Joachim Gercken

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seal of Joachim Gercken

Joachim Gercken (also: Jochim Ger (c) ken ) (* in Hagenow ; † 1544 in Lübeck ) was a merchant and mayor of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck.

Life

Gercken belonged to the corporation of mountain drivers . His brother Peter Gercken († after 1540) was a master and cleric and in 1530 had a vicarie at the Marienkirche . In 1534/37 Peter Gercken was secretary of the mountain drivers like his nephew Peter Kock († 1526).

In 1514 Joachim Gercken was elected to the city council. In the naval battles near Bornholm and off Hela in 1522 he led the Lübeck fleet together with councilor Hermann Falcke to victory against the Danish fleet under Søren Norby . From 1527 to 1531 he held the office of treasurer . In 1530 Gercken was in Bremen with Hermann Plönnies to negotiate with the Dutch in the presence of the imperial envoy. In 1531 Gercken was elected one of the four mayors .

When the first two mayors, Plönnies and Nikolaus Brömse, left Lübeck on Easter Monday in 1531 in protest against the decision of the city, which has now become Protestant, to join the Schmalkaldic League , the Catholic Gercken was imprisoned for three days in the Lübeck town hall . In 1532 he led the Lübeck embassy, ​​accompanied by the newly elected mayor Gottschalck Lunte , who negotiated with King Frederick I of Denmark in January in Neumünster and in July in Copenhagen about the exclusion of the Dutch ( local travelers ) from the Baltic Sea trade . In July and August he took part in the negotiations on the fate of King Christian II of Denmark, who was held captive by Frederick I. He traveled with Wullenwever, Anton von Stiten and Johann von Elpen to the Hanseatic Day on February 26, 1534 in Hamburg, which was about peace negotiations in the unsuccessful privateer war against the Dutch instigated by Jürgen Wullenwever . When Wullenwever and City Governor Marx Meyer left the negotiations prematurely because they feared opposition to their policies in Lübeck, Anton von Stiten rode after them. Although he reached Lübeck before them, he could not prevent Jürgen Wullenwever from bringing people and council behind him again. The opponents of Wullenwever's policy, including Joachim Gercken, were expelled from the council on April 11, 1534. However, Gercken rejoined the council under Wullenwever on November 12, 1534, because the latter could not do without Gercken's advice and experience. In August 1535, Gercken led the settlement negotiations between the Lübeck citizenship and the New Council , which led to the resignation of the new council members. In January 1536 Gercken represented the city in the peace negotiations with King Christian III. of Denmark ( Peace of Hamburg ), with which Lübeck's participation in the count's feud ended. He then traveled to Buxtehude with Mayor Nikolaus Brömse to consult with Duke Heinrich II of Braunschweig on matters relating to Wullenwever on January 22, 1536 and also took part in the embarrassing questioning of Wullenwever in March 1536 in Rotenburg .

Gercken was an opponent of the Reformation . In 1529 he had a beggar who sang psalms translated into German by Luther expelled from the city. After all, he provided him with a pair of boots beforehand. According to legend, this triggered a popular movement against the Catholic preachers, which ultimately led to the implementation of the Reformation in Lübeck in 1530. He himself remained Catholic until the end of his life. In 1542, his wife Anna von Warendorp increased the income of a foundation for the cathedral chapter founded by her ancestor Bruno von Warendorp .

Gercken lived in Lübeck from 1516 to 1523 at Alfstrasse 19 , then at Breite Strasse 37 .

literature

  • Rudolf Struck : On the knowledge of families in Lübeck and their relationships to local and foreign art monuments in: Museum for Art and Cultural History in Lübeck. Yearbook 1914 • 1915 (Volume II. – III.), HG Rahtgens, Lübeck 1915, p. 41–73 (p. 57 ff.)
  • Emil Ferdinand Fehling : Lübeck Council Line , 1925 No. 605
  • Georg Waitz : Lübeck under Jürgen Wullenwever and European politics. 3 volumes, Berlin 1855–56

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Prange: Vicariates and Vicars in Lübeck up to the Reformation . Schmidt-Römhild Verlag, Lübeck 2003, p. 141
  2. ↑ Waitz, Wullenwever I, p. 360
  3. ^ Waitz, Wullenwever III, pp. 432, 438
  4. ↑ Ernst Deecke : Oh God from heaven, look at it! (Sage) in: Lübische histories and sagas , pp. 314-315
  5. ^ Rafael Ehrhardt: Family and Memoria in the City. A case study on Lübeck in the late Middle Ages ; Göttingen 2001; P. 316
personal data
SURNAME Gercken, Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Merchant and Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Hagenow
DATE OF DEATH 1544
Place of death Lübeck