Wortwin von Hohenberch

Wortwin (or Ortwin) von Hohenberch , also "Wortwin von Steden" (* around 1140–1150; † before 1211 ) probably had the first building erected in the second half of the 12th century, around 1180 , where the castle is now Bad Homburg stands. He is probably to be regarded as the founder of today's city of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe .

Life

Wortwin appears only once during his lifetime in an undated document in the Oculus Memoriae of the Eberbach monastery as one of the witnesses to a legal agreement between the Eberbach monastery and the Lords of Dornberg ; These witnesses can all be classified in the period around 1180. There he has the noble addition »von Hohenberch«, which means that his place of residence, whatever kind of “castle”, must have already existed at this time. Since it was allod , that is, Wortwin's own possession - otherwise he would not have been able to sell it to the Lords of Eppstein around 1200 - Wortwin must have been a follower of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa (1152–1190). During the same period, this emperor expanded the Hohenstaufen rule in the Wetterau and secured it with a series of Hohenstaufen possessions, with Frankfurt (see the Hohenstaufen city wall there), Friedberg Castle , Wetzlar and Gelnhausen to be highlighted. Barbarossa would certainly not have allowed any opponent to build a castle in the immediate vicinity of his domain.

"Homburg" developed from "Hohenberch"; In the High Middle Ages, “burg” and “mountain” were largely interchangeable in terms of language. Wortwin is therefore considered to be the founder of a settlement that became today's Bad Homburg vor der Höhe.

Not much is known about Wortwin's family overall. It is certain that he was married to Adelheid, the daughter of Eberhard Waro von Hagen, and had a son Heinrich and a daughter Elisabeth. A document containing a connection with Guda, sister of the Rhine Count Embricho and her husband Ortlib von Hohinberck, turned out to be a forgery by the Salm-Kyrburg archivist Georg Friedrich Schott (1736 / 37–1823), as did another document from 1192 ( see Wagner, P. in the literature list).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wenck (1789), p. 111 f., Document LXXX (around 1178).
2. ↑ Nieß, P., The basics of the Hohenstaufen castle policy in our area, in: Heimat im Bild, 45th week, November 1975, o. P.

literature

• Lotz, Friedrich, Die Wortwinforschung in: History of the City of Homburg in Front of the Height Volume I, Paragraph III
• Binding, Günther, observations and excavations in the castle Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe in 1962, in: Communications from the Association for History and Regional Studies in Bad Homburg vd Höhe, Issue XXXII 1974 (Bad Homburg 1974), 5–19
• Hehemann, Walter, search for traces - Wortwin von Steden-Hohenberch and his family against the background of the aristocratic and castle landscape on the lower Main (Friedrichsdorf / Ts. 1997)
• Kurth, Rüdiger, maybe he met Barbarossa: (W) Ortwin von Hohenberch and his castle , in: Yearbook Hochtaunuskreis 2006 (Bad Homburg 2005), 94–98
• Wagner, Paul, The eppsteinschen fiefdoms and interest registers of the XIII. Century (Wiesbaden / Munich 1927), in it: Supplement V: About Wortwin von Hohenberch, the oldest known owner of Homburg Castle.