Hans Bear (the elder)

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Coat of arms of the bear in Basel

Hans Bär (also Baer or Ber ) the Elder (* before 1465 in Zabern , Alsace ; † November 11, 1502 in Basel ) was a Basel merchant and changer . The parent company was the Basel house "zum Kardinal" . As a merchant he was a member of the Basel gentlemen's guilds for saffron and keys , and in the saffron guild he held the position of guild master .

Act

Hans Bär was a merchant and money changer. In keeping with his trade, Hans Bär had been a member of the Safran Guild since 1465 , where he was elected guild master in 1485. In 1468 the bear from Zabern was granted citizenship in Basel. Since 1471 he was also a guild brother in the guild of the key. Active in the grain trade, he bought houses on Pfluggasse and Weisse Gasse and converted them into a large grain store. The successful businessman was drawn into a major coin fraud affair in 1474. He was arrested, but was soon released without judgment.

Hans Bär owned the house "zum Kardinal" (formerly called "zum Roten Hut"), near the Basel market square . In 1487 he acquired the neighboring house "zum Venix" and converted the houses into a single property (Freie Strasse 36). When Hans Bär senior died in 1502, his son Hans Bär the younger became one of the house heirs. In 1502 Hans Herbst (1470–1552) painted the tombstone for Hans Bear the Elder. (In 1515 the artist painted a table top for Hans Bär the Younger (previously attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger , therefore also known as the “Holbein table”); preserved in the Swiss National Museum in Zurich ).

Tombstone of Hans Bear the Elder, 1502, Basel Minster
Detail of the Darmstadt Madonna , profile view of Hans Bär's daughter, with a white bonnet and chin strap: Magdalena Meyer zum Hasen born Bär († 1511), next to it, in half profile, Dorothea Meyer zum Hasen born Kannengiesser, since 1513 the second wife Jakob Meyer zum Hasens , and below in the foreground her daughter Anna Meyer zum Hasen, born in 1513

family

Hans Bär was married to Anna Eberler called Grünenzweig. She was a daughter of Nikolaus Eberler called Grünenzweig († 1518), Schultheißen of Baden , with whom the Eberler family died out in the male line . The Eberler, with the addition " called Green Branch" since the beginning of the 15th century , were originally of Jewish faith and came from Colmar . They were first mentioned in Basel in 1362 and, after being expelled in 1377 for alleged blasphemy and returning as Christians in 1393, quickly achieved important positions in guilds and councils.

One of Hans Bär's sons was the theologian and humanist Ludwig Bär (* 1479; † 1554). The other son, the cloth merchant, councilor and banner owner Hans Bär (* before 1484; fallen in 1515) was married to Barbara Brunner. Since 1507, he and his wife were the owners of the Basel house "Zum golden Falken" (Freie Strasse 9). Around 1504, son Hieronymus Bär and his brother Hans Bär junior donated two windows in the guest room of the Charterhouse in Kleinbasel .

Hans Bär senior's daughter Magdalena Bär married Jakob Meyer zum Hasen, an influential man who was Basel's mayor from 1516 to 1521. However, Magdalena Bär had not lived to see her husband's ascent because she died in 1511. Her grave slab is in the St. Martin Church in Basel . In 1526/28 Hans Holbein the Younger immortalized the daughter of Hans Bär in the group picture, now known as the Darmstadt Madonna , which Meyer zum Hasen had commissioned. Magdalena Bär had previously been married to two socially high-ranking Basel residents and had given Meyer zum Hasen access to the economically influential people in the city. He now joined forces with Hans Gallizian to form a trading company, worked as a publisher for the Archbishop of Besançon and speculated in real estate. In 1513 he married Dorothea Kannengiesser.

The other daughter Elisabeth Bär was married to the spice dealer and Basel councilor Hans Lucas "Lux" Iselin (* 1486; † 1560). Her son was Ulrich Iselin (* 1524 - † 1564), Professor of Law in Basel and father of the lawyer and rector of the Basel University Ludwig Iselin (* 1559, † 1612), nephew and main heir of Basilius Amerbach (* 1533 - † 1591) .

literature

  • August Burckhardt: The Bär family. In: Friends of the Fatherland History (ed.): Basler Biographien. Volume 1. Schwabe, Basel 1900, pp. 59–89.
  • Lucas Wüthrich: The so-called "Holbein table". History and content of the painted table top by the Basel painter Hans Herbst from 1515 (= communications from the Antiquarian Society in Zurich 57 = Antiquarian Society in Zurich. Neujahrsblatt 154). Rohr, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-85865-505-8 ( doi : 10.5169 / seals-378967 ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Samuel Schüpbach-Guggenbühl: Meyer, Bernhard (to the arrow). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ↑ a b c d e altbasel.ch: Hans Bär -Basler Bannerträger near Marignano
  3. ↑ Lucas Wüthrich:  Herbst, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 590 f. ( Digitized version ).
  4. ^ A b Mario Sabatino: Bär, Hans. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  5. ^ Ruedi Brassel-Moser: Eberler. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . July 26, 2004 , accessed July 10, 2019 .
  6. ^ Mario Sabatino: Bear, Ludwig. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  7. ↑ Nikolaus Meier: The Crown of Maria. In: Bodo Brinkmann: Hans Holbein's Madonna in the Städel. The mayor, his painter and his family. Imhof, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-937251-24-3 , pp. 63-77.
  8. ↑ Hans Thieme :  Iselin, Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 159 ( digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Bear, Hans the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baer, ​​Hans the Elder; Ber, Hans the Elder
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Basel businessman and changer
DATE OF BIRTH before 1465
PLACE OF BIRTH Saverne
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1502
Place of death Basel