Georg Philipp (Ortenburg)
Count Georg Philipp (born September 10, 1655 in Regensburg ; † May 5, 1702 at Alt-Ortenburg Castle ) was the only son of Count Georg Reinhard von Ortenburg and Countess Esther Dorothea von Kriechingen and Püttingen who grew up to adulthood. He came from the Lower Bavarian noble family of Ortenburg . Thanks to his mother, he was brought up as a Protestant, which prevented a forced conversion by his uncle, Count Christian . After the death of his uncle in 1684, Georg Philipp took over the reign until his death in 1702. His reign was marked by the legal dispute against him by his subjects.
Live and act
youth
Georg Philipp was born in Regensburg. It can be assumed that his parents lived there as long as the imperial county of Ortenburg was pledged. After Georg Reinhard succeeded in releasing the county in 1662, the family moved to the ancestral castle of Alt-Ortenburg Castle . His father converted to Catholicism in 1624 for political reasons. Georg Philipp and his siblings were raised Protestants nonetheless.
Georg Philipp's father died four years later. Georg Philipp was only eleven years old at the time. According to the inheritance contract from 1660, his Catholic uncle Christian became the official guardian. He demanded that he immediately convert to the Catholic faith as the future regent. Countess Esther Dorothea was not willing, however, that her brother-in-law, Count Christian, should have control over her children, so she and the children fled just six days after the death of her husband on September 10, 1666. She disguised the attempt to escape as a trip to distract the children . The destination of the escape was the city of Regensburg. Count Christian found out about the escape and pursued the fugitives with some Bavarian horsemen. At Plattling he finally presented them. They were all brought back to Ortenburg immediately. Georg Philipp and his two sisters stayed with their uncle the first night before Count Christian brought them back to their mother the next day. He informed Esther Dorothea that he had complained to Emperor Leopold I about her behavior by courier and at the same time had the Emperor informed about the death of her husband.
Fearing that she would lose the children completely by decree of the emperor, she forged a new escape plan. This was already put into practice that night. First, the four of them fled to the St. Nikola monastery near Passau . There they embarked for Linz . Georg Philipp and his family finally reached the imperial city of Ulm via Salzburg and Tyrol . When Count Christian heard of the renewed escape, he hurried up the road to Regensburg, thinking they would take the same route. So he couldn't ask them. His efforts to track down Georg Philipp later in Regensburg also failed.
Meanwhile, Georg Philipp's mother met with the Protestant Duke Eberhard III. of Württemberg. She was able to persuade him to take on the role of father for the half- orphans. Georg Philipp was sent by the Duke to Tübingen to be trained there. His two sisters, however, came under the supervision of the duke's wife.
When Count Christian found out about this, he tried to bring the children back to Ortenburg for several years. Georg Philipp's mother, however, fought vehemently against Christian's efforts. So in 1667 she turned to the evangelical estates in the perennial Reichstag in Regensburg and tried to officially gain guardianship over Georg Philipp and his sisters. She justified this by stating that her son's change of denomination would be a threat to the Evangelical Lutheran faith in Ortenburg and thus to the Peace of Westphalia . However, the Reichshofrat decided in 1668 that the inheritance contract from the 1660 applies and that Count Christian is the legal guardian of the children. Later requests to the Protestant estates and Emperor Leopold were also unsuccessful. The guardianship and administration of Georg Philip's property remained with his uncle. None of this had any influence on Georg Philipp himself, since he always remained in Württemberg under the protection of the duke.
Georg Philipp did not return to the imperial county until he was of legal age. Thus he remained Protestant all his life and the Lutheran faith of the county was preserved. After his return he took over his father's property, Alt-Ortenburg Castle and the surrounding property. Furthermore, although he was not yet an incumbent count, he was entitled to half of the county's income according to the inheritance and division agreement.
Reign
After Georg Philipp's uncle died on September 11, 1684, he obtained the reign of the imperial county due to the applicable senior law. However, there was initially a great conflict due to Count Christian's will. His uncle had disinherited Georg Philipp and large parts of the county now threatened to fall under the rule of Count Salm . However, the young count was able to decide the resulting process of inheritance for himself. The reason was probably the inheritance contract from 1660 between Georg Philipp's father and Count Christian.
Finally, on April 3, 1685, Georg Philipp was enfeoffed by Emperor Leopold I with the county and all associated rights.
In the same year marriage negotiations between the Ortenburg house and Zinzendorf- Pottendorf took place in Nuremberg . These were soon successfully completed. The marriage contract was signed on June 1st in Nuremberg on the day of the wedding. Georg Philipp thus married the equally Protestant Countess Amalia Regina von Zinzendorf and Pottendorf. This marriage was to play an important role for the county after Georg Philip's death, as the countess took over the guardianship of her son Johann Georg .
When the Counts of Kriechingen and Püttingen died out in the male line in 1697, Georg Philipp claimed half of the county for his family. The grounds for his claims were the inheritance claims of his mother as a living countess from the house of Kriechingen and Püttingen. However, this process was to continue for decades and Georg Philipp would never see its end. The Ortenburgers were not allowed to win the rich estates in Luxembourg for themselves.
Process of tax burden on citizens
Georg Philip's term of office was, however, marked by the second trial of the Ortenburg population against the counts. The trigger was the high imperial tax burden for the county. The costs of the imperial tax for the imperial chamber court and the constant imperial wars were unevenly distributed at that time. Above all, the imperial counts and imperial cities had to bear the majority of the costs. Many estates and imperial monasteries had already complained about it. Even Georg Philipp's predecessor, Count Christian, once failed with his complaint. An imperial commission that was set up to investigate the taxes had come to the conclusion that the taxes were not excessive. So it remained with the high tax burden for the imperial county. The population suffered greatly as a result.
In August 1698, however, Georg Philipp was forced to further increase taxes and introduce another tax. Reasons for this were, on the one hand, a deposit of money in the coffers of the Bavarian Imperial Circle and, on the other hand, the high maintenance costs of the Bavarian armies against the Turks.
The tax increase led to a final conflict between the count and the citizens. They now felt overwhelmed. They had already been offended because they had lost the right to drink wine and beer to the count's house. Likewise, the new "meat expenditure" tax was previously unknown in the county. Thus the overburdening of taxes and the injustice of the unjust distribution of the tax burden ultimately led to the first protests in the population.
Another resentment that gnawed the population had already occurred at Pentecost 1698. Count Georg Philipp changed the way tax was paid. Before that, the taxes were collected by the mayor and then handed over to the count. Every citizen of Ortenburg was informed about the use of the money. Now, however, the taxes were levied directly by the count's officials and the use of the money was kept secret from the population.
In August, Count Georg finally ordered all of his subjects to declare their entire wealth according to “duty and conscience”, to estimate it and to enter it on so-called “property sheets”. Failure to comply with this demand threatened the population with high fines. The citizens now feared that taxes would now rise even further, especially for craftsmen. So the decision was made to complain to the Reichshofrat in Vienna about the high tax burden and the other grievances . The citizens then collected around 100 guilders to pay the costs incurred and on September 7, 1698 sent a deputation to Vienna. This should pray for help and obtain confirmation of the civil liberties in Ortenburg. A large part of the population of the county wanted to refuse to hand in property slips until the imperial decision came. Most of the citizens, with the exception of the councilors and a few traders, followed this instruction.
For this reason, the Count's office director, Eberhard August Knorr, had several arrests made in the village on the same day. There were also more arrests in the period that followed. The goods were taken from the craftsmen, which were then brought to Alt-Ortenburg Castle. For some, the trade was even blocked and sealed. However, if someone was willing to pay the taxes and hand in the property slip, they were released immediately. A master weaver, on the other hand, was pilloried in the marketplace and then even banned from the county. As a result, many citizens fled to the neighboring Bavarian electoral towns of Dorfbach and Rainding out of fear. Most of the prisoners soon followed the count's instructions and turned in property slips in order to regain their freedom.
However, since there were still many citizens who refused to obey, the office director had a board set up on the market square, a so-called "Schnellgalgen". All the names of citizens who were against the count were to be hung on this. Furthermore, as a further means of pressure, trade within the county was prohibited and trade with the Electorate of Bavaria was discontinued.
When the deputation finally returned from Vienna, they were all arrested immediately and thrown into the prison at Alt-Ortenburg Castle.
Meanwhile, Emperor Leopold I ordered the Passau prince-bishop Johann Philipp von Lamberg to investigate the grievances in the county. However, since the bishop was ill, he sent his councilors Baron Peter Georg von Spielberg, Johann Jakob von Lauterburg and Dr. Johann Georg Huber to Ortenburg. The ambassadors arrived in Ortenburg on January 12, 1699 and immediately began investigations and negotiations. These lasted until January 28th.
Initially, five of the count's complaints against the population were dealt with, including insults and death threats against count officials. Allegedly even the count's notice was smeared with feces. The citizens were not proven to be guilty of any kind by the Commission. The charges were soon dropped. Then eleven objections from the population were dealt with. These included, among other things, compensation for the deforestation of the citizen's wood in the Zell by the count, the return to the old tax collection and some church issues. Some of the objections were accepted by the Count, others rejected, or rejected by the Commission because the Count B. participated in the maintenance costs for the Count's gardens.
After the negotiations were concluded on January 31, 1699, the report of the commission was forwarded to the Prince-Bishop of Passau. On October 13, 1700, the citizens received a copy of the settlement confirmed by the emperor, which both sides only had to sign. The citizens did so immediately, but Count Georg Philipp refused and wanted his count's officials to sign in his place. The count was of the opinion that his word would have to suffice; He did not consider it customary to sign a contract as sovereign with his subjects. The population complained about this to the Prince-Bishop of Passau and the Emperor. The latter ordered the Count to sign the settlement several times, but Georg Philipp stubbornly refused. However, Georg Philipp died on May 5, 1702. Thereupon his son Johann Georg officially became the new regent of the county. Since he was still a minor, Georg Philipp's wife Countess Amalia Regina took over the guardianship. In order to end the ongoing conflict with the population and to reconcile with the citizens, she finally signed the settlement.
progeny
The following children came from the marriage with Countess Amalie Regina von Zinzendorf:
- Johann Georg (born November 14, 1686 in Ortenburg, † November 4, 1725 ibid), Count von Ortenburg (1702 - 1725) , ∞ Susanne Louise (born October 3, 1692 in Nuremberg, † March 3, 1709 in Ortenburg) Countess of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf , ∞ Maria Albertina (* May 20, 1686 in Usingen , † January 14, 1786 in Ortenburg) Princess of Nassau-Saarbrücken in Usingen
- Albrecht Friedrich (born November 16, 1687 in Ortenburg, † March 18, 1688 ibid)
Remarks
- ↑ Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , pp. 73 ff.
- ^ Walter Fuchs: The seat burial of Count Georg Reinhard (1607-1666), p. 216 f.
- ↑ a b Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , p. 76 ff.
- ↑ Friedrich Hausmann: The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, and their subsidiary lines , p. 37 f.
- ↑ Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , p. 80 ff.
literature
- Stefan Wild: The most important events after Count Joachim's death up to the year 1787. In: Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 years Reformation (1563-2013) , Ortenburg 2013 (pp. 202–207).
- Walter Fuchs: The seat burial of Count Georg Reinhard (1607-1666). In: Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 Years of Reformation (1563-2013) , Ortenburg 2013 (pp. 218–221).
- Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their subsidiary lines , published in: Ostbairische Grenzmarken - Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde, No. 36, Passau 1994 (p. 9 -62).
- Walter Fuchs: Seated burial of an Ortenburg count - legend or truth? In: Donau Bote, Volume 10, No. 12 of October 24, 1989 (pp. 30–31).
- Heinz Hans Konrad Schuster: Ortenburg after the death of Count Joachim. In: Hans Schellnhuber (Hrsg.): 400 years Evang.-Luth. Kirchengemeinde Ortenburg 1563–1963 , Ortenburg 1963 (pp. 43–48).
- Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , Landshut 1863 ( digitized version ).
Web links
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Christian |
Count of Ortenburg 1684–1702 |
Johann Georg |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Georg Philipp |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Count of Ortenburg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 10, 1655 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | regensburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 5, 1702 |
| Place of death | Alt-Ortenburg Castle |