Joachim I (Brandenburg)

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Painting Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg by Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä. , 1529
Joachim I. Nestor , portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä., 1529 or later, State Gallery Aschaffenburg

Joachim I. Nestor (born February 21, 1484 Cölln an der Spree ; † July 11, 1535 in Stendal ) from the Hohenzollern family was Margrave of Brandenburg from 1499 to 1535 as well as Elector and Arch Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Empire .

Life

Joachim was the son of the Brandenburg Elector Johann Cicero . From 1490 to 1498 he was educated in the Franconian homeland of the House of Hohenzollern . After the death of his father, Joachim, who was then only fifteen in 1499, took over government together with his ten-year-old brother Albrecht , initially under the tutelage of his uncle, Margrave Friedrich V von Ansbach-Kulmbach, contrary to the provisions of the Golden Bull . The brothers' joint government lasted until 1513, when Albrecht became Archbishop of Magdeburg . After Albrecht also obtained the archbishopric of Mainz in 1514 , the House of Hohenzollern had two votes in the electoral college, with the Mainz elector also having a particularly prominent position as archchancellor of the empire.

As sovereign, Joachim showed himself determined, sometimes ruthless and interested in many things. The recklessness showed itself above all in strict legislation and the executive branch connected with it . The foundation of the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt in 1506 is significant . Also to be emphasized is the uniform inheritance law that Joachim gave his countries in 1527 with the Constitutio Joachimica and which was strongly based on Roman law . Since taking over the government, he also fought resolutely and indulgently against robber baronism , which at the same time strengthened the power of the Hohenzollern against the local noble families; so in 1506 he hanged seventy robber barons, including forty nobles . In 1524, after the death of Count Wichmann von Lindow-Ruppin , Joachim was able to move into the presumably imperial direct rule of Ruppin and unite it with the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1529, in the Treaty of Grimnitz for Brandenburg , Joachim had the succession in the Duchy of Pomerania assured in the event of the extinction of the line of grief in the male line.

Before the imperial election in 1519 Joachim stepped I. first as a partisan of the French king Francis I on, eventually to his voice to the Habsburg Charles V to give.

In terms of religious policy, Joachim was a bitter opponent of the Reformation . His wife, the Danish Princess Elisabeth , on the other hand, leaned towards the Lutheran doctrine and fled from her husband to Wittenberg in 1528 . During his rule there was also brutal persecution of the Jews . In 1503, at the urging of the estates , Joachim I ordered the expulsion of Jews from the Mark. In 1510 the Berlin High Court sentenced over thirty Jews to be cremated. (see Berlin host desecration process )

His court astrologer Johann Carion caused the elector to flee to the Kreuzberg ( Tempelhofer Berg at that time ) from a flood that he had announced in 1525 . The historical novel Am Himmel wie auf Erden by Werner Bergengruen deals with this event. The elector was interested in occult sciences and was in contact with Johannes Trithemius .

In his will, written in 1534, Joachim urged his heirs to keep the Mark Brandenburg for all time in the Catholic faith. In violation of the house law drawn up by his grandfather Albrecht Achilles , he determined that parts of the Neumark should fall to his second son, Johann . His eldest son Joachim II succeeded him in the electoral dignity . However, since Johann died without sons, the country could be reunited under the grandson of Joachim I, the elector Johann Georg .

Marriage and offspring

In 1502 Joachim married Elisabeth of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (1485–1555) in Stendal , the daughter of the Danish King John I. From this marriage there were two sons and three daughters:

⚭ 1. 1524 Princess Magdalene of Saxony (1507–1534)
⚭ 2. 1535 Princess Hedwig of Poland (1513–1573)
⚭ 1524 Duke Albrecht VII of Mecklenburg (1486–1547)
⚭ 1. 1525 Duke Erich I of Braunschweig-Calenberg (1470–1540)
⚭ 2. 1546 Count Poppo XII. von Henneberg (1513–1574)
⚭ 1. 1530 Duke George I of Pomerania (1493–1531)
⚭ 2. 1534 Prince Johann II of Anhalt-Zerbst (1504–1551)
  • Johann (1513–1571), Margrave of Brandenburg-Küstrin
⚭ 1537 Princess Katharina of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1518–1574)

Monument in the Siegesallee

Group of statues in the Siegesallee
Statue of Joachim I in the Spandau Citadel before restoration

In 1900 the sculptor Johannes Götz designed monument group 19 with a statue of Joachim as the main character for the former Berliner Siegesallee , which was often ridiculed as “Puppenallee” . As secondary characters, busts of his younger brother Albrecht and the bishop of Lebus Dietrich von Bülow were assigned to the statue . The first Siegesallee presentation of a Hohenzollern in court dress followed the portrait of Lucas Cranach the Elder down to the last detail in the depiction of the elector's costume . Ä. from 1529 (see above). A richly decorated, open scabbard with a wide collar and slit puffed sleeves lies over a beaded doublet and a knee-length skirt . Götz did not adopt the Cranachian physiognomy of the devout Catholic with the rosary in his hands. He showed the elector as a strict Renaissance prince with the sword and with a threatening, energetic look. The presentation underlined the respected position of Joachim I in the college of electors , in which he is said to have been a brilliant speaker and which had earned him the nickname Nestor .

The religious-political and scientific side of Joachim's reign represented the two minor characters. In addition, a rosary on the pedestal of the statue should symbolize his piety, oak twigs his solidity and owls on the corner pillars his wisdom. The motto of Joachim IUDICIO ET IUSTITIA (With judgment and justice) was affixed to the base of the base and on the back was the proverbial threat of the robber barons of the Brandenburg who wanted to defend themselves against the execution of knights who were involved in highway robbery . After the execution of Herr von Lindenberg, the Junker von Otterstädt is said to have written in chalk in Joachim's bedchamber during a hunting trip: 

"Jochimken, Jochimken, hyde dy,
catch wy dy, then hang wy dy."

- Base inscription

Joachim I later had the knight of Otterstädt quartered as a traitor . Compared to other Victory Avenue figures, the monument is well preserved and shows only slight damage. It has been in the Spandau Citadel since May 2009 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Joachim I. von Brandenburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard George, Elector Joachim I. Nestor. ..., p. 293.
  2. ↑ Knut Schulz: From the arrival of the Hohenzollern to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War (1411 / 1412-1618) . In: Wolfgang Ribbe (Ed.), Publication of the Historical Commission in Berlin: History of Berlin . 1. Volume, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-406-31591-7 , p. 287ff.
  3. ^ Richard George, Elector Joachim I. Nestor. ..., p. 294; s. a. P. 303f
  4. ↑ Uta Lehnert: The Kaiser and the Siegesallee. ... p. 167ff
  5. ↑ Operone  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Proverbs; Brief description of the background to the threat. Also mentioned by Fontane in Before the Storm , Volume 4, Chapter 9. Willibald Alexis called the 21st chapter of his novel Die Hosen des Herr von Bredow from 1846: Jochimken hatt Di! .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.operone.de  
  6. ↑ See also in detail in: Richard George, Elector Joachim I. Nestor. ..., p. 293; Joachimke, hüde dy! . In: The Stralauer Fischzug. Legends, stories and customs from old Berlin. Verlag Neues Leben Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-355-00326-3 , p. 32. link
predecessor Office successor
Johann Cicero Elector of Brandenburg
1499–1535 		Joachim II
personal data
SURNAME Joachim I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nestor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Elector of Brandenburg
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1484
PLACE OF BIRTH Cölln
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1535
Place of death Stendal