Epitaph for Balthasar Pötschner and his wife

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Epitaph for Balthasar Pötschner and his wife 1505, red marble

The Gothic epitaph for Balthasar Pötschner and his wife made of red marble with the year 1505 is located in St. Peter , the oldest parish church in Munich. Set in the wall under the organ gallery next to the entrance to the southern tower chapel, it appears almost undamaged, although the air raids on Munich in 1944/45 in the Second World War almost completely reduced the church to rubble. It is reminiscent of Balthasar Pötschner and his wife. They both appear in the relief and are named in the inscription, the wife not by name. We owe her full name and origin, Anna Fröschl from Wasserburg , to archival sources. If one follows the dates of death in 1507 for Balthasar Pötschner and in 1506 for his wife at Geiss, the epitaph was made while the deceased was still alive in 1505.

Artist

The work is attributed to the workshop of Erasmus Grasser . H. Ramisch sees in him the handwriting of the so-called second employee of Erasmus Grasser, the master Jörg Schnitzer.

description

The multi-part work (255 × 136 cm) consists of a concise inscription and a two-part image field placed above it in a three-pass aedicule with the depiction of Balthasar Pötschner and his wife as well as another approximately equal sacred scene above it. The lower scene shows the couple in relief facing each other in three-quarter view, kneeling in pious devotion with folded hands. Balthasar Pötschner is in knight armor, belted with a sword, his head covered with a decorated hood, with a cloak, his wife is wrapped in a floor-length church-going cloak, the folds of which underline her kneeling posture, a prayer cord in her hands, her hair hidden under a headgear. Splendidly entwined with acanthus leaves, their alliance coat of arms is presented between the two . The gnarled branches in the background are the connecting support for the so-called Gregor's Mass , which is set in the picture with many figures. They are kneeling around the chalice at the altar, a deacon with a book and a papal cross, a cleric whose hat identifies him as a cardinal, with a papal crown in his hands on the right, behind him a bishop with a miter and a shepherd's staff, in the middle the celebrant with a tonsure without Insignia Pope Gregory. At the moment of the change of bread and wine into Christ's body and blood, the Legenda aurea of Jacobus de Voragine tells us that he has a vision that is translated into the picture here. Above the altar chalice, Christ appears physically with visible wounds on his chest and raised hands, flanked by the instruments of suffering, the Arma Christi , in the background and on the coats of arms carried by two angels in the corners outside the cloverleaf arch. According to the textual specifications of the legend, the theme of the presence of God in the Eucharistic celebration is reflected, the non-representable of the change visualized in order to make the experience of the closeness of God in the Eucharistic celebration tangible. Pope Gregory the Great (540–604 AD), is considered in church history to be the pope who reformed mass ceremonies and introduced the mass canon .

inscription

Epitaph for Balthasar Pötschner and his wife - inscription

A three-line Latin hexametric inscription can be found on a scrollwork cartouche as an inscription field. The raised Gothic minuscule is used almost throughout , with the exception of the beginning of the line.

Clarus in hoc miles que (m) sculptu (m) marmore cernis
Balthasar hic bötschner de Riedershaim simul ortus
Consul eratq (ue) ducum jacet hic cum coniuge chara

The respected knight you see carved into this marble here
was Balthasar Boetschner at the same time Lord von Riedershaim and Council of Dukes,
he is buried here with his dear wife.

coat of arms

Epitaph for Balthasar Pötschner and Anna Fröschl - alliance coat of arms

The coats of arms of the couple are speaking coats of arms . In allusion to the family names, the Pötschner family have a “Bütschen”, a (salt) vessel, a (salt) barrel, a (salt) vat, and the Fröschl a frog as their coat of arms. Both coats of arms are squared. Balthasar Pötschner's coat of arms has in addition to the salt barrel on a three mountain in fields 1 and 4 a diagonally right-divided field 2 and field 3, which is awakened in the lower place and occupied by half a unicorn jumping up to the right in the upper place. In the wife's coat of arms, her family's coat of arms alternates with that of her husband. The inclined heraldic shields are connected by a joint helmet with a crown, from which two arms protrude as a splendid ornamentation of the helmet with a little salt barrel equipped with feathers (2 × 5) in their hands. Since the Salzkufe appeared in the Pötschner family coat of arms as early as the 14th century, it is obvious that they earned their wealth in no small measure in the salt trade. It is unclear, however, when the unicorn with the awakened part of its coat of arms was added. There may be a connection with Balthasar Pötschners construction of the paper mill Neudeck in Au at the site of the former mill (1322) owned by the Perkhofer whose emblem was a symbol rechtsaufspringendes half unicorn.

family

Pötschner altar in 1477 in Munich, St. Peter, excerpts with family members

Balthasar Pötschner's epitaph and inscription focuses on what he achieved and what was essential at the end of his life, his status as Herr von Riedersheim and his work for the good of the country in the service of the Wittelsbachers in a respectful attitude to God. Thanks to meticulous archive studies by Helmuth Stahleder, this brief knowledge about the life of the deceased can be supplemented. Balthasar Pötschner came from the wealthy upper class in Munich, who had been responsible for municipalities in the city council for generations. He grew up with two sisters in the residential area of ​​the Munich patriciate at Rindermarkt 8 am Pötschenbach in a large town house with a tower that had belonged to his family since the time of his great-grandfather Ulrich Pötschner (1351-1392). Since he could be identical with the "Waltharius Pöttsczkner de Monaco" mentioned in the university registers of Leipzig, Stahleder concludes that Pötschner was born around 1430. In 1457 he married Anna Fröschl from the neighboring trading town of Wasserburg, which is on the salt road from Salzburg to Munich and Augsburg lies. Her dowry is said to have included 25,000 guilders. The couple had the impressive number of 15 offspring, if one follows the representation of the donor family on the side wing of the so-called Pötschner altar from 1477.

We find 14 of the sons and daughters documented in the Pötschner family tree created by Stahleder. Three of the seven daughters and four of the eight sons die before their parents. Like his ancestors, who belong to the established council families, he worked in the city council for years before he entered the ducal service at around 50 and joined the paper mill in Neudeck in der Au when he was around 60.

Balthasar Pötschner's role in business, politics and society

Among the largest taxpayers in the city of Munich

Since the beginning of the 14th century, the Pötschner were among the richest and most taxable citizens in the city of Munich. It is assumed that this wealthy upper class came partly from bourgeois landed gentry, ministerial and knight families , partly from the class of the merchant or came from simpler backgrounds. A quarter of the taxes (in the city of about 13,000 citizens around 1500) were paid by the members of the City Council in the Inner and Outer Council. Successful in the cloth and salt trade, the Pötschner knew how to increase their capital in loan transactions and professionally invest in real estate and annuities. In addition to the large property at Rindermarkt 8, Balthasar Pötschner also owned several town houses. In 1472 he bought the seat and Hofmark Riedersheim in the Erding district court. In 1490 he founded a new company on Neudeck in der Au, after Duke Albrecht IV had given him permission to build a paper mill there and to collect rags and rags for the production of paper.

From the “Consul civitatis Monacensis” to the “Consul ducum” - from the city council of the citizens to the council of the dukes

Epitaph for Balthasar Pötschner - portrait 1505

The flourishing business of the Pötschner was the basis for their voluntary work as city councilors. Although a city council seat was not hereditary, for 200 years they sat on the oligarchic committees of the Inner and Outer Council , which governed the city under sovereign supervision in extensive self-government. Balthasar Pötschner himself has been proven to have been part of it for 21 years from 1460 with interruptions. Since a member of the Inner Council generally held the office of mayor on a monthly basis together with the mayor colleague from the ranks of the Outer Council, he also acted as mayor. As a church provost for St. Peter, he was responsible for church administration for a total of 14 years. Other voluntary, time-consuming offices related to membership of the city council were added. In 1480 a change of position is on the way. Although Balthasar Pötschner is elected to the Inner City Council by electors, he is not confirmed by Duke Albrecht IV . The Duke had “other plans for Balthasar Pötschner”. From 1483 he no longer belongs to the "consules civitatis Monacensis", as the city councils were called in a document from 1286, but is now available to the duke as a councilor. In negotiations in 1492 between Duke Albrecht IV. Of Munich-Upper Bavaria and Duke Georg of Landshut-Lower Bavaria , he earned his merit, he declared himself, "because I drew Jergen and Albrecht veraint". From 1494 he is also in the service of Duke George the Rich of Landshut-Niederbayern. In the run-up to this, he had a share in the later unification of the Wittelsbach sub-duchies of Upper and Lower Bavaria, which of course only came about after bloody sacrifices in 1506 .

Social status

Since the 14th century, the so-called lion tower , which is probably comparable to the family towers of the respected families in Tuscany, has belonged to the Pötschner property at Rindermarkt 8 . The possession of a family coat of arms, which the Pötschner already had back then, also demonstrates self-confidence. Balthasar Pötschner's service at the ducal court from 1483 increases his social rank. Since 1490 he has been generally called "Lord" and since 1491 "Knight". On the grave slab for his son Paul († 1483), who died prematurely , which presents the portrait of the young man in armor with the family coat of arms surrounded by the four coats of arms of the ancestors Fröschl, Zingl, Schrenck and Tichtl , it can be seen that the bourgeois lifestyle has been abandoned and the nobility is imitated.

Balthasar Pötschner's own grave memorial stone, on which he is depicted as a knight, uses the Middle Latin expression "miles" for knight and the title "von Riedersheim", which retains his gender until it dies in 1541 without male descendants, also speaks for itself. Even the hanging as a counterpart to the Aresinger epitaph by Erasmus Grasser, which was created around 20 years earlier, is impressive.

The Pötschner as sponsors of the church and as art patrons

As with other wealthy middle-class families, church foundations belong to Balthasar Pötschner's world. The equipment with chapels in St. Peter in Munich and the financing of clergy are thanks to their sponsorship. Evidently, the Pötschners owned the Katharinenkapelle under the north tower and the St. Annakapelle in the north aisle, which they used as a burial place and had endowed with mass foundations and rich benefits. Balthasar Pötschner also donated perpetual masses and anniversaries, in his property at Rindermarkt 8 not far from St. Peter he built his own house chapel and, following the family tradition, furnished it with a benefit.

The right of presentation associated with the benefit made it possible to appoint one's own clergyman. By buying real estate, preferably from farms, the founder ensured that it was properly maintained and properly housed in the so-called beneficiary or chaplain’s house. In return, the clergyman undertook to be available for soul masses for deceased relatives and to read annual masses. In some cases, this also gave a family member who had become a clergyman financially and socially secure. So everyone benefited, the clergy and the founders in their pious concern for salvation and grace, which this practice accommodated. In addition, the representative church services in St. Peter were associated with extraordinary social prestige. An obligation that was owed to his stand, but also an internal concern for Balthasar Pötschner, was also to furnish church rooms in and outside Munich with sacred works of art. In his expenditure book are u. a. listed, an altar and a glass painting with the so-called Gregor's mass for the Ebersberg Sebastianskirche, a carved grand piano retable for the chapel of his residence in Riedersheim near Erding and “ain glas” and “ain schilt” for the Heiliggeistkirche Pullach .

The latter object is the coat of arms symbol recognizable in the old Pullach Heiliggeistkirche on the right above the altar in the net vault, the salt barrel of the Pötschner, with which the donor has immortalized himself. The late Gothic so-called Pötschner altarpiece, a three-king triptych from 1477, from his own house chapel, is one of the works of art that he commissioned that have been preserved. It documents the piety and the veneration of saints of the founding family and the time. The unknown artist used a version of the Adoration of the Kings by Martin Schongauer as a model for the central image . The side wings show depictions of saints, among whom the namesake patrons of the male family members can be identified (thanks to Stahleder's family tree), under their protection in a reduced meaningful perspective, the donor couple with heraldic coat of arms together with his numerous sons and daughters, Balthasar Pötschner in full armor with helmet and Helmzier and immediately behind him three of his sons with the flags of the three kings, their namesake, from the middle panel and banderoles, which they highlight with their names "Caspar pötschner, Waldhauser (Balthasar) pöt ... and melcher pötsch ...". When the Pötschner house and chapel were demolished at the end of the 19th century, thanks to the prudence of the pastor at the time, according to the local declaration, the little house altar found its place in St. Peter. Today it is located in the first side chapel in the north aisle.

Well-known family members in the family tree of the Pötschner (selection)

  • Anton Pötschner von Riedershaim zum Hornstein († before 1522). After Stahleder, Anton Pötschner, the fourth son of Balthasar Pötschner, studied law in Bologna and received his doctorate. After Duke Wolfgang took over the guardianship of his brother Albrechts IV († 1508) son Wilhelm IV (* 1493), he was called to the court as a ducal councilor in 1511. He was also the nurse of Starnberg. He acquired the Hornstein Hofmark from the Torer family .
  • Ludwig Pötschner (* before 1352, † 1413). In the civil revolution (1397-1403) of the politically uninfluential bourgeois classes and the guilds against the patricians and the divided Wittelsbach dukes of the Munich and Ingolstadt lines, Ludwig Pötschner, although the incumbent city councilor, had to flee from Munich with other council families. Only with the help of Dukes Ernst and Wilhelm III. from Munich-Bavaria a return from exile was possible.
  • Ludwig Poetschner (1432–1502). As a city councilor, Ludwig Pötschner was part of the delegation of councilors and experts sent by Albrecht IV to Reichenhall in 1499 so that the renovation measures of the saltworks could be discussed there, for which Erasmus Grasser was ultimately responsible a few years later as an expert and master builder.
Pötschnerstrasse in the Neuhausen-Nymphenburg district of Munich

The family tree of the Pötschner reads like an excerpt from a register of the Munich city patriciate, which was composed of a close circle of about 50 related families. Even today, one encounters the names of these families in the street names of Munich into which the Pötschner daughters married or with whose daughters the Pötschner married, such as B. those of the families Barth , Katzmair , Ligsalz , Pötschner, Pütrich , Ridler , Schrenk, Schluder and Sentlinger . It is noteworthy that Balthasar Pötschner's wife came from a patrician family in a neighboring trading town, and that family connections with the nobility increased in the following generations, which already reflected the general social change that was taking place in the patriciate.

literature

  • August Alckens: Munich in Erz and Stein II, Mainburg 1973/74
  • L. Altmann: Catholic parish church St. Peter , Munich, Regensburg 2008
  • Renate Eikelmann and Christoph Kurzeder Ed .: Moving Times. The sculptor Erasmus Grasser (around 1450–1518) , exhibition catalog 2018, Munich 2018
  • E. Geiss: History of the parish of St. Peter in Munich , Munich 1868
  • O. Hartig: Munich artists and art objects , excerpts from archives and handwritten records of the state and municipal archives and libraries of Munich, together with additions from the printed literature; 1. From the beginning of the 14th century to the deaths of Erasmus Grasser (1518) and Jan Polack (1519) , Munich 1926
  • Otto Titan von Hefner : The seals and coats of arms of the Munich families , with a coat of arms attached, Munich 1849
  • Rudolf M. Kloos: The inscriptions of the city and the district of Munich , 1958
  • Norbert Lieb : Munich. The history of his art , Munich 1971
  • Hans Ramisch: The Pötschner altar from 1477 in St. Peter in Munich , in: Yearbook of the Association for Christian Art , Volume 20, 1998, 101–112
  • Michael Schattenhofer : The Munich patriciate . In: Journal for Bavarian State History , Vol. 38, Munich 1975, pp. 877–899
  • Helmuth Stahleder : The Munich patrician families and their charities in St. Peter, in Munich - St. Peter, city and church history (s) from the beginning to the present. Historical facets from nine centuries . From the parish archive of St. Peter in Munich, 12, Munich 2008, ed. by JA Haidn and H. Jung, pp. 45-76
  • Helmuth Stahleder: Contributions to the history of the Munich bourgeois families in the Middle Ages: The Pötschner . In: Oberbayerisches Archiv 140, 2016, pp. 39–117

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the inscription you can find the spelling “Bötschner”, in archival sources “Pötschner” “Pöttsczkner”, Potschner…. . For the present article, the P variant of the name was chosen.
  2. ↑ E. Geiss 1868, p. 245. MP von Freyberg: Collection of historical writings and documents: created from manuscripts , Stuttgart, 1830, p. 320, http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/ display / bsb10373568_00005.html , Otto Titan von Hefner, 1849, p. 44
  3. ^ E. Geiss, 1868, p. 246, RM Kloos 1958, No. 117, A. Alckens 1973/74, p. 43
  4. ↑ It used to be considered a work of Erasmus Grasser or his environment, it was also assigned to Marx (Markus) Haldner. See L. Altmann 2008, p. 36, V. Liedke: The Haldner and the imperial tomb in the Frauenkirche in Munich . In: Ars Bavarica 2, 1974, pp. 1–187, Munich 1974, German Documentation Center for Art History - Photo Archive Photo Marburg. For today's assignment cf. H. Ramisch: Patronage and clientele relationships using the example of Ulrich Aresinger , p. 126, 260 in Moving Times, The Sculptor Erasmus Grasser (around 1450 - 1518) , exhibition catalog 2018, ed. by Renate Eikelmann and Christoph Kurzeder, Munich 2018
  5. ↑ Riedersheim today part of Bockhorn near Erding. In E. Geiss 1868, p. 245, Hofmark of the parish Bockhorn, Erding district court
  6. ^ Johann Andreas Schmeller , Georg Karl Frommann ; Bavarian Dictionary , Munich 1872, I, 312 "Die Bütschen, the Bütschen, small vessel with… a lid… In former times Bütschen was also called a kind of vessel in which, from the salt mines, the salt was seduced…"
  7. ↑ Helmut Stahleder 2016, pp. 39–117, p. 75. Otto Titan von Hefner, 1849, p. 43f.
  8. ↑ Helmuth Stahleder 2016, p. 116f.
  9. ↑ W. Ebnet: You lived in Munich, biographies from 8 centuries , Munich 2016, p. 447 and Otto Titan von Hefner Wappentafel in the appendix and http://www.auer-muehlbach.de/spaziergang/kegelhof/chronikdermd/index .php . As a watermark, the Pötschner paper had the salt barrel from the family coat of arms.
  10. ↑ Michael Schattenhofer 1975, p. 881
  11. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016, pp. 116f. (Family tree)
  12. ↑ H. Stahleder, 2016, p. 91
  13. ↑ MP von Freyberg: Collection of historical writings and documents: created from manuscripts , Stuttgart, 1830, p. 320
  14. ↑ Today in St. Peter on the west wall of the first chapel of the north aisle.
  15. ↑ Michael Schattenhofer 1975, p. 879
  16. ↑ F. Ebner, Ed .: Bavaria in history and present , Munich 1956, p. 73
  17. ↑ H. Stahleder: Munich patricians. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria. February 14, 2013, accessed December 27, 2017 .
  18. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016, p. 92
  19. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016, p. 92
  20. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016, p. 92
  21. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016, p. 92
  22. ↑ Balthasar Pötschner reaches z. B. as a mediator in a succession, a friendly settlement, cf. Monumenta Boica , Volume 21, p. 225 "Compositio amicabilis super haereditate"
  23. ^ H. Stahleder 2016, p. 92 as well as AM Dahlem: The Wittelsbach Court in Munich: History and Authority in the Visual Arts , Glasgow 2009, p. 57 and M. Stephan: München um 1500 , p. 24 in exhibition cat . Munich 2018, Moving Times , ed. by R. Eickelmann and Ch. Kurzeder
  24. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016 p. 92, O. Hartig 1926, p. 72
  25. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016, p. 92
  26. ↑ Today it is a listed building. R. Bauer on TZ March 10, 2009 https://www.tz.de  ›Munich› City ›The Secret of the Lion Tower
  27. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016 p. 92
  28. ↑ G. Dehio, Munich and Oberbayern, Munich 1990, p. 141, Bockhorn, Pfarrkirche Mariä Heimsuchung and H. Stahleder 2016, p. 96
  29. ↑ E. Geiss 1868, p. 245
  30. ↑ The foundation letter of this so-called Pötschner-Kamel-Benefizium was written in 1485 by Dr. Ulrich Aresinger sealed (see E. Geiss 1868, p. 22). See also H. Stahleder 2016, p. 74f and p. 107. The Pötschner-Katharinen-Benefician (1431) was a foundation of Balthasar Pötschner's paternal grandmother, the Pötschner-St. Anna benefit from Katharina Pötschner from the line of the Pötschner with the sloping beam, next to the Pötschner had a say in the Sendlinger – Pötschner benefit, which was donated by the Sendlinger family , cf. on this H. Stahleder 2016, p. 74f and p. 107.
  31. ↑ O. Hartig 1926, No. 367, H. Stahleder 2016, p. 92f.
  32. ↑ H. Stahleder 2016, pp. 116f. as well as H. Ramisch: Patronage and clientele relationships using the example of Ulrich Aresinger , in: Aust.-Kat. 2018, p. 126 f. Due to common stylistic elements in the Pötschner epitaph and Pentecostal relief of the Pullach Heiligeistkirche, Ramisch sees the so-called second employee of Erasmus Grasser at work. It is therefore possible that Pötschner brokered this contract for Pullach. Documented in Pötschner's edition book from 1499 is "Item ain glas zum Heiligen Geist Pulach on the grechte handt by the front altar and a scolded it in the gwelb, cost four gulden rh., Anno 1469" (cf. O. Hartig 1926, no. 367 and E. Deprosse, who in the booklet "125 Years Parish Heilig Geist Pullach, Pullach 2004" refers to the late Gothic works of the Old Heiliggeistkirche, the Pentecostal relief , two altar panels from Jan Polack's environment and two small glass windows behind the high altar in connection with foundations)
  33. ↑ Ä. Atzenbeck: The local history of the municipality of Pullach in the Isar Valley from its beginnings to the turn of the century , Pullach 1956, Atzenbeck mentions the "white salt pit" and donation funds from 1472 for the Pullach Heiliggeistkirche from the Pötschner beneficiary Lienhart Sewer, p. 78. The Renaissance dance circle in Pullach circulus saltans puelach revives the time when the late Gothic village church received foundations from Munich patricians such as Balthasar Pötschner, cf. www.circulus-saltans.de ›poetschner
  34. ↑ H. Ramisch 1998, 101ff, p. 106, with the reference to Martin Schongauer's copperplate engraving B 6 from the cycle of the life of Mary
  35. ^ Leaflet in St. Peter, written by R. Kindelbacher, archivist from St. Peter 1987-2004
  36. ↑ See on Pötschner Anton and Pötschner Ludwig († 1413) H. Stahleder 2016, p. 96 f. and p. 43
  37. ^ Max Spindler : Handbook of Bavarian History, Munich 1966, Vol. II, p. 219
  38. ↑ J. Lang, Erasmus Grasser and the Saline Reichenhall, in Ausst.-Kat- Munich 2018, ed. by R. Eickelmann and Ch. Kurzeder, p. 147, and Matthias von Flurl : Older history of the Saline Reichenhall, excellent in technical terms up to the construction of the auxiliary Saline Traunstein , p. 19 muenchen.de/title/BV001422391/ft/ bsb10387253? page = 25
  39. ↑ Michael Schattenhofer 1975, p. 888
  40. ↑ Michael Schattenhofer 1975, p. 880, and H. Stahlhuber 2016, p. 116f.