Ernst Casimir zu Ysenburg and Büdingen
Ernst Casimir Graf zu Ysenburg and Büdingen in Büdingen (alternatively also Ysenburg-Büdingen-Büdingen or Isenburg-Büdingen), as Count I (born May 12, 1687 in Büdingen ; † October 15, 1749 there ) was a religiously tolerant and economically active Regent of the counties of Ysenburg and Büdingen .
As the fourth son of Count Johann Casimir zu Ysenburg and Büdingen and Countess Sophie Elisabeth zu Isenburg-Birstein , he became regent of the Büdingen part of the country through the early death of the older brothers in 1708 at the age of 21. As early as March 29, 1712, at the age of 25, he proclaimed his edict of tolerance “PRIVILEGIA and freedoms”, a progressive document of human rights for his time. In addition, his reign was marked by a number of other advances for the well-being of his house and his subjects, such as the founding of the suburb of Büdingen and an associated increase in the population of his county, which was decimated by the Thirty Years' War , plague and epidemics, and economic prosperity through the settlement of craftsmen and a print shop (owned by Johann Regelein from Nuremberg ). Furthermore, an increase in the property of his house through defense of inheritance claims and the assumption of his Marienborn inheritance as well as the expansion of the count's courts (Christinenhof, Salinenhof and Thiergarten). Spiritual and spiritual life also flourished under Count Ernst Casimir. So he came into contact with the movement of one of the most famous exponents of Pietism , the most important genealogist and founder of heraldry , Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705), granted the chancellery Otto Heinrich Becker (1667–1723), who had fled Waldeck, a home and promoted Nikolaus Ludwig Count von Zinzendorf (1700–1760), with whose name the origin and development of the Moravian Brethren is connected, for which Count Ernst Casimir made the Herrnhaag , a hill near Büdingen, available.
Life
Ernst Casimir, orphaned at the age of six and a half - his father died in 1693 during a campaign in the Netherlands - grew up with two older brothers under the tutelage of his two uncles Georg Albrecht von Ysenburg-Büdingen-Meerholz (1664–1724) and Carl August von Ysenburg -Büdingen-Marienborn (1667-1725). The boys were brought up under the care of the French clergyman Mr. de Beaumont (in Kassel) or from 1692 to 1702 by the later Meerholzischen councilor Tromp in Frankfurt am Main. The latter accompanied the young counts to study in Utrecht (1703/1704). Ernst Casimir and his older brother Johann Ernst (1683–1708) were then matriculated on June 5, 1704 at the University of Halle . From 1706 Ernst Casimir attended the military academy in Berlin, having previously traveled to England. He broke off his military career in 1708 to take over the government after the sudden death of his brother. In August of the same year he married Christina Eleonore zu Stolberg-Gedern , a daughter of Christina zu Stolberg-Gedern , known through her close contact with Spener , with whom he fathered five sons and a daughter. Two of his children, namely Count Gustav Friedrich (1717-1768) and Count Ludwig Casimir (1710-1775) were his successors.
Edict of Tolerance of 1712
The patent announced by Count Casimir zu Ysenburg and Büdingen in 1712 is a promise of privileges to any settlers in and in front of the royal seat of Büdingen, as it was in others at the end of the 17th century for the reception of French religious refugees ( Huguenots ) German territories were released. What made it so unique was a much more extensive version than, for example, the privilege decrees of Count Johann Philipp von Isenburg-Offenbach from Offenbach from 1705 or the Edict of Potsdam , which was issued on October 29th . / November 8th 1685 greg. was issued by the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg . Freedom of conscience should not only prevail for members of the three Christian denominations recognized in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, Catholics , Lutherans and Reformed , but it promised "everyone complete freedom of conscience .... even those who did not go to any because of scruples of conscience keep outward religion ”. There was also freedom from trade, education and school fees, a modern asylum policy for religious refugees and “ sectarians ” and emancipation for Jews.
Under “without Party's justice”, not only was serfdom abolished, but also free entry and exit guaranteed and attractive tax incentives created to promote manufactories “as lacking here”. At the same time, it was not only the elements of an enlightened population policy - this included the guarantee of political and civil rights , in which all newly settled people were to be treated as equal to the city citizens - or the economic start-up aid presented in the Edict of Tolerance - a kind of innovative economic stimulus program - that were revolutionary; Rather, this was his preamble, in which an explicit statement was made for the first time that authoritarian power does not extend beyond conscience. The core passage, “... so we want everyone to have complete freedom of conscience ...” proclaimed as a patent of tolerance at that time, which is commonly regarded as the beginning of historical and courtly absolutism, must have been perceived as extremely provocative in many places. The count promptly negotiated with his pietistic Offenbach court printer Bonaventura De Launoy a lawsuit at the Imperial Court of Justice , which, however, came to nothing. The indictment was also directed against the count's chancellery, Otto Heinrich Becker, a former student of the law faculty in Halle, who had formulated the patent. Becker had previously become a key figure in a major reform program as a government and consistorial councilor in the county of Waldeck , but had to leave the country after a change of government because of his pietistic beliefs. For Ernst Casimir he was the right man to pragmatically implement his idea of tolerance and peuplication .
Suburb
The Edict of Tolerance by Count Ernst Casimir was not only a remarkably enlightened document of human rights for its time , but also an economic development program that could be called innovative. From a historical perspective, this aspect, which determines large passages after the programmatic opening article, is probably in the foreground, which is also expressed in the fact that the Edict of Tolerance is often referred to as the “Tolerance Patent”. The term patent shows that in the historical evaluation the focus has apparently been shifted to a sovereignly granted industrial property right, i.e. to the aspect of material usability. At the same time, this can also be regarded as an unusually future-oriented economic and political achievement for its time, which is an important milestone that provides evidence of the urban development of the residential town of Büdingen.
The basic consideration was not only to create attractive incentives for new settlers and especially a productive middle class. At the same time, we encounter an early example of sustainable planning and the pursuit of fair social equality at a relatively high level of prosperity. On the part of the long-established Büdinger, however, there was massive resistance to the settlement of the new citizens, who, according to a broad opinion, had already been endowed with too great benefits by the rulers. A settlement on an existing, attractive site in the city was therefore abandoned in order to avoid ongoing unrest.
The count decided to found a suburb outside the city walls ("in front of the lower gate" - henceforth called the Jerusalem gate by the exiles ), originally a count's garden land, which was to receive its own defense system. Rapidly advancing construction work resulted in a completely new cityscape in “well-proportioned uniformity” in less than 20 years. This was achieved by tying the right to free building materials and a ten-year tax exemption to compliance with the design specifications. These specifications stated that two-storey half-timbered houses designed according to a uniform plan were to be built along a street on which the plots had been measured. On the south side they had to take the course of the Küchenbach stream into consideration and their north side had to take into account the rise in terrain. The houses have a dwarf house or a dormer in the saddle roof and face the street on the eaves side. The entrance is in the middle, the other rooms lead off on both sides. The kitchen is on the extension of the hallway on the courtyard side. Even if the houses have been greatly changed nowadays due to shop fittings, the foresight of urban development can be read from the land maps 1831/32 and 1844/48 as well as numerous photographs from the early 20th century. Shortly after the “development” of the suburb, craftsmen from the city were interested in the privileges and advantages associated with the construction. The success of this peuplication policy was demonstrated by the fact that the population of Büdingen more than doubled within 30 years. As early as 1731 there were three button makers, 18 stocking weavers, two “surgeons” ( surgeons ) and even three pharmacists. In 1717 the Count succeeded in moving Johann Friedrich Regelein from Nuremberg to the city as a court book printer. A fulling mill at Seemenbach became important as the basis for textile processing, and the paper mill, which was set up in 1714, flourished from 1735 onwards by the papermaker Johann Christian Illig .
Effects of the politics of Count Ernst Casimir
Even the Edict of Tolerance issued by Count Ernst Casimir zu Ysenburg and Büdingen at the beginning of the 18th century , like many famous Edicts of Tolerance before and after in history, did not have a very long lifespan. Already his son and successor Gustav Friedrich Graf von Ysenburg-Büdingen ordered in an emigration edict of February 12, 1750 the dissolution of the Moravian Brethren, which had been settled by his father on the Herrnhaag . When the economically and missionarily successful community of around 1000 people, which benefited from the climate of success in the same way as the suburb in view of the promotion of medium-sized businesses and intellectual flourishing on the Büdinger Herrnhaag, dwarfed the Büdinger Residenz and refused the oath of subjects demanded by Count Gustav Friedrich, was with Their expulsion practically sealed the revocation of the Edict of Tolerance by 1753. In the history books, the work of Count Ernst Casimir I zu Ysenburg and Büdingen was almost forgotten or at best remembered as an "experiment". It is recognized that the complete change to a successful employment structure in these less than favorable times is a consequence of his economic measures. Nonetheless, the true meaning of Ernst Casimir's work lies in the fact that, on the basis of a Christian ethic that has been handed down over several generations, encouraged by a cosmopolitan education and personal acquaintance with important national educational centers such as international metropolises and made possible by the economically successful management of his domain, tolerance and freedom of conscience are not only permitted, but practiced it and thus paved the way for civil-democratic freedom in Germany. Through the work of the count, a crossroads of diverse intellectual currents, which were shared with many , developed here in the first half of the 18th century in the association of the "Old Empire" (see The Empire until the middle of the 18th century ) from a pool of persecuted and deviants Places of the Old and New World was worn. To characterize the Büdingen patent as a feudal-conservative economic privilege, which included the tolerance of separatists as a special feature, is still an evaluation that ignores Ernst Casimir's holistic approach and denies him historical significance due to the narrow perspective.
See also
- Isenburg ; other members of the House of Isenburg / Ysenburg.
- Offenbach Post ; Reinhold Gries: sanctuary of faith - 200 years ago, Count zu Ysenburg and Büdingen issued a “tolerance patent”. appeared in the OP , April 4, 2012
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinhold Gries sanctuary of faith - 300 years ago, on March 29th, 1712, Ernst Casimir zu Ysenburg and Büdingen, at the age of 25, announced a "tolerance patent" op-online.de of April 4th, 1912, URL http: // www. op-online.de/nachrichten/kultur/freistatt-glaubens-2265245.html
- ^ Edict of Potsdam - Article at Info-Potsdam.de ; As of November 5, 2007.
- ↑ Reinhard Reuter: Handwerkerhöfe and Ackerbürgerhöfe in the suburb of Büdingen, excursus in: Villages in Hessen. Edited by the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen. Vol. 3: Between Taunus, Vogelsberg and Main, Königstein im Taunus 2004, pp. 180–214.
- ↑ Literature: Two pages with the title Vorstadt without naming the author, Büdingen City Archives. Land map of the suburb from 1831/32.
- ↑ Land map of the suburb from 1844/48, city archives
- ^ Klaus-Peter Decker: The tolerance patent from 1712, freedom of belief and craftsmanship. Brochure for the exhibition in the Büdinger Heuson Museum from March 29 to September 9, 2012.
- ^ Matthias Benad: Tolerance and Economy. Count Ernst Casimir's patent from 1712 and the founding of the Büdinger suburb. Büdinger Geschichtsblätter, Vol. XI, 1983, pp. 163-197.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ysenburg and Büdingen, Ernst Casimir too |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ysenburg and Büdingen, Ernst Casimir Graf too |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Regent and herald of the Edict of Tolerance (1712) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 12, 1687 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Büdingen , Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 15, 1749 |
| Place of death | Büdingen , Germany |