Valued Titken

Gewert Titken (* around 1602 ; † shortly before March 20, 1651 in Glückstadt ) was a carpenter and royal builder.

Life

Titken's origin is not well documented. He was the son of Johan Titkten, who is referred to in a 1624 document as "tho Aspe". This could have been Hohenaspe . There is evidence that Titken lived in Glückstadt in 1621, where he acquired citizenship four years later. In 1621 he owned a building site in the street Am Fleth and a year later a house. In 1622/23 he committed three crimes, two of which were serious bodily harm. In 1931 he wrote that he was 29 years old.

In 1623 Titken received a championship title. When the office of carpenters and coopers was founded in 1624, he became their senior man. He took on several honorary posts, including as a lieutenant in the vigilante and for some time captain of the vigilante company, which came close to a councilor, as well as 12 men in the rifle guild.

Titken married three times, the last time in 1641. At this wedding he had three children, Johan, Catrine and Christiane, who were probably from their second marriage. When he died, four of the children he had fathered were still alive. The names of all the wives are not known.

Act

After the Peace of Lübeck , Christian IV had Glückstadt built and expanded and a fortress built. As part of the work, Titke was appointed royal builder in 1630. He managed up to 15 carpenters and several workers. Basically, he commissioned the larger projects in the name of the king and agreed the execution of sub-projects with sub-builders (foremen) .The foremen were sometimes groups of several hundred journeymen and workers to whom the royal builder paid the wages.

From 1630 to 1643 Titken spent at least 100,000 Reichstaler for the king, which corresponded to a quarter of the total building budget. Presumably he worked on all important royal buildings. Of these, 1630/31 piles on Rethövel, 1931 quays in the harbor, from 1931 several years at Glückstadt Castle , 1633 two row houses in Königstrasse, which were intended for soldiers, 1640 the extension of Rethövel, 1642 the construction of the town hall are securely documented . In addition, from 1638 he received 800 Reichstaler annually to maintain the fortifications and ramparts of the city.

Until 1644 Titken was considered the most respected master builder in Glückstadt, who received most of the royal orders. He always owned several houses in town. He built at least ten houses, which he often sold directly, including a building Am Hafen in 1639, for which Chancellor Detlef Reventlow paid 6,800 marks. The city's tax register kept him with the maximum amount, which he did not have to pay, however. He paid the maximum amount for the pastor's salary.

With the outbreak of the Torstensson War , the construction work in Glückstadt ended abruptly. As early as 1643 Titken was in debt with 4,150 Reichstalers. The reasons for this are not known. With a recession that began in 1645, his financial problems increased steadily. The city drew up a list of its loans in 1648. King Friedrich III. From 1650 he paid him a small pension and gave him floor tiles, a pipe and other little things.

Titken probably died in March 1651. The wife he left asked the king for further help.

literature

• Gerhard Köhn: Titken, Gewert . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , pages 273-274.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Gerhard Köhn: Titken, Gewert . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , page 273.
2. ↑ Gerhard Köhn: Titken, Amal . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , pages 273-274.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Gerhard Köhn: Titken, Gewert . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , page 274.