Eberhard von Gemmingen (1567–1611)

Portal on the stair tower of the moated castle in Bad Rappenau with bust bust of Eberhard and the Gemmingen-Rodenstein alliance coat of arms

Eberhard von Gemmingen (born July 16, 1567 in Bürg ; † October 26, 1611 in Rappenau ) was the builder of the Bad Rappenau moated castle .

Life

Eberhard von Gemmingen was the eldest son of Reinhard von Gemmingen (1532–1598) and Helene von Massenbach . He studied in Tübingen, Marburg, Strasbourg and Ingolstadt. His father called him back to Treschklingen in 1594, and in the same year Eberhard married Anna Katharina von Rodenstein. From his father he inherited the estate in Rappenau in 1599, where he had the moated castle built from 1601 to 1603, which he moved into with his family after completion. Buttenhausen was another legacy . He was considered educated and his house was open to artists and scholars. In 1604 he acquired the Wintersheim estate .

Both spouses died in October 1611 just three weeks apart and were buried in the local Protestant church. The Gemmingen court master Johann Valentin Andreae (1586–1654), who was supposed to prepare Eberhard's eldest son Philipp for studying in Tübingen, gave a speech in Latin that was also published in 1619. In it he praised the deceased as an example of the “real nobility”: There is no unrestrained life to be seen, no blasphemous speech to be heard, no fattened and bursting belly, no crazy chase with horses, no contempt for the rural population, no frenzied persecution of the Wilds in the woods, no raw abuse of people, no multitude of courses, no monstrous clothes, no French or Italian customs, no curious idleness, but, in a word, healthy moderation, the right way of life, that is, no tendency neither to exaggeration nor to lack, but based on peace, moved by growth, adorned by a good reputation and above all the promotion of God's help.

The tomb of Eberhard and his wife, which was only a few years old, was destroyed by Tilly's troops in 1622 around the battle of Wimpfen .

family

He was married to Anna Katharina von Rodenstein († October 3, 1611) from August 26, 1594, with whom he had eight children. When their parents died, the children were all minors. The sons Philipp , Melchior Reinhard and Hans Sigmund were initially under the tutelage of the Eberhard brothers. First Hans Wilhelm von Gemmingen , who died in 1615, took over this task and then Reinhard the Scholar . The sons all died in the Thirty Years War , the fiefdom was withdrawn in 1630 and only returned in 1648 to Eberhard's grandson of the same name, Eberhard (1628–1675).

Progeny:

• Helena Katharina (1595–1626) ⚭ Bernhard von Mentzingen
• Agathe Sabine (1597–1641)
• Anna Magdalena (1600–1628) ⚭ Bernhard von Mentzingen
• Philipp (1601–1638) ⚭ Ursula Barbara von Warnstädt
• Maria Christina (1602–1635) ⚭ Adam von Vesterberg
• Melchior Reinhard (1603–1635) ⚭ Elisabetha Katharina von Stockheim, no descendants
• Maria Margaretha (1605–1649) ⚭ Ph. L. von Seckendorff
• Hans Sigmund, probably served in the same regiment as Philipp, no descendants

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rothenhöfer 2011, p. 52.
2. ^ Emil Künzel: The barons of Gemmingen (Hornberg) in Bad Rappenau , in: Bad Rappenauer Heimatbote 8 , 1996, p. 7/8.

literature

• Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig Stocker : Family Chronicle of the Barons of Gemmingen , Heidelberg 1895, p. 239–240.
• Johann Valentin Andreae: Memorialia, bene volentium honori, amori et condolentiae data , Vaihingen 1619 (therein Vera Nobilitas commemorative speech to Eberhard von Gemmingen) ( digitized version )
• Rudolf and Dieter Rothenhöfer: On the 400th anniversary of the death of the builder of the moated castle in Rappenau, Eberhards von Gemmingen and his wife Anna Katharina von Gemmingen, born. von Rodenstein in October 2011 , in: Bad Rappenauer Heimatbote No. 22, 21st year, December 2011, pp. 50–58 (annotated translation of the digitized version linked above).