Eberhard Beckermann

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Eberhard Beckermann (also Beckermandt ) (* 1576 in Arnsberg , † 1641 in Kassel ) was a general during the Thirty Years' War . He was initially a Baden-Durlach bailiff and then entered Swedish and Hessian military service.

Early years

Beckermann was born in Arnsberg. His first marriage was to a Lucretia von Semm, who came from Brabant . She died in childbed giving birth to a daughter. Then he married Maria Jakobe von Beinheim. Little is known about anything else from his early life. He may have lived in the Netherlands for a long time.

Bailiff in Baden-Durlach

In 1616, Margrave Georg Friedrich von Baden-Durlach appointed him bailiff of the offices of Stein and Remchingen . He received the Steiner Schloss as his apartment . Beckermann received a salary of 400 florins.

In view of the imminent danger of war, the Margrave appointed him Rittmeister in 1619 and commissioned him to set up a unit of cuirassiers . As a result, he rose to lieutenant colonel until 1622 .

His second wife died that same year. She is buried in the church of Stein. There is a memorial plaque with the Beckermann-von Beinstein alliance coat of arms. He married Barbara von Venningen in 1626. With that he came into possession of the castle, manor and village of Königsbach. He invested over 20,000 Reichstaler in the estate, which had fallen into disrepair due to war and mismanagement. As the owner of Königsbach, he became a member of the knightly canton of Kraichgau . As far as circumstances allowed, he attended the meetings of the Convention. His stepdaughter Ursula Margarethe Magdalena from his wife's marriage to Ernst von Seckendorf inherited 3/4 of the Trautkirchen estate. After the death of the soon deceased stepdaughter, the property came to Beckermann. After the Stein and Remchingen offices were sold to Wilhelm von Baden-Baden in 1629 , Beckermann lost his position as bailiff. He remained the bailiff of Langensteinbach, which he co-administered from 1625. He lost this position in 1631 after the sale of this office.

Swedish general

Beckermann then entered service in Sweden. He recruited troops and was a colonel in 1632. He operated on the Neckar near Heidelberg . With the rank of major general , he took part in the siege of Lichtenau in the summer of 1633 . Since the Swedes owed him and his troops the wages, he was assigned the town and monastery of Gengenbach . The property soon fell into the hands of the imperial family.

In 1634 he operated further north in the Hessian region. In Gemünden an der Wohra he united on April 18 with his colonels the Count of Wittgenstein and Ludwig Heinrich von Nassau-Dillenburg . The Swedes left their troops to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel . On orders from Hesse, he turned in the direction of Westphalia . On June 9th he received the order to drive out the enemy forces under Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen near Arnsberg . The goal was to occupy the Duchy of Westphalia together with other troops . The landgrave claimed the county of Arnsberg as spoils of war. With the Hessian troops assigned to him, he marched via Lippstadt and Lütgendortmund towards Arnsberg. He began to besiege his native city on June 29, 1634. He managed to take the Wedinghausen Monastery . There are three reports of the attack. The first comes from the city's magistrate from 1646, the second was written by Rudolf von Eßl. The third comes from the chronicle of the Wedinghausen monastery from the year 1720. This report in particular mixes fiction and truth. A dramatic description is given of how Beckermann's hat was supposed to have been pierced by an enemy bullet when he visited his parents' grave. Because of this, and because of the threat of flooding, he is said to have broken off the siege. Even the claim that the event took place on the day of remembrance for St. Norbert von Xanten is wrong. Then he retired to Schwerte . Numerous captured citizens were taken along to extort ransom money. He was still there on August 18, 1634.

To commemorate the salvation of the city, a plaque was placed at the point where the Beckermann bullet is said to have struck the monastery wall. It says: N (ota) B (ene) A (nn) o 1634 July 11th Through lightning and rain, God's blessing has chased away Beckermann in St. Norberti night. The inscription is now on the Hirschberger Tor. Thanks to this salvation of the city and a comparable event in 1646, an annual Norbertus procession has taken place since then.

At the insistence of Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna , Beckermann's troops returned to Swedish service and marched to Aschaffenburg . When he was in Hanau in 1635 , his troops were ordered to Ziegenhain , where he united with the Hessians. In October his own seven companies and another 42 companies subordinate to him were located near Göttingen and in the Hildesheim monastery . His staff was in Uslar and then in Moringen .

His wife and children, who had now been born, had already been captured by the imperial family. Efforts by Georg von Lüneburg and Wilhelm V of Hessen to get her released were in vain. The prisoners were brought to Friedberg in November 1635. His wife died in captivity.

In the winter of 1635/36 and again in the spring of 1637 it was near Salzuflen and Lemgo . He united with some of his units with Landgrave Wilhelm. He was present at the siege of Marsberg . He was also involved in the relief of Hanau. He went to Lippstadt with the aim of covering supplies from Wesel to Dorsten . He got into imperial captivity. Since he refused to enter the imperial service, his goods were taken from him. It was not until 1638 that successful negotiations about an exchange of prisoners took place. He met his children on August 7th in Coesfeld .

He also fought with the Hessians in 1639 and 1640. He even had a prospect of commanding the Hessian troops, but died beforehand. He is buried in the collegiate church in Kassel.

Individual evidence

  1. Horst Conrad, Gunnar Teske (Ed.): Sterbzeiten. The Thirty Years War in the Duchy of Westphalia. Münster 2000, p. 118.
  2. ^ Karl Féaux de Lacroix: History of Arnsberg. Arnsberg 1895, p. 344 ff.
  3. Horst Conrad / Gunnar Teske (ed.): Dying times. The Thirty Years War in the Duchy of Westphalia. Münster 2000, p. 48.
  4. Horst Conrad, Gunnar Teske (Ed.): Sterbzeiten. The Thirty Years War in the Duchy of Westphalia. Münster 2000, p. 227 f.

literature

  • Julius Friedrich Kastner: Eberhard Beckermandt 1576–1641. From Baden bailiff to Swedish general. In: Heimatblätter. Journal of the Arnsberger Heimatbund, 19/1998, pp. 21–26.

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