Hohenberg (Franconian noble family)

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The von Hohenberg family, whose headquarters are at Hohenberg Castle, is a Franconian noble family . It is not to be confused with the family of the Swabian Counts of Hohenberg or the family of the Austrian dukes and princes of Hohenberg, which emerged from the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty .

Headquarters of Hohenberg Castle

Tower and fortifications of Hohenberg Castle on the Eger

Main article: Hohenberg Castle

The Hohenberg family castle is located in Hohenberg an der Eger in the east of the Wunsiedel district in the Fichtel Mountains in Upper Franconia in Bavaria.

It is the best preserved castle in the Fichtel Mountains . It stands on a rock that drops steeply to Eger and forms a hexagon with three round and two angular towers and the outer bailey. The battlements have also been partially preserved. In the castle courtyard are the ducal house from 1666 (former hunting lodge from the Markgraves), escort pillars and a stone grain mason from the Hohenstaufen era.

history

Tower of Hohenberg Castle on the Eger

First documentary mention

The exact time when the Hohenberg castle was founded is not known. The castle must have existed around 1222. "Berchtoldus von Hohenberg" appears for the first time as a knightly witness in a sales deed of that year and, in keeping with the times, named himself after his main castle. In the deed, "Gothefridus de Valkenberc" transferred the village of Pleissen, southwest of it, to the Waldsassen monastery . The Waldsassen monastery, only 15 kilometers southeast of Hohenberg, had 90 years earlier (1133) Diepold III. Donated by Vohburg . The Diepoldinger-Rapotonen or Vohburger promoted as margraves in the Bavarian Nordgau around this time with perseverance and success clearing, taking possession and Christianization of the area including West Slavic places. The focus of these efforts was Eger Castle , first mentioned around 1061 , built on an older Slavic castle complex, and the settlement of merchants. The margraves and the Waldsassen monastery appointed ministerials, members of the medieval nobility, as clearing leaders.

According to Heinrich Gradl , the construction of Hohenberg Castle on the Eger can be relocated to the period between 1170 and 1222. In a document from 1170 a "Pertholdus de Egere", 1222 "Berchtoldus de Honberg" is named as a servant of the Eger castle.

Traces of an older fortification

It is believed that the Hohenberg castle complex stands on the remains of an older fortification from the 10th century, which was built at the time of the Hungarian military expeditions to Central Germany. In 1941 a late Carolingian gold brooch was found at the northern foot of the castle hill and dated to the early 10th century. According to the Nuremberg archaeologist Georg Raschke, the area, which was enclosed with semicircular wooden earth walls and ditches in the 10th century, was a base for the Hungarians. One could also think of a place of residence for the Counts of Schweinfurt, who were descended from the Babenbergs .

According to toponomastic studies by the German scholar and historian Adolf Gütter , a “borderline, or better yet, a border area” in the area of ​​the northern North Gau from the year 805, i.e. still in Carolingian times, is conceivable. For Gütter, the frequency of place names ending in -hausen, -ingen, -heim and with the prefixes Lengen- and Längen- in connection with old field names are characteristic of the second half of the 8th century at the latest, those in connection with settlement and The Franks' security measures were in place. Adolf Gütter suspects the core area of ​​the emergence of the Egerland around Schirnding , Arzberg and Thiersheim .

Even the Babenbergs , who ruled before the Schweinfurt counts , presumably played an important role in the development of the area through the settlement of inherited villages with their tax and service system in the period before 1000. The tithes in Haslau , Steingrün and Rommersreuth from the previous fiefdom of the Babenberg duke of Austria, which were transferred to the Waldsassen monastery , provide evidence .

Old roads used the important Schirndinger Pass below Hohenberg as a destination to get into the Bohemian basin. One of them, found by Elisabeth Jäger at the end of the 20th century , bypassed the Hohenberger Burgberg to the north, crossed the Eger at the Hammermühle (Confinhaus) and led via Böhmisch Fischern , Markhausen and Zettendorf to Eger .

Another stretch of the old road on the Frankfurt - Gefrees - Eger line ran south between Hohenberg and Schirnding, also towards Eger and further into the Bohemian basin. The slowly but steadily growing trade with the imperial city of Eger and with Prague required well-guarded trade routes, an important and financially lucrative task for the Hohenberg officials, who were responsible for guiding and securing the roads.

The Hohenbergers as ministerials

After the death of Margrave Diepold III. In 1146 the Hohenstaufen drew the Egerland as an empire. Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa (1152–1190) in particular - he had also had the Margrave Castle of Eger expanded to become the only imperial palace that was later to be located on Bohemian soil - intensified the rule under Diepold III. Land expansion started; the ring of castles around the Eger castle was thickened . During this time the Hohenberg Castle was founded, whose first documented owner, Berchtoldus de Hohenberg, appeared in 1222.

The Hohenberger and the blessed Hroznata

A Hohenberger ministerial was next named in 1242. Konrad von Hohenberg argued with the monastery Tepl over goods in the village of Sandau , southeast of the city of Eger ( Cheb ). In a settlement dated August 21, 1241, a longstanding dispute between his father Berchtholdus and the Teplá monastery was ended.

The Reichsministeriale Konrad von Hohenberg owned farms and land in and near Sandau in the Egerland as imperial fiefs, including the forest area in which he or his successor built Königwart Castle . Therefore, between 1210 and 1220 there was a violent feud with the wealthy Vladyken (Gaugraf) Hroznata von Ovenec from a noble family in Central Bohemia, who did not miss any opportunity to increase the property of the Monastery of the Premonstratensian Order, founded by him in 1193 . In the history of the cities of Königswart and Sandau, the historian Michael Urban says roughly:

"He (Hroznata) was opposed to a determined ministerial of the Egerland , Heinrich von Künsberg calls him the legend, it must have been Berthold von Hohenberg, who just as vigorously safeguarded his and the imperial interests."

In the course of the dispute, Hroznata is said to have been captured by the nobles of Egerland and dragged to a castle (in the legend Kiensberg, in truth more Hohenberg), where he succumbed to prison on July 14, 1217. A legend of the Teplá Monastery does not pass on the enemies or the dungeon in Latin, it simply means: he (Hroznata) was dragged to Germany (in Teutoniam, "to the Germans"), to which the Egerian area in the Nordgau (Bavaria ) belonged before it was mortgaged to the Crown of Bohemia. The Tepler legend Vita fratris Rhoznatae was written around the year 1259, is considered lost, and has had numerous subsequent publications.

After Berthold von Hohenberg's death, his son Konrad probably continued the dispute. After many years there is said to have been an understanding between the feuding parties. Konrad von Hohenberg compared himself with Abbot Gerhard and the convent of Stift Tepl on August 21, 1242 in Eger about the disputed goods near Sandau and vowed to Abbot Gerhard and the Tepler convent for the Sandau area from the interest payments and the temporary uses of others accidentally Pay a third of your income every year. If, however, violating the compensation, he did not do justice to the convention within six weeks, he too should lose all rights to property, interest and robot payments from the inherited peasants in Sandau and the same should go to the monastery as free property. The right of possession of the ministerials of the Staufer , those of Hohenberg to the Sandau area was thereby recognized historically and legally, thus also that it was soil of the Holy Roman Empire and belongs to the Egerland . This settlement was made before the regional court in Eger.

The historian and city archivist of Eger Heinrich Gradl also suspected that the Bohemian noble Hroznata died of starvation in the dungeon at Hohenberg and not "zu Kiensberg" because only the Lords of Hohenberg were neighbors of the Tepler monastery area and actually had a dispute with the monastery of Tepl .

According to the judgment of two other historians, it is very likely that the Bohemian count ( Comes ) Hroznata von Ovenec died in one of the prison towers of Hohenberg Castle in 1217. This was contradicted in later publications by other historians and Kinsberg Castle on the Muglbach or Kynsperk nad Ohri Castle (Königsberg on the Eger) were considered.

Konrad as the leading name of the family

In 1257, Cnevzellinus de Hohenberch was named as the next member of the von Hohenberg family as a witness on the occasion of the donation of Hörsin and the forest to the Waldsassen monastery in a document. According to another Waldsassen sales certificate from the same year, the named Knevzellino de Hohenberc , as the son of Konrad von Hohenberg, again appeared as a witness.

His father Chunradus de Hohenwerch appeared in 1259 as a documentary witness on the occasion of the transfer of ownership of the villages of Wondreb, Beidl and Gründlbach by the Staufer Konradin to the Waldsassen monastery. Gradl led back the name Kneusslin von Hohenberg (Knuzelin), which arose from Kunzelin, that is Künzlein, Konradchen.

After the death of King Conrad IV (1254), Margrave Heinrich von Meißen concluded a protective and defensive alliance with the bailiffs of Weida, Plauen and Gera , whereby they assured each other of a friendly agreement in the event of an occupation of Eger.

Duke Ludwig the Strict of Bavaria, as guardian of the future King Konradin , recognized the danger of an annexation of Eger and countered it by pledging the castles Kiensberg and Wogau and the castle hat of Eger to the bailiffs for a time and Heinrich von Plauen as Judex provincialis in 1257 started, so the bailiffs interested themselves in the Egerland and against reimbursement of the pledge amount in 1261, this pledge was redeemed immediately with the assurance of the bailiffs, infra terminos, quod dicitur Egerlandt, not to build any new castles.

The Hohenberger and the Eger castle fief

After the death of Heinrich (II.) Von Künsberg , buried in the Waldsassen monastery in 1260 , the castle and castle district of Königsberg an der Eger (Kynsperg nad Ohri in Czech) fell back to the empire as a settled imperial fief. Kiensberg (Kynsperg) was pledged in the same year 1260 to the bailiffs Heinrich von Weida, Heinrich von Plauen and Heinrich von Gera, but one year later (1261) at the same time as the ministerial seat of Wogau and the Eger castle, which was owned by Konrad von Hohenberg Vögten had been granted ("arces castrum in Egra, quondam Conradi de Hoinberch licet ex concessione Regali nobis conpeteret ..."), triggered again and assigned to Duke Ludwig the Strict in Bavaria for his ward, the last Staufer Konradin.

This was a remarkable event that shed light on the position, power and influence of Konrad von Hohenberg. So he had pledged the Eger castle to the governors of Weida (on instructions?) In 1260, so he must have been the owner of the Eger castle. Konrad von Hohenberg was also referred to as the district judge of the Egerland .

Whether Konradin 1259 or his predecessor King Konrad IV. 1239 or 1241, during the stays in Eger, today's Cheb in the Czech Republic, or the ancestor Pertholdus de Egre (1170) was a seller or lender can no longer be clarified. Konrad von Hohenberg probably died shortly afterwards.

Knevzellino, the last Hohenberger and the turmoil of the interregnum

Konrad's son Knevzellino became known again on December 21, 1264 as a documentary witness, referred to as "Kunzil de Hohenberch". In this monastery charter, Abbot Heinrich and the convent of the church in Reichenbach S. Benedict's order transferred the village of Göpfersgrün, located in the Egerlande (villam Gotfridsgrune, in provincia Egrensi sitam) to the widow of Heinrich von Kiensberg, Eufemia. He had received the same village as a fief from the church during his lifetime. Half a year later, on April 20, 1265, the named "Chunzil de Hohenberch" testified in another monastery document, in the agreements between the monastery and the German house in Eger, concerning the church in Schönbach, the tithe of Wallhof, the fortress in Horsin and across the borders of the parish of Schönbach.

After the death of the last Hohenstaufen king, Konradin - Karl von Anjou had the 16-year-old beheaded publicly on October 29, 1268 in the market square of Naples - a warlike era broke out among rival groups fighting for royal rule in the empire. The decline of the Hohenstaufen ministry was heralded. Already at the end of 1265, King Richard of Cornwall had given the Bohemian King Premysl II the management and protection of the imperial estates located to the right of the Rhine until his return to Germany.

Under the pretext of protecting the citizens from the feared "arrogance" of the pretender Konradin, the troops of Premysl Otakar II moved into the former imperial estate of Eger in the first days of May 1265. The occupation of Egers does not seem to have taken place entirely without gun violence. A passage from the annals of the Alteicher Abbot Hermann speaks in this context of a devastation of Eger (et Egram vastavit).

One year later, on May 4, 1266, Otakar confirmed to the citizens of Eger, already known as “cives nostri”, all the privileges and lendings they had received from the Roman kings and emperors and awarded them with the removal of a new customs post in Eger for merchants. Freedom from tolls, customs duties and other charges in the entire Premyslid domain. Furthermore, he abolished the Staufer administration ministry and replaced it with his own people, with a burgrave at the head; This essentially took over the functions of the district judge, but was not elected from the ranks of the Eger ministeriality. Premysl appointed the Bohemian nobleman Jaros von Fuchsberg as burgrave (1267–1269), and after him Jarek von Waldenberg (1272–1275). With the privileges confirmed by Premysl, the Kneusel von Hohenberg must also have confirmed his ownership or feudal rights to the castle in Eger.

After the death of King Richard on April 2, 1272, Rudolf I was elected as the successor of the Habsburgs on October 1, 1273 unanimously, albeit in disregard of the Bohemian voting rights (Otakar II), as the new Roman king. In a document dated May 31, 1272, besides Jerkos von Waldenberg, Burgrave of Eger, Künzel von Hohenberg (domino Chunzelino dicto de hoenberch) is named as arbitrator. He received 60 denarii from Egerischer Münz for his arbitration work. From another source can be read:

“Likewise, Friedrich, a son of Ulrich von Waldthurn and brother Ulrich von Hotzowe, on the mediation of Cunzelin von Hohenberg in 1272 refrained from requesting the property right over the monastery property against 5 pfennigs; the mediator received 60 pfennigs. (This hearing took place on May 31st in the presence of Gerdo von Waldenbroch, burgrave in Eger. Witness: Albert Nothaft , assigned to Grenzelo.) "

This shows that the Hohenberger also enjoyed a high reputation under Premysl. Otakar II, King of Bohemia, agrees peacefully with Duke Heinrich of (Lower) Bavaria in January 1273 , renouncing the counties of Bogen and Deggendorf and the castles of Schärding, Floss and Parkstein, Duke Heinrich in return and a. Eger gives up. This treaty signifies the abandonment of all claims on the Egerland which it had since Conradin and maintained on the part of Bavaria. Regarding the date, it should be noted that the contract was signed before King Rudolf was elected (1273).

On November 19, 1274, the Reichstag in Nuremberg resolved in its "bona imperialia" that all areas withdrawn from the Reich, including a. also the Egerland, which was seized by Otakar II, must be returned to the empire. The Egerland was repossessed by Rudolf's troops only 1 year later. This legal process was confirmed again on November 22, 1276, which then leads to the conclusion of peace on December 30, 1276 between the two kings, according to Otakar II. a. also the Egerland has to cede again to the Reich. Otakar executes the peace treaty concluded with King Rudolf in 1277, in which Rudolf's daughter Jutta, who is to be married to Otakar's son Wenzel, promises a dowry of 10,000 marks and Eger is used as a pledge.

In 1275, Chnuzelinus de honberch reappears as a witness. The deed of title reads “Testes honorabilis viri, Ciues Egrenses, dominus Rudolfus advocatus ciuitatis Dom. Chnuzelinus de honberch… ”() Here von Hohenberg as“ imperial bailiff in Eger ”seems to have a transitional function in the administration during the departure of the Bohemian burgrave of Waldenberg until the normal (earlier) administration and the appointment of an imperial magistrate (judex provinzialis ). Burgrave Friedrich III. had had the presidency of the imperial regional court in the empire confirmed (by Rudolf) after Rudolf's election (October 1, 1273), d. H. the burgrave now possessed an instrument of power that was otherwise not available to any of the burgraves in the empire.

In the conflict between King Rudolf and Otakar II, who refused the king's allegiance, Rudolf moved against him with an imperial army in 1276. As early as 1275 Rudolf had his faithful follower Friedrich III. given the order "to seize the border fortresses and passes adjacent to his area (which is undoubtedly the Bayreuth area)" (). One immediately thinks of the strategically important Hohenberg border fortress on the Schirndinger Pass.

The imperial ban was imposed on Premysl Otakar II on June 24, 1276, while King Rudolf I declared war on the inhabitants of the lands occupied by Bohemia to rise up against Otakar II. “After Rudolf I had gathered his most important helpers - Count Palatine Ludwig, Meinhard von Tirol and Albrecht von Görz, Burgrave Friedrich von Nürnberg, Count von Hohenberg, Fürstenberg and Werdenberg - in Ulm at the end of July, the plan of the campaign was decided: He saw before that the burgrave should prepare the main thrust to be led by King Rudolf I and Duke Ludwig against Bohemia through the Eger gate; in the south, the Counts of Gorizia and Tyrol were assigned the task of advancing to Carinthia and Styria with the support of the Patriarch of Aquileia , while the eldest son of the king, Albrecht von Habsburg, was to invade Austria with a contingent of troops reinforced by Friedrich von Salzburg [... ] In mid-August 1276, fighting began. While Burgrave Friedrich was able to take the town of Eger, Elbogen Castle (Loket) and other permanent places without much effort, Meinhard von Tirol moved through the Pustertal in Carinthia etc. ... “So the troops of Rudolf I are heading through the Schirndinger Pass Eger marches to occupy the Egerland. It can be assumed with high probability that the Egerische Vorwerk Burg Hohenberg, at the strategically important pass of Schirnding, was also taken and occupied. This could easily explain why there is still no deed of sale about Hohenberg Castle to the burgrave. Hohenberg Castle has remained in the possession of the burgrave since it was conquered, who certainly recognized the exposed military location of the castle and never gave it up. On August 26, 1278 Otakar died in the battle of Dürnkruth, the Egerland was again fully owned. Rudolf renews the former ministerial administration, but at the same time curtailed its influence by subordinating the entire area to the Nuremberg burgrave. On March 21, 1279, Babo von Sparneck was first mentioned as the new district judge. The new district judge was therefore subordinate to the Burgrave of Nuremberg.

In the deed of donation of March 16, 1278, a Cunradus de Hohenberg appears as the first-mentioned witness. In another document dated March 21, 1279, Cunzlini de hoenberch attests "... videlicet domini Cunzlini de hoenberch, domini Babonis de Sparrenberch ( Sparneck ), provincialis judicis tunc temposris Egrensis ...". Here von Hohenberg is mentioned before the (reinstated) district judge. On June 7th, 1279, King Rudolf confirmed to the citizens of Eger, "who (have) returned to the mild rule of the empire ..." all earlier privileges, listing individual city rights by name, grants the citizens freedom from customs duties in the empire and also confirms all older fiefs.

The named Cunzelinus de Hoenberg attests to another document in the first place in 1279. Furthermore in a Waldsassener deed in 1280, but only in second place after the imperial district judge Babo von Sparneck, here referred to as Knuszelinus de Hoenberg. In another document from 1281, Kneuzlinus de Hoenberg testifies in the same order, the same applies to the series of witnesses in the document from 1282 (Kneuzlinus de hoenberg). According to Waldsassener notes "... they renounced their protective rights to Trevesen and Bingarten ...", the witness Kneuzlin von Hohenberg is even referred to as "Imperial District Judge in Eger".

With the deed of mortgage dated April 2, 1285, the Roman King Rudolf transfers the castle fiefdom in Eger to Burgrave Friedrich von Nürnberg, who bought it from the last Hohenberger Kneuzl, as well as the Wunsiedel Castle:

“Nos Rudolfus, dei gratia Romanorum Rex semper Augustus, ad universorum noticiam cupimus pervenire, quod nos viro nobili friderico, Burggravio de Nurenberch, dilecto nostro fideli, castrense feodum in Egra, quod idem apud virum strictuum Knuzel emus de dictum de dictum de dictum feodum cum suis pertinentiis universis nostre Celsitudini resignante, et Castrum Wunsitel cum omnibus pertinenciis suis, quod prefatus Burcgravius ​​etiam emit, in feodum rationabiliter duximus concedenda. Testes huius rei sunt: ​​Venerabilis Gotfridus Episcopus Pataviensis, illustris Ludovicus dux Bavarie, Principes nostri dilecti; Theobaldus commes firretensis, Rudegerus et Babo fratres de Sparnecke, milites; Cunradus Judex Egrensis et Franciscus frater eiusdem et Martinus, Cives Egrenses. Ad horum firmitatem et evidentiam pleniorem presentes litteras nostre maiestatis sigillo fecimus communiri. Date in Nurenberch, Anno d. MCCLXXX quinto, Quarto nonas Aprilis, Ind. XIII., Regni vero nostri ao. XII. ”

“We, Rudolf, by the grace of God, Roman King, the always exalted, wish that the news be made known to the noble man Friedrich, Burgrave of Nuremberg, our dear faithful, the castle fief in Eger, which he received from the steadfast man Knuzel, called von Hohenberg, bought and on which fiefdom with all its affiliations the said Knuzel waived our sovereignty, and gave the Castle Wunsitel with all its affiliations, which the mentioned burgrave also bought, to a right fiefdom .... (Follow the names of the witnesses and the escha protocol). "

The villages of Markhausen and Zettendorf to the east of Hohenberg were aristocratic manors and later imperial fiefdoms. The first documentary mentions are from 1225: The parish of Tirschenreuth receives tithe "... a Chunrado quoque et Perchtoldu fratribus de Marchhousen ..." Brothers Konrad and Berchtoldus mentioned could be identical to the Berchtoldus de Zettendorf, first mentioned in 1221, and the Berchtoldu de, which became known around 1222 Hoenberg and 1242 Chunradus de Hoenberg.

The last named von Hohenberg - Kneuzel - 1285 is possibly identical to the Kneuzel von Marckhausen mentioned around 1303, who retired to his father's property in Marckhausen in 1285 after the sale of his castle fief in Eger together with his main castle Hohenberg to the burgrave of Nuremberg. A family relationship between the Lords of Markhausen-Zettendorf and the Reichsministeriales of those of Hohenberg cannot be ruled out at least. Karl Bosl writes:

“If Falkenau formed the extreme eastern cover of the Eger Imperial Castle, this task was fulfilled in the west as the closest barrier fort Hohenberg, […], where a Berthold lived in 1222 (ME No. 158). Here, too, is Staufer possession with the aforementioned pledge to the bailiffs of Weida. Less significant seats on the river are Markhausen and Zettendorf, which connect the offshore Hohenberg with the main fortress (Eger). It seems to me that Berthold von Markhausen from 1225, who with his brother Konrad sold tithes to Waldsassen zu Hillertshofen near Großkonreuth (ME No. 171), is the same person as Berthold von Hohenberg. Four years earlier, perhaps the same Berthold called himself after Zettendorf (ME No. 157); probably his sons, the pueri von Zettendorf, sold 1224 tithes around Mitterteich and Wiesau (ME No. 167). The Zettendorfer (ME No. 609, 1312), traceable at the beginning of the 14th century, are probably no longer related to this. For the family relationships of the aforementioned Bertholde von Markhausen in the same area where the pueri von Zettendorf have property, namely in Oberteich near Mitterteich and Altenwysa (= Wiesau), documented (ME No. 208) 1303 a Kneuzel calls himself back to Markhausen, after a Reichsministerialer of the same name called himself to Hohenberg in 1257 (ME No. 229), the son of Konrad von Hohenberg (ME No. 231, 236), who was still documented in 1259 and whom we met in 1225 as the brother of Berthold von Markhausen. In terms of property history and genealogy, this closes the circle around a family, the members of which are named after different castle seats, and a large number of names can perhaps even be applied to a person, to which v. Dungern drew particular attention in the quoted article 'Comes, liber, nobilis'. "

With this latter Kneussel (Knuzel, Cunzelinus) von Hohenberg (1256–1285), who is always mentioned as a witness in no less than 12 Waldsassen monastery documents, “we encounter a Reich Ministerial who neither the decline of the Hohenstaufen nor the disputes with Bohemian king Premysel Otakar had damaged the prosperity of the city of Eger ”. As a later loyal supporter of the German King Rudolf von Habsburg (elected in 1273) and of the Zollerischen Burgrave Friedrich III. (1260–1297) he seems to have increased his influence after the death of Otakar II (1278). As early as 1260 he must have taken over the castle fief in Eger from his father's possession (see above), which he then passed on to Friedrich III in 1285. should sell. It is believed that during the reign of Otakar II (1266–1275) the robber baron system in the Fichtel Mountains was put to a (temporary) end via Eger.

"When the legend of the twelve robbery castles speaks of the fact that the 'Tyranney' in the Fichtelgebirge 'finally came under the rule of the surrounding area and was cut off from them (the highwaymen)', one is most likely to think of Kneussel Hohenberg and the other nobles living around Eger have to think about. Since the principle was that whoever stormed a robbery castle got this seat as his own, it is, even if not documented, it is strongly suspect that Kneussel became the owner of the (Wunsiedler) castle because he was the hustle and bustle of the robber barons 'put an end to this area ”. “The Sandau chronicler Michael Urban ('History of the cities of Königswart and Sandau', Mies, 1894) traces the fate of the Hohenbergers on page 18 until they died out: 'Under Konrad von Hohenberg's son, Künzel (Kneussl), this family had his Flowering reached. Künzel was the last man's sprout and left only daughters, apparently two, one married to one of Nothaft, the other to a Hertenberg . After Künzel's death, if he had not sold them for this reason, some of his possessions fell to the realm, from which they were fiefdomed by the Leuchtenberg landgraves, and some to members of the Nothaft and Hertenberg families (= Hartenberg near Gossengrün). "

After Heinrich Gradl, Engelhard I, a son of Albrecht II. Nothaft von Wildstein ( Skalná ), married Katharina, a daughter of Künzel von Hohenberg, who brought Thiersheim , Braunersgrün, Stemmas and Kothigenbibersbach into the marriage as a wedding property. According to H. Gradl, we know roughly about the rich property of the von Hohenberg family. He summarizes his investigations in this regard as follows: "The von Hohenberg had all the indications of the whole region from Schönbrunn and Wunsiedel to Thiersheim and Arzberg to Hohenberg and on the other hand from Albenreuth to Königswart". According to Heinrich Gradl, the Nothaft family is said to have come into possession of the Thiersheim area through marriage in the last third of the 13th century. Because in Engelhard Nothaft's wife Katharina Gradl sees a daughter of the "Knuzel dictum de Hohenberch", who in 1285 owned the Wunsiedel castle and the castle fief in Eger to the burgrave Friedrich III. from Nuremberg had sold.

On January 30, 1291, "Engelhardus dictus Nothaft de Wiltstein" sold the village of "Brunsgrune" (= Braunersgrün near Wunsiedel) to Burgrave Friedrich III with the consent of his wife Katharina. from Nuremberg. Rudolf's consensus document for the burgrave dates from the same day on which the sale of goods in Braunersgrün, Stemmas, Kothigenbibersbach and Thiersheim was approved. So here too the original owners are likely to have been the Lords of Hohenberg.

Höchstädt must also have been in the possession of the burgraves before 1297, because on March 29, 1298, burgrave Johann I , Friedrich III. Son, a contract from his father, according to which he had handed over the village of Höchstädt to the Waldsassen monastery as compensation for damage caused. The monks were supposed to be allowed to use Höchstädt until their income covered their damage. This means that Burgrave Friedrich († 1297) was the owner or tenant of Höchstädt. Later the Höchstädter area formed an exclave of the Hohenberg office.

It seems as if the oldest acquisitions made by the Nuremberg burgraves in the area east of Wunsiedel were combined in the Hohenberg office as the administrative center. Given the size of this property - from Schönbrunn in the Fichtelgebirge to the Sandauer Pass near Königswart - it was a stately complex, even if it was only a free float beyond the current border in the Egerland and Bohemia. As Egerland vassals, the Hohenbergers had built up a small territory around their ancestral seat, the establishment of which goes back at least to the time of the Hohenstaufen emperors. From the end of the 13th century, the parts of this small rulership in the west of Eger (later Sechsämterland ) came one after the other into the union of the rising territorial power of the Zollern, so that they actually did not have to participate in the transfer to the Bohemian crown (1322). The extent of the small settlement and economic area of ​​Hohenberg Castle, which is embedded in extensive forests, can still be reconstructed from later sources. According to an annual account by the Hohenberger Vogt from 1421/22, the following places expressed the recognition of an old dependency relationship with a white delivery of eggs (partly only in money, partly still in kind) to the Hohenberg bailiff: Bibersbach (near Wunsiedel), Brücklas , Fahrenbach, Göringsreuth, Grötschenreuth, Hildenbach, Holenbrunn, Leupoldsdorf, Lorenzreuth, Röslau, Schönbrunn, Schönlind, Sichersreuth, Thölau, Tröstau, Vordorf, Valetsberg, Wintersberg and Wintersreuth. It can be assumed that these places also had to deliver a master or main valid to Hohenberg in the past. (Herrenvalid = the land tax levied on property).

As late as 1499, in the land register of the six offices , appear as castle grain locations, i.e. H. Places that had to pay grain interest to Hohenberg: Schönbrunn (“everyone gives 1 little Haber to the Vogt von Hohenberg”), Brücklas (“1 little Vogthabern to Hohenberg”) and Kleinwendern (“2 Kar Haber to the bailiff in Hohenberg”). According to the annual accounts of the princely domain of Hohenberg from 1626, subjects from the Wald-sassen monastery and from the Egerland also delivered a "protector" in Hohenberg. So-called service fish, a fee for the use of fish pastures, also had to be paid; So the fisherman from Wunsiedel delivered two service fish in 1421/22, Arzberg in 1499 also two.

The public-law obligation of the surrounding population to Hohenberg Castle is also derived from a castle maintenance obligation, as it is attested by several places: Arzberg had to indulge in the construction of the new office building in 1666, Schönbrunn replaced his Hohenberg castle front with money in 1677 The village of Valetsberg says in the official description of 1698 that there was no labor, “except to Hohenberg” and also from Vordorf in 1698 a Hohenberger labor was handed down. According to the official description of 1698, the castle property in Tröstau was subject to interest after Hohenberg. also a castle in Neuenreuth (according to the land register of 1499).

The business enterprise belonging to Hohenberger Schloss comprised approx. 170 Tgw until 1723. Fields and meadows that were partly worked by their own staff, partly by subjects obliged to do compulsory labor, including a large forest area with a herding and sheep farm. In 1626 the farmers of Hohenberg, Grafenreuth , Lorenzreuth, Raithenbach and Seußen had a total of 167½ days to plow. Farmers from the Wunsiedel office mowed the hay on the so-called Neudorfer Wiese near Marktleuthen, which belongs to Hohenberg. It can also be assumed that the ministerials of the castles in Schönbrunn and Wunsiedel, possibly also in other places, with the owners of the castle estates subordinate to them, were in a military service relationship with Hohenberg Castle. The bailiff von Hohenberg always had the military high command in the later six offices.

The blood spell of the castle originally extended to the places of the later judicial districts of Wunsiedel and Arzberg, as reported in the Landbuch of 1499 and, notably, also to the Egerland subjects in the towns of Fischern , Mühlbach and Rathsam , as well as the Palatinate localities Groschlattengrün and Pechbrunn , as well as the Sparneck fiefdom Dörflas near Marktredwitz.

From this point of view, Hohenberg Castle actually appears to be the center of a petty lordship. The lord of the castle, who had property rights, carried out his duties as a representative of the sovereign. It stayed that way when Hohenberg initially (until 1504) formed an "office" together with Wunsiedel and then only in the immediate vicinity with Arzberg and Höchstädt. In the pre-Reformation period Hohenberg belonged to the diocese of Regensburg and within it (with Arzberg 1268) to the deanery Beidl / Wondreb. Then under the patronage of the German Order Coming in Eger, which in turn counted to the Ballei Thuringia. In Hohenberg there was only one (castle?) Chapel mentioned for the first time in the official accounts of 1421/22 with the young patronage of Landgrave Elisabeth of Thuringia, who was canonized in 1235. The foundation may well go back to the Lords of Hohenberg. In terms of church, Hohenberg was looked after from Arzberg. The mass wine was paid for from the sovereign treasury. In 1626, the Teutonic Order House in Eger still handed 1 bucket of mead per year to Hohenberg Castle as a “Herrenvalue”. 1501 it says; "Item of the amptmann zu Hohenberg nymbt every one from the kompther zu Eger an aymer mets. That is why he protects and tears in the ire servant and horse, wherever they go outside in the woods and sundries ”.

An important task of the bailiff von Hohenberg was to exercise the right of escort on the transit routes between Bohemia and Franconia.

After the reform of the authorities by Margrave Christian in 1613, administrators and judges from the middle class now carried out the administrative matters in the Hohenberger Amtshaus.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinrich Gradl : Monumenta Egrana. Monuments of the Egerland as a source for its history, vol. 1: 805-1322, Eger: Witz, 1886, p. 158.
  2. ↑ ME 82
  3. ↑ Archive for the history of Upper Franconia, vol. 79, p. 13.
  4. ↑ ME 162
  5. ↑ Archive for the history of Upper Franconia, vol. 76, p. 61 ff., 1996. As recently as 1587, “… about the steep path from Hohenberg to Eger…” was spoken of when the departments of Wunsiedel, Selb and Hohenberg commented on the Eger Treaty of 1561. “Die Freistatt”, Vol. XV Part II, p. 176.
  6. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Singer in: Archive for the history of Upper Franconia, vol. 43, p. 77ff, 1963.
  7. ↑ a b c ME 197
  8. ↑ Mies, 1894, pp. 17 and 18
  9. ↑ ME 721
  10. ↑ ME 229
  11. ↑ ME 231
  12. ↑ ME 236
  13. ↑ ME 226
  14. ↑ ME 230
  15. ↑ ME 243
  16. ↑ Distr. Egranus, p. 203.
  17. ↑ Alberti, K., Asch, 1934, Vol. I., p. 66.
  18. ↑ ME 249
  19. ↑ ME 250
  20. ↑ ME 253
  21. ↑ ME 255
  22. ↑ ME 256
  23. ↑ ME 287
  24. ^ Brenner, JP, History of the Waldsassen Monastery and Abbey 1837, p. 42.
  25. ↑ ME 290
  26. ↑ ME 297
  27. ↑ ME 310; ME 311
  28. ↑ ME 315
  29. ↑ ME 317
  30. ↑ ME 304
  31. ↑ ME 308
  32. ↑ Jörg K. Hoensch , Přemysl Otakar II of Bohemia. The golden king . Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-222-11910-4 , pp. 222, 223.
  33. ↑ a b ME 325
  34. ↑ ME 324
  35. ↑ ME 329
  36. ↑ ME 334
  37. ↑ ME 342
  38. ↑ ME 347
  39. ↑ ME 353
  40. ^ Brenner, JP, Waldsassen, 1837, p. 49.
  41. ↑ ME 369
  42. ↑ ME 171
  43. ↑ ME 157; ME 167
  44. ↑ ME 158
  45. ↑ ME 197; ME 236; ME 243
  46. ↑ ME 363
  47. ↑ ME 534
  48. ^ Karl Bosl , Oberpfalz and Oberpfälzer: History of a Region Collected Essays, Kallmünz Lassleben 1978, ISBN 3-7847-1129-4 , p. 165.
  49. ↑ Elisabeth Jäger , Wunsiedel vol. I, p. 55 ff.
  50. ^ Gradl, Geschichte des Egerlandes, p. 115.
  51. ^ Monumenta Zollerana . Document book on the history of the House of Hohenzollern, Berlin 1852–1890, II, p. 364.
  52. ↑ Harald Stark : Eleven courtyards and a shepherd's house formed a village. From the history of Braunersgrün in the district of Wunsiedel In: Archive for history of Upper Franconia, vol. 72 (1992) p. 217.
  53. ↑ StA Amberg KL Waldsassen 100, fol. 422
  54. ↑ Landbuch von 1499, p. 204.