Georg Friedrich I. (Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach)

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Painting of Margrave Georg Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth (around 1564) by Lucas Cranach the Younger in the Grunewald hunting lodge
Margrave Georg Friedrich I.
Elisabeth von Brandenburg-Küstrin , first wife of Georg Friedrich I.
Georg Friedrich and Princess Sophie of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , second wife of Georg Friedrich I (medal from 1579)
Georg Friedrich I's high grave in Heilsbronn Monastery

Georg Friedrich I , the Elder (* 5. April 1539 in Ansbach , † April 26 or April 25 . Jul / 5. May  1603 . Greg ibid) was 1543-1603 Margrave of the Principality of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Duke of Jägerndorf , from 1557 to 1603 Margrave of the Principality of Brandenburg-Kulmbach and from 1577 to 1603 Administrator of the Duchy of Prussia .

Life

Origin and family

Georg Friedrich was the only son of the Margrave Georg Ansbach (see list of the Hohenzollern family ) and his third wife Aemilia von Sachsen (1516–1591), daughter of Heinrich the Pious . After the early death of the father in 1543, the mother took over the education of the five-year-old Georg Friedrich. The chief guardians were the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony and Landgrave Philipp of Hesse. In his will, Georg the Pious had decreed that the principality of Brandenburg-Ansbach and the Silesian duchies should be administered by the imperial district judge of Nuremberg and governor of Ansbach Friedrich von Knobelsdorff as governor and regent. This was confirmed by Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Speyer on May 13, 1544, after Albrecht II Alcibiades (Brandenburg-Kulmbach) had challenged the will on this point.

In 1558 Georg Friedrich married Elisabeth von Brandenburg-Küstrin (1540–1578) for the first time, who died in 1578 on a trip to East Prussia. A year later he married Sophie von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1563–1639), daughter of Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg . In the years 1590 to 1594, Georg Friedrich's brother-in-law, Count Palatine Karl von Birkenfeld , ran the affairs of state for him, as he was "heavyweight". When Georg Friedrich died in 1603 without male descendants , the Ansbach-Jägerndorfer branch of the Franconian Hohenzollern line died out with him. He had already regulated the succession in his principalities in the Gera house contract in 1598 . Georg Friedrich was buried in Heilsbronn Monastery , the burial place of the Franconian Hohenzollern family.

Takeover of an extensive legacy

As a result of the Second Margrave War , King Ferdinand I confiscated the possessions of Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades. In 1556 Georg Friedrich was able to inherit the Principality of Ansbach in the Silesian possessions of Jägerndorf , Beuthen and Oderberg . Opole and Ratibor were lost to the Hohenzollerns through the intervention of Ferdinand I and permanently prevented the formation of a larger, closed property. After the death of Albrecht Alcibiades, Georg Friedrich also inherited the Kulmbach margravate in 1557 .

When the Prussian Duke Albrecht Friedrich became increasingly depressed , Georg Friedrich took over the Munt (guardianship) as his closest relative in 1577 , although the Prussian estates protested against it. In 1578 he was enfeoffed with the duchy by the Polish king Stephan Báthory , the feudal lord of Prussia. Georg Friedrich signed the Lutheran Church's formula of concord from 1577 and the book of concord from 1580.

The coat of arms of Georg Friedrich contains elements for actual possessions as well as his claims. The coats of arms represent Brandenburg , Nuremberg , Stettin , Pomerania , Kashubia , Wenden , Rügen , Prussia , Silesia and Jägerndorf . The coat of arms also includes a shelf shield and the Hohenzollern family coat of arms .

The Gera house contract remained determinative and trend-setting for the family policy of the Hohenzollern family. The conflict with the Habsburgs over the Duchy of Jägerndorf gave rise to the First Silesian War .

Administrative skills

Georg Friedrich showed an extraordinary talent for administrative organization and for the elevation and order of the financial system. In his home country of Franconia, he has fundamentally redesigned the administration. In this way he was able to lead the Kulmbach region, which had been devastated after the Federal War , to a new bloom and fundamentally improve the military system and finances. Reparation payments allowed him to rebuild the Plassenburg under Caspar Vischer and the destroyed Kulmbach, including the town's castle estates . He also punished knights such as Georg Wolf von Kotzau , who had supported the opponents in the Margrave War. He gave the country's Protestant Church a consistorial constitution . The Schola Culmbachiana he founded in Kulmbach was later named after him Markgraf-Georg-Friedrich-Gymnasium , the state secondary school in Heilsbronn is named Markgraf-Georg-Friedrich-Realschule .

He led Prussia according to a similar pattern and, based on a good agreement with Stephan Báthory, was able to re-establish rule over the country and improve law and order. Numerous Franconian officials were sent to Prussia, who redesigned the administration, finance and taxes according to the Franconian model.

Politics in the Duchy of Jägerndorf

Since Georg Friedrich later mainly stayed in Ansbach, he had Jägerndorf administered by a "Jägerndorf government" appointed by him. A conflict-prone topic that stretched for decades was justified in the case law. On the one hand there were the estates , especially the landed nobility , who asserted their claims against peasants and citizens with the Moravian land law in the Bohemian language. On the other hand, there was the Saxon or imperial law in German, which tended to restrict the land nobility in the issues of dispute in the sense of the margrave. In fact, Georg Friedrich succeeded in eliminating Moravian land law for over 15 years by not filling the position of land judge. In 1561 he had three reports on land law prepared, which underpinned his position. The neighboring Duke Georg von Liegnitz-Brieg was commissioned by the margrave with the implementation. In the course of the further conflict, the Bohemian and German language was also demonstratively used orally and in writing in order to assert one's own understanding of the law. The city of Leobschütz in particular tried to derive special regulations for itself from this conflict. Finally, the Emperor Maximillian II , from the field camp near Raab on October 5, 1566, acted as a mediator and ensured that justice was resumed according to Moravian tradition. Regulations regarding the official language have been relaxed. A later improvement by Georg Friedrich removed social grievances, which in turn curtailed the rights of the landed gentry. Explicitly, it was about inheritance shares that the landed gentry could obtain from their subordinates and about the distribution of legal costs.

Georg Friedrich's time as Duke of the Silesian possessions can be described as financially sound, peaceful and, in contrast to neighboring regions, also free from major religious conflicts.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Georg Friedrich Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Georg Friedrich I.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Rodewald: The Birkenfeld Castle. 1584-1717. Life and goings-on at a small royal residence. [1927]. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2016, p. 20.
  2. ↑ See BSLK , p. 15 and p. 763.
predecessor Office successor
George Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
1543–1603 		Joachim Ernst
George Duke of Jägerndorf
1543–1603 		Joachim Friedrich
Albrecht Alcibiades Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
1557–1603 		Christian
Albrecht Friedrich Duke in Prussia
1577–1603 		Joachim Friedrich
personal data
SURNAME Georg Friedrich I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Kulmbach as well as curator and duke in the Duchy of Prussia and Jägerndorf
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1539
PLACE OF BIRTH Ansbach
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1603
Place of death Ansbach