Johannes Schmoller

Johannes Schmoller (born August 10, 1607 in Eisenach , † August 4, 1688 in Stuttgart ) was war secretary to Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar during the Thirty Years' War .

Life

Johannes Schmoller was born on August 10, 1607 in Eisenach, the then capital of the Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach . Just a year before he was born, his father Johann - a law graduate - married Anna, daughter of Johann Nödas, who belonged to the Saxon council and was mayor and chief tax collector in Eisenach. After the Schmollers had lost a large part of their property in a large fire in 1616, they relocated to the then university town of Erfurt .

Until 1616 Johannes enjoyed the lessons of a private tutor . He then attended the Latin school there in Erfurt until 1623. At the end of that year, Johann Ruegger, his godfather , the Court and Privy Councilor of Eisenach , took him into the house and returned to his native town. Ruegger kept him with him for seven years as a clerk and often took him on business trips. Most recently he traveled with Ruegger to Leipzig to attend the General Convention of the Evangelical Estates of the Empire, which was initiated by Elector Johann Georg von Sachsen and opened in 1631. With the permission of his sovereign, Duke Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Eisenach, Schmoller was taken into service by Duke Bernhard as a war chancellor. During his service with Bernhard he was present in many battles and sieges; as early as 1631 he found himself at the siege and capture of Würzburg by the Swedish King Gustav Adolf II , later at that of Mainz and many others. On November 6, 1632, he followed his master to the battle of Lützen and was an eyewitness to the battle between King Gustav Adolf of Sweden and Wallenstein .

After the battle in Nördlingen , which he lost in 1634 , Schmoller was on the run and burned all the office files that would otherwise have fallen into the hands of the enemy. He was then captured by the troops of the Bavarian Obergeneral Johann von Werth and dragged from place to place as a prisoner for over five weeks. When the army was about to leave Durlach and they were about to send him to Munich, he fled with Captain von Trautschwiz, who had also been taken prisoner in Bavaria. He got back to Mainz, where he met Duke Bernhard again. The latter immediately handed him 200 guilders in order to equip himself and awarded him the title of war secretary. Schmoller led Bernhard to Paris in 1636 and 1637, after the Duke signed a contract with Louis XIII in 1635 . had closed. After two other warlike undertakings, which Schmoller attended in 1636 and 1637, he found himself in February 1638 at the battle and capture of Rheinfelden .

After Bernhard's death in 1639, Schmoller intended to return to his Saxon homeland. But the brothers of the deceased duke instructed him to stay in Breisach and to attend to the business entrusted to him (accounting and economic errands). In Breisach Schmoller married Anna Magdalena on April 20, 1640, the eldest daughter of Johann Konrad Müller - the magazine administrator there, and later the Württemberg accountant for Stuttgart. After his marriage Schmoller was hired as an official in Weimar army in French service and he was the Stadtvogtei transferred to Neuenburg, together with the Commission in neighboring dominions. After the peace in 1648 Schmoller wanted to quit this service, but had to stay at his post until 1650. After his father-in-law Müller had resigned as a warehouse manager in Breisach, this position was transferred to his previous office.

In 1650 Schmoller traveled to Württemberg because his father-in-law was now employed in Stuttgart and he had the prospect of finding a job there. He was by one of Duke Eberhard III. Decree signed by Württemberg on April 26, 1651, accepted into the state. He was also awarded the title of Extraordinary Computing Bank Councilor. In 1655, after the death of his father-in-law, he was employed as a full accounting clerk. His wife died on April 3, 1668. He lived another 20 years as a widower, but in 1669 asked to be dismissed from his position. His eldest son, Johann Bernhard, law firm and city attorney in Stuttgart, died in 1667 after eight years of marriage. Johannes Schmoller died at the age of almost 81 on August 4, 1688.

swell

• Johannes Schmoller, War Secretary for Duke Bernhard von Weimar in the 30 Years' War; Urach, printed by Ms. Bühler in 1867

Individual evidence

1. ^ Vaihingen local family book
2. ^ Wuerttemberg yearbooks for statistics and regional studies State Statistical Office, Memminger, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1869, page 145