Johann Christoph I. von Degenfeld

Johann Christoph I von Degenfeld (born November 1, 1563 in Göppingen ; † August 7 or 9 , 1613 in Bad Peterstal ) was the landlord of Ehrstädt and Eulenhof , lord of the castle in Neuhaus and co- lord in Hohen-Eybach and Dürnau. In 1608 he also acquired the aristocratic estate in Waibstadt . He founded the Degenfeld-Neuhaus line , which died out in the male line in 1921.

Life

He was a son of the Göppingen Obervogte and Württemberg steward Christoph von Degenfeld (1535-1604) and Barbara von Stammheim.

Johann Christoph was at the Württemberg court from 1587 to 1589 and received no further court offices afterwards. Presumably after his wedding in 1589 he primarily devoted himself to the family's buildings. In 1580 the father had acquired the old Neuhaus Castle and half of Ehrstädt as a Württemberg fiefdom, and in 1582 the other half of Ehrstädt as a worms fiefdom. Johann Christoph's brother Konrad von Degenfeld († 1600) continued the line of the family in Eybach , while Johann Christoph had Neuhaus Castle replaced by today's Neuhaus Castle in 1596/97 and took his seat there.

While his father was still alive, Johann Christoph campaigned for the renovation of the ailing Ehrstadt church and the surrounding cemetery in 1599 , but the Wimpfen monastery did not recognize the construction burden. After the death of his father in 1604, Johann Christoph approached the Wimpfen monastery and the bishopric in Worms again via Duke Friedrich I about building the church, and again received negative answers.

His installation in the father's fief was protracted. Perhaps because of this, he acquired a noble house and estate in Waibstadt in 1608 and part of the Bockschaft estate in 1609 . He was only placed in the Worms fiefdom in 1609, after initially not being able to submit a specification of all fiefdoms, being kept waiting for an answer for years and finally exchanging his fiefdom letter for that of the Junker von Cronberg. Its installation in the Württemberg fiefdom lasted even longer. His father was considered quarrelsome and probably also enriched himself in the Württemberg service through job trafficking, for which Johann Christoph now had to pay as a son. Duke Friedrich denied him a fiefdom for his life. Friedrich's son and successor Johann Friedrich also had Johann Christoph wait in the course of the renovation of the fiefdom that was necessary after the change of government. It was not until June 6, 1613 that Johann Christoph and his brothers were confirmed in their fiefdoms. The confirmation came late for Johann Christoph, because he was already seriously ill and died a few weeks later in the sanatorium in St. Peterstal. He left behind an underage son and two daughters. He was buried in the castle church in Neuhaus. His tomb and a splendid epitaph for him and his wife are preserved in the castle church.

family

From 1589 he was married to Barbara von Reischach, the widow of Johann Wolff von Stammheim, who died in 1588. Her first husband was the last male descendant of the von Stammheim family and the brother of Johann Christoph's mother, so she was still the aunt of her future husband during her first marriage. After the male line of Stammheim died out in 1588, the Degenfeld coat of arms was expanded to include the Stammheim coat of arms. Anna von Reischach brought her daughter Ursula from her first marriage. The joint marriage had three other children.

• Christoph Jacob (* around 1596, † 1646) ∞ Anna Margaretha von Helmstatt († 1631), Barbara Freiin von Horneck († 1652)
• Maria Elisabeth (* after 1590)
• Anastasia († 1630) ∞ Hans Wilhelm von Gemmingen († 1615), Dietrich von Gemmingen († 1659)

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ In various sources, the year of his death is erroneously given as 1603, which Hub refutes with reference to the documented fiefs between 1608 and 1612. The epitaph in the castle church in Neuhaus bears the year 1607, which is probably the product of an incorrect dating during a restoration. Hub suggests 1617 as the actual year of origin of the epitaph.
2. ^ In his genealogy of Degenfeld-Neuhaus, Friedrich Hub gives Anna von Reischach different life dates. She was born on March 15, 1568 in Nussdorf (p. 422). She is said to have died either before Johann Christoph (p. 172) or in 1616 at Neuhaus Castle (p. 422).

literature

• Friedrich Hub : Hanß Christoph von Degenfeld . In: ders .: Ehrstädt and Schloß Neuhaus , Ehrstädt 1967, pp. 169–172 (names 9 August as the date of death).
• Friedrich Hub: Genealogy of the von Degenfeld family at Schloss Neuhaus, Ehrstädt, Waibstadt and Wagenbach . In: ders .: Ehrstädt and Schloß Neuhaus , Ehrstädt 1967, pp. 420–438 (names August 7th as the date of death).