Henning Büring

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Henning Büring (* around 1453 in Hildesheim ; † March 10, 1499 in Hamburg ) was a Hamburg mayor .

Live and act

Henning Büring was a son of Hinrich Büring and his wife Methke (?). The family was known in Hildesheim, but was not of the highest class. The couple had another older son and two daughters, whose descendants are documented through contacts with clergymen and marriages with merchants beyond Hildesheim. These include the Raven families in Hamburg and Braunschweig , Vaget in Goslar and Hamburg and Ostra in Hamburg.

Henning Büring, who received no share of the inheritance, can be found in Hildesheim documents up to 1467 and was first recorded in Hamburg in the same year. From here he had been in contact with trading partners in England for about ten years. In 1467 he quarreled with a cousin who gave him a house in Lübeck . The Hamburg businessman Hans Sandow mediated the disputes. He was married to Barbara, who was either the daughter of the merchant Lambert Wittenborg or the merchant and mayor Hinrich Koting. In 1469 Büring mediated a question of guilt in which Sandow was involved. In 1471 he married his then 16-year-old daughter Anna.

From 1467 to 1473 Büring established itself in Hamburg. In 1468 he employed eight people and joined two brotherhoods, acquired pensions from the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck and participated in a window foundation. In 1469 he became a Hamburg councilor. The council gave Büring seven areas of responsibility, including those for “ships” and “war”. One reason for this may have been that the merchant in 1468 successfully countered English repression against Hanseatic merchants in 1468. Büring acted in the council out of his own business interests, took on routine tasks and devoted himself in particular to disputes with England. During the Hanso-English War he fitted out or bought ships on behalf of the council. In favor of the combing, he went on a pirate journey himself and acquired "enemy property", took care of English prisoners and, like Hans Sandow, supplied weapons for the Hanseatic League. Together with Hinrich Murmester and other business partners, he ran his own warships.

In 1472 Büring and Murmester traveled to Lübeck to negotiate in the "causa Anglicorum". Together with a council secretary, they took part in the negotiations on the peace of Utrecht on behalf of the Hanseatic cities . Büring belonged to the closer commission. Of the total of 60 trips that he undertook on behalf of the council until the end of his life, this was probably the most important.

From 1474 to 1493 Büring was mainly a merchant. Individual documents suggest that he had extensive trade relations. In 1476 he acquired the council's own ship for the first time. He also bought a house on Neue Burg Street from a private citizen , for which he took out large debts. From 1480 he bought pensions from private individuals. Although he traveled increasingly afterwards, he was able to earn more pensions. It can therefore be assumed that he continued to trade. The Red Customs of Hamburg recorded regularly recurring sales from 1480 to 1487. Since his business activities were not affected by a popular uprising caused by a famine in 1483, it can be assumed that he did not take excessive prices for grain. This is also supported by the fact that he rose to one of the four mayors of Hamburg in 1486.

In the mayor's office, too, he used the mandate given by the council for his own business interests. In 1487 he traveled to the Lübeck Hanseatic Days , where he was appointed auditor of the London office in the Stalhof . There he was allowed to estimate lost goods, from the settlement of which he and his business partners benefited. Büring traded canvases with English business partners until 1492 and remained politically active in this area. Last indications for commercial transactions are recorded for 1493. A year later he inherited a fortune from his late father-in-law Hans Sandow. Büring acquired further pensions and ceased business activities and travel on behalf of the council in 1495/96. In 1499 he rose to be the first mayor to keep a word, but died a few months later.

estate

According to Heinrich Reincke, Henning Büring left “probably 46,000 marks from Luebisch ”, which would have been the greatest legacy in Hamburg at the time. It is unclear whether Büring earned the fortune herself during her lifetime or whether the widow brought the inheritance to this level in her remaining lifetime. It is also possible that the nephew Lütke Büring (around 1464–1530), who worked in England as a merchant and later as a senior man in the London Hanseatic office, received part of the property.

Although there is no evidence of a legacy of goods or ships, it is documented that Büring transferred pensions to his widow, who did not remarry after the death of her husband, for a capital of 6,450 marks in Luebisch. The couple also owned eleven or twelve properties. Anna Büring held the first house at the Neue Burg until 1511. Lütke Büring sold it in 1529 for 6,500 marks in Luebisch. Anna Büring initially lived in a modest corner house that her husband had acquired from the city in 1486 as a council member at very low cost due to the privileges associated with it. In 1524 she moved to a house on the Grimm .

Anna Büring donated a panel painting with a Lamentation of Christ (around 1530) to the Sankt Katharinenkirche , which can be seen today in the Hamburger Kunsthalle .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Georg Heise : North German painting. Studies on their development history in the 15th century from Cologne to Hamburg. Wolff, Leipzig 1918, p. 74 ( digitized version ); Hamburger Kunsthalle inventory no. 463, imaging the Image Index of Art and Architecture
personal data
SURNAME Büring, Henning
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hamburg Mayor
DATE OF BIRTH around 1435
PLACE OF BIRTH Hildesheim
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1499
Place of death Hamburg