Heinrich Ehinger

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Heinrich Ehinger (born February 5, 1484 in Constance ; † 1537 there ) was a German merchant and conquistador . Ehinger played an important role in the acquisition of the first German colony Little Venice in Venezuela in the 16th century.

family

Heinrich Ehinger came from the marriage of the patrician family Hans Ehinger (1456–1505) and Margaretha Neidhart (* 1459), who had lived in Konstanz since the 13th century. He was the first of nine children and married Emerita Leyffer (1490–1549) on April 9, 1527. The marriage remained childless.

Life

Heinrich Ehinger took part in long-distance trade with Spain in southern Germany on behalf of the Welsers and was mainly active in Saragossa . He was one of the most influential merchants at one of the important trading hubs of the former world power Spain.

Heinrich Ehinger and the Ulm conquistadors Ambrosius Ehinger and Nikolaus Federmann acquired the only German colony in what was then Spanish Venezuela in the 16th century. conquered, this on behalf of the Augsburg trading house of the Welser. The background to this was the imperial trade privileges for overseas countries transferred to the Fuggers and Welsers by Emperor Charles V as early as 1519, and in 1528 they were granted the right to enslave 4,000 black Africans and deport them from Guinea ( Africa ) to America. Heinrich Ehinger and Hieronymus Sailer signed a contract with Emperor Charles V in Spain on behalf of the Welsers in 1528 - the so-called "Asiento" (Crown Treaty) of the Welser of March 27, 1528 - to cede the territory of Venezuela (South America) as a colony. The sovereign rights to Heinrich Ehinger and the Welser over Venezuela were contractually transferred, including the right to trade and exploit the land. The colonizers were obliged to recruit settlers and establish settlements in the colony. The first governor on behalf of the Welser in Venezuela was Ambrosius Ehinger in 1528, after his death in 1532/1533 Nikolaus Federmann from Ulm.

However, it has not been historically proven whether the contract was concluded on March 27, 1528 with Ehinger as an independent entrepreneur or as a direct trustee on behalf of the Welser or as an employee of the Welser. By a letter from Charles V ratified on February 17, 1531, all Venezuelan rights of Heinrich Ehinger and Hieronymus Sailer were transferred to Bartholomäus and Anton Welser . In return, the German merchants Ehinger and Sailer were granted the highest civil servant positions in the colony for life (inheritable), as well as the transfer of an area of ​​"25 Spanish square miles" as private property and four percent from the profit from the administration of the province. In addition, there were economic facilities, such as the initial exemption from customs duties for the colonists and the only gradual introduction of the statutory 20 percent tax on precious metals. Ehinger was in contact with the Polish humanist and bishop Johannes Dantiscus (1485–1548).

See also

Web links

literature

  • J. Müller: The Ehinger of Constance. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine, NF 20, 1905, pp. 19-40 in the Internet Archive
  • Helmut Strauss: The Venezuela contracts of the Welser and the Chile company of the Fugger - plans of Upper German trading houses in Übersee , TU Dresden (Institute for History) 2002
  • Asiento of March 27, 1528 , in: Schmitt, Eberhard (ed.): "Documents for the History of European Expansion", Vol. 4. Economy and Commerce of the Colonial Empires, Munich 1988, pp. 37-47 (abridged); last German published in: Simmer, Götz: Gold und Sklaven: "The Province of Venezuela during the Welser administration (1528–1556)", Berlin 2000, pp. 757–770 (complete).
  • Konrad Haebler: Colonial enterprises of the Fugger, Ehinger and Welser in the 16th century , special reprint from the journal of the Society for Geography in Berlin, Vol. XXVII (1892), Berlin 1893.

Remarks

  • He used to be mistaken for being identical to Heinrich Dalfinger.

swell

  1. ↑ a b Genealogical information in rootsweb.com
  2. ↑ a b Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon (1920) , Volume III, p. 700 f. (University of Frankfurt)
  3. ^ A b Helmut Strauss: The Venezuela contracts of the Welser and the Chile company of the Fugger - plans of Upper German trading houses overseas. Grin Publishing House
  4. ^ Manfred Ebner: "Venezuela" in Lexicon History Baden and Württemberg
  5. ↑ Dantiscus Lab ( Memento from May 16, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) on obta.uw.edu.pl
personal data
SURNAME Ehinger, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German merchant and conquistador, significantly involved in the acquisition of the colony of Venezuela
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1484
PLACE OF BIRTH Constancy
DATE OF DEATH 1537
Place of death Constancy