Jürgen spinning wheel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jürgen spinning wheel (* 1500, † after 1568) also known as Johann Jürgen and Hans Jürgen, was a stonemason and sculptor and carver , who in the 16th century in Braunschweig lived and worked.

Life

Jürgen was a citizen of the city of Braunschweig. The only contemporary, official document about Jürgen are the constitution books of the city of Braunschweig from the years 1525 to 1585. According to Paul Jonas Meier , he came from Bohemia . Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr, on the other hand, assumes that Braunschweig was his home. According to the latter source, Jürgen is said to have received his training as a master sculptor in Nuremberg .

In 1552 Jürgen was imprisoned, presumably because he was in the city of Braunschweig for Duke Heinrich the J. had started. In 1553 he was temporarily arrested again for blasphemous speeches in Bad Langensalza , released against a guarantee and temporarily expelled from the city of Braunschweig. He was finally banned from Braunschweig in 1563 because he had expressed “free-thinking views” and “unpopular judgments” about the advice of Hagen in a pub. His difficulties with the clergy and the authorities of Braunschweig are mainly attributed to the fact that he preferred to portray Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon on grave monuments.

It is believed that a Julius spinning wheel, which fell on October 13, 1553 in the battle between the city of Braunschweig and the Duke of Wolfenbüttel, and a Mauritius spinning wheel, which is named in 1566, were his sons.

Further information about Jürgen can only be found in an unprinted chronicle of the city of Braunschweig by Volkerling that was only written in 1616 . This chronicle reports that Jürgen fought in the Hildesheim collegiate feud (1519–1523) in front of Peine and was very experienced in the art of guns. After his exile he settled in Watenbüttel , a village that was an hour outside the gates of Braunschweig at the time, which meant that he was outside the control of the city council. There he is said to have saved the lives of several people in a fire and to have been the owner or leaseholder of an inn called Zum Spinnrad . His nickname "spinning wheel" was given to him for inventing the wing spinning wheel for the first time in 1530 .

The chronicle of Volkerling, which was written several decades after Jürgen's death, appears quite dubious when comparing all the data. In order to have participated in Peine as an experienced fighter in 1519, 1521 or 1522, Jürgen's date of birth would have to be around 1500 at the latest. However, it seems certain that after 1563 he still worked as a sculptor in distant places, even until at least 1568, when he would have been at least 68 years old. At least it seems possible that he returned to Braunschweig around 1530 from his training and the other journeys he is said to have made, bringing with him and disseminating knowledge about the vane spinning wheel, which is already known in southern Germany.

Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr , on the other hand, mentions December 4, 1559 as the date of his death, which also seems to be excluded.

plant

The stone epitaph of the patrician Gerhard Pawel (Gerhard Paul), his wife Anna von Windheim and his two sons Conrad and Gerhard hanging in the Martini church opposite the pulpit is considered to be his most important work and the only one that he himself created in the city of Braunschweig the year 1555. Jürgen carved a self-portrait into the console-like lower end of this plate. The assignment of this work is, however, not undisputed.

The gravestones for Duke Heinrich d. J. and his sons Phillip Magnus and Karl Viktor who died in the battle of Sievershausen in the main church of Wolfenbüttel are typical of Spinnrad. Furthermore, the coat of arms of the administrator of Halberstadt, Sigismund , in Gatersleben comes from him. He created further tombstones in 1568 for Lippold von Rössing in Osterwieck , for Dietrich v. Quitzow in Rühstädt and others in Marienborn, Drübeck, Wernigerode , Lüneburg and Celle. Even after his exile in 1563, he designed the Veltheim'sche grave monument in the cloister of Halberstadt Cathedral .

reception

Watenbüttel coat of arms with spinning wheel

A calendar from 1794 contains a song of praise in eleven stanzas to Jürgen as the inventor of the spinning wheel. On April 10, 1835, an opera in his memory was even performed in the court theater in Braunschweig. The date "1530", which is only mentioned in Volkerling's chronicle, found its way into many encyclopedias, was reinterpreted for the whole of Europe when the spinning wheel was invented, and it was not until the middle of the 20th century that it was slowly relativized by the unequivocal counter-evidence. The town of Watenbüttel is reminiscent of Jürgen's spinning wheel with its coat of arms. And on the Heerstraße from Braunschweig to Lüneburg there is still a hotel in Watenbüttel called “Zum Spinnrad”; however, the old inn was demolished in 1975. It was on the corner of Celler Heerstr. And Hans-Jürgen-Str., Which is named after him.

literature

  • Christoph Beeck: About the spinning wheel and its inventor. In: Adolf Meyer (Hrsg.): Local calendar for the Lüneburg Heath . Celle 1988, pp. 50-53
  • Heinrich Lange: Hans Jürgen and the spinning wheel (special print of the Deutsche Drechsler Zeitung). Leipzig 1930
  • Paul Jonas Meier : The sculptor's handicrafts in the city of Braunschweig since the Reformation. In: Workpieces from the museum, archive and library of the city of Braunschweig. Volume VIII, Appelhans, Braunschweig 1936.
  • Hermann Wille: Great moments in technology . Leipzig 1987
  • Franz Maria Feldhaus:  Jürgen . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 50, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1905, p. 729 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Görges: Vaterländische Stories and Memorabilia [...] (2nd edition completely revised and enlarged by Ferdinand Spehr). Braunschweig 1881, p. 115 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ Paul Jonas Meier: The handicrafts of the sculptor in the city of Braunschweig since the Reformation. In: Workpieces from the museum, archive and library of the city of Braunschweig. Volume VIII, Appelhans, Braunschweig 1936, p. 11
  3. ↑ possibly identical to Barth. Völkerling, s. Paul Zimmermann:  Peters, Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 487 f.
  4. ^ Heinrich Lange: Hans Jürgen and the spinning wheel (special print of the Deutsche Drechsler Zeitung). Leipzig 1930, pp. 13–15
  5. ↑ Sabine Wehking , DI 56, No. 475, in: www.inschriften.net, urn: nbn: de: 0238-di056g009k0047504
  6. ↑ Uwe Czubatynski: Rühstädt. An epitaph by the Braunschweig master Jürgen Spinnrad in the village church in: Brandenburgische Denkmalpflege , year 16, issue 2, Willmuth Arenhövel Verlag, Berlin 2007
  7. ^ Wilhelm Görges: Vaterländische Stories and Memorabilia [...] (2nd edition completely revised and enlarged by Ferdinand Spehr). Braunschweig 1881, pp. 118-119
  8. ↑ Christoph Beeck: From the spinning wheel and its inventor. In: Adolf Meyer (Hrsg.): Local calendar for the Lüneburg Heath . Celle 1988, p. 50
personal data
SURNAME Spinning wheel, Jürgen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spinnrad, Johann Jürgen; Spinning wheel, Hans Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and builder
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH after 1568