Glory of Goden

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Gödens Castle, ancestral seat of the Lordship of Gödens

The glory of Gödens was a glory in the east of the East Frisian peninsula and belonged to the county of East Frisia . It bordered the state of Oldenburg in the southeast and the political territory of the Jever rule in the northeast . The parishes of Altgödens and Dykhausen belonged to the glory . The seat of the Lordship of Gödens was Gödens Castle . The glory existed until 1839 and was then added to the then newly formed Friedeburg Office .

The glory of Gödens has become known primarily as a place of religious diversity. In the largest place of glory Neustadtgödens five churches were built within only fifty years and that with only about 800 inhabitants. In addition to the originally Reformed inhabitants, people of the Lutheran , Catholic , Mennonite and Jewish faith lived here .

history

The glory of Gödens in East Friesland around 1600 (on the right at the Schwarzen Brack)

The glory of Gödens goes back to a chief rule. The first chief of Gödens was Edo Boing (1430–1481). He appeared in 1451 for the first time in connection with Gödens and signed a document in 1454 as to Godensen hovetling . The headquarters of the first Gödens chieftains was a stone house in Altgödens. Edo Boings lived in constant enmity with the chiefs of Jever, although Gödens was still under the rule of Jever at that time .

His daughter Almut Boing (1454–1520) married in 1480 Hicko von Oldersum (1450–1527), who became the second chief of Gödens. In 1495 he defected from the rule of Jever to the county of East Friesland and submitted to the command of Count Edzard the Great of East Friesland . The Jeveran chief Edo Wiemken the Younger resisted this development, but was ultimately unable to reverse it.

The headquarters of the Gödens chiefs in Altgödens was destroyed during the Saxon feud in 1514. Therefore, Hicko von Oldersum and his son Haro built a two-wing moated castle at a new location until 1517 . Haro von Oldersum (1485–1539) became chief of Oldersum and Gödens after the death of his father and married Hebrich von Inn- and Kniphausen in 1527 († 1571). She is considered to be the founder of the town of Neustadtgödens, which was created as a new town in 1544 through dike measures and the construction of a sluice on the Schwarzen Brack . Hebrich also determined Calvinism as the ruling religion in the glory of Gödens as early as the 1530s . More residents had already settled on Neustädter Siel by 1550. Many of them were specifically recruited Dutch skilled workers. In the outer groden in front of the sluice a large sluice port was created and trade relations developed to Emden , Amsterdam , Bremen , Hamburg and as far as the Baltic Sea . The levying of customs duties on imported goods gave the Gödens chief a new source of income.

In 1558 the Gödens rulers forbade the public practice of other religions by edict . All residents were formally forced to adopt the Reformed faith. Baptisms, weddings and funerals had to be held for a fee in the only Reformed church in Dykhausen . Members of other denominations could only celebrate their services privately at home or had to move to the neighboring churches of Sande , Horsten or Zetel .

During the next two generations the glory of Goden was passed on through wise marriages. Haro von Oldersum's daughter Almut von Oldersum (1530–1557) married in 1555 the nobleman Johann von Oldenbokum († 1606) from the county of Mark . From this marriage the daughter Almut went from Oldenbokum out (1557-1601), which in 1574 the of Westphalia originating Francis of Frydag from Loringhove married († 1606). The economic boom intensified under both chiefs.

However, this ended after the construction of the Ellenser Damm , which was built from 1597 to 1615 by the Oldenburg Counts Johann VII and Anton Günther . This dam cut off Neustadtgödens from direct sea access. The ships had to reach the now inward Sielhafen via the Neustädter Tief . It was only through negotiations before the Reich Chamber of Commerce in Speyer that concessions that favored the further development of the place could be wrested from the Oldenburg side. Chief Haro von Frydag (1578–1637) managed to ensure that the ships from Neustadtgödens could pass the Ellenser Damm after the dike was closed duty-free.

The von Frydag family then provided the chiefs from Gödens to Emperor Ferdinand III for a long time . 1646 raised the chief Franz Ico von Fryday (1606–1652) to the status of hereditary imperial baron. This ended the chief's time in Gödens. In 1639 the Reformed Baron Franz Ico von Frydag married the wealthy Catholic Margarethe Elisabeth von Westerholt from Gelderland (1618–1680). This began a period of unusual religious tolerance in the glory of Goden. Franz Ico allowed his wife to practice her Catholic faith in Gödens Castle and gave his children the choice of religion.

After the construction of the Ellenser Dam, the inhabitants turned to trade and weaving. After the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) there was an increased settlement of Mennonite linen weavers from Holland, Leer and Emden. For the bleaching of the woven fabrics, larger bleaching meadows were created on the edge of the village. From 1660, the first Jews could also settle in the glory. Both religious communities received letters of protection from the glory of Godden . This gave the glory of Gödens a new source of income, since the religious refugees had to buy the protection of the rule.

In 1669 a fire largely destroyed the castle in Gödens, but only two years later the castle was rebuilt in the Dutch Renaissance style. The moated castle is still considered one of the most beautiful moated castles in north-west Germany.

In 1692, one generation later, the three secular sons Haro Burchard (1640–1692), Franz Heinrich (1643–1694) and Carl Philip (1644–1699) were raised to hereditary counts by Emperor Leopold I. The three other sons held spiritual offices. Thanks to their mother Margarethe Elisabeth, they had all received a good Catholic education. They traveled to the most important countries in Europe and studied at good universities. The two oldest sons later made careers at the emperor's court.

In 1692, the firstborn son Haro Burchard von Frydag died and his brother Franz Heinrich von Frydag took over the rule. He installed the Jesuit Father Petrus Fleurque in Neustadtgödens, who set up the first Catholic mission in the otherwise Protestant north here. In 1680, Franz Heinrich von Frydag married the equally wealthy Countess Sophia Elisabeth von Aldenburg (1661–1730), a daughter of Count Anton I von Aldenburg and granddaughter of Count Anton Günther von Oldenburg. She was of Lutheran faith and stood up for the inhabitants of glory with the same denomination. In the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555 it was stipulated that the respective sovereigns had the right to determine the religion for all residents of their territory. In East Friesland, however, the right was not exercised directly by the counts and princes , but was passed on to the individual territorial lords , who determined in their glories which religion was valid for the respective area. Despite this right, the Lords of Gödens allowed the Lutherans as the largest religious community in the glory of Gödens to build their own church. This could be inaugurated in 1695.

In 1694 Franz Heinrich von Frydag's son Burchard Philipp von Frydag (1685–1746) inherited the glory and took over the reign. He was in the service of the Emperor in Vienna and held the title of Her Roman Imperial Majesty Cämmerer and ecclesiastical Imperial Court Councilor and Extra Ordinarii Emissary for the Royal Swedish and Danish Courts . As minister of finance and legal advisor, he was an influential man, constantly active at the court of the emperor in Vienna, and rarely found in this position in glory. The administration of the glory was the responsibility of his sister-in-law Charlotte Countess von Bielcke, the sister of his wife Edel Augusta Countess von Bielcke (1692–1762), whom he married in 1708. With the help of successful rent masters , the glory was managed economically despite the absence of the sovereign.

In 1708, Count Burchard Philipp von Frydag allowed the Jewish community of Neustadtgödens to bury their dead in their own cemetery on the road from Neustadtgödens to Gödens Castle. At the same time they received permission to build a synagogue in Neustadtgödens , which is first mentioned in 1752. The other denominations were also allowed to practice their religion more freely. As a second religious community, the Reformed received permission to set up their own church. Only one year later, the Catholic community was also allowed to build its own house of worship. The Catholic St. Joseph's Church was the first post-Reformation church of this denomination on the East Frisian peninsula. In 1741, with the construction of the Mennonite Church, the fourth church building in Neustadtgödens was completed. Now all four Christian denominations had their own church building.

After the death of the childless Prince Carl Edzard of East Frisia , the Principality of East Frisia fell to Prussia in 1744 . The repressive trade policy of the Prussians from now on led to the economic decline, especially of the linen weaving mill in Neustadtgödens. Count Burchard Philipp von Frydag died in 1746. Since he had also remained childless, ownership of the glory went to his nephew Anton Franz Freiherr von Wedel (1707–1788), the son of his sister Maria Juliana (1684–1727), married to Baron Erhard Friedrich von Wedel-Jarlsberg zu Evenburg ( 1668-1740), above.

Anton Franz Freiherr von Wedel brought the Evangelical Lutheran faith into the house of Gödens. In 1776 he was raised to the status of hereditary count by the Prussian king Frederick the Great as a thank you for the help he played in the seizure of East Frisia by the Prussians . A Count von Wedel is still the owner of Gödens Castle today .

literature

  • Werner Brune (Ed.): Wilhelmshavener Heimatlexikon . 3 volumes. Brune Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Wilhelmshaven 1986
  • Ingeborg Nöldeke: Boing-Oldersum-Oldenbokum-Frydag-Wedel - The owners of the glory of Gödens between 1430 and 1788 (family tree)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Werner Brune (Ed.): Wilhelmshavener Heimatlexikon . Volume 1, Brune Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Wilhelmshaven 1986, pp. 386–388.
  2. ↑ a b Klaus Hafemann: Albert Brahms (1692–1758) - No dike, no land, no life , page 12
  3. ↑ Neustadtgödens - The church-rich place , accessed on April 12, 2013

Coordinates: 53 ° 29 '7.2 "  N , 7 ° 57' 53.9"  E