Forester of Gelnhausen

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The forest masters of Gelnhausen were a baronial aristocratic family in what is now Hesse , who were especially wealthy in the Kinzig valley .

Coat of arms in Siebmacher's coat of arms book
Coat of arms of the forester of Gelnhausen left (= heraldic right) at Wirtheim Castle
Coat of arms forester of Gelnhausen left (heraldic right) at the castle chaplaincy / tithe barn in Gelnhausen

history

origin

The origins of the forest masters von Gelnhausen, first mentioned in a document in 1239, lie in the Hohenstaufen imperial palace Gelnhausen , where they had a castle seat and the associated administration of the Gelnhausen forest and the imperial forest of Büdingen, which was temporarily connected to it . In the Büdinger Forest they held the office of Reich Forest Master until 1395. They owned goods from the accessories of the Gelnhausen Imperial Castle and placed several burgraves there . The forest masters of Gelnhausen were originally ministerials . In the course of time, the official title "Forstmeister von Gelnhausen" (also: "Forstmeister zu Gelnhausen") became a family name .

The vernacular connects the origin of the family with a legend. Accordingly, Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa gave the forester as much land as he could ride around in one day as a reward for rescuing his life from danger during a hunt.

In the 15th century the ownership changed significantly. At this time the Counts of Isenburg had gradually succeeded in acquiring the rights of use over the Büdinger Forest, which had previously been held by the forester and the twelve foresters on horseback. In 1484, Balthasar Forstmeister von Gelnhausen sold the Reichsforstmeisteramt with all rights to Ludwig II of Isenburg-Büdingen for 1460  florins Frankfurt currency. The importance of the Palatinate declined sharply in the late Middle Ages, so that it was finally pledged, first to the Counts of Schwarzburg , and later together to the Counts of Hanau and the Electoral Palatinate .

Domination

In the 14th century, the Forstmeister von Gelnhausen family had already succeeded in establishing a small territorial rule in the Kinzig Valley near Wächtersbach around the towns of Aufenau and Neudorf (Reign of Aufenau). The forester got these places first in 1364 as lißbergisches , since their extinction in 1399 as rodensteinisches fiefdom . With the extinction of the Rodensteiners in 1671, they regarded the property, which was incorporated into the Reichsburg Friedberg in the Middle Rhine Imperial Knighthood, as imperial direct .

The center of the extremely small rulership of Aufenau at the confluence of the Bracht in the Kinzig was the castle at today's Hof Kinzighausen, usually called the Blue Wonder . The rule was just 10 square kilometers and little more than 100 houses.

Decline

The small rulership between Vogelsberg and Spessart , whose income came mainly from agricultural goods, was no longer sufficient in modern times to provide for the family in keeping with their status. This becomes tangible with Johann Philipp Forstmeister von Gelnhausen (1681–1740), who mainly got into debt because of the equipment of numerous family members. His successor Franz Ludwig Forstmeister von Gelnhausen could no longer service the debt. In 1752, at the instigation of Emperor Franz I, an imperial debit commission was set up to oversee the finances. The Rhenish knighthood was commissioned with this . Franz Ludwig escaped compulsory administration only because his property was valued inappropriately high. However, it was introduced when the debt level became apparent with his death in 1763 and Karl Franz Forstmeister von Gelnhausen (1747–1787) wanted to take over the inheritance. The administration was now in turn with the Rhenish knighthood under the leadership of Friedberg Burgrave Franz Heinrich von Dalberg .

In 1780 Karl Franz finally had to sell the rule to Kurmainz because he could not pay the debt despite the forced administration. He was also to receive the lucrative office man in the Orb , Burgjoss and Hausen offices and the position of an electoral secret council. The sale was delayed due to various legal difficulties until his death in 1787, among other things, because the sale contradicted Emperor Leopold's privilege to sell knightly goods. In addition, the Lords of Haxthausen protested unsuccessfully as heirs of the Rodenstein family. The purchase price was 184,000  florins , while the family was in debt with 134,000 florins.

The lineage of the forestry masters of Gelnhausen died out a few years later in 1814 with the death of Karl Friedrich forestry master of Gelnhausen, the last land commander of the Teutonic Order - Balleien Koblenz and Swabia-Alsace-Burgundy .

coat of arms

The local coat of arms of Aufenau , adopted in 1964 as the coat of arms of the forest master of Gelnhausen

The coat of arms of the forester's masters of Gelnhausen shows a golden, headed, upright hook with barbs ( wolf tang ) on a blue background . To the right of the hook is the shield with three golden shingles over which a red cross hovers, and to the left with four shingles. The number of shingles varies. The wolf's tang between a blue flight , which is also sprinkled with golden shingles, serves as a helmet ornament . The helmet covers are blue and gold.

Tribe list

Wirtheim Castle

Historical possession

literature

  • Jürgen Ackermann: Reich debit administration for the Freiherren Forstmeister von Gelnhausen. In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History 109, 2004, pp. 95–113 ( online ; PDF; 470 kB)
  • Heinrich Bingemer: The Frankfurt coat of arms booklet. 2nd edition, Kramer, Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-7829-0348-X , p. 19 plate 11.
  • Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : New general German nobility lexicon , Volume 3. Leipzig 1861, p. 302.
  • Dieter Krieger: Hessisches Wappenbuch, 3rd part. Family coat of arms, volume 1. Starke, Limburg 1999, ISBN 3-7980-0002-6 , p. 60 and plate 9.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Georg Theodor Grasse: Book of sagas of the Prussian State, Volume 2. Glogau 1871, pp. 813–814.
  2. ^ Christian Vogel: Forest rights in the Büdinger Forest from the High Middle Ages to today. In: Büdinger Geschichtsblätter 20, 2007/2008, p. 287.
  3. ^ J. Ackermann: Reich Debit Management for the Barons Forest Masters von Gelnhausen, 2004, p. 95 with further sources.
  4. ^ Gerhard Köbler : Historical Lexicon of the German Lands. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 7th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54986-1 , pp. 30 and 188.
  5. ^ Hans Philippi : Territorial history of the county of Büdingen. Elwert, Marburg 1954 (Writings of the Hessian Office for Historical Regional Studies 23) , p. 84f.
  6. ^ J. Ackermann: Reich Debit Management for the Barons Forest Masters von Gelnhausen, 2004, p. 96.
  7. ↑ Jürgen Ackermann: From “Schlößchen Blaues Wunder” to Hofgut Kinzighausen. In: Gelnhauser Heimat-Jahrbuch 41, 1989, pp. 33–35.
  8. ↑ J. Ackermann: Reich Debit Management for the Barons Forstmeister von Gelnhausen, 2004, p. 104f.
  9. ↑ Thomas Schilp: The Reichsburg Friedberg in the Middle Ages. Studies of their constitution, administration and politics. Friedberg 1982, pp. 56-59