Christian von Osterhausen

Christian von Osterhausen (* 1593 ; † January 28, 1664 in Malta ) came from a Protestant aristocratic family from Thuringia. After converting to the Catholic faith, he spent much of his life in Valletta . In Malta he held, among others, the duties of a steward.

Life

Germany

Osterhausen's origins are, as Johann Heinrich Zedler described in 1741 , “a sizable noble family in Meissen and Thuringia”. The name is derived from the town of Osterhausen , which is now a district of Eisleben . In other reference works of the 18th century one can find his membership in the Order of Malta, some offices in the German-speaking area (order province of the Order of Malta with predominantly German-speaking members) as well as a number of offices and functions at the central seat of the order in Malta. The place of birth, the year of birth and the year of death remain unknown thereafter. However, his matriculation from the winter of 1605 at the University of Leipzig is reliable : “Osterhausen ab [von] Christ. Misnen. 19 g iW 1605 M 6 “ ; Faculty affiliation, a possible academic degree or de-registration have not been handed down in connection with this source. In the pedigree we find the addition that Osterhausen was court marshal at the Dresden court.

His documents for admission to the Catholic Order of Malta and not in its Protestant Ballei Brandenburg (now known as the Order of St. John ) are recorded in the Order Archives on November 12, 1637. So Osterhausen, who comes from a Protestant family, must have converted beforehand. It is probably due to the fact that Gretschel called him a “secret Catholic” in his history work on Saxony and Prince August even called him a traitor in a letter to his electoral father.

Malta

Osterhausen then spent a large part of his life at the convent seat of the order, in Valletta , on Malta. Several sources there report about him. He made a career in the Order and on Malta and did a variety of committee work. "Official registers show that Osterhausen was in the foreground of the activities of the order for many years", two offices being mentioned as examples. That of the prior of Dacia (Scandinavia) is to be regarded as a high honorary position, since this order province of the German tongue was purely and in fact dropped after the Reformation. Immediately for the religious state of Malta, Osterhausen was significant, as he was appointed castellan in 1641 , a presiding judicial officer of the Castellania ("Castellania ( Malta )", the secular supreme court and a general police authority of Malta). The office was so highly regarded that a page followed the castellan in public to carry his staff. Sources from the old order archive on Malta (part of the National Library) indicate that Osterhausen carried out archive studies. These may have served as preparation for his two main works, which appeared in different editions. Both works were, from a qualified mouth, an orientation aid for young German-speaking friars when they served their compulsory time in the Italian-speaking center of the order and in a country with Italian official language.

Osterhausen raised a lot of money to equip the aisle chapel of the German tongue in the convent church (today St. John's Co-Cathedral , Valletta). So four family coats of arms remind of him there. Another is together with the order's coat of arms as a split shield on his elaborate grave plate, which can also be seen there. You can find information about his age and date of death from their inscription.

Publications

• Statutes, ordinances and customs of the honorable knightly order. S. Johannis von Jerusalem, to Malta ...., Frankfurt a. M. 1644.
• Actual and thorough report of what leads to a complete knowledge and science of the Ecclesiastical Order of St. John of Jerusalem at Malta Vonnoethen, 2nd edition, Augsburg 1650.

literature

• Galea, Michael: The German Knights of the Order of Malta, San Gwann (Malta) 1996, under: Christian Osterhausen (1593-1664), a hardworking knight, pp. 53–72.
• Barz, Wolf-Dieter: The essence of the Order of Malta and the person of Christian von Osterhausen, an introduction to the textbook Osterhausen from 1644 on the law of this order, Münster 1995, under: Christian von Osterhausen, pp. 45-61.
• Statutes, ordinances and customs of the honorable knightly order. S. Johannis von Jerusalem, to Malta ...., Frankfurt a. M. 1644.
• Actual and thorough report of what leads to a complete knowledge and science of the Ecclesiastical Order of St. John of Jerusalem at Malta Vonnoethen , 2nd edition, Augsburg 1650.

Web links

• Literature by and about Christian von Osterhausen in the catalog of the German National Library