Gesche Meiburg

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Leaflet from 1615: GESHE [sic] MEIBURGIAS. / suae aetatis 34 ("Gesche Meiburg. 34 years old"). Shown on a wall standing with Eisenhut , burning fuse , musket with adjusting fork , halberd , stones as missiles and sword . Below is a text in Latin (see under "Leaflets").
Siege in the summer of 1615. The Magnitor, where Gesche Meiburg fought, is at 5 o'clock.

Gesche Meiburg (* around 1581 in Braunschweig ; † April 30, 1617 ibid), also called Gesche or Geßke Magdeburg , became famous because it was during the 13th and heaviest siege in the history of Braunschweig by the troops of Duke Friedrich Ulrichs von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , took an active part in the fight against the besiegers in the early morning hours of September 14, 1615 together with several other Braunschweig women and thus helped to save the city from being conquered. She went down in the city's history as the Braunschweigische Heldenjungfrau or Joan of Arc of Braunschweig .

Life

Almost nothing is known about the life of the unmarried daughter of the sheet maker Peter von Magdeburg, who lived at Hagenbrücke 11 - apart from what has been passed down through contemporary flyers and praise poems.

Siege of the city of Braunschweig in the summer of 1615

The dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel tried several times in the Middle Ages and early modern times to take possession of the city of Braunschweig, including in the summer of 1615. From July 22nd to November 2nd, 1615, the city was occupied by ducal troops besieged. This time the threat seemed to be greater than usual, because Braunschweig could not hope for relief from troops of the Hanseatic League , to which Braunschweig belonged.

At the beginning of September the situation for the trapped population became more and more threatening, because the town was shot at from the Giersberg and the Schanzen on the Nussberg . Since these are above the level of the city center, the enemy troops had a clear field of fire, caused great damage and killed many residents. In addition, attempts were made to get as close as possible to the ramparts of the city via numerous ditches, in order to either subvert or storm them.

On the night of September 13, 1615 the conquest of the city seemed imminent. The ducal troops were preparing, the fortifications of the city of Brunswick the southeast, Magnitor in precincts Altewiek to storm. The call was therefore issued to all citizens, including women, to help defend Braunschweig. Indeed, many women responded to this call and took up arms themselves in order to intervene actively in the fighting. The best-known among them was the 34-year-old Gesche Meiburg, who, according to tradition, fought the attackers with sword and musket up on the wall , not only killing several opponents, but also encouraging her colleagues to do the same .

The attacking Duke Friedrich Ulrich was reported:

“A woman who bravely fought did us great damage with the incursion of the wall by throwing stones and the battlefield, had no parapet to her advantage, but quite obviously stood on the wall, called to the [Braunschweig] soldiers: she should only shoot confidently, and fight back bravely, as long as they were with them, there would be no danger at all, as the Fendrich [ensign] reports 500 shots with musquets after her, but all in vain, is without a doubt Peter or been an angel. "

- Wilhelm Görges, Ferdinand Spehr: Patriotic stories and memorabilia of the prehistoric times of Braunschweig and Hanover. P. 471. or p. 474.

The attack ultimately failed and a few days later, Hanso-Dutch troops, led by Count Friedrich zu Solms-Rödelheim , arrived to relieve the city. On October 14, 1615, they blew up the siege ring around Braunschweig. On November 2, 1615, Duke Friedrich Ulrich gave up the siege and retired to his residence in Wolfenbüttel . The conflict was finally settled in December 1615 with the mediation of Lübeck's mayor Heinrich Brockes I.

pamphlets

The active participation in the fighting and above all Gesche Meiburg's selfless commitment were so extraordinary that shortly afterwards at least four illustrated and colored leaflets (two in German in Lübeck , one printed in Augsburg and one with Latin text) with reports (some of them in poetry) of the "Braunschweiger Heldenjungfrau" came into circulation beyond the city limits. Just one day after the event, on September 15th, the “ Wahrhaftige Newe Zeitung ” , which is published in nearby Wolfenbüttel , reported on her fearlessness and her seemingly supernatural invulnerability.

A leaflet contained the six lines in Latin :

Corpore sum Virgo, fateor: sed Pectore Vir sum
Me videre virum, quos necui ipsa, Viri.
Brunsuigum vitam dedit hanc mihi Patria: vitam
Pro Patria multis eripui ipsa viris.
Vita euanescet, mea Fama, heroica Fama,
Quam mihi Mars peperit, non ruitura manet.

Physically I am, I confess, a virgin
But at heart I am a man: the men who I personally killed saw me as a man.
The hometown Braunschweig gave me this life;
I personally stole the life of many men for my hometown.
Life will fade away, but my glory, my heroic glory
that Mars gave me will last forever.

True Abcontrafactur, from a Braunschweigische Jungfrawen, with the name Gescke Magdeburges ...

In the following year 1616 the war report "Braunschweygische Kriegshandlung" appeared, in which it says:

"On the wall, an unmarried woman called Geßke Magdeburgs, 34 years old, armed with a sword, battle hammer and musket, held herself chivalrously and damaged many a warrior and blew out the light, after which many shots were fired but remained unharmed."

- Dieter Lent, Rudolf Meyer: Meiburg (also Magdeburg, Meideborges), Gesche (also Geßke). P. 488.

Gesche Meiburg's name went down in history for all time . The leaflet printed by the Augsburg letter painter Daniel Döring shows her fighting against enemy troops and includes a longer poem with the opening and closing lines:

"I gave Meiburg so affectionate, / In the place of Braunschweig wol confessed / ... / I have done such deeds / Which probably pardon a hero / ... / That one will still say in some days, / Of Braunschweigischen women."

- Wilhelm Görges, Ferdinand Spehr: A Brunswick hero maiden. P. 474.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gesche Meiburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Philipp Julius Rehtmeyer : Braunschweig-Lüneburgische Chronica, Or: Historical description of the dukes of Braunschweig and Lüneburg / Henricus Bünting, Joh. Letzner. Now ... more and according to von Leibnitz Script. Brunso. improved, with notis, documentis, sigillis ... strengthened and bit to the present time. Part 2: The middle house Braunschweig-Lüneburg. , Detleffsen, Braunschweig 1722, p. 1228.
  2. ^ A b c Wilhelm Görges, Ferdinand Spehr: A Braunschweigische Heldenjungfrau. P. 470.
  3. ^ Norman-Mathias Pingel: Meiburg (Magdeburg), Gesche. P. 92.
  4. ↑ Karl Walther Rohmann: gift Meiburg, the Brunswick Joan of Arc. In: Encounters within Braunschweig's walls. Braunschweig 1979, pp. 322-325.
  5. ↑ Werner Spieß: History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages. Volume 1, p. 176.
  6. ↑ a b Gabriele Armenat (ed.): Women from Braunschweig. Braunschweig 1991, p. 18.
  7. ^ A b Dieter Lent, Rudolf Meyer: Meiburg (also Magdeburg, Meideborges), Gesche (also Geßke). P. 488.
  8. ↑ Garzmann, Schuegraf, Pingel: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon. Supplementary volume. Braunschweig 1996, p. 92.
  9. ↑ Lt. ADB: (1574-1649); eight standard mounted soldiers and another eight little ensigns of foot troops, about 2,400 mercenaries
  10. ↑ Walter Hinz: Braunschweig's struggle for urban freedom 1492–1671. Repertories for exploring the early modern period. Jacobi Verlag, 1977, ISBN 978-3-447-04907-8 .
  11. ↑ Dieter Lent, Rudolf Meyer: Meiburg (also Magdeburg, Meideborges), Gesche (also Geßke). P. 489.
  12. ↑ Information on the leaflet in the portrait collection of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel
  13. ↑ Werner Spiess: Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages . Braunschweig 1966, p. 176.

Remarks

  1. ↑ At the time of Braunschweig's defense, she was 34 years old (see Rehtmeyer et al.).
personal data
SURNAME Meiburg, Gesche
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Magdeburg, Gesche; Meideborges, Gesche; Meiburg, Geßke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION "Jeanne d'Arc von Braunschweig" helped to save the city from conquest in 1615
DATE OF BIRTH 1581
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1617
Place of death Braunschweig