Basler before Clicourt around the year 1474 and Ernst Friedrich v. B. became episcopal Baselscher Meyer or Major over Biel in 1646. The family owns the gift office of the former diocese of Basel (hence also called Schenk v. B.), and has given the city of Basel six mayors. Perhaps the v. B. in the Prussian states. "Apparently, with the sex" v. B. in the Prussian states “those from Mecklenburg meant von Baerenfels. The ennobled progenitor, however, was a born Baeren and only received the name Baerenfels when he was raised to the nobility. The Basler von Bärenfels had not fallen "against Austria", but on the Austrian side.

Zedlitz also mentions "the Lords of Bärenstein": "An old noble family, which was of the same tribe as von Bärenfels (alias de Bärenfels) and built the castles Bärenfels , Bärenstein , Bärenburg and Bärenclause in Meissen , and from there to Silesia , Bohemia and Moravia are said to have spread. "

coat of arms

The coat of arms shows an erect black bear on a red three-mountain on a gold background; on the helmet with black and silver covers , on the outside sprinkled with golden linden leaves, a silver ostrich feather bush.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bärenfels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Gian-Marcel Clémence: von Bärenfels. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . January 15, 2002 , accessed June 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume I, Volume 53 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag Limburg / Lahn 1972, p. 181
  3. ↑ Martin Illi: von Hertenberg. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . August 30, 2006 , accessed June 25, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Old Basel: Mayor Konrad von Bärenfels
  5. ^ Mario Sabatino: Konrad von Bärenfels. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . June 24, 2014 , accessed June 25, 2019 .
  6. ^ Mario Sabatino: Arnold von Bärenfels. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . January 15, 2002 , accessed June 25, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Veronika Feller-Vest: Johannes von Bärenfels. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . January 15, 2002 , accessed June 25, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b c d Markus Kutter, Between Jura, Vosges and Black Forest: 12. Old Basler Family
  9. ↑ Daniel Bruckner , attempt to describe historical and natural peculiarities of the Basel landscape, volume 20: Historical peculiarities of the villages Arisdorf, Herrsberg, Olsberg, Wintersingen, Nußhof, Buus and Meisprach, Verlag Emanuel Thurneysen, Basel 1761
  10. ^ Canton of Basel-Landschaft: Arisdorf: history, coat of arms
  11. ^ Johannes Helm: Churches and chapels in Markgräflerland , Müllheim / Baden 1989, ISBN 3-921709-16-4 , pp. 107-108
  12. ^ A b Leopold von Zedlitz-Neukirch , New Prussian Adels Lexicon , Volume 5, Leipzig 1839, p. 19
  13. ^ In WR Staehelin's “Wappenbuch der Stadt Basel”, Part 2 (1917) and Puskian's “The Heroes of Sempach” (1886) only with black and gold covers
  14. ↑ In the “Wappenbuch der Stadt Basel” (1917) with black ostrich feathers, in Puskian's “The Heroes of Sempach” (1886) with black and gold plume
  15. ↑ Coat of arms of the von Bärenfels family, Basel