Bartholomäus Wernigk

Bartholomäus Wernigk (* around 1611 in Rieschweiler ; † January 9, 1686 in Meisenheim ) was president of the Upper Palatinate Consistory .

Life

Bartholomäus Wernigk, the son of the land clerk Jost Wernigk, was born in Rieschweiler around 1611. He came from a family that has provided Protestant pastors in the Palatinate for several generations since the Reformation. Wernigk is mentioned for the first time in the service of the Zweibrücker Hof in 1634 - two years earlier, the town and country had been besieged, looted and devastated by Croatian troops under the leadership of the imperial general Matthias Gallas . While the rural areas were largely deserted afterwards, at least some life had been preserved in the urban area. In Zweibrücken, Bartholomäus Wernigk was listed in the Reformed baptismal register as a "Rechen-Cammerscribent" - a kind of secretary for accounting, correspondence and file management. Almost three and a half years later he was bailiff in Meisenheim ; as the deputy of Duke Friedrich I, he kept this position for eight years. He stayed in Meisenheim until the end of the great war in 1648, where, as the sources say, he had a "very pleasant vocation" - that is, he was in high regard. Perhaps that is why he and his wife Anna Catharina nee de Communy, a Swiss woman, are listed as godfathers for 28 baptisms.

When, in 1649, the year after the Peace of Westphalia , Duke Friedrich I was able to feel more secure in his throne, the senior officials faced new tasks. Wernigk, who had held the flag of the duchy high in times of war and "done a lot of dangerous and acidic rides for the best of the country and at his own expense, and suffered great damage to horses and other things as a result", let his employer relent on the move Move Zweibrücken. In gratitude for this he received the village of Bickenaschbach, which was destroyed in the war and still deserted, which he had restored and expanded into a flourishing homestead, but which in the following years was repeatedly reduced to rubble by marauding soldiers.

In 1661 Friedrich Ludwig ascended the ducal throne of Zweibrücken and confirmed Bartholomäus Wernigk in his functions as “princely councilor and cantzleysecretarius”. In the relevant document, his duties, rights, salary claims, "consumption" expenses and the terms of termination are precisely regulated. Wernigk was entitled to 150 guilders and a further 15 guilders housing allowance, as well as two Malter Weizen, six Malter Korn (= rye), three Malter oats, one Malter Obst, a load of wine - which is the Zweibrücker measure, also venison and Fish. For his "domestic use", all natural products had to be delivered to him in the forced labor, so to speak "free home". Step by step he acquired land in the city - in 1655 a garden in the suburbs and a meadow in the Bubenhauser “cherry garden”, in 1657 another garden “located at the lower gate towards Ernstweiler” and a meadow behind the monastery. He sold his dwelling in Rittergasse in 1656 after finding a new domicile on Schlossplatz. The city council met there from time to time because the actual town hall was destroyed in the war.

Wernigk also appeared as a financier; When the construction of the Zweibrücker grammar school was being negotiated in 1655 , he advanced a further 24 Reichstaler after he had already taken over the salary of the professors as a loan from his own box. He supported the duke with economic problems by buying up old promissory notes. In 1665, for example, he repaid a bill of exchange for 2000 guilders, which Count Palatine Johannes had signed with Isaac Jacob Zorn von Plobsheim in 1577 and whose family was still waiting a century later for the debt to be repaid - Wernigk made sure that the Zweibrücken ruling house at least some of them this legacy has been disposed of. Admittedly, the outstanding amounts at that time totaled 1.7 million guilders, so that Wernigk's obolus was at best a drop in the ocean.

In the second half of the 17th century, the war expeditions of Duke Charles IV of Lorraine kept the Zweibrücker Land excited. For example, he kept the fortifications in Homburg and Landstuhl occupied in order to repeatedly set off to raids. The military conflicts, into which France and the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation were now drawn, continued; Zweibrücken was the scene of battles again and again in 1676/77, and on February 10, 1677 in particular, the city was once again reduced to rubble.

Bartholomäus Wernigk, now already 70 years old and meanwhile also President of the Zweibrücken Senior Consistory, was supposed to negotiate to ensure that the city was not too involved in the war. He seems to have succeeded in doing so on one of his last missions, securing Kirkel Castle. When French troops approached in 1681 to conquer the “Reichsfeste”, it was thanks to his negotiating skills that an attack did not take place.

Bartholomäus Wernigk, whose life was continuously determined by wars, died on January 9, 1686 “at the age of 75 years and 6 months with good sense in prayers”. Two days later he was buried in the castle church in Meisenheim - he and his wife found their final resting place not far from the grave of Duke Wolfgang.

His son Friedrich Bartolomäus, born in Zweibrücken in 1657, followed in his footsteps. The doctor of law, whose legal treatise from 1679 also appeared in print, was now making a career when Palatinate-Zweibrücken began to consolidate under Swedish rule. In 1709 he was raised to the hereditary nobility and imperial knighthood by Emperor Joseph II as " Wernigk von St. Ingbrecht ". In addition to buildings in the city and the Bickenaschbacherhof, he was also the owner of the Schönhof, from which the Dingler works would later emerge. His children also held top positions at the court again - one of his sons, for example, was ambassador at the Prussian court in Zweibrück.

Not much of the visible evidence of this influential family has survived to this day - the baroque tombstone of Anna Margaretha Wernigk is embedded in the Protestant church in Mimbach; she was the wife of Johann Christian Wernigk. The grandson of the Zweibrück court official had become a pastor again, like many of his ancestors. The rectory in Mimbach, built around 1700, reminds of the family with an inscription above the former entrance door.

literature

• Martin Baus: Advisor in difficult times. The life of Bartolomäus Wernigk (1611–1686) was determined by wars. He had great influence at the ducal court. In: Pfälzischer Merkur from August 9, 2013.
• Kurt Stuck: Administrative staff in the Duchy of Zweibrücken , Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1993, p. 68.
• Ferdinand Wernigk (Ed.): Die Stadt Meisenheim , Meisenheim 1914, p. 32 f.