Hieronymus von Witzendorff

Hieronymus von Witzendorff (born April 2, 1627 in Lüneburg , † August 10, 1690 in Lübeck ) was a German court official in the Oldenburg and Brunswick-Lüneburg services. Among other things, he acted as Landdrost and Mining Captain of the Harz Mountains .

Life

Witzendorff came from the old Lower Saxon noble family Witzendorff , which was one of the most important families in the patriciate of the city of Lüneburg . His parents were the Sülfmeister and Lüneburg mayor Statius Friedrich von Witzendorff (1594–1652) and his wife Anna, nee. von Elver (1600–1660), the daughter of Lübeck councilor Hinrich von Elver (1568–1614). Nothing is known about his training and youth, but Witzendorf was probably trained at a knight academy according to his status , studied law and then completed the obligatory cavalier tour . Apparently he then entered the court service of the Principality of Lüneburg before the Oldenburg Count Anton Günther appointed him as a councilor on March 1, 1654.

In 1660 Witzendorf was appointed Drost von Delmenhorst and from this time on, in addition to these administrative tasks, also took on several diplomatic missions to Brussels , Frankfurt am Main and Copenhagen . In 1664 he became a member of the Oldenburg Secret Council , which had been set up again the year before , which, as the central authority, was supposed to relieve and advise the aging sovereign in government matters. After the death of Landdrosten Sebastian Friedrich von Kotteritz , Witzendorf was appointed Director of the Privy Council as his successor and on February 20, 1667, Landdrosten of the County of Oldenburg. As the county’s senior official, he was practically the position of a senior minister at a later date.

Shortly afterwards, Anton Günther died as the last Oldenburg count without descendants entitled to a successor, and the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst were combined with Denmark in personal union. The Secret Council was converted into a budget college, which was chaired by the now Danish governor and acted as the county's highest government body. At first Witzendorf remained a member of the budget council, but from 1668 to 1669 he went to the Reichstag in Regensburg as a special envoy . On February 1, 1670, he asked for his release. Witzendorf had already entered the service of the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg the year before. In Hanover he again became a member of the Privy Council, which also represented the highest central authority here. He also became head of the Hanover Consistory and the Chamber , which later developed into the main authority for the internal administration of the state. When Duke Ernst August took office in 1679, Witzendorf was regarded as his primary confidante among the Hanoverian Secret Councils and was entrusted with diplomatic missions and foreign policy negotiations. He held his offices actively until Easter 1682, but also remained a formal member of the privy council, of which he was a member until his death. As a result, he was first again Landdrost, this time in the county of Diepholz and from January 13, 1683 also Landdrost of the Principality of Grubenhagen , whereby these posts were only considered a " sinecure " for senior officials and thus no official obligations brought.

Witzendorf also acted as mining captain of the Harz Mountains until 1685 . He resigned his office as Drost in 1686 and retired, occasionally still entrusted with diplomatic missions, to his estate Groß Zecher in the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg .

family

Witzendorf married on February 7, 1659 Anna Magdalena geb. von Töbing, the widow of Franz von Witzendorff on Kaltenmoor (1608–1653). The marriage remained childless.

literature

• Hans Friedl: Witzendorff, Hieronymus von. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 811-812 ( online ).