Gottfried Droste zu Vischering (Grand Prior)

Coat of arms of the Droste von Vischering

Gottfried Droste zu Vischering (* after 1614; † 1683 ) was Grand Prior of Germany of the Order of St. John and Prince of Heitersheim from 1682 to 1683 .

life and career

Gottfried comes from the Westphalian noble family of Droste zu Vischering . The year of birth of Gottfried Droste zu Vischering is not known. In contrast, the year of the marriage (1614) of his parents Heidenreich Droste zu Vischering (Drost, 1580) and Margareta von Raesfeld zu Nienburg is known. He was therefore born a few years after 1614. On August 30, 1646, he entered the Order of St. John in Malta . In 1658 he received the Alsatian commanders Sulz (today Soultz ), Colmar and Mülhausen (now Mulhouse ) and from 1657 to 1658 the commanders Hemmendorf and Rexingen. Later (1668 to 1677) he became the (titular) commander of the conspirators of Arnhem (now Arnhem ) and Nijmegen (now Nijmegen ) who had been drafted from the Netherlands . From 1675 he held the office of General Receptor of the Order of St. John in Upper Germany, d. H. He was responsible for the timely delivery of the response money for the individual coming. In 1676 he became governor of the German Grand Prior Friedrich von Hessen-Darmstadt , who had been ordained bishop of Breslau in 1673 , but did not actually go to Breslau until March 1676. In 1682 he was appointed Grand Bailli in Malta; In this role he was responsible for the fortifications in Malta. On February 19, 1682, the Bishop of Breslau and Grand Prior Friedrich von Hessen-Darmstadt died. After his successor, Franz von Sonnenberg, died a few months later, Gottfried Droste zu Vischering was appointed the new Grand Prior on November 19, 1682. In this role he was also commander of Bubikon . He died the following year. Some sources speculated that he was murdered. There is no evidence of this in the contemporary documents.

literature

• Walter G. Rödel: The German (grand) priors. In: Bernard Andenmatten (arrangement), Petra Zimmer and Patrick Braun (ed.): Helvetia Sacra , 4th department, volume 7, part 1 Die Johanniter, pp. 51–76, Schwabe Verlag, Basel, 2006, p. 71 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karlheinz Geppert: Under the Johanniterkreuz. Aspects of the history of the coming Hemmendorf. In: Karlheinz Geppert (Ed.), 900 Jahre Hemmendorf, pp. 205-224, Geiger-Verlag, Horb, ISBN 3-89570-796-1

predecessor	Office	successor
Franz von Sonnenberg	Grand Prior of the German Order of Malta and Prince von Heitersheim 1682–1683	Hermann von Wachtendonk