Siegmund (Bavaria)

Sigismund von Bayern-München (painting by Jan Polack , oil on wood, 33 cm × 19.5 cm, around 1480)

Siegmund (also called Sigismund ; * July 26, 1439 ; † February 1, 1501 at Blutenburg Castle ) from the House of Wittelsbach was Duke of Bavaria-Munich from 1460 until his resignation in 1467 . After that he still held Dachau as his domain. As one of the first Wittelsbachers he promoted the fine arts on a large scale and thus contributed to the heyday of the late Gothic in old Bavaria .

Life

Siegmund was the third son of Duke Albrecht III in 1439 . and his wife Anna von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen . Between 1460 and 1467 he ruled the Duchy of Bavaria-Munich, together with his older brother Johann IV until his death in 1463. His father had determined that the deceased duke should be succeeded by the two oldest surviving sons. The second son of his father, Ernst, had already died on the day of his death in Straubing and was buried there in the Carmelite monastery. So it was Siegmund's turn. The affairs of government were largely taken care of by Johann. Was taken over by Albrecht III. including the learned counselor, doctor and well-known writer and translator Johannes Hartlieb .

In 1460 the two dukes issued the first known truce for Munich. The Munich truce , i.e. the area outside the city but under the jurisdiction of the city, was re-measured and marked by border pillars. In the Bavarian War of Landshut Duke Ludwig IX. The two Munich dukes did not allow themselves to be involved, despite an alliance concluded with Ludwig on December 5, 1461. Instead, they pushed for peace from June 1462. Siegmund also took action against unsuitable officials. Like his father, Siegmund was more fond of the arts and religion than hard politics. In 1465 his younger brother Albrecht IV defied him from co-rule.

In September 1467 he withdrew from the government in favor of Albrecht IV and only kept Bavaria-Dachau as a domain, which fell back to Bavaria-Munich after his death. Due to ongoing financial mismanagement, Siegmund had been asked by his brother and the estates to renounce his regency and the duke was already tired of governing. The relationship with Albrecht remained largely relaxed in the period that followed. When her younger brothers Christoph and Wolfgang called for co-government, Albrecht found support from Siegmund.

Siegmund continued to sponsor churches and monasteries and in 1468 laid the foundation stone for the new building of the Munich Frauenkirche in the Gothic style on the site of a previous Romanesque building . The art-loving duke had his residence, Blutenburg Castle, expanded, the Old Court in Munich embellished and kept peacocks and other birds. The painters Jan Polack and Gabriel Mälesskircher as well as the builder Jörg von Halspach and the sculptor Erasmus Grasser were among the outstanding artists of his time .

Siegmund died on February 1, 1501 and was buried in the grave of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria in the newly built Frauenkirche. He was never married after the planned wedding with Margarete von Brandenburg in 1456 had failed due to the high demands of the Wittelsbachers for dowry. Siegmund later lived with the middle-class Margarete Pfättendorfer and formed a partnership with her, from which two sons, Hans and Sigismund, emerged. He left a total of four illegitimate children, but only these two were from Margarete.

literature

• Helga Czerny: The death of the Bavarian dukes in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period 1347–1579. Preparations - dying - funeral ceremonies - burial - memoria (=  series of publications on Bavarian national history . Volume 146 ). CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-10742-7 , p. 227–231 (also dissertation, University of Munich 2004).
• Christof Paulus: fields of power. Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria (1447 / 1465–1508) between dynasty, territory and empire (=  research on the imperial and papal history of the Middle Ages . Volume 39 ). Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-50138-9 .
• Sigmund von Riezler:  Sigmund, Duke of Baiern-Munich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 282-284.
• Andrea Rueth: Duke Sigmund . In: Jürgen Wurst, Alexander Langheiter (ed.): Monachia by Carl Theodor von Piloty in the Munich town hall . Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-88645-156-9 , p. 121 .
• Joachim Wild :  Sigmund. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 361 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Sigismund von Bayern-Munich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Joachim Wild:  Sigmund. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 361 f. ( Digitized version ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Albrecht III.	Duke of Bavaria-Munich 1460–1467	Albrecht IV.
newly created	Duke of Bavaria-Dachau 1467–1501	reunited with Bayern-Munich