Dietrich von Harras

Epitaph in the Ebersdorf collegiate church

Dietrich von Harras (* around 1430; † June 9, 1499 ) was a German knight from the Thuringian family Harras .

Life

Born as the son of Hermann von Harras († 1451) and his wife Elisabeth (Ilse), Dietrich appeared in the service of the Elector of Saxony in 1450. In 1465/66 he belonged to the court servants of Emperor Friedrich III. who praised him as useful, faithful and indefatigable. Together with his brothers Otto , Ulrich and Hermann d. J. had inherited the rule of Lichtenwalde in Saxony in 1451 , whose income was initially due to the mother as a widow's property until around 1474 . In addition to this property, the brothers and their cousins ​​from two other lines of the family also owned numerous villages in Thuringia since 1455 (cf. possessions of those of Harras ). In 1467 the brothers bought the estateOßmannstedt near Weimar, which her father had lost in the Saxon fratricidal war . After Otto entered the clergy, Dietrich shared with his brothers Ulrich and Hermann the Elder. J. took over the entire property that he and Hermann Lichtenwalde kept to themselves and Ulrich Oßmannstedt took over.

Dietrich first appeared as a knight in 1471. In his rule in Lichtenwalde, he sought to increase the feudal rent by expanding his own economy and settling crafts and trades , not without often coming into conflict with the neighboring city of Chemnitz . From 1483 Dietrich is also mentioned as an advisor to the jointly ruling Saxon princes, after he had already accompanied Elector Ernst of Saxony on his trip to Rome in 1480 . After the division of Leipzig in 1485 he was, at least for the years up to 1488, probably the most important councilor for Duke Albrecht of Saxony and held the titles of sub-marshal and marshal.

Until the summer of 1486 Dietrich was also the councilor of Archduke Sigmund of Austria , but lost this position at the instigation of other councilors of this Habsburg. On behalf of Sigmund and the emperor, he had to negotiate as ambassador at the Munich court about the marriage of the emperor's daughter Kunigunde to Duke Albrecht of Bavaria . In general, it was Dietrich's area of ​​responsibility to maintain Saxon-Austrian relations. After taking part in the siege of Neuss in 1474 , he mediated between Duke Albrecht and the Kaiser in the Emperor's war against Hungary in 1486 .

After the liberation of King Maximilian from the hands of the rebellious citizens of Bruges , Knight Dietrich von Harras was appointed to his council in 1488. Despite his dodgy role in fueling and maintaining the Werdenberg feud , he continued to enjoy the unreserved trust of the emperor and king. As a royal envoy, he appeared in 1494 in the diocese of Hildesheim to collect taxes for the empire. He also continued to commute between Duke Albrecht of Saxony and Maximilian, took part in the Reichstag and was even supposed to be sent to the English King on behalf of Maximilian, but nothing came of that.

One of his great achievements was also the negotiation of the long-standing "Harrasic Contract" (also called "Dieterische Contract") between the imperial city of Nuremberg and the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach . Long-running disputes between Nuremberg and the Brandenburgers, which mainly concerned the type and scope of the rights of use to the Nuremberg Reichswald as well as the high jurisdiction, were decided and directed in 1496 by Knight Dietrich von Harras.

Despite his strong ties to the empire since 1488, Dietrich still retained civil servant positions in Saxony and Thuringia. So he was bailiff of the offices of Meißen, Weißensee and Sachsenburg in Thuringia.

According to the inscription, Dietrich died on the day of Primi and Feliciani 1499. According to the Catholic calendar, the two brothers Primus and Felicianus are commemorated on June 9th. With that, Dietrich's death day is without a doubt to be set on June 9, 1499, a Sunday. He was buried in the Ebersdorf collegiate church in what is now Chemnitz . His epitaph , which is said to come from the hands of Hans Witten , can still be seen there today. His wife Gutha, a daughter of Georg von Miltitz zu Miltitz , survived him by a few years. His sons Georg and knight Wilhelm von Harras followed him in the possession of the Lichtenwalde estate. The son Wolfgang († 1506) became canon in Meißen .

Dietrich has remained known above all for the harrassage , which Theodor Körner processed in 1810 in the ballad Harras, the daring springer .

literature

• Heinrich Theodor Flathe :  Harras, Dietrich von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 639 f.
• Gert Petersen: Dietrich von Harras - around 1430 to 1499, life and deeds of a nobleman in the service of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . Chemnitz 2006 (2nd edition 2007), 40 pages, 12 illustrations, 1 family tree

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://kirchenkalender.com/