Johannes Hettlinger

Johannes Hettlinger (* before 1452; † May 26, 1489 in Rapperswil ) was the town clerk of Rapperswil, leader of the pro- federal forces and the uprising against Habsburg Austria.

Biography (summary)

Only a few biographical data have been secured; Johannes Hettlinger was probably the ( illegitimate ) son of the Hettlingers from Winterthur or Hettlingen . He grew up in the turmoil of the Old Zurich War (1440–1446 / 50).

Career

Johannes Hettlinger is first mentioned in 1452, when he was probably already Rapperswil's town clerk. With the Einsiedeln arbitration on July 13, 1450, the formal end of the Old Zurich War, Rapperswil remained heavily in debt and hoped in vain for financial support from Habsburg Austria. Therefore, some Rapperswilers, under the leadership of their town clerk, trusted in an alliance with the federal towns and instigated an uprising in the late summer of 1456.

According to the Zurich court of arbitration on December 21, 1457, the riots ended with Rapperswil's oath of allegiance to Habsburg Austria, but there could be no question of a real return under the Habsburg umbrella. As a supporter and leader of the movement that advocated Rapperswil's detachment from Habsburg Austria and joining the Old Confederation , Hettlinger was banned for ten years in 1456 . Hettlinger later wrote a justification report on the riots of 1456/57, which, however, has only survived in fragments. The Rapperswil riots of 1456/57 are astonishingly well documented, but the various files are scattered in Swiss archives and in the Tyrolean state archive in Innsbruck, which is why these riots have not yet been systematically investigated.

When the federal troops of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden returned from Constance on September 20, 1458 after the so-called Plappart War, they sought admission to Rapperswil and brought about the victory of the pro-federal party. At the end of 1458, after the Rose City had joined the Confederation, Hettlinger was reinstated in his office. Thanks to his initiative, the first blood court protocols , the regimental register and the first register of new residents in the city of Rapperswil are to be thanked.

On September 20, 1460, the citizens of Unterwalden and Rapperswil had the town clerk Hettlinger in Rapperswil write the letter of rejection to Duke Sigismund . In the same year, Rapperswiler and the seven federal towns of Zurich , Lucerne , Uri , Schwyz , Unterwalden, Zug and Glarus took part in the conquest of the Austrian Thurgau (Landgraviate of Thurgau).

On January 10, 1464, shortly after the death of Duke Albrecht VI. and the assumption of power by his cousin Duke Sigmund, Johannes Hettlinger wrote the umbrella letter with Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Glarus, which lasted until 1798.

A copy of the oldest Zurich print product in the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich , a letter of indulgence for the “best of the fight against the Turks and the defense of Rhodes” by the printer Sigmund Rot, handwritten in 1481 for Fridolin Äbli or Johannes Hettlinger, could have belonged to the Rapperswil town clerk .

On May 26, 1489, Johannes Hettlinger was beheaded on the occasion of a revolt against the city regime in Rapperswil .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sieber, Christian: The printed holdings in the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich , State Archives of the Canton of Zurich Zurich, 2007
2. ↑ See SSRQ SG II / 2/1, no. 65d .

literature

• Chronicon Helveticum , Volume 13/1, Swiss Society for History, Basel, 2001, ISBN 3855131260
• Elsener, Ferdinand: Notaries and town clerks , Working Group for Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne, 1962
• Sutter, Pascale: The legal sources volume on the city and rule of Rapperswil. An experience report on the creation of a source edition , in: SZG 58, 2008, No. 1, pp. 68–80.

Web links

• Pascale Sutter: Johannes Hettlinger. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .