Society of Gentlemen to Protect
The Gesellschaft der Herren zu Schützen is a Lucerne social club, which for centuries has exclusively included the most influential citizens of the city of Lucerne. It played an important political role , especially in the Ancien Régime and in the 19th century. The families who were once eligible for regiment are still represented in it today.
historical overview
While the knights of the Middle Ages horse and sword served as status symbols was added the firearm for the nobility of modern times. Therefore, in 1451 in Lucerne, the noble gentlemen's society for the monkey wagon had merged with the rifle society to form a federation and in 1518 incorporated the St. Sebastian Brotherhood as a sign of the close relationship to the church . Until well after the end of the ancien régimes , practically all high personalities of the Lucerne city-state , but also members of the European nobility , ambassadors and representatives from art, culture and science belonged to it or were invited as guests. The task of society was to maintain social relationships with one another, good manners and the fine rules of well-behaved behavior. Also, no resolutions were passed in the town hall that had not previously been discussed in society. The preparations for the coup d'état of 1814, which restored the old patriciate constitution , also took place here . The Society of Gentlemen to Schützen is comparable to the Cercle de la Grande Société of Bern, with which it maintains relationships. Today the society has around 150 members. Her first room master is documented in 1427.
Society house
Since it was founded, the Gesellschaft der Herren zu Schützen has always had its own house. It stood on the left and later on the right bank of the Reuss opposite the Jesuit Church and is known today as the "Hotel des Balances" with its richly painted facade. In 1807, the company acquired the baroque house on the Löwengraben, which was inhabited by the topographer and councilor Franz Ludwig Pfyffer von Wyher and had been used by his family as a summer residence since 1719. A year later, the new owner added a slender, two-story building with a ballroom and spring-loaded dance floor. The entire property, henceforth referred to as the casino , underwent extensive interior and exterior renovations in the 1980s and 1990s. The house is still owned by the company, which occasionally makes it available for external occasions.
literature
- U. Ganz-Blättler: Manuscript for the history of the society of gentlemen to protect. Lucerne 1986, Lucerne State Archives (PA 695).
- A. Reinle: The art monuments of the canton of Lucerne. Volume 3: The City of Lucerne. (= Art Monuments of Switzerland. Volume 31). Birkhäuser, Basel 1953, DNB 750089318 .
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 3 '7.8 " N , 8 ° 18' 9.6" E ; CH1903: six hundred sixty-five thousand six hundred fifty / 211599