Gerhard Unmaze

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Figure by Gerhard Unmaze on the Cologne town hall tower
Figure by Gerhard Unmaze on the Cologne town hall tower. The openly presented cassette filled with money bags and the documents at the foot stand for his charitable donations; the right foot stands on architecture reminiscent of the medieval stack house. The scales graphically indicated on the coat stand for his commercial activity.

Gerhard Unmaze (* before 1145; † January 21, 1198 ) was a merchant from Cologne who was one of the founders of Cologne's banking system . In the second half of the 12th century, he and his family significantly controlled the economic activities of the city, which at that time was the largest in the Reich and the most important long-distance trading metropolis in Central Europe.

biography

family

Gerhard Unmaze ("immoderate, immodest") came from a Cologne family who probably belonged to the wealthy upper class of the city when he was born; his family was the largest landowner in Cologne. He had a brother Dietrich, the father was "bailiff of the old town of St. Laurenz ". Unmaze was one of the best documented and therefore best known citizens of Cologne in the 12th century.

activities

When Gerhard Unmaze was first mentioned in a document from 1166, he already held high offices in the city as a lawyer and archiepiscopal under-bailiff. In addition to these public offices, he also worked as an internationally active wholesale merchant and financier. His inherited fortune enabled Unmaze, who had been the highest municipal customs master ( theolonarius or thelonearius ) since 1169 , to conduct long-distance trade and money lending. His office as customs master was one of the most important and lucrative offices in the trading city of Cologne.

Unmace's core business was initially money lending , whereby the debtors often had to pledge their property to him, which enabled him to expand his real estate, especially in the Martinsviertel . In 1174 he granted a loan to Archbishop Philipp von Heinsberg of Cologne in the amount of 650 marks for his participation in Friedrich Barbarossa's fifth Italian campaign . The Archbishop pledged the customs privilege for 140 kilograms of silver to Unmaze.

Brabanter Hof of Gerhard Unmaze - Am Hof ​​20–22 (watercolor pen drawing by Johann Jakob Merlo , 1874)

Archbishop Unmaze also pledged his house at Am Hof ​​20-22 as security, which passed into the possession of Unmazes in 1182 at the latest. Unmaze put it together with the neighboring house that belonged to him and now resided in the "Brabanter Hof" (also "Haus zur Krone") Am Hof ​​20-22, which is why he dropped his characteristic name Unmaze and called himself Gerhard vom Hof ( Gerardus de Curia ) . He was also given the name "Immoderatus", which can mean both incomparable and excessive.

Together with his son-in-law and nephew Gerhard Miles, son of his brother Dietrich, he founded a trading consortium for the further acquisition of land in order to invest the financial capital. The plots were preferably located near marketplaces. He had a house at the Kornpforte , which led to today's Heumarkt . He also owned nearby fur and leather sales halls. He also appears to have been involved in the grain trade and owned bakeries , which were rented to bakers “at a considerable price”, as well as agricultural land outside the city ​​walls .

The family owned several courtyards within the walls, larger stately estates, which among other things served as a residence for wealthy Cologne citizens or territorial lords who came to Cologne from outside. Gerhard Unmaze himself lived in a courtyard opposite the Archbishop's Palace; he and his brother also planned to buy houses and land on Am Hof ​​street in the immediate vicinity of the cathedral . “At that time, no other Cologne family managed to concentrate their property in a similar way in such a valuable position that represented power and prestige.” The family also donated houses, property and pensions to various churches and monasteries.

Since some of the customs duties for goods were paid by merchants in kind - such as pepper - Unmaze was also active in the trade. He became Ministeriale of the Archbishopric of Cologne in 1182 , and between 1183 and 1186 he was Cologne's mayor. Unmaze was also the archbishop's under-bailiff, chaired the most important self-governing body of the city as lay judge , was bailiff of the Richerzeche and mayor, an accumulation of offices in which he represented both (as a ministerial) the powerful archbishop as city lord and the citizens of the city, "A first example of the Cologne clique ". He was Vogt of the Vallendar Monastery and as such managed its assets.

Gerhard Unmaze was one of the Cologne financiers who supported the election of Otto from the House of Welfs as the German king. Otto's mother was the English princess Mathilde , his father Henry the Lion . He had grown up in England and his uncle King Richard the Lionheart , who himself had lively contacts with Cologne, was keen to see his nephew on the German throne. Since the Cologne merchants conducted intensive trade with the British Isles and had received special tariff privileges there, they supported this project with considerable sums. Otto reciprocated the people of Cologne by granting them duty-free throughout the empire and by issuing the city a minting privilege on its coronation day. In addition, at the instigation of Cologne, the archbishop was granted lands and rights that enabled him to repay his debts to the citizens of the city.

Unmaze was married twice but had no biological children. He adopted Richmud (also Richmodis ; * before 1188, † after 1243), the daughter of his second wife from their first marriage, who had left her biological father an extensive property. She was married to Gerhard Unmace's nephew, Gerhard with the nickname Miles (knight), who apparently took the place of a son with him. 1197 this took part in the crusade of Henry VI. part of what was obviously intended as a “business trip”. Even then, the business connections of the Cologne merchants, which also owned seagoing ships, extended as far as the Mediterranean. He died on this voyage - he probably drowned in a shipwreck. Gerhard Unmace's office as customs master he held until 1196. Alongside the mint masters Constantin and Lambert, he was part of the leadership of the consortium from 1197/1198, which lent money to the English crown under Richard the Lionheart in 1197. When Unmaze died shortly after this transaction, Miles's 26-year-old widow Richmud inherited the entire family assets, except for Unmaze's large house Am Hof ​​20-22, which came into the possession of Theodorich des Vogts and Winemar des Schenks. Richmud founded the Weiher Monastery in Cologne in 1198 , entered with her four young daughters and bequeathed her huge fortune from three inheritance cases to the monastery.

Unmaze and Der guote Gêrhart

The title-giving main character in the Middle High German epic Der guote Gêrhart by Rudolf von Ems , written around 1215, is a wealthy Cologne merchant named Gerhard. In 1950 Friedrich Sengle put forward the thesis that Gerhard Unmaze had been his historical role model, even if Gerhard Unmaze's concrete living conditions hardly match the fable. This thesis was initially widely rejected in German studies , especially by Helmut Brackert . Recently, however, the view has been taken again that Rudolf's epic, albeit in legendary stylization and exaggeration, refers to Gerhard's real living conditions.

Commemoration of the city

Gerhard Unmaze was included in the figure program for the Cologne town hall tower (No. 26, 1st floor). The sculpture was created by the Cologne sculptor Rainer Walk .

literature

  • Sonja Zöller: Emperor, businessman and the power of money. Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as financier of the imperial politics and the "good Gerhard" of Rudolf von Ems . Fink, Munich 1993 (= research on the history of older German literature , vol. 16), ISBN 3-7705-2850-6 (online) .

Web links

Commons : Gerhard Unmaze  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hiltrud Kier , Bernd Ernsting , Ulrich Krings : Cologne, the council tower: its history and its program of figures . Ed .: City of Cologne. JP Bachem Verlag , Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7616-0858-6 , p. 436 .
  2. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 26.
  3. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 131. There is also the indication of the year 1197, Zöller's argument is conclusive.
  4. ^ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 27.
  5. ^ Anne Schulz, Eating and Drinking in the Middle Ages (1000-1300) , 2011, p. 283.
  6. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 30.
  7. ↑ Hiltrud Kier / Ulrich Krings , Stadtspuren: Denkmäler in Köln , Volume 21, 1996, p. 435.
  8. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 45 f.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang von Stromer, Venice and the world economy around 1200 , 1999, p. 40.
  10. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 66.
  11. ^ Hans-Jürgen Schnitzler, Der Gůte Gêrhart Rudolfs von Ems: Geistliches und Bürgerliches, Religiosität und Geschichte , 1972, p. 263.
  12. ↑ Erwin Seitz, Art of Hospitality: 22 Suggestions from German Past and Present , 2015, o. P.
  13. ↑ Ulrich S. Soénius / Jürgen Wilhelm, Kölner Personen-Lexikon , 2008, p. 549.
  14. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 60.
  15. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 65.
  16. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, pp. 57, 65.
  17. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 73.
  18. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 108.
  19. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 39f.
  20. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 29 ff.
  21. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, pp. 44, 77.
  22. ↑ Wolfram Bickenbach: Limitless Profits. Der Spiegel , March 1, 2001, accessed January 12, 2015 .
  23. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 84.
  24. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 109 f.
  25. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, pp. 130 f.
  26. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 60.
  27. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 57.
  28. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 66.
  29. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 109 ff.
  30. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 128.
  31. ^ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, p. 167
  32. ^ Helmut Brackert, Rudolf von Ems: Poetry and History , 1968, p. 44 f.
  33. ↑ Sonja Zöller, Kaiser, Kaufmann und die Macht des Geldes: Gerhard Unmaze of Cologne as the financier of imperial politics, in: Research on the history of older German literature , Volume 16, 1993, pp. 321, 334.
  34. ^ Sculptures on the first floor. City of Cologne, accessed on January 12, 2015 .
  35. ↑ Immortalized in the hometown. Kölnische Rundschau , April 4, 2014, accessed on January 13, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Gerhard Unmaze
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Curia, Gerhard de (alternative name); Gerardus theolonarius (alternative name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Merchant
DATE OF BIRTH before 1145
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1198