Johann Georg von Schönborn

Coat of arms of the von Schönborn family

Johann Georg von Schönborn († January 21, 1587 ) was a knight of the Order of St. John , who held the office of Großbailli from 1573 to 1587. He was also a commendator of several Johanniter comers.

Life and career

Johann Georg von Schönborn was the son of Johannes von Schönborn and the Gutta (or Guda) von Mudersbach. Three of his brothers also received religious offices: Emmerich became canon in Trier, Johann and Johann Philipp became knights of the Teutonic order. When he joined the Order of St. John in 1541, his widowed mother and his secular brother, Johann Wilhelm, issued him a personal gift letter. The Leibgeding should come into force when he should (or had to) leave the order. According to Gensicke, however, he is said to have only entered the order in 1546. He particularly distinguished himself in the fight against the Turks. In 1549 he became a receptor of the Order of St. John in Upper Germany and in this function was responsible for collecting the response money to the Order's headquarters in Malta. In 1549 he received his first benefice, the Kommende Worms , which he held until 1572. In 1557 came the Kommende in Rothenburg ob der Tauber , which he headed until 1587. In 1568 (until 1587) he received the commander from Schleusingen and Weißensee . By 1570 at the latest, the Coming Hemmendorf and Rexingen had joined them. In 1571 he was appointed commander of Mainz and Nieder-Weisel by Grand Master Pierre de Monte ; he was the successor of Joachim von Sparr, who died in the battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 . He administered the Kommende Mainz and Nieder-Weisel until 1587. From 1574 to 1587 he also headed the Kommende in Rottweil . After the death of the Basel commander Hermann Schenck von Schweinsberg († February 28, 1572) he administered for two years from 1572 to 1574 the coming Basel and Rheinfelden .

In 1558 there was a dispute between the city council of Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Kommendator von Schönborn. Obviously the Johanniterkommende could no longer guarantee regular worship in the religious order church. Johann Georg von Schönborn turned to Grand Prior Georg Schilling von Hohenheim in the dispute. He admitted that the Order of St. John currently (because of the Reformation) had a shortage of priests and could actually not guarantee the service, but drew the city's attention to the fact that the city is now drawing in the gradient of the St. John's Church and now the city also for the Pay the priests would have to come up. After all, the priests of the order had been paid beforehand with the gradient that had previously come from the Johanniter. Johann Georg von Schönborn seems to have been a quick-tempered and violent man.

In the course of the denominational clashes between the Protestant council in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and the Rothenburger Johanniterkommende, he injured a member of the city council. In 1572 he killed the Rothenburg citizen Emrich Neuroth on the street, but escaped from the judiciary. Presumably he never set foot in Rothenburg in his life. It was not until 1602 that a settlement was finally reached between his (the next but one) successor in the office of commander Johann Friedrich Hund von Saulheim , who later became the Grand Prior in Germany. Von Schönborn's other way of life also did not exactly correspond to the ideals of the order. He had kept a lover - presumably in Mainz - and illegally transferred her religious goods in the Rheingau .

On October 3, 1573, Johann Georg von Schönborn was elected Grand Bailli in Malta, and the one in Rothenburger ob der Tauber was obviously not an obstacle. With this office was responsible for the fortifications in Malta; he held the office until his death on January 21, 1587. Presumably he died in Mainz, because he was buried in the Laurentius Chapel in Mainz Cathedral.

In 1596, the Order of St. John litigated his former concubine Elisabeth Marder for goods in the Rheingau that Johann Georg von Schönborn had probably not legitimately transferred to her. The connection could even have resulted in several children.

literature

• Helmut Hartmann: The Commander of the Mainz Johanniter commander. Mainzer Zeitschrift, 76: 103–124, Mainz 1981
• Johanne Maria Küenzlen: The Order of St. John during the Reformation in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Strasbourg and Bubikon. Dissertation Philosophical Faculty of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 2017 PDF (in the following abbreviated Küenzlen, Order of St. John with corresponding page number)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann Gottfried Biedermann: Genealogy of the Hohen Grafen-houses in the Franconian Cräyse: Which from the most tried and tested documents, Kauff fiefdoms and Heyraths letters, collected grave writings and obtained precise information from the high houses described in the present order, compiled correctly been worn. First part. Johann Friedrich Becker University printer, Erlangen 1745. Online at Google Books Tabula CII (= 102)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Gerd Schlegel: The history of the Johanniterkommende Weißensee in Thuringia. Castrum Wiszense, series of publications by the Association for the Rescue and Preservation of the Runneburg in Weißensee / Thür. eV, Volume 4: 224 S., Weißensee, 1996, p. 164.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Hellmuth Gensicke: On the history of the Nassau nobility. The one from Schönborn. The beginnings of the Count House. Nassauische Annalen 91: 259-383, 1980, pp. 268, 270 and p. 270 footnote.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Küenzlen, Order of St. John, p. 65.
5. ↑ Küenzlen, Order of St. John, p. 250.
6. ^ Barbara Gebhardt and Manfred Hörner: Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Reichskammergericht. 1, No. 1 - 428 (letter A). XXIV, 556 S., Munich 1994 ISBN 3-921635-04-7 (also inventory of the files of the Reich Chamber of Commerce, 19.1), p. 166.

predecessor	Office	successor
Philipp Flach von Schwarzenberg	Grand Bailli of the Order of St. John 1573–1587	Philipp Riedesel zu Camberg