Georg Lorich

Georg Lorich (* around 1533 in Hadamar ; † after 1588) was a legal scholar, diplomat and high administrative officer in several principalities of the 16th century.

Life

Lorich came from a household of scholars. His father Reinhard Lorich was professor there when the University of Marburg was founded in 1527 and rector in 1539 . Various members of the Hadamar family held cellar or similar administrative offices or were pastors. Georg Lorich attended grammar school in Marburg and obtained a master's degree from the university . In 1551 he was enrolled at the University of Mainz to study law . He later continued his studies at the University of Cologne , but never achieved the title of doctor . Despite his Protestant origins and education, some source texts suggest that Lorich was at least temporarily Catholic.

Lorich's first employer was the declining Teutonic Order , in whose service he entered Livonia in the late 1550s . A contemporary source describes him as "although learned, but excessively alcoholic". In addition to tasks in the judiciary, Lorich also took on diplomatic assignments. He was sent three times as envoy to King Sigismund of Poland .

After the Teutonic Order was finally smashed as a political power by Russian troops in 1560, Lorich fled via Riga by ship to Lübeck . In the same year, Duke Johann the Elder accepted him as a councilor in Oldenburg services. In the following years Lorich also took on tasks for the Danish royal house under Friedrich II, which was also provided by the House of Oldenburg . A special relationship of trust seems to have linked him to Prince Magnus , who later became Bishop of Courland and Ösel-Wiek. In 1565 he traveled to Vienna to see Emperor Maximilian II in order to receive the Duchy of Holstein as a fiefdom for his employers . On this occasion he obtained his own elevation to the nobility from the emperor. In 1566 he married Anna Lorck from the wealthy Flensburg trading house Lorck . In this city he also settled. At the beginning of 1571 he was also appointed court advisor to Johann's younger brother Adolf .

Due to tensions between the various rulers of the House of Oldenburg, Lorich was arrested on July 6, 1571 in Flensburg and imprisoned first in the city, then for several months in Denmark. After his relatives had persuaded the Elector of Saxony, the Landgraves of Hesse and the House of Orange-Nassau, among others, to stand up for the arrested man, Lorich was released on a guarantee, but fled Denmark immediately. After a short stay in Hamburg, he finally took leave of the Oldenburg service in 1572. Legal disputes followed with the city of Flensburg, which also took action against Lorich's wife and her relatives. In the following years his wife seems to have separated from him.

Despite his activities in the north and east of the empire, Lorich remained connected to his native city. He owned property in and around Hadamar and, together with his wife, had probably donated the stone bridge over the Elbbach, which still exists today , although a coincidental identity of names cannot be completely ruled out. After his escape from Flensburg, Lorich seems to have lived in Hadamar again for a short time before he moved to Mainz at the latest in 1577 and worked there as a lawyer . It is possible that he entered the service of the House of Nassau . In any case, he represented various members of the House in legal matters. Georg Lorich can be traced for the last time in 1588. Nothing is known about the time and place of his death.

literature

• Walter Michel: The legal scholar Georg Lorich from Hadamar. In: Nassauische Annalen , Volume 82. Wiesbaden 1971, pp. 146–160.