Johannes Nuhn

Johannes Nuhn (born January 25, 1442 in Hersfeld ; † after 1523 ibid) was a secular clergyman and a Hessian chronicler at the transition between the late Middle Ages and the Reformation period .

Johannes Nuhn was in the service of Landgravine Mechthild in Rotenburg for a long time and was probably the tutor of Wilhelm I the Elder and Wilhelm II the Middle of Hesse. He accompanied the latter all his life. His writings therefore focus on the Lower Counties in the contemporary period . He is next to Wigand Gerstenberg , who is almost at the same time in the service of Wilhelm III. located in the Upper County , a major source of events in the Landgraviate of Hesse .

Parts of his writings were first published in print by Heinrich Christian Senckenberg in the Selecta Juris et Historiarum from 1735.

Life

According to his own information in the "Chronologia", Johannes Nuhn was born on January 25, 1442 in Hersfeld.

In 1461 he enrolled to study theology at the University of Erfurt. How long he stayed at the university is not known. Later he was in the service of Count Heinrich XIV. Von Henneberg-Schleusingen (he was a cathedral canon in Cologne and Würzburg), who had his residence in Kaltennordheim . Heinrich XIV died in 1475, presumably Johannes Nuhn then left the service with the Hennebergers. It can be assumed that since then he was in the service of Mechthild von Württemberg (daughter of Count Ludwig I von Württemberg ), who resided in her Wittum at Rotenburg Castle . Nuhn was probably the tutor of her sons Wilhelm the Elder and Wilhelm the Middle . Johannes Nuhn can only be documented again in 1479. That year he accompanied Mechthild von Württemberg with Wilhelm the Middle to Tübingen , to the court of Count Eberhard I of Württemberg , Mechthild's uncle. Wilhelm the Middle was brought to the Württemberg court for education and stayed there for 5½ years.

In 1483 Johannes Nuhn was present in Kassel when Wilhelm the Elder, after the death of Landgrave Heinrich III. , as the new Landgrave paid homage to.

In 1479, Johannes Nuhn traveled to Ulm and on to Innsbruck in the wake of Wilhelm the Middle , to the wedding of Duke Siegmund and Catherine of Saxony .

As a result, he seems to have been in the service of Wilhelm the Middle (he describes him as a "lion-brave landgrave"). The close contact with the Landgrave House, which was very divided at the time, also seems to have had an effect on his chronicle. He commented on the content of a document in which Wilhelm I renounced his part of the country in favor of his brother. Here it says: "... but the real cause, where the unwillingness arose, is printed and kept secret, so it doesn’t tell me whether I have learned something about it or not to report it"

He also seemed to have been in the service of the Margrave of Meissen. Cyriacus Spangenberg states that Johannes Nuhn wrote a history of the Margraves of Meißen. It is also likely that he stayed in the country for some time, as he gives the full text of the grave inscription of the "virtuous" Duke Ernst of Saxony, who died in 1486 and was buried in Meißen . He was probably also present in Mainz. "... when you can still see it (the Martinsburg there ) in front of your eyes".

One must also assume that he himself stayed longer in Hersfeld, even if there is no direct information from him. He reports very frequently and in great detail on the history of the old and the more recent history of the city. z. For example, when Wilhelm the Elder went from Spangenberg to the imperial court in 1511, he spent the first night in Hersfeld, nothing is learned about other travel destinations. He also reported on the Landtag in Hersfeld in 1498. Here you can find out a lot about the appearance of the princes, the number of sticks , etc., even the route that Wilhelm the Middle took through the city, in a way that was his then Presence in the city makes it almost a certainty.

It is assumed that he belonged to the world spiritual class. This is supported not only by his biblical tone that he expresses in his works, but also by his attitude towards the way in which spiritual possessions were brought into secular hands. “A Munich is seldom or even Lützel to be believed, then what a Munich is allowed to think, he does too, and how frightened you are, when you burn, wheel, divide, drown and hang someone else, that does not make you wrong Munich; he pulls his hat in his eyes and falls down crying in front of his chief, then he remains a Munich when he was before "

It is no longer possible to say for sure when he died. The last testimonies from him come from the year 1523, where he reports on the campaign of Philip I of Hesse and his allies against Franz von Sickingen . It is therefore assumed that this was also the year of his death.

plant

• Johannes Nuhn: Chronicle and ancient origins of the Landtgrawen to Döringen and Hesse and Marggraven to Meißen. In: Heinrich Christian Senckenberg: Selecta Juris et Historiarum. Vol. III, Frankfurt a. M. 1735, pp. 45-49, 301-514.

• Johannes Nuhn: Hessian Chronicle. In: Heinrich Christian Senckenberg: Selecta Juris et Historiarum. Vol. 5, Frankfurt a. M. 1739, pp. 385-518.

• Johannes Nuhn: Chronologia

literature

• Wolfgang Breul : Chronicle as a prince mirror. On the historiographical work of Johannes Nuhn von Hersfeld in Hessische Chroniken zur Landes- und Stadtgeschichte . In: Contributions to Hessian history . tape 17 . Verlag Trautvetter & Fischer Nachf., Marburg an der Lahn 2003, ISBN 3-87822-117-7 , p. 29-56 .
• Julius Pistor: Investigations on the chronicler Johannes Nuhn von Hersfeld . Supplement to the annual report of the Königl. Friedrichs-Gymnasiums zu Cassel. Cassel 1893.
• Interaction and domination . The politics of the early modern city. In: Rudolf Schlögl (ed.): Historical cultural studies . tape V . UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, 2004, ISBN 3-89669-703-X , ISSN  1613-6624 , chapter: Thomas Fuchs: From the superiority of the history of princes. Urban chronicle in the Landgraviate of Hessen and in Hessen-Kassel. , S. 419-469 .
• Ulrike Stein: The tradition of the chronicles of Johannes Nuhn von Hersfeld . A contribution to the Hessian historiography. In: Europäische Hochschulschriften: Series III, History and its auxiliary sciences . tape 596 . Peter Lang Verlag, 1992, ISBN 3-631-46970-5 , ISSN  0531-7320 .
• Birgit Studt :  Nuhn, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 374 ( digitized version ).
• Elisabeth Ziegler: Two chroniclers from Hersfeld . Lampert von Hersfeld - Johannes Nuhn von Hersfeld. In: Bad Hersfeld annual issue . tape 1974/75 . Bad Hersfeld 1974, p. 6-10 .

References and comments

1. ↑ Historical forms of name are Nohen, Nohe, Nhun or Nun. The spelling of his surname Nuhn has established itself in the literature, as this surname still occurs often in the area around Bad Hersfeld. Another reason is the name in the Erfurt matriculation in which he has entered as "Nun".
2. ↑ that night I waited for Johannes Nohen, born conversionis pauli
3. ↑ in the Erfurt registry he is referred to as Hersfelder; in Senckenberg, Selecta V, he added "from Herßfeldt" to his name

Web links

• Literature by and about Johannes Nuhn in the catalog of the German National Library
• Johannes Nuhn in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Literature on Johannes Nuhn in the Hessian Bibliography