Hans Luder (smelter)

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Portrait of Hans Luder, body color, Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä. 1527 (Graphic Collection, Albertina)

Hans Luder , also (great) Hans Luther (* 1459 in Möhra ; † May 29, 1530 in Mansfeld ) was a German entrepreneur. He was a smelter in the county of Mansfeld , a miner , mine owner and later councilor and father of the reformer Martin Luther , who only adopted the name form with "th" around 1517. The family had different surnames: Lüder, Luder, Loder, Ludher, Lotter, Lutter or Lauther . It can be traced back to the knight Wigand von Lüder, who had lived in Möhra since around 1302 and came from the von Lüder family from Großenlüder . This place too was alternately spelled Luodera, Lutra, Luttura and Lutar . The family name Luder can also be traced back to a form of the given name Lothar .

Life

The living conditions of the Luder family are particularly interesting as a background for the youngest son, Martin Luther. For a long time, research was determined by Luther's autobiographical statements that his father was a poor farmer, miner, and hunter, but today a differentiated picture emerges. The following facts are significant about the general political and economic background of the Luder family: Since 1460 the Electors of Saxony , such as Elector Ernst of Saxony and the Counts of Mansfeld , have been arguing about the mountain sovereignty, the mining rights in Mansfeld. Around 1511, Count Albrecht VII von Mansfeld-Hinterort (1480–1560), one of the sons of Count Ernst I von Mansfeld-Hinterort (1475–1485 / 1586), founded Eisleben Neustadt as a miners' settlement, it was commissioned by Count von Albrecht equipped with a church and a monastery.

Parents and siblings

Hans Luder came from the rural upper class in Möhra . His parents were Heine Luder (around 1430 - around 1510) and Margarete, née Ziegeler (around 1434 - 1521). Through this marriage, two of the wealthiest farming families in the area were united. They had at least three sons, although the information on the years of birth differ:

  1. (Big) Hans
  2. Veit (* around 1460)
  3. (Klein-) Heinz Luder (1459-1530).

The Luder family lived on a hereditary farm in Möhra for decades. As the youngest son, (Little) Heinz was eligible for his parents' farm. For the year 1531, the residents of the village can be classified according to their tax revenue as follows: 11% well-off farmers, 18% medium-sized farmers, 71% small farmers. (Klein-) Heinz Luder was assessed with a tax assessment of 203 shock groschen. He was one of the seven richest farmers in Möhra. The Luders family association in Möhra as a whole was in third place in the village hierarchy behind the Barchfeldt and Ziegeler (the family of Hans Luder's mother).

According to the laws of the region, (Grand) Hans Luder, although the oldest son of the Luders, was not entitled to inheritance. It was not, however, as assumed by older research, that he moved away from Möhra in order not to work as his brother's servant. According to archival sources, the Luders in Möhra operated a copper hammer near Ettenhausen, and mining archaeological evidence has shown the mining of copper slate ores in the Gumpelstadt area . Against this background it becomes understandable why Hans Luder turned to the coal and steel industry and was trained as a miner in Kupfersuhl . This is how he gained his first work experience in local mining. So he probably worked as a miner first in Kupfersuhl near Möhra.

Marriage to Margarethe Lindemann (around 1479)

The copper produced in the Möhra area was of inferior quality and had hardly been competitive since the 1460s. Professional miners like Hans Luder, on the other hand, were wanted. The change to another area was the obvious consequence, as was the professional mobility in general for miners and smelters. As his son Martin recalled, his father first moved to Eisenach, where mining activities can be verified in the sources in the period 1466–1482, but these did not go beyond prospecting.

Hans Luder married Margarethe Lindemann of the same age around 1479 (* 1459 in Neustadt an der Saale , † June 30, 1531 in Eisleben). Margarethe, also known as Hanna in the family, came from the Lindemann family, who lived in Eisenach. The Lindemanns came from the upper artisan or merchant class; Margaret's brothers had completed a law degree, a prerequisite for further social advancement. Another branch of the Lindemann family was involved in mining and metallurgy: Margarethe's uncle, Antonius Lindemann, was the chief mountain administrator (Berggraf) in the county of Mansfeld at the time. Both components explain the marriage of Hans Luder, who comes from the rural upper class, to a woman from the urban bourgeoisie.

The Eisenach relatives on the mother's side were important to the young Martin Luther, as he said in a letter from 1520: "Almost all of my family lives in Eisenach, they can testify for me ..."

Portrait of Hans and Margaretha Luther, geb. Lindemann, 1527

Move to Eisleben (1483)

In the summer of 1483, Hans Luder decided to move to the county of Mansfeld with his wife Margarethe. He did not come to the Mansfeld county as a simple miner ("Dinghauer"), rather he had already gained experience in the extraction and smelting of copper shale in his previous places of residence and also had enough equity to cover the annual lease sums for a "fire" to be able to pay for the maintenance of a hut. In contrast to the older research, it cannot be assumed that he saved this sum from a teaser's wage (this was only enough for the basic livelihood of a family); It is imperative that he “already had the necessary operating or start-up capital due to his family and family background”.

The first stop was Eisleben. Since 1460 the Electors of Saxony , such as Elector Ernst of Saxony and the Counts of Mansfeld, have been fighting over the mountain sovereignty, the mining rights in Mansfeld. Around 1511, Count Albrecht VII von Mansfeld-Hinterort (1480–1560), one of the sons of Count Ernst I von Mansfeld-Hinterort (1475–1485 / 1586), founded Eisleben Neustadt as a miners' settlement, it was commissioned by Count von Albrecht equipped with a church and a monastery. In Eisleben, Hans Luder rented a simple half-timbered house a little away from the market square. Their son Martin was born there on November 10, 1483.

How many children the couple had is not certain, there were probably nine children in total, of which the sons Martin and Jakob and three daughters reached adulthood.

Move to Mansfeld (1484)

Since Hans Luder did not make any progress in Eisleben, the family moved on to Mansfeld in the early summer of 1484, which was considered a stronghold of copper mining at that time. The residence of the Counts of Mansfeld remained Hans Luder's residence until the end of his life. The reason for the change of residence was that Hans Luder - he was initially active in copper production around Möhra and Eisleben in Thuringia - preferred the silver-bearing copper slate deposits in the Mansfeld region, which offered better profits, to the smelters that had become unprofitable. As early as the spring of 1484, Hans Luder leased a smelter with the smelting furnaces, the so-called Herrenfeuer, from Count Ernst II of Mansfeld-Vorderort (1479–1531) and quickly established himself in copper slate mining. In 1491 he became a member of the city council, a so-called four - man . Because of his good start-up capital and the network that his uncle had, Hans Luder soon rose to become the town's dignitaries as a smelter and merchant as well as councilor . He ran a smelter in Mansfeld for processing ores from the Harz mining industry. His business partner was Hans Lüttich († 1507), who was one of the most important Eisleber smelting master families and held the office of mayor. In a contract dated August 1507 between Tile Rinck, who represented the underage children of Hans Liège, and Hans Luder it was agreed that the business relationship should be maintained despite Liège's death and that both parties should share in the profits of the smelter in front of the Rabenkupp. At the time of the conclusion of the contract, Hans Luder already belonged to the middle class of the smelter and had risen to the middle and upper class of the city of Mansfeld.

Ironworks (from 1484)

In the early decades of the 15th century , the Seigerhütten method developed , with which it was possible to separate the copper-silver ores that often occur together (see copper shale , copper mining ). The "Mansfeld ore" is a polymetallic ore from which up to twenty-one metals could ultimately be extracted. The Saigerhütten process, which with its development made it possible to differentiate silver from copper ores, was part of the production of liquid, i.e. H. castable iron is one of those metallurgical processes that mark the beginning of the modern era and which ended a long technological stagnation phase.

This new type of metallurgical engineering brought a large number of external investors into the now more complex economic network of relationships. The consequence was the cancellation of the otherwise not clearly limited lease agreements in favor of shorter terms. This resulted in a two-tier system of hut owners with a small, wealthy elite and a remainder of hut tenants who were deeply in debt.

Heinz Lüttich, Hans Luder's business partner in 1484, came from a long-established family of smelters from Eisleben. He held the office of mayor there in 1501 and 1504. Later on, Hans Luder owned seven racing fires in Mansfeld and had up to 200 workers work in his company. From the increasingly complex economic situation, knowledge of reading and drafting legally valid contracts had become more necessary, probably a significant reason for his son Martin Luther to study law.

In 1507, Hans Luder signed a contract with Tile Rinck for the operation of a steel works with three wax fires in front of the "Rabenkupp" west of Mansfeld. Over time and through favorable economic circumstances, Hans Luther was able to produce around 10 percent of the annual production of Mansfeld copper at that time, which corresponded to around 100 tons of copper and 600 kilograms of silver with a material value of around 39,000 guilders . However, due to indebtedness , his smelters and mines had already been transferred to a Seiger company in 1520.

House (around 1500)

In Mansfeld, the family initially sublet in a house on the step mountain with the Dienstmann family. A little later, the Luders moved into a representative house opposite the castle. It is a four-sided courtyard , opposite the inn "Zum Goldenen Ring" in today's Lutherstrasse, of which the building, which was previously referred to as Luther's parents' house, only made up a small part. With the farm buildings no longer in existence, the original property with its four-sided courtyard development, which was supplemented with a garden and a partially preserved stable building on the eastern side of the courtyard, formed an extensive building complex. Both the extent and the corresponding functional areas speak for a high socio-economic status of the owner.

This assumption is also supported by the archaeological finds that were discovered on the site of the missing intermediate piece of the front building, and prove the good economic position of the Luder family. During excavations by Schlenker (2007) in the courtyard of his Lutheran parental home, a stairwell that was once probably used as a rubbish heap etc. a. About 7000 animal bones were used for leftover food, most of them came from (young) domestic pigs , but also from poultry such as geese , young chickens, some ducks and pigeons , but also songbirds , for example on the basis of chaffinch beaks found . Fish was eaten as a fasting food : carp , pikeperch , eels and marine fish such as herring , cod and plaice .

Last years of life and death

Hans Luder was a member of the Marian Brotherhood before 1505 and of the St. George Brotherhood in 1510 . The early archival records of Hans Luder as "Vierherrn" are almost all related to altar consecrations in the St. George Church in Mansfeld.

In retrospect, Martin Luther reported how his father received the news that his son wanted to become a monk: “... my father wanted to be great too, was badly satisfied and would not allow me to do so, and I wanted to do it with his knowledge and will. If I wrote it to him, he wrote me aries and called me you - before that he called me Ir, because I was a master’s degree - and told me all good and veterans' sake at all. "

His son Martin's entry into the monastery thwarted his plans; However, on the occasion of its primacy in 1507, he donated the considerable sum of 20 guilders to the monastery kitchen and appeared on the occasion with twenty guests whom he had kept free.

The economic foundation of most of the smelters, including Hans Luder, was based on smelting and mining operations, secondly on property and land, and thirdly on interest income from monetary transactions. Fourth, Hans Luder also had the function of a mountain official, a show master, which earned him a salary and a share of the fines imposed. The first part of this income, however, fell away for Hans Luder, as for many metalworkers, in the 1520s.

The bond and thus an exact date are not available, but since then Hans Luder has been forced to sign his mines and smelting works as pledge. He only worked as an employee for a wage of 50 guilders a year for the investors of the Seigergesellschaft von Schwarza, founded on July 4, 1472 by Count Friedrich von Henneberg -Aschach. That was a setback, but since the other income continued, it didn't change the fact that Hans Luder was relatively wealthy. The Luder Hüttenmeisterei started operating huts in the Goslar area when the Mansfeld counts took over the huts in their domain and the previous hut owners largely ousted the Luder family.

When Martin Luther married in the summer of 1525, his parents were also present. In 1527 Lucas Cranach the Elder painted two portraits of Hans and Margarethe Luder. Her younger son Jacob Luther took over the family business. On his death in 1530, Hans Luder left goods worth 1250 guilders, namely two houses or a twin house in Mansfeld and land. (For comparison: that was more than ten times the annual salary of a normal Wittenberg professor.) Cleverly he had separated his mining and smelter shares, i.e. his working capital, from his private property, so that the Seiger trading company had no access to the latter. It seems, however, that the smelters and mine shares went to the Schwarzer Seigerhandelsgesellschaft to repay the debt; in any case, son Jacob only ran his own smelters and mines and not those of his father. He was from the years 1533 to 1560 councilor and several times mayor in Thal Mansfeld ( Mansfelder County ).

Martin Luther received news of his father's death on May 29, 1530 at the Veste Coburg .

literature

  • Reinhard Dithmar: In Luther's footsteps. A biographical travel guide. EVA, Leipzig 2016. ISBN 3-374-02360-6 .
  • Michael Fessner : The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld. Archival records on Martin Luther's parental home. In: Harald Meller (Ed.): Fundsache Luther. Archaeologists on the trail of the reformer. Theiss, Stuttgart 2008. ISBN 978-3-8062-2201-2 . Pp. 78-85.
  • Andreas Stahl: New Findings on Martin Luther's Biography. Möhra - Eisleben - Mansfeld - Wittenberg. In: Harald Meller (Ed.): Fundsache Luther. Archaeologists on the trail of the reformer. Theiss, Stuttgart 2008. pp. 86-93.
  • Heiko A. Oberman : Luther. Man between god and devil . Goldmann, Berlin 1982. ISBN 3-442-12827-7 .
  • Ulf Sauter: In Martin Luther's footsteps in Stolberg / Harz. Personalities from the family and business environment of Luther in Stolberg / Harz. Insights into the development of the Reformation. Self-published, Stolberg / Harz 2016, pp. 82–85.

Web links

Commons : Hans Luther  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • The parental home in Mansfeld, lutherbase.de [4]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Willi Wild: The reformer was a bitch. Interview with Jürgen Udolph on Mitteldeutsche-kirchenzeitungen.de , November 7, 2016, accessed on January 28, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Family names and names were passed on almost exclusively orally up until the early modern period and usually consisted of only a first or first name. Since illiteracy was high and many people could not read and write, when writing down due to hearing errors, dialect-specific spellings, unclear pronunciation, spelling and reading errors by the writer, different spellings and variants of the name resulted for each person. see Adolf Bach : Deutsche Namenkunde. Vol. 1 The German personal names. Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1977-78, ISBN 978-3-533-00232-1 , p. 24f.
  3. ↑ A. Rübsam: Relations between the noble family von Lüder and the Fulda Abbey in the Middle Ages. Fulda 1907.
  4. ↑ Horst Herrmann: Martin Luther. Heretic and reformer, monk and husband. Munich 1999, ISBN 3-572-10044-5 , p. 14.
  5. ↑ Julius Köstlin : Martin Luther . 2012, ISBN 978-5-87667-626-9 ( google.de [accessed on January 28, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Willi Wild: The reformer was a bitch. Interview with Jürgen Udolph on Mitteldeutsche-kirchenzeitungen.de , November 7, 2016, accessed on January 28, 2017 .
  7. ↑ see also town hall of Neustadt (Eisleben)
  8. ^ Heiko A. Oberman: Luther . 1982, p. 89 .
  9. ↑ or dates of birth of (Klein-) Heinz Luder (1458–1527).
  10. ↑ Michael Fessner: The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld . 2008, p. 78-79 .
  11. ↑ Michael Fessner: The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld. Archival records on Martin Luther's parental home. Pp. 78–79, excerpt, accessed December 3, 2017 ( PDF ).
  12. ↑ Michael Fessner: The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld . 2008, p. 80 .
  13. ^ Heinrich Boehmer : The young Luther. 2nd edition, Flamberg Verlag, Gotha 1929, p. 22.
  14. ↑ Michael Fessner: The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld. In: Rosemarie Knape (ed.): Martin Luther and Eisleben . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-374-02484-1 , p. 80-81 .
  15. ↑ a b Michael Fessner: The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld . 2008, p. 82 .
  16. ^ Heiko A. Oberman: Luther . 1982, p. 95 .
  17. ↑ Michael Fessner: The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld . 2008, p. 83-84 .
  18. ↑ a b Heiko A. Oberman: Luther . 1982, p. 90 .
  19. ↑ Handel negotiated and aligned through the decreed Rethe of my gracious gentlemen, beginning in 1507. Digital archive of the Thuringia State Archives [1]
  20. ↑ Lyndal Roper : The man Martin Luther - The biography. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-10-066088-6 , pp. 31-52
  21. ↑ Mansfelder Rudolf Mirsch: Luther and mining. Mining & Metallurgy, 1996, www.vmbh-mansfelder-land.de [2]
  22. ↑ Jörg Brückner (Ed.): Harz-Zeitschrift 2016. Harzverein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde eV, 68th year, 2016, Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86732-252-2 , pp. 101-103
  23. ↑ Showcase documents. (PDF) Landesarchiv Thuringia , Digi-Ref project, accessed on January 15, 2017 (list of shop window documents, contains an entry regarding the contract between Hans Luder, father of Martin Luther, and Tile Rinck on the operation of a steel mill with three wax fires in front of the "Rabenkupp" west of Mansfeld, August 1, 1507, State Archives Saxony-Anhalt , Magdeburg Department, Wernigerode location).
  24. ↑ Martin Brecht : Martin Luther: seine Weg zur Reformation, 1483-1521. Vol. 1, Calwer, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7668-3310-3 , p. 22
  25. ↑ Alexandra Südekum: Luther's house in Mansfeld. Halle / Saale, 2009, accessed January 30, 2019 [3] on Archaeolet
  26. ↑ Björn Schlenker (Ed.): Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt / Luther in Mansfeld - Research on the Reformer's parents , State Office f. Monument preservation u. Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2007, ISBN 978-3-939414-07-0
  27. ↑ Harald Meller, Stefan Rhein, Hans-Georg Stephan (eds.): Luthers Lebenswelten. Volume 1, Halle (Saale) 2008, ISBN 978-3-939414-22-3
  28. ^ A b Andreas Stahl: New Findings on Martin Luther's Biography. Möhra - Eisleben - Mansfeld - Wittenberg . 2008, p. 91 .
  29. ^ Andreas Lindner: Martin Luther in the Erfurt Augustinian monastery 1505-1511 . In: Lothar Schmelz, Michael Ludscheidt (ed.): Luther's Erfurt monastery. The Augustinian monastery in the field of tension between monastic tradition and Protestant spirit . Erfurt 2005, ISBN 3-937981-10-1 , p. 61 .
  30. ^ Johannes Wallmann: Church history in Germany since the Reformation . 4th edition. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1993, ISBN 3-8252-1355-2 , p. 15 .
  31. ↑ a b Michael Fessner: The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld . 2008, p. 84 .
  32. ↑ Lyndal Roper: The man Martin Luther - The biography. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-10-066088-6 , p. 44
  33. ↑ Michael Fessner: The Luder family and the mining and steel industry in the county of Mansfeld and in the Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. In: Rosemarie Knape (ed.): Martin Luther and Eisleben. (= Writings of the Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt 8), Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-374-02484-1 , pp. 11–31.
  34. ^ Heiko A. Oberman: Luther . 1982, p. 296-297 .
  35. ↑ Otmar Hesse: Martin Luther's brothers. Foreman Jacob Luther (1490–1571). Harz-Zeitschrift 2016. Harzverein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde eV, Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86732-252-2 , p. 104
  36. ↑ Michael Fessner: The Luder family in Möhra and Mansfeld . 2008, p. 84-85 .
  37. ^ Heiko A. Oberman: Luther . 1982, p. 322 .
personal data
SURNAME Luder, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Luther, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, foreman in the county of Mansfeld, father of the reformer Martin Luther
DATE OF BIRTH 1459
PLACE OF BIRTH Möhra
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1530
Place of death Mansfeld