Intercessor
The Association of Fürspänger (also: Society with the Fürspang ) was an exclusive Franconian knight society .
It was founded on August 13, 1396 by 26 nobles from 12 Franconian families in Würzburg. These families included the Egloffstein , Förtsch von Thurnau , Fuchs , Grumbach , Heßberg , Rotenhan , Seckendorff , Seinsheim , Stiebar , Wenkheim , Wolffskeel and Zollner .
The society was originally a funeral and altar brotherhood and dealt with the veneration of Mary . The religious centers were the newly founded Liebfrauenkirchen in Bamberg, Nuremberg and Würzburg. In Bamberg and Würzburg, the company also donated the measurement benefits.
The name was derived from the also Fürspange (also: Fürspann ) , which was interpreted as a clasp from the belt of Saint Mary. With this brooch the coat was held together on the front of the chest. This functional jewelry was later also used symbolically as an order decoration .
Like other societies of this time, this society basically fulfilled the need of the knightly class to distinguish itself from other classes, including from the up-and-coming bourgeois families of the cities, the so-called patriciate (first and foremost probably the Nuremberg patricians ). Membership in the Fürspängern was originally limited to 26 families and was not expanded until 1505, with membership being inherited within the families. The togetherness should be strengthened by cultivating the knightly virtues.
She was a model for later tournament societies , such as the unicorn society or the bear society . It can be seen as a forerunner of later religious orders .
Due to the Reformation, the structure of the societies changed and the number of members dwindled. Before it was dissolved in 1648, the Rotenhan and Stiebar families alone represented the Fürspängergesellschaft. The Frankish imperial knighthood took over the benefices, property and financial assets as legal successors.
See also
literature
- Johannes Müllner: The annals of the imperial city of Nuremberg from 1623, Part II: From 1351-1469 . Nuremberg 1972. pp. 13-16.
- Andreas Ranft: Noble Societies . Group formation and cooperative society in the late medieval empire . January Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1994, 364 pp, ISBN 3-7995-5938-8
- Corld Ulrichs: From the feudal court to the imperial knighthood . Structures of the Franconian nobility at the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. Verlag Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, pp. 135 ff., ISBN 3-515-07109-1
- Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . 2nd, improved edition. W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 ( online ).
