Christoph Gensch from Breitenau

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Gensch von Breitenau's coat of arms on his grave chapel

Christoph Gensch , from 1681 Gensch von Breitenau (born August 11, 1638 in Naumburg (Saale) , † January 11, 1732 in Lübeck ) was a German administrative lawyer, diplomat and hymn poet.

Life

The son of the Saxon state judge in Zeitz, Christoph Gensch, attended the Princely School in Schulpforte , then schools in Leipzig and Zeitz. 1655 studied at the University of Leipzig . From there he went to Gotha , where the Prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Norburg , Rudolf Friedrich, the youngest son of Duke Friedrich , employed him as court master . After he had accompanied him on journeys and campaigns, the prince's mother, Eleanor von Anhalt-Zerbst , who had been widowed since 1658, appointed him her Wittumsrat and Hofmeister, and in 1667 the Duke Joachim Ernst of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön a court counselor. In the Oldenburg succession dispute that began at that time , Gensch undertook various trips to the courts of Wolfenbüttel , Berlin , Dresden and Mainz for his sovereign . In 1669 he took part in the imperial commission, which sought to mediate this dispute between Denmark and Holstein-Gottorp on the one hand and Holstein-Plön on the other. On March 14, 1671, a settlement that was advantageous for all concerned was reached. After the verdict passed by the Reichshofrat against the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp and the death of Duke Joachim Ernst , he was a member of the Execution Commission in Oldenburg in 1676 . With the approval of Duke Johann Adolf von Holstein-Plön , King Christian V of Denmark appointed him to his councilor in 1678 and raised him to the nobility in 1681. After he had brought about the comparison between the dukes of Plön and Gottorp in the same year, he was appointed bailiff in Ahrensbök in Plön , but was transferred to Oldenburg as chancellor towards the end of the year. As such, he was sent by the king to Münster , where he concluded an alliance treaty with the bishop and the elector of Brandenburg. Then he went to the district assembly of the Lower Saxony Reichskreis , from which he did not return to Oldenburg until the spring of 1683.

In 1685 the king sent him to Vienna as an extraordinary envoy , where he stayed until 1687, but was then called to Copenhagen in order to jointly with the Privy Council of Ehrenschild the disputes that had broken out between the king and Duke Christian Albrecht von Holstein-Gottorp to settle. After this happened and the Altona Treaty of 1689 had been ratified by the king, the latter appointed him to the conference council in 1693. As such, he concluded the Aldenburg Tractate with the guardians of Count Anton II von Aldenburg . In 1694 he was appointed Landdrosten von Butjadingen . After suffering a serious illness in 1695, however, he was called to Copenhagen, from where he did not return until 1696. Since his business as Chancellor and Landdrost was too difficult for him, he repeatedly asked for his dismissal, but was again called to the court in Copenhagen in 1699 and in 1700 appointed by King Frederick IV to the Privy Councilor and Deputy of Finance. Soon afterwards he became president of the General-Landes-Commission and introduced the organization of the land militia in the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst , for which he received the Dannebrogorden in 1701 . In 1704 he donated the funds for the establishment of a Latin school in Plön, the Breitenausches Foundation (also Breitenavianum ), to which the tradition of the Plön Castle Gymnasium goes back. At an unknown point in time, he acquired the Grünhof estate near Berdum , now part of Wittmund .

Not long afterwards he said goodbye and moved to Lübeck. In 1706 he bought a house there on Königstrasse , today's Löwen-Apotheke . Also from Lübeck he was still active as an adviser and arbitrator, for example in the guardianship case of Prince Leopold August (1702–1706), grandson of Duke Johann Adolph von Plön, who died young, in the settlement of disputes between the houses of Plön and Gottorp and in 1715 in the inheritance disputes between the Norburg and Rethwisch lines .

Since December 1668 he was married to Agnes von Rohr (1626–80), the chambermaid of the Norburg Duchess. After her death in 1681 in Plön, he married Anna Sybille von Brandenstein († 1701) from Thuringia, the lady-in-waiting of the Duchess of Plön. Both marriages remained childless.

Breitenau Chapel in St. Aegidia

He was buried in the crypt under the north side chapel on the tower of Lübeck's Aegidia Church. He had acquired the funerary chapel in 1705 for 900 marks Lübisch. It has been named after him ever since. Before him, two daughters of the von Heespen family (Anna, † 1715; Catharina, † 1718) were buried here and after him the chamberlain Bernhard Hartwig von Plessen († 1767; ▭ in Lübeck 1776) with his wife Sophie Dorothea, née . von Drieberg (1730–1771), lady of the Order de l'union parfaite since 1764 , and her second husband, District Administrator Christian Friedrich von Heespen († 1776), buried. The von Hedemann-Heespen family transferred the chapel with the maintenance obligation back to the aegidia community in 1870 by means of a compensation payment. The five monumental copper engravings on the life of Jesus by François Langot that adorn the chapel were brought to the hall of Deutsch-Nienhof .

plant

In addition to various writings on the question of succession, Gensch von Breitenau wrote a number of sacred songs. In the hymnal for the Plön possessions (with Ahrensbök and Reinfeld (Holstein) ), which he published for the first time in 1674, the second edition of 1675 contains 26 songs (out of a total of 442), which are ascribed to him as author or arranger. The passion hymn Herr Jesu, your Angst und Pein (EG 89) can be found in the Evangelical Hymn to this day .

estate

Gensch von Breitenau's extensive library was cataloged by Johann Henrich von Seelen , the rector of the Lübeck Katharineum, after his death. The catalog comprised over 13,000 volumes. Most of them were sold until 1751; a remainder came along with his written estate to Christian Friedrich von Heespen (* April 24, 1717; † May 18, 1776). Through the family fideikommiss donated by him, the Breitenau estate remained in the Hedemann-Heespen family at Deutsch-Nienhof .

Fonts

  • Oldenburg and Delmenhorstische Sucessions thing. Summarized by listing a number of reasons why the Fürstl. Hauß Holstein-Plöen, & Consortes to the succession of the Graffschafften Oldenburg and Delmenhorst are one and only authorized, but the Prince. Hauss Holstein-Gottorff asks himself to assume that he has no reason or right ... The appendix is ​​followed by a detailed refutation of the person, so on the part of the Prince. House of Holstein-Gottorff in this successions matter against the Prince. Hauß Holstein-Plöen has been brought in so far. s. l. 1671, digital copy of the copy from the Bavarian State Library
  • Thorough report of the Princely Holstein-Ploen Controversial Successions Case. Copenhagen 1725, digitized version of the copy from the Bavarian State Library

literature

Web links

Commons : Christoph Gensch von Breitenau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gymnasium Schloss Plön: Website with information on the history of the school
  2. ↑ Johannes Baltzer , Friedrich Bruns: The architectural and art monuments of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck. Issued by the building authorities. Volume III: Church of Old Lübeck. Dom. Jakobikirche. Aegidia Church. Publishing house by Bernhard Nöhring: Lübeck 1920, pp. 470–471. Unchanged reprint 2001: ISBN 3-89557-167-9
  3. ↑ See archives in German-speaking countries. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-11-001955-8 , p. 196f.
personal data
SURNAME Gensch von Breitenau, Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gensch, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal scholar, Schleswig-Holstein diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1638
PLACE OF BIRTH Naumburg (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1732
Place of death Lübeck