Heinrich Rantzau (landlord)

Heinrich Rantzau auf Bürau , also Hinrich van Rantzow auf Bürau , (* 1695 ; † May 28, 1726 in Paris ) was a landlord on the small estate of Bürau near Neukirchen . He became known through the serfdom of Bürau , in which he had three serfs beaten so badly in 1722 that they died. The case went to court and helped overcome and abolish serfdom.

Life

Hinrich von Rantzau was the seventh and youngest son of Christian Emil von Rantzau (* 1649 ; † August 17, 1704 ) in Salzau, Rastorf, Ascheberg and Bürau. The family was large and his half-brother Franz (* 1673 ; † 1702 ) and his brothers Reichsgraf Bertram (* 1678 ; † 5 July 1730 ), Reichsgraf Christian (* 1683 ; † 8 December 1729 ), Reichsgraf Hans (* 1693 ; † January 15, 1769 ), Gerhard (* 1693 ; † 1712 ) and Reichsgraf Detlef (* 1694 ; † February 15, 1781 ) also inherited the father's goods if they survived their father. The unmarried Hinrich von Rantzau believed that Heinrich Wiese, a serf, had embezzled grain from him. Out of anger that he could not hold Wiese personally liable (he had fled to the open Eiderstedt ), he let Trina Wiese, the pregnant wife of the refugee, his son Johannes, a farmhand and the miller Greetje Schnoor, who bought part of the grain had to chain and beat up in the basement of the manor house. This killed the son, the wife (who also miscarried) and the servant. Fifty-three witnesses were summoned to the trial, which caused a tremendous sensation, as it suddenly revealed the whole possible brutality of serfdom with the subjects almost completely unlawful . Heinrich Rantzau, however, was not convicted of murder, but - because he had dishonored the great name of his Rantzau family - expelled from the country and had to pay 12,000 Reichstaler to the treasury and support for the bereaved of his victims.

He died in a duel in Paris and is said to have been buried in a mass grave.

literature

• Christian Degn: Schleswig-Holstein, a state history. Neumünster (Wachholtz) 1994 ISBN 3-529-05215-9
• Eckardt Opitz: Schleswig-Holstein, national history in pictures, texts and documents. Hamburg (Rasch and Röhring), 1988 ISBN 3-89136-137-8