Florian Geyer

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Engraving showing Kunz von der Rosen , but later also used for illustrations by Klaus Störtebeker and Florian Geyer.
Coat of arms of the Geyer family according to Siebmacher's book of arms

Florian Geyer (also: Florian Geier von Giebelstadt ; * around 1490 in Giebelstadt ; † June 10, 1525 in the Gramschatzer Forest near Würzburg ) was a Frankish imperial knight , troop leader in the service of Margrave Albrecht von Brandenburg-Ansbach and diplomat . He took over the leadership of the Black Heap in the Peasants' War in 1525 .

Life

Coming from the Franconian noble family Geyer von Giebelstadt , he was born as the youngest of three brothers. After his father Dietrich († 1492) and his two older brothers died, he inherited a considerable fortune and extensive estates at a very young age, which allowed him to live a life free of financial worries.

From 1512 to 1513 he traveled to see Henry VIII . In 1517 he was excommunicated after an interest dispute with the Neumünster collegiate monastery , which demanded a 350-year-old claim from him without written evidence, and remained under the spell until his death .

In 1519 he served as a lieutenant to Margrave Kasimir von Ansbach in the army of the Swabian Confederation as a Landsknechtsführer in a punitive expedition against Duke Ulrich von Württemberg and against his bailiff in Möckmühl , Götz von Berlichingen .

In the service of Albrecht of Brandenburg-Prussia

Also that year, at the request of his liege lord, Geyer entered the service of his brother, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Albrecht von Brandenburg-Ansbach , to support him as an experienced captain in an impending conflict with the Kingdom of Poland. Until 1523 he was in the service of the Grand Master as a troop leader, for whom he visited the courts of Europe on a diplomatic mission when the military situation developed unfavorably.

In 1520 he led the armistice negotiations with Poland and in 1523 took part in the negotiations for the Schweinfurt Knights' Day. In the same year he accompanied his prince to a conversation with Martin Luther in Wittenberg .

Adviser and negotiator for the Tauber farmers

Florian Geyer worked as an advisor and negotiator for the Tauber farmers when the Peasants' War broke out in 1525.

He supported the organization of the peasant army and helped to develop strategic principles. As a negotiator, he succeeded in winning several smaller towns, including the relatively large Rothenburg ob der Tauber . He conducted negotiations with Würzburg and the Margrave Casimir von Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth. His aim in the struggle against the sovereign principality was an imperial reform based on peasant and bourgeoisie, above all the elimination of clerical and noble privileges with Lutheran teaching as a moral basis. However, Geyer was unable to assert himself with his proposals among the radicalized peasants and often met with suspicion because of his aristocratic origins.

It was only when the troops of the Swabian League under Georg Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil marched against the peasants and inflicted their first heavy defeats on the advice of Geyer to try to negotiate a peace with the mediation of his former liege lord. Geyer traveled to Rothenburg to await Kasimir's escort. After the defeat of the peasants in the decisive battle near Ingolstadt in Lower Franconia and Königshofen , Geyer, who was still waiting for the escort, was expelled from the city of Rothenburg by the city council and rode north alone.

On the night of June 9th to 10th, 1525, Geyer is said to have been robbed and stabbed by two servants of his brother-in-law Wilhelm von Grumbach in the Gramschatzer Forest near Würzburg; however, there is no clear evidence of this. The whereabouts of his body and the location of his grave are unknown.

reception

Because he voluntarily renounced a life of luxury and stood up for his convictions, Florian Geyer is far better suited as a role model than the figure of Götz von Berlichingen or the “peasant chancellor” Wendel Hipler . The National Socialists named the 8th SS Cavalry Division of the Waffen-SS after him, as the co-ordinated student body at the Hohenheim Agricultural University was called the Comradeship Florian Geyer . The GDR border regiment  3 "Florian Geyer" and some agricultural production cooperatives (LPG) were also named after him. In addition, a number of streets were named after Florian Geyer during the GDR era, particularly often in rural communities and in residential areas related to land reform (new farming villages). Max-Schnabel-Strasse, located in Heidingsfeld , a district of Würzburg, was renamed Florian-Geyer-Strasse on August 11, 1933.

In the folk song We are Geyer's black pile , Geyer's deeds were dealt with after the First World War .

The writer Gerhart Hauptmann created the drama Florian Geyer in 1894/1895 .

literature

Non-fiction

  • Hermann Barge : Florian Geyer. A biographical study. Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim 1972, ISBN 3-8067-0124-5 .
  • Wilhelm Benkert: The historical Florian Geyer . In: Contributions to the history of the market town of Giebelstadt. Giebelstadt 1970, pp. 1-24.
  • Wilhelm Blos : Florian Geyer - life and character image from the great peasant war. JHW Dietz successor, Berlin 1924 (= The small series. Volume 3).
  • Christa Dericum : Geyer's black heaps. Florian Geyer and the German Peasants' War. Bertelsmann, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-570-07254-1 .
  • Friedrich Engels : The German Peasants' War. In: Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Political-economic review. Issue 5-6, 1850; New edition after the last edition from 1875 by Friedrich Engels in: Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels - Works. Volume 7. Dietz, Berlin 1960, pp. 377-400 ( online at Zeno.org ).
  • Günther Franz : The German Peasants' War. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1987, ISBN 3-534-03424-4 .
  • Dagobert von Mikusch: Florian Geyer and the fight for the empire. Schlegel, Berlin 1941.
  • Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg : How Florian Geyer died. In: Go to the land of the Franks - A home book in words and pictures. 5th volume. Mainpresse, Würzburg 1961, pp. 34-37.

items

  • Wilhelm Blos : Florian Geyer. Life and character from the great peasant war.
    • In: The new time . Review of intellectual and public life. Volume 4, Issue 2, 1886, pp. 58-65. ( Digitized version ).
    • In: The new time. Review of intellectual and public life. Volume 4, Issue 3, 1886, pp. 108-116. ( Digitized version ).
    • In: The new time. Review of intellectual and public life. Volume 4, No. 4, 1886, pp. 165-174. ( Digitized version ).

Lexicons

Fiction - novels

  • Sandra Dittrich: The silver boot buckle - The mystery of Florian Geyer's death. Historical novel. Published as an e-book by Neobooks, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-8476-3329-7 .
  • Robert Heller : Florian Geyer. 3 volumes. 1848.
  • Jeremiah Pearson: Liberty League Saga. 3 volumes. Lübbe, Cologne 2015–2017. (Florian Geyer plays an important role in the plot)
    • The Baptist. (= Liberty League saga. Volume 1). Translation from English by Axel Merz. Lübbe, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-7857-2537-5 .
    • The heretics. (= Liberty League saga. Volume 2). Translation from English by Axel Merz. Lübbe, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-7857-2556-6 .
    • The peasant warrior. (= Liberty League saga. Volume 3). Translation from English by Holger Hanowell. Lübbe, Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-7857-2587-0 .

Fiction - Dramas

First performance of the drama on January 4, 1896 in the Deutsches Theater Berlin.
  • Nikolaus Fey : Florian Geyer - Peasants 'War 1525. Drama, Würzburg 1925 (“People's Play”) and 1937 (“ Peasants' Freedom Game”).

Web links

Commons : Florian Geyer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jan von Flocken: "Florian Geyer, the noble farmer's guide" Welt.de of October 23, 2007
  2. ^ Dieter Schnabel: Knight Wilhelm von Grumbach. URANIA Culture and Education Association Gotha eV, 2012
  3. ↑ Peter Weidisch: Würzburg in the "Third Reich". In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. Volume 2, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , p. 1273, note 63.
personal data
SURNAME Geyer, Florian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German knight, diplomat and peasant leader in the German Peasants' War, 1525
DATE OF BIRTH around 1490
PLACE OF BIRTH Gable City
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1525
Place of death near Würzburg