Johannes Lupfdich

Johannes Lupfdich (* around 1463 in Blaubeuren ; † 1518 probably in Tübingen ), utriusque iuris doctor ( doctor of both rights ), was one of the law professors at the University of Tübingen from 1495 to 1515 and was a nationally known counselor and advocate in the service of several princes and relatives of the lower nobility, church officials and numerous cities.

Life

Johannes Lupfdich began his university studies possibly at the age of 12 in the winter semester 1475/1476 at the artist faculty in Heidelberg , switched to the newly opened artist faculty in Tübingen as a bachelor's degree in 1477 and, after completing his master's degree, turned to law studies in Tübingen on January 26, 1479. At the same time he remained one of the outstanding teachers at the Tübingen Artist Faculty. Even without the title of doctor in ecclesiastical and secular law ( utriusque iuris doctor ), which was only acquired a short time later, Duke Eberhard I in the beard of Württemberg appointed him as a licentiate in these rights as a law professor for life at the University of Tübingen on October 18, 1495 . He was very popular as a law teacher, because the later Wittenberg law professor Hieronymus Schürpff praised Lupfdich's clear presentation style , according to Philipp Melanchthon's testimony .

As early as 1489 and 1493, Lupfdich was assessor at the Württemberg court in Stuttgart and also represented the Löwlerbund , one of the most respected knight associations in Germany, as an advocate in its disputes with Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich . At the end of the 15th century he married a wealthy Tübingen bourgeois daughter, Ursula Lutzin, née Bächt.

In addition to the Württemberg government service associated with his professorship, Lupfdich also represented the legal interests of important non-Württemberg territorial lords, in this cluster singular for a Tübingen law professor of the time. Of particular importance is the safeguarding of the Hessian Landgrave Wilhelm II's legal interests since March 31, 1503, as a councilor until his death and subsequently to the Regency Council of the Hessian Estates until 1514 , at the latest since August 14, 1504 after Duke Albrecht IV changed front . from Bavaria-Munich to the Swabian Federation whose interests as a council until 1508, at the latest since 1512 also those of the subsequent Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV. In September 1506 he represented the Margrave Friedrich the Elder as a lawyer . Ä. von Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach in a legal dispute with the imperial city of Nuremberg , and in 1515 the Saxon dukes in their guardianship dispute with the widow Anna of the Hessian Landgrave Wilhelm II, who died in 1509.

As a party attorney, Lupfdich was involved in all important processes at the court of the Swabian Federation. At the Reichstag he represented several Truchsessen von Waldburg and in 1512 some Lake Constance cities, including Überlingen and Ravensburg , in negotiations with the Emperor because of the upcoming extension of the Swabian League this year. His high reputation is documented by the commission of the Bavarian dukes Wilhelm IV and Ludwig X to express their thanks to the representatives of the landscape who met in Ingolstadt in 1516 for their presence .

Lupfdich was also one of the closest legal advisors to the abbot of Weingarten Monastery at the time , Hartmann von Burgau, whom he supported with his expert opinions in defending against the constant encroachments of the Landvogts zu Schwaben Jakob von Landau in the rights of the monastery. Another expression of Lupfdich's close relationship with Abbot Hartmann is that he bequeathed his specialist library to Weingarten Abbey in 1518. Parts of this library are now in the holdings of the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart.

On February 16, 1515, Lupfdich agreed with the University of Tübingen to reduce the annual salary if he could not give his lecture due to illness. On November 2, 1515 the licentiate and later doctor of both rights Georg Simler, known as a humanist, was commissioned to represent Lupfdich's extraordinary lecture on secular (imperial) law. Lupfdich died in March 1518 and was buried in the Bebenhausen monastery near Tübingen. The funerary inscription of his no longer preserved tomb named him an extremely eloquent doctor of both rights and a lamp from all over Germany for many princes .

literature

• Finke, Karl Konrad: Johannes Lupfdich, died 1518, Professor of Law in Tübingen 1495-1515 and lawyer against Austria's expansion policy. In: Ferdinand Elsener (Hrsg.), Life Pictures for the History of the Tübingen Faculty of Law (Contubernium, Vol. 17). JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1977, ISBN 3-16-633122-0 , pp. 1-8.
• Finke, Karl Konrad: Johannes Lupfdich (around 1463 to 1518) . In: The professors of the Tübingen Faculty of Law (1477-1535) (= Tübingen professor catalog , vol. 1,2). Edited by Karl Konrad Finke. Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7995-5452-7 , pp. 208-224.