Christoph Friedrich von Salza

Christoph Friedrich von Salza (* after 1605 in Ebersbach near Görlitz; † March 31, 1673 in Neu-Salza ) was an influential Protestant nobleman, councilor of Elector Johann Georg II (1613–1680), state elder of the Görlitz district and founder of the after Named the exile town of Neu-Salza, today Neusalza-Spremberg , in Upper Lusatia.

Live and act

Scion of an ancient noble family

Christoph Friedrich came from the ancient Thuringian noble family of the counts, barons and lords of Sal (t) za , which spread with the German settlement in the east in the 13th century in Upper Lusatia and Silesia . Salza's most famous ancestor was Hermann von Salza (around 1162-1239), the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Order . Starting from the area around Görlitz and Lauban, the Upper Lusatian line of those of Salza acquired considerable property in the Markgraftum Upper Lusatia . Since 1581 the manor of Ebersbach near Görlitz was the seat of the Linda line of the Upper Lusatian Salzas. Members of the von Salza family held important lordly and state offices in the Margraviate of Upper Lusatia, including Christoph Friedrich's father, Job von Salza the Elder. J. (1586–1654), who was the governor of the Principality of Görlitz for 30 years . Christoph Friedrich's father Job was married twice (Mrs.? Von Sommerfeld, 1647 with Magdalena Elisabeth von Gersdorf ). Frau von Sommerfeld was probably Christoph Friedrich's mother.

After the death of his father Job v. Salza d. J. (1654) was enfeoffed to Christoph Friedrich on September 19, 1656 by the sovereign with the paternal estate of Ebersbach . In July 1657, Christoph Friedrich von Salza was one of the representatives of the Görlitz knighthood at the hereditary homage to the Protestant Saxon Elector Johann Georg II. In Dresden .

Christoph Friedrich von Salza's life and work took place at a time that was shaped by the course and consequences of the Thirty Years' War and the Counter Reformation (recatholicization) in Bohemia , Moravia and Hungary . Both had a lasting influence on the Protestant Electorate of Saxony .

Manor owner and city founder

During this complicated time, Christoph Friedrich von Salza was able to expand his property in 1668, as Friedrich Adolf von Haugwitz († after 1680), the owner of the manor of Upper and Lower Premberg , sold the village and subjects to him for financial reasons. When in 1669 Protestant refugees from the above-mentioned Catholic countries came to Spremberg in Electoral Saxony, the Protestant, economically forward-looking nobleman seized the opportunity. He granted refugees asylum in his Spremberg property and gave them several desolate properties in the corridors of what was then the Nieder-Spremberg manor to settle for an affordable fee.

Promoter of Protestant exiles

The evangelical fellow believers expelled from their home countries were not farmers , but mostly craftsmen and traders . But since trade and handicrafts could only be carried out under the privilege of a city, von Salza applied to the elector for city ​​rights for the young settlement . On January 12, 1670, the Saxon Elector in Dresden ratified the deed for the construction of the city (city privilege). A brisk construction activity began in the small town in the village of Spremberg. The town's founder knew how to skillfully combine politics and business on a regional and local level by nominating Caspar David Fiedler, the manorial “economic administrator” of his Ebersbach estate, as the first mayor of the new town. Fiedler was the head of the city of New Salza from 1670 to 1676. At the same time, Mr. von Salza created the structures for the planned city complex and prepared the basic documents for the further development of the community. The “Political Recess of the City of Neu-Salza”, which guaranteed the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the young city, goes back to him as well as the “Church Recess” that was set in preparation for the international city community in the interests of orderly church conditions own church. This recess formed the basic document for the later building of the baroque exile church, the Dreifaltigkeitskirche Neusalza . The energetic aristocratic city founder did not live to see the entry into force of both documents, which the elector certified on June 12, 1673 and October 14, 1674 respectively.

family

Christoph Friedrich von Salza was married to Anna Catharina v. Salza, b. v. Salza, another lineage of the sex († June 12 or 21, 1682). The marriage had two children:

1. Job Friedrich v. Salza (* July 8, 1660 in Ebersbach near Görlitz, † January 31, 1677 in Dresden , buried on August 3, 1677 in the crypt of the church in Neu-Salza)
2. Lucretia Hedwig v. Salza, later married von Nostitz (born March 16, 1664 in Ebersbach near Görlitz (?), † January 11, 1701 in Bautzen , buried on January 14, 1701 in the crypt of the church in Neu-Salza).

Christoph Friedrich's wife, his son and daughter received their final resting place in the exile church in Neusalza, built between 1674 and 1678, in a grave vault that has not yet been found. He himself was buried on April 9, 1673 in the family crypt Ebersbach near Görlitz.

With the death of the son of Christoph Friedrich von Salza, Job Friedrich († 1677), the branch of the Linda line of the family that remained in Upper Lusatia became extinct. Another branch had settled in Bohemia , but it died out in the 18th century. Today the Lichtenau line is still in bloom . The Salzasche coat of arms includes a white lily on a red background, which is still the symbol of the city of Neusalza-Spremberg today . The Friedrich von Salza Street , formerly "August Bebel-Str.", Between Upper and Lower Market in Spremberg reminiscent of the founder and first base and magistrate of the city.

literature

• August Adolpf Tuchatsch (ed.): Historical news about the city of Neu-Salza on the basis of historical documents and traditions . Ceremony for the 200th anniversary of the city in 1870. Photomechanical reprint: Neusalza-Spremberg 2000.
• Hermann Knothe : History of the Upper Lusatian nobility and their estates from the 13th to the end of the 16th century . Leipzig: Printed and published by Breitkopf & Härtel 1879.
• Gunther Leupolt : The foundation of the city of Neusalza . Introduction (to the electoral city privilege of January 12, 1670). In: History and stories from Neusalza-Spremberg, Volume 1. Ed .: Kultur- und Heimatfreunde Neusalza-Spremberg e. V., Neusalza-Spremberg: Michael Voigt 1999, pp. 13-14
• Gunther Leupolt: The Neusalza recession of 1673 . Preface and editing. In: Ebda, pp. 15-18
• Lutz Mohr : Neusalza-Spremberg and its monuments. About bizarre natural structures and stone witnesses of local history . In: History and stories from Neusalza-Spremberg, Volume 4. arr. and ed. by Günter Hensel. Neusalza-Spremberg: Kultur- und Heimatfreunde e. V. 2011, pp. 5–28
• Lutz Mohr: Spremberg about 340 years ago - historical personalities of the local history: Christoph Friedrich von Salza (after 1605-1673) . In: Official journal of the administrative association for the city of Neusalza-Spremberg with the district Friedersdorf and the communities Dürrhennersdorf and Schönbach. 17/2012/5, pp. 7-8.
• Gustav Hermann Schulze : From Neusalza's past and the second secular celebration . Ebersbach 1917. Reprint: Neusalza-Spremberg 1998.
• Walter Heinich : Spremberg. Attempt of a local history of the parish village Spremberg in the Saxon Upper Lusatia . Schirgiswalde 1918.
• Carl Gottlob Hohlfeld: 100 years of the city of Neu-Salza. Historical report . Neu-Salza 1768. Transferred and edited by Siegfried Seifert . Neusalza-Spremberg u. Lawalde 2002.
• Regesta of the Salza dynasty , which emerged from the old German gentry , FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1853, p. 24. ( digitized in the Google book search)