Bernhart Lachaman the Elder

Bernhart Lachaman the Elder († May 21, 1517 ) was a bell founder from Heilbronn .

Life

His year of birth and his origin are unknown. Esslingen is mentioned variously in older literature as the place of birth , but so far there is no evidence of this. Based on the known biographical data, the 1440s are estimated as the possible period of birth. He probably completed an apprenticeship with the Heilbronn bell founder Daniel Eger , who was married to Lachaman's aunt. After Eger's death in 1474, the widow Eger continued the bell foundry with Lachaman. From 1474 to 1477 the widow Eger and Lachaman were taxed together. From 1479/80 at the latest, Lachaman ran the bell foundry alone. His oldest signed bell was the Osanna bell of the Kilian Church in Heilbronn, destroyed in the air raid on December 4, 1944. The Lachaman bells still preserved include a bell from 1484 in the Church of St. Gangolf in Schlierstadt , 2 bells from 1497 and 1499 in the St. Cyriakus Church in Mückenloch, another bell from 1499 in the Evangelical Church in Beinstein , a bell from 1511 in the Georgskirche in Michelbach am Heuchelberg and a bell from 1516 in the Evangelical City Church in Eppingen .

Lachaman's fixed bell foundry was located in front of the bridge gate outside the Heilbronn city walls, where a path between today's Frankfurterstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse was known for a long time as the Glockengartengässchen . A large number of mostly identical bells were created there. According to recent research, more than 170 bells from its production can be identified. The casting of cans has also been handed down for him, but it did not take up the scope of the bell foundry. He supplied a large number of customers in the eastern Electoral Palatinate , in the south-east of Kurmainz , in the north of Württemberg , in the Margraviate of Ansbach , in the Prince Provost of Ellwangen and in Hohenlohe , in the Limpurger Land and some imperial cities, although there was no closed sales area, as some were also within Territories lying in these regions such as Würzburg, Erbach, Speyer, Baden and various parts of the Electoral Palatinate and of Württemberg apparently preferred local businesses. There were follow-up orders at numerous places where Lachaman delivered bells. Because of his business success, Lachaman was one of the most respected men in town. He lived in a house on Heilbronn market square and was a councilor from 1479 to at least 1495. His fortune was estimated at 4,000 guilders in 1514.

For 1493 and 1502 a foundry community with Heinrich Winter, called Meng, is documented, who was also a councilor from Heilbronn and lived in the Presence Street in 1486.

Lachaman was buried in the choir of Kilian's Church, where his epitaph was still in the late 18th century .

His first marriage was to Apollonia Hammer. The son Bernhart Lachaman the Younger († 1523), who continued the father's workshop, comes from this marriage . His second marriage was to Agnes Fritz. From this marriage came the sons Johannes (1491-1538), who became an important reformer of his hometown, and Jerg († 1524), who continued the business of the younger Bernhart, but died a year after this.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Ertz (Ed.): Hundert Jahre Evangelische Stadtkirche Eppingen 1879–1979 , Eppingen 1979, p. 16.
2. ↑ Norbert Jung: Forgotten bell founders , Heilbronn 2014, ISBN 978-3-934096-36-3 , p. 46/47.

literature

• Klaus Hammer and Norbert Jung: The Heilbronn bell founder Bernhart Lachaman the Elder , in: Jahrbuch für Glockenkunde , 19./20. Volume 2007/2008