Elisabeth von Wetzikon

Elisabeth von Wetzikon (* around 1235; † 1298 in Zurich ) was the abbess of the Fraumünster Monastery in Zurich from 1270 to 1298 and thus the mistress of the city.

Live and act

Inscription in the Fraumünster

Elisabeth was a daughter of Baron Ulrich von Wetzikon. She was first mentioned in 1265 as a nun in the Fraumünster.

Her appointment as abbess in 1270 was controversial; the decisive factor for their choice was the bishop of Constance, Eberhard II von Waldburg . With her election, Elisabeth became the most powerful woman of that time in what is now Switzerland. The monastery was at the height of its power and had huge land holdings as far as central Switzerland. Elisabeth owned the coin rack that had been awarded to her with a certificate dated January 25, 1274 by Rudolf I of Habsburg ; she had entertained him royally the year before. She leased Zurich's customs duties, elected the mayor and his deputy, and was the city's chief judge. Since there was no town clerk, the Fraumünsterkloster also ran the town chancellery.

To date, 170 documents have been preserved that bear her name and, in some cases, her seal and show that she dealt with many different legal transactions ex officio. She had extensive relationships and political influence beyond Zurich. Her Meier Knight Arnold von Silenen was the Mayor of Uri in the year Switzerland was founded in 1291 .

In cultural terms, Elisabeth introduced the Gothic to Zurich , which appears for the first time in the transept of the Fraumünster. The following inscription is carved over them in a choir pillar: "(FROW EB) TISCHENNE ELI / S (ABETH VO) N WEZZINGKON / I (N DEM IAR) AFTER GOD'S GE / B (URT IM) MCCXCVIII IAR".

reception

Elisabeth von Wetzikon is mentioned in some works of literature:

• Johannes Hadlaub in the « Manessische Liederhandschrift »: … von Zürich diu vürstin… - Due to the mention of Elisabeth and some other leading citizens of Zürich, it was previously assumed that the people mentioned (and thus Elisabeth von Wetzikon) belonged to a literary circle out of which the song manuscript itself was also created. Today, however, this assumption is considered refuted.
• Friedrich Schiller in « Wilhelm Tell », 3rd act, Rütli scene: I am oathed to the great woman of Zurich ...
• Gottfried Keller in the novella "Hadlaub": There was above all Bishop Heinrich von Konstanz, a handsome man with dark eyes and hair, with serious but spirited facial features; in his ringed hand he held the hand of the princess abbess of Zurich, who sat next to him in a secular lady's costume, a quietly passing apparition that only blossomed in the light of those eyes. On his other side sat the knight's housewife, from the Wolfleipsch tribe, who were also old, right next to her another conventual of the abbey, Mrs. Elisabeth von Wetzikon, aunt of the bishop, who later became the most important abbess, she also in secular costume. - The Kunigunde von Wasserstelz in the same novella is said to be modeled on Elisabeth.

Honor

The work of the great abbess of the Fraumünster was honored on the occasion of the Sechseläuten in 2009 by the Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster .

literature

• Urs Reber: Monastery tour in turbulent times. Elisabeth von Wetzikon - Abbess in the Fraumünster from 1270 to 1298. In: Heimatspiegel. Illustrated supplement to the “Zürcher Oberländer” and “Anzeiger von Uster”. Wetzikon. No. 9, 2001.
• Helen Baumer: Swiss women of history. In: «professional», 1985.
• Peter Vogelsanger : Zurich and its Fraumünster. An eleven hundred year history (853-1956). Zurich 1994, pp. 173-188.
• Susann L. Pflüger: New Year's Gazette of the Fraumünster Society for 2010 , Fourth Edition , ISSN  1663-5264 .

Web links

• Veronika Feller-Vest: Wetzikon, Elisabeth von. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .