Georg Wolmar von Fahrensbach

Georg Wolmar von Fahrensbach (born February 9, 1586 in Neuchâtel , † May 19, 1633 executed in Regensburg ) was the Polish governor of Livonia and an officer in the Thirty Years' War .

Stations in the Baltic States, Poland, Transylvania, Turkey, Venice and France until 1628

Georg Wolmar (also: Waldemar, Woldemar, Wolmar, Volmar, Woidimir) came from the German-Baltic Fahrensbach family . He was the son of Jürgen von Fahrensbach and Sophia von Fircks . In 1610 he married Christina Marie Chodkiewicz († 1619), and before 1628 again with Agnes von Everstein . From Fahrenbach's personal correspondence with Jan Karol Chodkiewicz , they referred to each other as brother-in-law, it emerges that at least one child was born from their first marriage. A son from his second marriage survived, this was Count Gustav Adolf von Fahrensbach .

As early as 1596 he became master of Rujen , which his father from Sigismund III. Awarded for life in 1587. In 1597 he attended the Lutheran school in Dorpat . At the time of his father's death in 1602 he was already serving as a Polish officer for some time and in 1607 he was captain of Wolmar . In 1608 he became the commandant of Riga Castle and in 1609 he is named Stiernskiöld in connection with the defense of Dünamünde by the Swedes . When he married into the powerful Chodkiewicz family in 1610, he converted to Catholicism . Possibly he was governor as early as 1611, certainly in January 1612 governor and colonel of the war in Livonia. In 1613 he owned the Tarwast castle and estate , as well as Karkus from his father's inheritance. He took part in the siege of Pleskau in 1615. In 1616 he was named as the Polish governor of Livonia. That same year he took Pernau for the Swedes. He entered the service of Duke Wilhelm of Courland . On April 1, 1617 he was its deputy and governor in Courland. On November 8, 1617, he gave Dünamünde to Prince Krzysztof Radziwiłł . An attack on Riga narrowly failed, he fled to Groß-Autz in Courland on November 24th and was followed by the Rigans to the Bullen . In the years 1617–1620 he was involved in disputes with Riga citizens with the participation of Radziwiłłs. On March 6, 1618 he ceded the Zintenhof estate to Wilhelm de la Barre for his backward pay. He had owned Groß-Autz, Schwarden and Sahten not from maternal inheritance, but as a Provisio regia. Also in 1618 he returned Pernau to the Poles. In 1623, still as a Swedish officer, he handed over the villages of Sainall (Sainigal) and Karefer, which had been pledged to him by the crown, to Anton von Weymarn († 1629) for 2,700 thalers, which he had lent him. Later he was transferred to the poles and is sure of King Gustavus Adolphus of outlaws declared. He accompanied a Polish expedition against the Turks on the Vltava river , was captured and was held in custody near Constantinople until 1623. This was followed by a stay in Transylvania , during which time he was also in the Venetian and French service.

In service on changing sides in the Thirty Years War, intrigue, betrayal and execution in 1632

State fortress Ingolstadt 1573

Alter Kornmarkt Regensburg, Bavarian Residence, Herzogshof

In the autumn of 1628 he met King Gustav Adolf in Elbing , a year later he was mentioned as staying in Sweden, but went to France the same year. In 1631, however, as Count von Karkus, we find him in the Imperial Army. In January 1632 he is mentioned in connection with the plan of a Spanish attack on Dunkirk , Elfsborgs and Gothenburg . Around 1632 he entered the Bavarian service as a colonel . In 1633, he and General Johann Philipp Cratz von Scharffenstein were entrusted with the command of the Ingolstadt fortress . A conspiracy to surrender the fortress in May 1633 to the Swedes under Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar , who was approaching Regensburg during the battle for Regensburg , was his undoing. The conspiracy was exposed and while Cratz was able to flee from Scharfenstein and went over to the Swedes, he was captured, taken to Regensburg, which was occupied by Bavarian troops, and beheaded on May 10, 1633 at the place of execution of the Bavarian Elector on Kornmarkt under dramatic circumstances. He initially violently opposed his execution and was ultimately killed together by three executioners. A petition for clemency, which his wife sought and received from the Kaiser , did not arrive until the following day. He was buried in the cemetery of the Franciscan monastery outside the urban area of ​​Regensburg in the Bavarian Stadtamhof north of the Danube.

Reviews

In the last phase of his life, at the latest from winter 1627/1628, he was often referred to as a count, for which, however, no derivation could be found so far. He was a not atypical son of his time, a soldier of fate. The verdict on him, which you can read in many authors, is not very flattering. He certainly spoke many languages, was educated in other ways and probably also had military talent. However, he is predominantly described as a nefarious adventurer, untimely governor, very unstable mind, adventurous nature of low class, ambitious and unscrupulous, cheeky, cynical, indifferent, full of selfishness, leading a strange regiment, etc., so that he is undoubtedly one of the greats must count, but by no means among the glorious and honorable that his family produced.

As an example of his unscrupulous character and to illustrate the judgment that posterity will make of him, one does not have to first summon his multiple betrayals of his respective employer. On June 7, 1614, Wolmar Fahrensbach had a young fellow who had brought him letters shot .

literature

• Ernst Seraphim : The Kurlander Wolmar Fahrensbach. In: From the Courland Past , Stuttgart 1893.
• Hanns Kuhn: Colonel Count von Fahrensbach. An adventurous fate from the 30 Years War. As a contribution to the history of the Ingolstadt Fortress (1632) from archival sources in Vienna and Munich. In: Collection sheet of the Historisches Verein Ingolstadt , 50th year (1931), pp. 35–68 ( online version )
• Bernd Warlich: The Thirty Years' War in personal reports, chronicles and reports. Volkach. ( Online version )
• Peter Engerisser: From Kronach to Nördlingen. The Thirty Years War in Franconia, Swabia and the Upper Palatinate 1631-1635. Verlag Heinz Späthling, Weißenstadt 2004, p. 154 (ff), footnote 95., ISBN 3-926621-32-X .
• Heinz Mattiesen:  Farensbach, Wolmar (Woldemar). In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 24 f. ( Digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Oskar Stavenhagen (edit.): Genealogical handbook of the Kurland knighthood , part 3.1: Kurland, Bd .: 1, Görlitz, 1939. S. 159 o.
2. ^ Max Neubauer: Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria, the Habsburgs and the imperial city of Regensburg in the struggle for their sovereignty . Dissertation University of Regensburg Philosophical Faculty III, 2011. (p. 114, footnote 604).
3. ^ Karl Bauer: Regensburg art, culture and everyday history . MZ Buchverlag, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86646-300-4 . P. 928f.
4. ↑ Uwe Czubatynski (Editor): Messages of the Association for the History of Prignitz . Volume 2. Perleberg 2002, p. 55 and
5. ↑ Bode thickener Chronicle Livonian and riga shear events , 1593-1638, p 54th