Fabian I. von Dohna

Fabian I. Graf von Dohna (born May 26, 1550 in Stuhm , † June 4, 1621 in Karwinds ) was a general, diplomat and statesman from the Electorate of the Palatinate and Brandenburg.

Life

Carhaben Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

Fabian came from the noble family Dohna , whose first documented enfeoffment with the hereditary imperial castle county Dohna by King Friedrich I Barbarossa took place in 1153 in Merseburg. In the 15th century the family was widespread in Bohemia, Silesia and Meissen. It was transplanted to Prussia around the middle of the 15th century by Stanislaus or Stenzel von Dohna, who joined the German order. In 1453 the landed gentry rose against the order and, together with the cities of the order state, allied themselves with the Poles. In the protracted war that followed, Stanislaus rendered important services to the Grand Master and defended Meve Castle so bravely in 1464 that, after the unfortunate Peace of Thorn in 1466, he received Teutopage or German village as a fief, where he quietly ended his life.

Two of his sons died very early, the third, Peter von Dohna (* 1483; † January 18, 1553), also served in the German Order. On the occasion of a trip to Rome in 1520, he became acquainted with Martin Luther on the way back in Wittenberg, for whose convictions he was enthusiastic. During the time in which Grand Master Albrecht of Brandenburg tried in vain to win West Prussia back, but received East Prussia as a duchy under Polish suzerainty in the Peace of Krakow, Peter rendered him the most important services, for which he rewarded him with the goods that the Countess Dohna form majorat, namely Morungen, Schlobitten, Braunsberg, Stuhm etc. His first marriage with Elisabeth von Eylenberg remained childless, his second marriage with Catharina (1513–1558), the daughter of the Polish senator and Marienburg starost Achatius von Zehmen (around 1485 –1565), however, there were many children. She bore him a daughter and seven sons.

The youngest son Fabian attended the grammar school in Thorn after the early death of his parents, went to Königsberg in 1560 , to Strasbourg at the age of fourteen , was at the University of Wittenberg in 1569 , made a gentlemanly trip to Italy in 1570, benefiting from the death of three brothers, became 1566 imperial cloth chair. As Feldobrist and mercenary leader from the Prussian line of the Dohna , he became councilor, court marshal and envoy of the Count Palatine Johann Casimir at several courts, made a campaign in the Netherlands and Poland and in 1587 led the Heinrich von Navarra (later King Heinrich IV France ) sent 13,000 troops from the Palatinate to help, with whom he advanced to the Loire .

In 1591 he served again in France on the side of Henry IV, after his return he attended the Diet of Regensburg three times on behalf of Elector Friedrich IV of the Palatinate , received the fiefs from Emperor Rudolf II in 1594 and was appointed by Elector Joachim Friedrich of Brandenburg in 1604 appointed Oberstburggrafen.

He converted to the Reformed Church and died unmarried and childless in 1621.

Aftermath

For the former Berliner Siegesallee , the sculptor Peter Breuer designed a marble bust of Fabian as a side figure of monument group 23 to the central statue for Elector Johann Sigismund , unveiled on August 30, 1901. The bust shows the count with a scar on his forehead. The head wound, which earned him the nickname "Fabian with the Schmarre", he sustained in 1587 in a campaign to defend the Huguenots .

The Dohnagestell, a street in the Berlin district of Wedding , is named after the noble Dohna family.

literature

• Werner Nissen:  Dohna, Fabian von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 49 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ernst Erdmannsdörffer, Karl Wilhelm Georg Fritsch (Freiherr von): The cession of Alsace to France: A contribution to the history of the Peace of Westphalia. Karras, 1895, p. 127, Google books .
• Christian Krollmann: autobiography of the burgrave Fabian zu Dohna. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1905, Google books .
• Hans Georg Schmidt: Fabian von Dohna. Niemeyer, Halle 1897, Google books , copper engraving included.
• Torsten Foelsch: Schlodien & Carwinds . Two castles in East Prussia and the Burgraves and Counts of Dohna. 1st edition. Foelsch & Fanselow Verlag, Groß Gottschow 2014, ISBN 978-3-9816377-0-0 ; a lot of information about the Castle Car winds and the family zu Dohna.

Web links

• Fabian von und zu Dohna on geschkult.fu-berlin.de