Hans the Rich of Gemmingen

Hans von Gemmingen , known as Hans the Rich , (* around 1410; † November 19, 1490 ) was marshal of the Palatinate and from 1468 to 1480 chairman of the Heidelberg court. He acquired Guttenberg Castle in 1449 and was the founder of the Gemmingen-Guttenberg line of the Barons of Gemmingen .

Life

Hans von Gemmingen was probably born around 1410. He was a son of Dieter (IV.) Von Gemmingen († 1414) and Elisabeth von Frankenstein . The first certain news of him dates back to 1425: Hans and his brother Konrad entered into a sharing agreement with the children of her deceased brother Diether V : Hans and Konrad were doing the parental share of castle and village Gemmingen and the goods and Gülten of parents in ten other villages and 3,000 guilders capital. The possessions were fiefdoms of the Counts of Württemberg , the Counts of Oettingen and the Margraviate of Baden .

Hans von Gemmingen married Katharina Landschad von Steinach , a daughter of Dieter (II), who died in 1439 without male descendants. Katharina brought 24,000 guilders in money and in pledges into the marriage. The connection with an heir to the wealthy and respected Landschad von Steinach established the wealth of Hans von Gemmingen, who was previously not incapable. He knew how to increase wealth by acquiring pledges. The Archbishopric Mainz , Pfalz-Mosbach , the Counts of Württemberg, the Hochstift Speyer and the Electoral Palatinate were pledges with pledge sums between 550 and 10,000 guilders. With success he increased the inherited and acquired property. He was rightly called Hans the Rich.

With a document dated December 2, 1449, Gottfried IV. Schenk von Limpurg , the Bishop of Würzburg , confirmed that, as guardian of the sons of the late Konrad von Weinsberg, he gave Hans von Gemmingen the castle Guttenberg over the Neckar with the associated villages Neckarmühlbach , Hüffenhardt , Siegelsbach and Kälbertshausen including all rights, uses and affiliations for 6,000 guilders. With the purchase of this new family seat, Hans von Gemmingen became the founder of the Gemmingen-Guttenberg line of the Barons of Gemmingen, who still own the castle today.

Hans the Rich was in the service of the Electoral Palatinate for a long time, although he did not have any fiefs from it. He was the Electoral Palatinate bailiff in Bretten (1440/42) and Lowenstein (1444). As marshal in 1446/47 he was one of the most influential men in the vicinity of the elector. In 1451 Hans von Gemmingen was a bailiff in Möckmühl . In 1465 he increased his share in the castle and village of Gemmingen, in 1472 he bought a house in Heilbronn and in 1473 he and his sister Metza donated the pilgrimage chapel on the Ottilienberg near Eppingen. After his appointment as court judge, he was chairman of the Heidelberg court from 1468 to 1480 , although he had not studied. This position testifies to his reputation at court and his rank within the knighthood . In 1481/83 he was again bailiff in Weinsberg in the Palatinate .

Hans von Gemmingen died on November 19, 1490. Perhaps he was buried in Maulbronn , because since 1441 he and his wife Katharina had been part of the prayer brotherhood of the monastery. Both mayors of the imperial city of Heilbronn attended his funeral, a sign of his outstanding position and the great reputation he had earned.

family

He was married to Katharina Landschad von Steinach.

Progeny:

1. Dieter († 1467) ∞ Anna von Venningen
2. Hans († 1463), canon in Wimpfen
3. Philipp, 1504 Burgmann in Oppenheim ∞ Anna von Hatzfeld
4. Elisabeth ∞ Lorenz von Erlach
5. Christina ∞ from Münchingen
6. Katharina, nun in Mainz
7. Pleikard (around 1440–1515) ∞ Anna Kämmerer von Worms called von Dalberg (1458–1503)

literature

• Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig Stocker : Family Chronicle of the Barons of Gemmingen , Heidelberg 1895, pp. 49–52.
• Kurt Andermann : The documents of the Freiherr von Gemmingen archive at Guttenberg Castle above the Neckar ( Regesten ) 1353 to 1802 . Sinsheim 1990 ( Heimatverein Kraichgau special edition 6).
• Kurt Andermann: On the income situation of the Kraichgau nobility at the turn of the Middle Ages to the modern age . In: Stefan Rhein (Hrsg.): The Kraichgau knighthood in the early modern times . Sigmaringen 1993, pp. 65-121 (Melanchthon writings of the city of Bretten 3).
• Otto Beuttenmüller : The bailiffs in the Oberamt Bretten . In: Brettener Jahrbuch , Volume 5, 1972/73, pp. 89-96.
• Gerhard Kiesow: Of knights and preachers. The Lords of Gemmingen and the Reformation in Kraichgau . Regional culture publishing house, Ubstadt-Weiher 1997, ISBN 978-3-929366-57-0