Johann Vopelius

Johann Vopelius , also Hans Vopelius , (* 1572/73; † executed on February 6th ^July / February 16,  1633 ^greg. In Dresden ) was an Electoral Saxon officer who was responsible for the surrender of the Leipzig Pleißenburg several times during the Thirty Years' War .

Life

Johann Vopelius came from a Saxon family, the oldest ancestor of which was the Halle deacon Nicolaus Vopelius (* around 1483; † June 25, 1569 in Halle). He had been in the service of the Electorate of Saxony since 1605 and was appointed captain of the electoral bodyguard and doorkeeper by Christian II on November 28, 1606. Christian's successor Johann Georg I gave Vopelius control of the Pleißenburg in Leipzig in 1612. In addition to his position as fortress commander, Vopelius also became captain of the Leipzig Defense Company , which at that time was still referred to as the Defense Company .

Leipzig was a few days before the battle of Breitenfeld on September 7th ^. / September 17,  1631 ^greg. besieged by imperial troops under Tilly . After the Leipzig council had the suburbs burned down, the imperial military leader threatened not to let any resident of the city live if the resistance continued.

The council feared after the devastation of the city of Magdeburg on May 10th ^. / May 20,  1631 ^greg. that Tilly would repeat his threat in Leipzig . That is why the Leipzig city lords negotiated the terms of surrender with the emissary Egon VIII von Fürstenberg, who was commissioned by Tilly . Thereupon Johann Vopelius handed over on September 4th ^jul. / 14 September 1631 ^greg. the Pleißenburg to the imperial.  

After the Swedish armies led by Gustav II Adolf and commanded by Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg defeated the imperial troops in the Battle of Breitenfeld, Tilly ordered the evacuation of the city of Leipzig. Johann Vopelius was after the entry of the Electoral Saxon troops on September 13th ^. / 23 September  1631 ^greg. reinstated as the fortress commander of the Leipzig Pleißenburg.

Since October 11th ^jul. / October 21,  1632 ^greg. attempted imperial rulers under the command of the general security officer Heinrich von Holk Leipzig. Two days later the shelling of the Pleißenburg began, whereby Holk asked Vopelius to hand over the fortress to him without a fight. Vopelius initially refused to hand it over, only when Holk gave him an ultimatum in which he announced a horrific massacre of Leipzig women and children, the fortress ^captain decided on October 23rd ^. / November 2,  1632 ^greg. to surrender.

After the battle of Lützen on November 6th, ^July / November 16,  1632 ^greg. the imperial equestrian general Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim died a day later on the Pleißenburg in Leipzig.

Already on December 3rd ^jul. / December 13,  1632 ^greg. the imperial general Wallenstein had to return the fortress to Electoral Saxony. Johann Vopelius was placed under arrest and a few days later brought to Dresden, where he was tried before a court martial. The former fortress commander was sentenced to death and the expropriation of his property because of his last surrender, although the Pleißenburg was militarily difficult or impossible to defend. During the Thirty Years' War it was in a poor structural condition and was manned by only a few soldiers. The Elector of Saxony was largely responsible for this misery.

Under the eyes of the electoral family, Johann Vopelius was born on February 6th ^. / February 16,  1633 ^greg. Beheaded on the Dresden Neumarkt. Johann Georg I prevented the cutting of three fingers of the right hand and weakened the original judgment with this proof of grace. A few decades later, Vopelius' descendants received the confiscated goods back.

At the end of August 1633, Leipzig was again besieged and plundered by Holk's troops. Since the plague (possibly brought in by the mercenaries) broke out in the city, the imperial forces withdrew on orders from Wallenstein. The Hol Kuh , hated by farmers and townspeople alike, died on September 9, 1633 in Troschenreuth (Vogtland) . The Swedish field marshal Johann Banér failed in another attempt to conquer Leipzig in early 1637. This was mainly due to Captain Christoph von Drandorf , who had served on the Pleißenburg since 1633 , and who was also tried in court-martial after the Pleißenburg was handed over to the Swedes in 1642 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

literature

• Walter Fellmann : Saxony Lexicon. Koehler & Amelang Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich / Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-7338-0234-9 .
• Andreas Stephanski (Ed.): Time travel - 1200 years of life in Leipzig. Verlag Leipziger Verlags- und Druckereigesellschaft. ISBN 978-3-9806625-4-3 .
• Dieter Walz: Death came as a Saxon. Historic battlefields of the Thirty Years' War in the Leipziger Land. Passage-Verlag Leipzig, 1st edition 1994. ISBN 3-9803465-2-8 .
• Paul Kröber: Hans Vopelius. Captain of the Pleißenburg in Leipzig , Jena 1939.

Web links

• City wiki Dresden: Johann Vopelius
• Dr. Bernd Warlich. The Thirty Years War in personal reports, chronicles and reports: Johann Vopelius