Jürgen Wullenwever

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Mocking portrait of Jürgen Wullenwever, 1537 ( St. Annen Museum , Lübeck)
Signature Jürgen Wullenwever.PNG
Seal of Jürgen Wullenwever, around 1533

Jürgen Wullenwever (* before 1488 in Hamburg ; † September 24, 1537 in Wolfenbüttel ) was a German politician and from 1533 to 1535 mayor of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck .

Life

family

Wullenwever's father Johann Wullenwever came from a Perleberg merchant family and settled in Hamburg as a wall tailor around 1481 , where he became prosperous by marrying Anneke Schroder (1460–1488), daughter of the goldsmith, mint master and wall tailor Hans Schroder. Jürgen Wullenwever was the youngest son. His mother died the year he was born. His father married a second time in 1491, but died before 1500. His second wife Beke von Minden, nee. Nanne, a widow from one of the oldest Hamburg council families, survived him.

Wullenwever's brother Joachim (1486–1558) was involved as councilor in Hamburg when the Reformation was introduced there ; Another brother, Hans, was a merchant, mayor of Perleberg in 1542 and, for a time, also resided in Lübeck. The half-sister Geske from the father's second marriage married the Hamburg goldsmith Ludeke Munster, but was widowed by 1525. Jürgen Wullenwever was already working as a businessman in Hamburg before he moved to Lübeck in 1525. In the same year he married the Lübeck merchant widow Elisabeth Peyne, who came from the patrician Greverade family. He lived in her brother's house at Königstrasse 75 . His neighbor there was the Sweden merchant Harmen Israhel , one of the leading men among the Lübeck Protestants since the beginning of the 1520s. Wullenwever joined the Novgorod Driver Society and became their senior in 1525 . He was a member of the respected Antonius Brotherhood located at the Maria Magdalenen Church . Documents from 1526 and 1529 describe him as a "boseten borger", a full citizen with real estate.

Political rise

In the 1520s, in the course of the Reformation, there were repeated unrest in Lübeck. More and more citizens came into contact with Martin Luther's teaching, while the council tried with all its might to prevent the new teaching from spreading. At the beginning of 1530 Wullenwever, who at that time had apparently already made a name for himself as a Lutheran and above all as a good speaker, was one of the 16 citizens who negotiated with the council about better protection of the Evangelicals. When the council demanded tax increases because of the Turkish tax imposed on the entire empire , among other things , the citizens elected a citizens' committee , half of which consisted of master craftsmen and half of merchants, and in return demanded more say and evangelical preachers. Wullenwever was elected to that committee of 64 and quickly rose to become the committee's spokesman. In the same year, the councilors had to bow to pressure from the community. The introduction of the Reformation was decided. Johannes Bugenhagen worked out a church ordinance that was to come into force on May 27, 1531. The citizens received more influence through the committee and newly created offices such as the church elders . The city decided to join the Schmalkaldic League .

In protest against it, on Holy Saturday , April 8, 1531, two of the four mayors , Nikolaus Brömse and Hermann Plönnies , secretly left the city and went to the court of Emperor Charles V to seek his help against the Reformation forces. The citizens now feared for their safety. Their confidence in the council was lost. Some wanted to dissolve the council, but Wullenwever recommended, with reference to an alleged mandate from the city's founder, Heinrich the Lion , that it should be supplemented by members of the citizens' committee who could be advised . He had nine names written on pieces of paper, of which Mattheus Packebusch , the oldest of the remaining mayors, had to draw seven. Although Wullenwever's name was probably on one of the tickets, it was not chosen, to the great disappointment of the entire population. He did not get into the council until another new election on February 21, 1533 and became the first mayor on March 8.

Struggle for Lübeck's economic supremacy

Since the 15th century the monopoly of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic Sea trade was in danger. While in the earlier centuries all goods transfer from east to west and vice versa had been overland between Hamburg and Lübeck and Lübeck in particular had achieved considerable wealth through stacking rights , customs and handling charges, the Dutch who did not belong to the Hanseatic League now sailed north around Denmark around to deal directly with the Danes as well as the eastern Baltic countries. Denmark, previously tied to trading solely with Hanseatic merchants, was no longer willing to continue to submit to this dictate. Lübeck's merchants saw their supremacy and prosperity endangered. When in 1532 the Danish King Friedrich I asked Lübeck for help against the attempts to recapture the deposed Christian II , Wullenwever, as Lübeck's envoy, demanded that the Danes prevent the Dutch from crossing the Sound in return . However, the Danish side did not comply with the contract that was then concluded, despite successful war aid.

After the death of the Danish King Friedrich on April 1, 1533, Wullenwever, who had only been mayor for a few weeks, traveled to the Lord's Day in Copenhagen , where he offered his support to his eldest son, Duke Christian , and demanded compliance with the contract concluded in 1532. However, he was turned down by Melchior Rantzau .

Wullenwever and Meyer in the Geibel “Septembernacht” in the Lübeck Ratskeller

Under Wullenwever's aegis, Lübeck then began to take the problem of Dutch competition into its own hands in the summer of 1533 and to drive the Dutch out of the Baltic Sea through pirate trips . City governor Marx Meyer landed in England in August, and King Henry VIII promised support. However , it was not possible to motivate the neighboring Wendish cities to participate. All trade was paralyzed for months by the pirate trips. In Lübeck, which suffered most from the unsuccessful pirate war due to the double burden of having to provide ships in the absence of trade income, criticism of Wullenwever's foreign policy grew. Through the mediation of the Hamburg council, to which Wullenwever's brother Joachim belonged, peace negotiations between Lübeck and the Netherlands took place in Hamburg in March 1534, with the participation of imperial envoys and representatives in the other Hanseatic cities . When Hinrich Brömse , the brother of the escaped mayor Nikolaus Brömse, demanded the restoration of the old order in Lübeck on behalf of the emperor, Wullenwever left the meeting prematurely.

In Lübeck, Wullenwever brought the community, which was indignant about his unauthorized actions, back on his side through fiery speeches. To nip further opposition in the bud, he banned meetings without the committee's approval. He switched off the critical voices in the council with a reference to the mandate of Henry the Lion, according to which a third of the 24 councilors would have to resign for one year. In this way he managed to drive almost all of his opponents from the council.

To finance his pirate war, Wullenwever had confiscated church treasures, more than 96 quintals of gold and silver, melted down. Brass candlesticks were remelted into cannons. In doing so, he had not only angered the domestic political opposition, but also made many enemies in foreign policy. The Holstein nobility , who provided some of the canons , reacted angrily. Wullenwever's arrogant demeanor also led to the fact that the Swedish King Gustav I. Wasa lifted the trading privileges for Lübeck merchants, who had received them as thanks for their participation in the Swedish War of Independence in 1524, and concluded an alliance with Denmark.

Count feud

In April 1534 than a year after the death of King Frederick I was the succession in Denmark still unclear, asked Christoph von Oldenburg for help to free his cousin, the deposed Danish King Christian II. Committee, Council and the community voted in for the Lübeck's entry into the War of the Danish Succession, the so-called Count Feud . The Lübeckers saw it as a last chance to maintain the old economic supremacy. The neighboring Hanseatic cities were not ready to support Lübeck's war either this time. In July, Wullenwever's messengers arrived in Wismar , Rostock and Stralsund , where they were supposed to turn the citizens against their unwilling advice. But only after initial successes seemed to promise an easy profit, the cities and their sovereign Albrecht VII joined the fight against Denmark, but without ever raising the promised funds.

Without a declaration of war, the Lübeck general, Wullenwever's confidante Marx Meyer , invaded Holstein . His raids on the Rantzau family's burgers happened without the knowledge of the Lübeck mayor. The first quick victories were soon followed by military failures. Duke Christian besieged Lübeck and blocked all trade by blocking Travemünde . Wullenwever's popularity in the city declined rapidly. At this point in time, the first complaints were raised that he did not listen to anyone more than the Hamburg-born syndic Johann Oldendorp and his general, the Hamburg anchor smith Marx Meyer. On November 18, 1534, the Peace of Stockelsdorf ended the war in Holstein, while the fighting continued in Denmark with the consent of all those involved. The citizens revolted because of the economic consequences of the war and pushed through the resignation of the committee and the return of the deposed councilors.

Wullenwever went to Copenhagen with councilor Godeke Engelstede to coordinate the progress of the war from there. However, he could not prevent a renewed increase in power in Denmark, especially since disagreements arose between the allies - mostly about the lack of pay. Wullenwever's influence also waned in Lübeck. After the sinking of the Lübeck fleet in June 1535, former supporters accused him of treason. However, Wullenwever still found support in the community. On July 7th, an imperial executive mandate arrived, which demanded the restoration of the old order and the reinstatement of Nikolaus Brömse within 45 days. A large part of the citizens and also the councilors were long convinced by Wullenwever that his resignation was not meant. It was not until August 26, 1535, the last day before the expiry of the imperial ultimatum , that he resigned under pressure from the Hanseatic League, together with the citizens' committee and all other members of the council who had come from this group .

The End

In order to allow Wullenwever an honorable retreat, he was supposed to take over the post of bailiff in Bergedorf , which was normally held alternately by the senior councilor of Lübeck and Hamburg. Wullenwever did not take up this position. Instead, he tried to recruit mercenary troops south of Hamburg to support the allied Danish cities of Copenhagen and Malmö . He was captured in November 1535 by the Archbishop of Bremen , Christoph von Braunschweig-Lüneburg , and imprisoned at Steinbrück Castle. In March 1536, he was in Rotenburg several times, sometimes in the presence of Lübeck councilors Nicholas Brömse, Nicholas Bardewik and Joachim Gercken , asked embarrassing . Under torture, he confessed to having planned a conspiracy against the Lübeck Council and the establishment of an Anabaptist regiment based on the model of the Münster Anabaptist Empire , together with some other members of the citizens' committee . The Danish councilor Melchior Rantzau is said to have elicited these confessions from him . Some of his confidants from the citizens' committee, u. a. Johann von Elpen and Harmen Israhel were arrested as a result. However, they were released into house arrest after just a few weeks , as little faith was given to the accusations in Lübeck. However, the former mayor Ludwig Taschenmaker died as a result of this imprisonment.

Jürgen Wullenwever was sentenced to death near Wolfenbüttel by the brother of the Archbishop of Bremen, Prince Heinrich II of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , and was executed by the sword on September 24, 1537 at the High Court on Lechlumer Holz ; his body was divided into four and placed on four wheels . Shortly before his death, he revoked his confessions.

In 1536 Joachim Wullenwever was expelled from the Hamburg council. He was also charged with treason because of his brother's trial. His relationship with Agneta Willeken , the former lover of Jürgen Wullenwever's confidante Marx Meyer, also contributed to this. In 1540 Hans and Joachim Wullenwever sued their brother's widow for surrender of the inheritance. However, since they only presented evidence that they were his "vulle broder", but could not prove that their claims exceeded those of the widow, they were rejected. In 1543 Wullenwever's widow had also died. Joachim Wullenwever had to leave Hamburg impoverished in 1553 and moved to Malmö.

Impact history

Wullenwever on a painting from 1937 in the Lübeck town hall

In the first decades of the 20th century Wullenwever was seen as a heroic fighter against all oppression. For example, he appears in Ehm Welk, similar to the Likedeelers, transfigured as a social revolutionary. After 1933 the figure of Jürgen Wullenwever was adopted by the National Socialist tradition. So the building known up to then - and still today - as Buddenbrookhaus in Mengstraße 4 was renamed Wullenweberhaus .

The SPD- related Lübeck printing company Wullenwever-Druck , which was founded in 1954, also followed up on Wullenwever's social revolutionary interpretation.

literature

  • Ludwig Tügel : Juergen Wullenwever, Lübeck's great mayor , biography, Jena 1926
  • Georg Waitz : Lübeck under Jürgen Wullenwever and European politics. 3 volumes, Berlin 1855–56.
  • Heinrich Wullenwever: Contributions to the origin and the contemporary assessment of the Lübeck mayor Jürgen Wullenwever . 1856 ( pdf , accessed January 10, 2015).
  • Christian Friedrich Wurm : The political relations Heinrichs viii. to Marcus Meyer and Jürgen Wullenwever. Explained from Cotton's manuscripts in the British Museum . Hamburg 1852 ( googlebooks ).

Literary adaptations

Web links

Commons : Jürgen Wullenwever  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Jürgen Wullenwever  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Wullenwever: Wullenwever ancestors list from Perleberg with Hamburg ancestors before 1500 , in: Deutsches Familienarchiv V (1956), p. 218–224 p. 222.
  2. ^ Heinrich Wullenwever: Contributions to the origin and contemporary assessment of the Lübeck mayor Jürgen Wullenwevers , p. 97
  3. ^ A b Heinrich Wullenwever: Contributions to the origin and contemporary assessment of the Lübeck mayor Jürgen Wullenwevers , p. 83
  4. ^ Archives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck AK 11: Königstrasse 60–81
  5. ^ Georg Waitz: Lübeck under Jürgen Wullenwever and European politics . Volume 1. 1855; P. 424.
  6. ↑ The assumption that Wullenwever neither owned a plot of land in the city nor had citizenship rights and was therefore unlawfully elected to the committee is based on Reimar Kock's chronicle , but contradicts the sources cited in the literature (Waitz, Postel).
  7. ↑ Mikael Venge: Melchior Rantzau at denstoredanske.dk (Danish)
  8. ^ Wilhelm Ebel: Lübeck council judgments, vol. 3, no. 448; 450
  9. ^ Rolf Hammel-Kiesow: The Hanseatic League ; Beck's series Munich 2000; P. 9
  10. ↑ See Thomas Mann: German listeners! 2 (April 1942): “On the spot, of course, it is no longer called the Buddenbrook House. The Nazis, annoyed that the strangers kept asking for it, had renamed it the Wullenweber House. The stupid rabble doesn't even know that a house with the eighteenth-century stamp on its rococo gable can't have anything to do with the bold mayor of the sixteenth. Jürgen Wullenweber did a lot of damage to his city through the war with Denmark, and the people of Lübeck did to him what the Germans might one day do with those who led them into this war: they executed him. "
  11. ↑ On the company's history, see Andreas Feser: Wealth power and media influence: party-owned companies and equal opportunities for the parties. Berlin 2003 plus dissertation Würzburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-8330-0347-9 , p. 150
personal data
SURNAME Wullenwever, Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician and mayor of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck (1533–1535)
DATE OF BIRTH before 1488
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH September 24, 1537
Place of death Wolfenbüttel