Burchard dissolving can

Burchard Lösekanne (* 1604 in Bremen ; † May 12, 1654 in Bremen) was a merchant and parent of the merchants .

biography

Lösekanne studied law . He was then a lawyer in Bremen and he ran a brewery. In 1636 he was elected parent (spokesman or head) and then sub-senior of the merchants. His first marriage was to the granddaughter of the Mayor of Bremen Detmar Kenckel (1513–1584) and his second marriage to the daughter of Commissar Kögelken von Wildeshausen ; both had several children.

In the disputes with the Bremen council , he represented the merchants in the Neue Eintracht of the parents, who demanded a control of the city finances ("reform of the administration of the common property") through his memoranda .
In 1653, at his instigation, a new parental oath was introduced, which should help to consolidate the unity of the merchants.

After the Thirty Years' War , the diocese of Bremen surrounding the city of Bremen was secularized and ruled by Sweden as the Duchy of Bremen . A territorial dispute developed between the city of Bremen and the Duchy of Bremen, which also led to the First Bremen-Swedish War on March 11, 1654 . In 1653/54 it was suspected that Lösekanne had treacherous relations with the Swedes. During a house search on April 21, 1654, incriminating material (reports on the council's plans and the state of the city) was found in his house on Obernstrasse and the corner of Kreyenstrasse. Accused of treason and violation of the civil oath , Lösekanne tried to portray his actions as insignificant; without success. As a motive for his betrayal of the Swedes, he cited lack of money and better development opportunities with the prospect of recruitment in Swedish services. He was sentenced to death on May 10th and the execution with the sword took place on May 12th 1654 in front of the Bremen Roland on the Bremen market square . Before that, the two front fingers (oath fingers) of his right hand were knocked off.

No evidence was found for the suspicion that Lösekanne was in any treacherous relationship with Mayor Statius Speckhan . Regardless of this, Speckhan had to resign at the end of 1654.

literature

• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
• Peter Koster : Historia by Eltermann Burchardo Lösekanne . In: Chronicle of the Imperial Free Imperial and Hanseatic City of Bremen 1600–1700 . Edition Temmen, Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-687-5 , pp. 138/139.
• Alfred Kühtmann : Burchard Lösekanne and Statius Speckhahn , In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Volume 12, pp. 33 ff and p. 55 ff, Bremen 1883.