Eberhard Ferber

Eberhard Ferber (* 1463 in the Hanseatic city of Danzig ; † March 5, 1529 in Dirschau , Polish Prussia ) was Mayor of Danzig from 1510 to 1521 and Starost von Dirschau.

Life

Coat of arms of the Ferber family from 1518 on the Ferber portal of the pastorate of St. Mary's Church in Danzig

Eberhard Ferber was a son of Johann Ferber , who was Gdansk mayor, and a brother of Mauritius , the later Bishop of Warmia. From 1481 Ferber was in the service of Duke Magnus of Mecklenburg , where he received a court education. In 1486 he took part in a Hanseatic campaign against Flanders .

In 1494 Eberhard Ferber became a lay judge in Danzig. In 1496 he accompanied Duke Bogislaw X of Pomerania to the Holy Land together with other Danzig patricians and was knighted there . From 1502 Eberhard Ferber was captain of the Putzig area . In 1506 he became a councilor in Danzig and since then has participated in several Prussian state parliaments and in Hanseatic days.

In 1510 Ferber was elected mayor of Danzig. At the time he had considerable fortune and a good reputation for his courageous and determined manner in negotiations. In 1515 he had King Sigismund I of Poland confirm the special privileges of the city of Danzig and received the Starostei Dirschau . Then he stayed at the Prince's Day in Pressburg . In the years that followed, his reputation fell due to financial strife and his authoritarian style of office. There was unrest in the city and resistance from most of the councilors. In 1522 Ferber was deposed as mayor and expelled from the city.

In 1526, King Sigismund reinstated him after the rebellion had been put down, but Ferber resigned shortly afterwards and retired to the Starostei Dirschau.

Marriages and offspring

Eberhard Ferber was married three times and had 16 children

• Johann Ferber (1496–1530), cathedral dean in Frombork and Polish-royal secretary
• Georg Ferber († 1552), merchant and citizen in Danzig
• Constantin Ferber (1520–1588), Mayor of Danzig, only son with offspring

• 

  Georg Ferber

• 

  Constantin Ferber

literature

• Maria Bogucka: Eberhard Ferber, mayor of Gdansk (1463-1529) . In: Detlef Kattinger, Ralf-Gunnar Werlich, Horst Wernicke (eds.): Actors and opponents of the Hanseatic League. On the prosopography of the Hanseatic era. Commemorative writing for Konrad Fritze. (= Hansische Studien, 9th essays on commercial and social history. Volume 30). Böhlau, Weimar 1995. pp. 165-172
• Ernst Bahr:  Ferber, Eberhard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 79 ( digitized version ).
• Theodor Hirsch :  Ferber . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 622-628.