Johann Esich (politician)

Johann Esich (* 1518 in Bremen ; † September 29, 1578 in Braunschweig ) was a Bremen mayor .

biography

Relief stone at the old church ( Ole Kark ) in Blumenthal . Left: Esich family coat of arms

Johann Esich came from an old Bremen family, from which various councilors , parents and mayors emerged. He was the son of He (i) nrich Esich and Wommele Kind (t) and brother of Elert Esich and Arnold Esich .

He married Gesche Speckhan in Bremen around 1545. Esich's son was the pedagogue, preacher and historian Johann Esich (1557–1602), who was the rector of the Latin School from 1587 to 1593 , later the Illustre Gymnasium. According to other sources, Eberhard Esich (1546–1616), u. a. 1591 councilor in Hamburg and 1614 bailiff in Bergedorf, his son.

From January 2, 1555, Esich was councilor in Bremen. In 1560 he became mayor, like his brothers before. Detmar Kenckel was mayor with him from 1554 to 1562.

Esich was one of the more orthodox Lutherans . The supporters of a moderate Calvinist , Reformed creed also worked in Bremen . During the Reformation between 1547 and 1562, the Reformed and Lutherans fought in Bremen over the new faith. From 1544 or 1547 Daniel von Büren the Younger was also mayor of Bremen. This and several councilors supported Albert Rizäus Hardenberg , a Dutchman who was the most important Reformed preacher at Bremen Cathedral in this dispute between 1547 and 1561 .

The social lower and middle class in Bremen also took the side of the modest and popular Reformed. The mediation of 1558 by Archbishop Georg von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel could not end the dispute. In 1561, the Lower Saxony district council demanded the removal of Hardenberg, who gave up, left Bremen and found shelter in the Rastede monastery . Von Büren spoke to the Bremen council with u. a. Esich and Kenckel continued to have the power to decide on theological questions. In January 1562 von Büren was able to assert himself with the citizens who had gathered in front of the town hall and the cathedral and were ready to fight, who were in favor of the free practice of religion and demanded the banishment of the Orthodox Lutherans.

In the Holy Week of 1562 Esich left Bremen with part of the council and five preachers as opponents of the Reformed Confession. He emigrated to Braunschweig and worked there. While some of the councilors returned to Bremen after the general recognition of the Augsburg denominations from 1568, but did not receive their offices again, Esich remained in the private class in Braunschweig for the last 10 years of his life . He died of a stroke in Braunschweig.

Traces of the name Esich

• A stone tablet on the tower of the old church in Blumenthal , built in 1604, honored the Bremen mayors Johann Esich, Heinrich Zobel , Daniel von Büren and Henrich Houken , who were ruling at the time of construction, with their coats of arms.
• The Esich House in Bremen was completed in the Weser Renaissance style by the Esich family at Langenstrasse 13 in 1618 by the councilor Harmen Esich. It is now considered Essighaus called, there was also a vinegar factory here in the later years.
• The Esich family produced around 12 councilors and four mayors in Bremen in the Middle Ages.

See also

• Esich (family)
• List of Bremen mayors

literature

• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinrich Wilhelm Rotermund : Lexicon of all scholars who have lived in Bremen since the Reformation ; Schünemann, Bremen 1818