Claus Kniphoff

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claus Kniphoff (* around 1500 in Copenhagen ; † October 30, 1525 in Hamburg ) was a Danish admiral and pirate .

Life

Kniphoff was the stepson of the Mayor of Malmö , Jürgen Kock. He probably grew up in Malmo. Kniphoff was recruited by the deposed Danish King Christian II , who was in exile in Holland, and given a letter of piracy. Kniphoff was supposed to damage the seafaring of the Hanseatic cities that supported Friedrich in the war against the reigning King Friedrich II . Kniphoff equipped a fleet, recruited seamen and started a privateer war on the North Sea against Hanseatic ships. After a request from the Hanseatic cities to the Dutch regent Margarete , she denied having commissioned Claus Kniphoff, who was then declared a pirate. In autumn 1525 he was captured by a Hamburg fleet under Ditmar Koel near Greetsiel and captured with 162 other men.

He was tried in Hamburg. Kniphoff initially claimed to have acted lawfully in Christian's war against the Hanseatic cities. Since the war had not been made public, this defense was rejected and Kniphof sentenced to death for piracy . He was born on October 30, 1525 in Hamburg on the Grasbrook executed .

reception

The pastor Stefan Kempe , who was the convict's confessor, wrote a Low German song about him. The archivist Otto Beneke dedicated a longer story to Kniphoff in his "Hamburg Stories and Legends".

  • Heinrich Behnken wrote the drama Klaus Kniphoff un Maria Hohusen in 1922. (A historical drama in five acts).
  • In 1927, Behnken's work was broadcast as Klaus Knipphoff by Nordische Rundfunk AG (NORAG) under the direction of Hans Böttcher as a broadcast ( radio play ). It was broadcast live on February 18, 1927 without the possibility of recording.

literature

  • Arian Knauth: Claus Kniphoff. In: Franklin Kopitzsch , Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . Volume 2, Wallstein, Hamburg 2006.
  • Werner von Melle:  Kniphoff, Claus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 291-293.
  • Johann Martin Lappenberg : The Hans von Gottingen song from Klaus Kniphof . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History . No. 2 , 1847, p. 577-591 ( PDF [accessed February 12, 2013]).
  • Johann Martin Lappenberg: The Stephan Kempe song by Klaus Kniphof . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History . No. 2 , 1847, p. 118–140 ( PDF [accessed February 12, 2013]).

Web links

Wikisource: True history of how Claus Kniphoff, the great pirate, was overpowered and judged by the Hamburgers  - sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Kniphoff, Claus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish admiral and pirate
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1525
Place of death Hamburg