Georgius Stephani

Georgius Stephani (born February 29, 1740 in Gergeschdorf , Hungarian Gergelyfája, Romanian Ungurei Alba, Transylvania , from 1765 Grand Duchy of Transylvania , Hungarian Erdélyi Nagy Fejedelemség, Romanian Marele Principat al Transilvaniei, Kingdom of Hungary , Gergeschdorf, today part of the Rothkirch community , Hungarian Székásveresegyháza, Rum.Rosia de Secaș ; † after 1761/62, during the social turmoil as a result of the great plague epidemic in Gergeschdorf) was a Transylvanian freedom fighter and leader of the Saxon Jobages or serfdom in the Zekescher Land (Rum.Țara Secașelor ) against the Hungarian landed nobility in the 18th century.

Life

Georgius Stephani was the son of the Protestant church curator and organist Michaëlis Stephani (1690–1761), who died during a plague epidemic that depopulated many Saxon communities in southern Transylvania at the time. His grandfather, Johannis Stephani (1670–1734), teacher and cantor, known by the nickname “Honz Cantoratus”, son of the organist Johannis Stephani (1650–1733), was a representative of the Saxon Jobages (servants) in the Zekescher Land, in Gergeschdorf and Rothkirch in the fight against exploitation and social injustice. After attending the Protestant German elementary school in Gergeschdorf, at which a number of well-known German teachers and musicians worked later in the 20th century, such as the composer Wilhelm Fisi, the writer Hans Bergel and the music teacher and conductor Ernst Fleps, the Georgius, who was still very young, learned about the social problems of his compatriots and the injustices of the Hungarian noblemen and landlords, who at that time ruled over some villages in the predominantly German-populated Zekescher Land.

activity

Soon after the settlement of the "Free Königsboden" was completed in the 13th century, the villages with a German (Transylvanian-Saxon) population on "county soil" arose - as so-called "secondary settlements". At that time, the subordinate localities, subordinate to the noble landlords, with a German and partly Romanian population were founded in the later Zekescher Land. One of these early settlements, which existed before the great Mongol invasion (1241), was Gergeschdorf.

The first "landlord" of this property, which was named after its founder Gregorius or Gregor, was the nobleman of Wasyan (Eng. Warschand bei Pell, Rum. Vărșand / Pilu). It was followed by other owners in the following centuries, including the Saxon counts Daniel and Nikolaus von Kelling (Rum. Câlnic ) in the 14th century , who then ruled over ten villages with Saxon, Romanian and Hungarian serfs in the Zekescher area alone. In the centuries after that there have been disputes and litigation between the different, partly Hungarian noble houses and landlords of these and other possessions - as Schonau (rum SONA ), Weingart Churches (rum. Vingard ) Simkragen (rum Sintereag.) Benz village (rum. Aurel Vlaicu ), Zäckeschdorf (Rum. Cunța), Troschen (Rum. Drașov) and Spreng (Rum. Șpring ) - although these power struggles were often fought at the expense of the peasants who were subservient.

On September 27, 1762, Georgius Stephani went, for the first time and in the company of his friend Johannes Tonts, as a delegate of the Jobages (servants) of the Hungarian Baron Korda with a complaint to the Gubernium in Sibiu . Sibiu in southern Transylvania was the political center of the Transylvanian Saxons and the seat of the Universitas Saxonum ( Saxon University of Nations in Transylvania ), a kind of Transylvanian parliament . In this input, which the Saxon local teacher Petrus Hoch had drawn up, the social situation of the Saxon farmers and the frequent attacks of the various Hungarian noblemen were presented on the basis of factual reports.

When Stephani and Tonts then returned to Gergeschdorf, they were again exposed to the worst harassment and persecution from the estate manager Péter Dalnoki - especially Stephani as the “originator of the protest”. Dalnoki even obtained a decree from the Hungarian chief county Ábrahám Dózsa (head of the county ) that Georgius Stephani should be "bound from place to place to the magistrate prison in Weißenburg" (later: Karlsburg, now around Alba Iulia ).

On October 22nd, Stephani was arrested, put in chains and taken to Thörnen (now around Păuca ) by three guards . On the way, however, the guards were attacked by six young Saxon men who were "armed with pitchforks, scythes and clubs" and Georgius Stephani was freed. That same night, Stephani rode back to Sibiu, together with two companions, to again bring his complaint to the governorate.

Now, on November 16, 1762, an "admonition" was signed by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal - then Provincial Chancellor, from 1777 Governor of Transylvania - to the landlord Korda "to obey the highest regulations of the subjects of Seyn". However, when the harassment and injustice on the part of the Hungarian estate manager began again - out of revenge for this complaint at the highest level - Georgius Stephani filed another complaint. On November 29, 1762 - after Brukenthal's "admonition" was somewhat more stringent - the landlord had to give in.

The result of the protest actions of the Saxon Jobages in the Zekescher Land, or in the Zekesch highlands , led by Georgius Stephani , caused, among other things, that of the then thirty-three Saxon serf families, almost all of them refused the so-called "wine tax" and various other compulsory services to the country nobles and thus for the first time solidarized in the beginning " class struggle ".

As a result of this new threatening situation for the feudal lords, a judicial "interrogation" took place on February 23, 1763 in the specially prepared Gergeschdorf parish hall, after which the case of Georgius Stephani - in order to avoid further social and interethnic conflicts - was brought by him from Sibiu Court judge Martinus Stephani, was considered "closed".

literature

• Johann Hann: From the Gergeschdorf church book. In: Correspondence sheet of the Association for Transylvanian Cultural Studies . Sibiu, 1899, pp. 109-113.
• Hermann Hienz: Sources on folklore and local history of the Transylvanian Saxons. Published by S. Hirzel: Leipzig , 1940.
• Martin Ganesch: Small local history: under the arbitrariness of the nobility. Gergeschdorf in old documents. In: New way . Bucharest , 28th year, October 12, 1976, p. 4.
• Carl Göllner : Social Conflicts in the Principality of Transylvania. In: Studies on the history of the German nationality and its fraternization with the Romanian nation . Vol. 1. Politischer Verlag: Bucharest, 1976, pp. 283–329.
• Ernst Wagner: Historical-statistical book of place names for Transylvania. Studia Transylvanica Vol. 4. Böhlau Verlag , Cologne / Vienna 1977, ISBN 3 412 01277 7 .
• Martin Ganesch: An informative “clothing ban”. To the Saxon costume in the Zekescher Land. In: People and Culture. Bucharest, 30/6, 1978, p. 40.
• Maja Czekelius: Preparatory work for a local monograph. Conversation with folklorist Prof. Martin Ganesch. In: People and Culture. Bucharest, 30/4, 1978, pp. 45-46.
• Martin Ganesch: Under the rule of the counts. On the settlement history of the Zekesch area (1). In: New way. Bucharest, 30/9016, May 13, 1978, p. 4.
• Martin Ganesch: Stories from the home village. Records from the Zekescher Land. In: People and Culture . Bucharest, 31/1, 1979, p. 45 ff.
• Carl Göllner: History of the Germans in the Romanian Territory, Volume 1. 12. Jh. – 1848, Academy Publisher: Bucharest, 1979.
• Martin Ganesch: A little local history. Refused labor. Combat actions of the Zekescher Jobages in the 18th century. In: New way. Bucharest, 33/9914, April 7, 1981, p. 6.
• Béla Köpeczi (ed.): Brief history of Transylvania. Akadémiai Kiadó / Akademie Verlag: Budapest , 1990, p. 169 ff.
• Lexicon of the Transylvanian Saxons. Wort und Welt Verlag: Thaur, 1993; Pp. 490–491: Social question. The social problems in Transylvania.
• Paul Philippi: Land of Blessings? Questions about the history of Transylvania and its Saxons. Böhlau Verlag: Wien, Köln, Weimar, 2003, pp. 335–337.
• Hans Ganesch: Zekescher homeland researcher Martin Ganesch would have turned 75. In: Transylvanian newspaper. Munich, September 25, 2010.