Franz von Sonnenberg (Grand Prior)

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Franz von Sonnenberg around 1662

Franz von Sonnenberg (born May 26, 1608 in Lucerne ; † October 10, 1682 in Leuggern ) was briefly Grand Prior of the German Johanniter in 1682 .

origin

Sonnenberg comes from the Lucerne patrician family of the Sonnenberg, who have called themselves "von Sonnenberg" since the nobility diploma they received from Emperor Leopold I in 1666 . However, the family had already been ennobled by King Mathias of Hungary in 1488 , which enabled him to fully fulfill the ancestral test of the Order of St. John (noble origin over four generations).

The family named themselves after the Sonnenberg near Lucerne. His parents were the Lucerne mayor , Jakob von Sonnenberg and his wife, Anna Pfyffer von Wyher .

Life

Sonnenberg attended the Jesuit College in Lucerne and began a military career in the Swiss Guard regiment of the French king in 1625 , where he served until 1634 - most recently as captain in his brother Alphons' company.

In 1630 he entered the Order of St. John and in 1634 began the one-year novitiate . From then on he was involved in many forays (so-called caravans) of the Maltese order galleys . In 1635 he took his religious vows .

Due to his years of service and merits, he was assigned three important comers :

The Kommende Wietersheim was assigned to him in 1641 until it fell to the Protestant knight Hilmer Ernst von Münchhausen around 1646. The Coming Regensburg - Altmühlmünster was of lesser importance and Komtur von Münchenbuchsee was only a title.

When he was elected Grand Prior, the Coming Bubikon and Heitersheim were subordinate to him , but due to his imminent death he left no traces.

From 1650 to 1656 he held the office of Grand Baillis of the German Tongue and was thus the highest-ranking German knight in Malta. From 1655 he held the title of Grand Prior of Hungary.

After the death of his predecessor, Friedrich von Hessen († February 19, 1682), Sonnenberg was elected Grand Prior of the German Johanniter on April 14 in Malta. The certificate of appointment was handed over to him on June 8, 1682 in Leuggern. The inauguration in Heitersheim took place on June 22, 1682. Until his death on October 10, 1682, he could hardly influence the Grand Priory.

He bequeathed the Kasteln estate , which he bought in 1680, to his family, who had to invest a large amount of money in the order of St. John .

literature

  • Peter Steinkopf: The commendable Sonnenberg , Baden 1683, doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-31446
  • Wilfried Steinhart: The Villingen Commander Franz von Sonnenberg - and the Order of St. John: Memories of an important man, In: Villingen in the course of time. - 37. 2014. - pp. 89–92 online on the homepage Geschichts- und Heimatverein Villingen eV
  • Franz Peter: Franz von Sonnenberg. Knight, Commander, Imperial Prince and Grand Prior of Germany in the Order of Malta. 1608-1682 , University Press , Freiburg / Switzerland 1977
  • Franz Xaver Kraus (Ed.): The art monuments of the Grand Duchy of Baden. Descriptive statistics / on behalf of the Grand Ducal Ministry of Justice, Culture and Education and in connection with Josef Durm , Ernst Wagner, Volume 2: District of Villingen. Freiburg i. B. 1890, p. 128 Digital copy of the Heidelberg University Library

Web links

Commons : Franz von Sonnenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann J. Welti: On the building history of the Johanniterkommende Leuggern in the last three centuries of its existence. In: Argovia: Annual Journal of the Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau, Volume 72 (1960); S. 182, doi : 10.5169 / seals-65416
  2. ^ Peter Quadri: Sonnenberg, Jakob. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  3. ^ History of the Jesuit Church and School in Lucerne
  4. ↑ s. Rock hard
  5. ↑ s. Quadri
  6. ↑ Peter Quadri: Sonnenberg, Alphons von. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  7. ↑ Steinkopf's diary (June 7 to August 13, 1641) of such a booty trip is printed (pp. 137–152; pp. 145–152 are inserted in the wrong place in the linked digitized version)
  8. ↑ Entry on www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de
  9. ↑ s. Rock hard
  10. ↑ s. Quadri
  11. ↑ s. Steinkopf p. 18/19
predecessor Office successor
Friedrich of Hessen-Darmstadt Grand Prior of the German Order of St. John and Prince of Heitersheim
1682 		Gottfried Droste to Vischering
personal data
SURNAME Sonnenberg, Franz von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sonnenberg and Ballwil, Franziskus von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Grand Prior of the German Order of St. John
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1608
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1682
Place of death Leuggern