Johann Jakob von Hennemann

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Hennemann and his troops, wall painting in the Gellert Church (Vršac) from the 19th century

Johann Jakob von Hennemann (born April 10, 1744 , † November 16, 1792 ) was a banat folk hero .

life and work

In the Russo-Austrian Turkish War , epidemics that broke out in the summer heat on the Balkan Peninsula caused the Habsburg Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire to withdraw his army through the Banat . The Ottomans followed the retreating troops, plundering and pillaging Danube Swabian settlements. In some of these places "the imperial" had already destroyed possible accommodation and food bases for the Ottomans preventively. Around the village of Werschetz in the southern part of the Banat (today Vršac in Serbia), numerous villages and towns were cremated in the course of August and September 1788, but Werschetz was still intact.

The resident farrier and wagon blacksmith Johann Jakob Hennemann was able to get Werschetz to be equipped with rifles and ammunition during his stay in neighboring Weißkirchen . The population of Werschetz, consisting predominantly of Germans and Serbs, was panicked, like those of the surrounding towns, so that the market town, consisting of 1,500 houses , was almost deserted at the end of September. Against the orders of the commandant of the Banat military border , 75 men (70 Germans and five Serbs) remained under Hennemann's leadership, who of course were not up to the 30,000 to 40,000 advancing Ottoman soldiers. When Hennemann heard about the approach of the troops from scouts, he made his people march up and down the streets in Werschetz with whistles, trumpets and clapping, occasionally shouting commands to simulate a large imperial army camp. In this way they were able to keep the Ottomans away from the place for 21 days and thus save them from destruction.

As a result, the grateful local council of the Werschetz Germans issued him on August 20, 1791 a “well-deserved certificate”, which was signed by 28 citizens on behalf of the whole German Werschezer community ”[sic]. The 28 members of the Werschetz Raiz (Serbian) municipal council agreed. The 75 defenders received a lifetime poll tax exemption . Johann Jakob Hennemann died before he was raised to the Hungarian nobility, but the honor of his widow and three sons benefited from the presentation of the nobility letter on April 9, 1794. The family also received 80 yokes of so-called “overland fields”.

During the German occupation after the Balkan campaign (1941) in World War II, the Volksdeutsche Rat renamed the town of Vršac Hennemannstadt .

literature

Fiction:

  • Karl Leopold von Möller : The Werschetz act. A novel by farmers and riders. Braunschweig 1936.
  • Johann Dorner: Jakob von Hennemann. Historical drama in three acts. Peter Kuhn, 1939.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Olivia Spiridon: The Danube and its limits. Literary and filmic insights into the Danube region. transcript Verlag, 2019, ISBN 3839448077 , p. 268.
  2. ↑ German work. Journal of the Volksbund for Germanness abroad. Volume 41, Issues 4–12, p. 252.
personal data
SURNAME Hennemann, Johann Jakob von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Banat folk hero
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1744
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1792