Bernhard Mazillis

Bernhard Mazillis (born November 14, 1716 in Neuburg an der Donau ; † December 24, 1768 there ) was a merchant , member of the shopkeeper's guild and patron .

Life

The Mazillis family came from Welschland , their father's name was Nikolaus and lived in a village in the Carnic Alps before he moved to Neuburg an der Donau with his wife Anna Margaretha, a widowed Morach, and opened a shop for cut goods, silk and scarves there . Bernhard Mazillis was born there; from his mother's first marriage he had an older stepbrother, Michael Ignaz Morach.

Mazillis attended the Neuburg Gymnasium from 1730 to 1735, which was followed by a one-year course in philosophy at the Neuburg Lyceum. He then found a job as secretary with the princely government . He then worked in the retail trade to take over his father's business in 1757. In the same year he was accepted into the grocer's guild.

Since there was no public elementary school in Neuburg at the time, only expensive private lessons, the establishment of such a school was close to his heart. When he died of dropsy on Christmas 1768 at the age of 52, unmarried and with no offspring , he left most of his considerable fortune to the poor in his hometown.

The parish of the Holy Spirit received a thousand guilders for a "decent regalia " as well as another 900 guilders for the construction of two altars and 500 guilders for "a decent holy grave" . What was left at the funeral feast was to be used for a way of the cross . Almost 4,000 guilders were earmarked in his will for the other churches in Neuburg and for the churches in Bittenbrunn , Mauern , Straß , Wagenhofen , Maria im Gnadenfeld (Kahlhof) and Bergen .

He was buried on December 26, 1768 in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Neuburg, as requested, “first of all at the cemetery door on the wall” . The grave slab on the southern door of the church has been preserved.

Foundation, endowment

The house where Bernhard Mazillis was born at Luitpoldstrasse 62

His special care was given to the orphans and the poor, as well as the pilgrims passing through. He called them the main heirs. Mazillis used 40,000 guilders as a foundation . He attached great importance to a German school (elementary school) in the lower city parish, meaning the Holy Spirit. Another 4,000 guilders were used to pay a teacher.

City pastor and dean Wolfgang Joseph Holl from the parish of the Holy Spirit and the city magistrate were the appointed administrators. Elector Karl Theodor was the godfather as patron and patron. In today's Mazillisstraße, a few houses were bought and immediately demolished. In their place a solid school and orphanage with a house chapel and a spacious house garden has been built. The foundation stone was laid by the dean and pastor Joseph Holl on May 16, 1770 in a solemn blessing. On November 8, 1771, the ceremony with the consecration and handover of the school took place. The orphanage is also housed in these two buildings. It did not prosper as well as the school and many complaints about internal administration have been loud. The usefulness of this house has been questioned. The orphanage only existed for 30 years and was closed again in 1802. Likewise, the pilgrim house soon had the file note “out of use”.

Mazillis School

Memorial plaque on the birthplace

The school had a good reputation and in 1784 three teachers taught there. With the introduction of compulsory schooling in 1802, the school conditions had to be changed. The Mazillis School was now a school for boys only. The orphanage was included as a boys' school. In 1901 there was another change. Now the students of the “Royal Agricultural Winter School” (farmer's sons) went there.

After the Second World War, schools were bursting at the seams with the influx of people who had been displaced. The Mazillis School got its original function as a primary school again. In 1962 the building had to be supported with beams. Two years later it was canceled.

Honor

With the street name "Mazillisstraße" a memorial was erected to the founder. The special school on Monheimer Strasse was named Bernhard Mazillis School. There is a memorial plaque on the front of the building at the house where he was born in Luitpoldstrasse, it reads: Neuburg owes the orphan's foundation to his noble sense. In earlier times the following inscription was affixed there, also on a stone plaque: Your walk has always been simple and bourgeois, oh brave Mazillis, - but a prince in goodwill - you have earned the crown!

literature

• Historic Heimatverein Neuburg (Ed.): Neuburger Kollektaneenblatt. No. 2 1836, pp. 5-8, 12-16, 23-24, 40, 52-56, 89-95.
• A. Horn, W. Meyer: The art monuments of the city and district of Neuburg on the Danube. Commission publisher R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1958, pp. 118, 288.

Web links

• Franz Xav. Proebst (Hrsg.): Commemorative book of the Neuburg student festival of 25-26-27 September 1864, connected with the second secular celebration of the educational institution for students in Neuburg an der Donau. Verlag Prechter, 1864, pp. 17-18.