Johannes Thoma

Johannes Thoma , known as Eggbauer (born November 30, 1700 in Egg , † June 17, 1753 in Temesvar ) was a German farmer and saltpeter in the county of Hauenstein .

Life

Thomas family sat on an hereditary yard of the Säckingen women 's monastery . Together with Josef Meyer (called the daughter men because he married, or glass men after his work as a glass carrier ) he traveled several times as a deputy of the unification to Vienna. There the two managed to meet Emperor Franz I privately several times (mostly while he was hunting) and to give him memoranda. The emperor promised to help each time, but nothing happened.

As early as 1730, Councilor von Boul, through Father Marquard Herrgott , succeeded in locating the two with the help of agent Müller in an inn in Tulln . The egg farmer was able to get hold of them thanks to his striking appearance, while the modern-clad and Viennese-speaking glass man managed to escape.

In 1731 the Glasmännle found out about the deportation ( begging push ) of the Egg farmer and he managed to free him in St. Veith. The Eggbauer then stayed in Vienna and waited for the desired resolution, but was arrested again. Later, the Glasmännle tried to buy the prisoners in Belgrade and the egg farmers free with borrowed 1000 thalers (from the court locksmith Scheuble from Laufenburg) , but this failed because the bribed disappeared with the money. Joseph Meyer was arrested soon after, also through bribery, in the Imperial Freihof in der Au , where asylum was actually available. He was imprisoned in Raab and received an amnesty after the birth of Emperor Joseph II .

In the meantime the egg farmer had succeeded in gaining an audience with Prince Karl . He received a letter in which, however, only a non-binding declaration was made that the matter would be dealt with soon. After the third occupation of Freiburg and the Breisgau under Louis XV. the saltpeterers were released from captivity, including the Eggbauer. He took the lead of the movement and set up the Hauenstein flag . He also appointed the Saxon officer in the Polish service, Colonel Sergeant of Liège, as general. After 16 years of imprisonment, he was at the peak of his power, which came to an end shortly afterwards, because on Pentecost Sunday, June 6th 1745, Johann Thoma from Egg in Laufenburg was taken into custody by a military command. The Eggbauer was just having dinner in an inn with his companions, Lieutenant Colonel von Lüttichau and the lawyer Johann Caspar Berger. They were also arrested.

Berger and the Eggbauer were transferred to Innsbruck and held in the prison there, while von Lüttichau died of an illness in Tiengen. On November 25, 1745, Eggbauer was questioned for the first time in Innsbruck about his arrest. He declared that he was married and had two children, a son and a daughter, who were in their twenties and who were at home with his wife in the economy. The Eggbauer estimated his fortune to be around 30,000 guilders and exist in Gütheren as fields, meadows, forests, cattle and other mobilia .

In 1750 he was sentenced to life imprisonment and initially taken to the Komorn Fortress . Before it was signed, Maria Theresia returned the judgment presented to her to the judiciary to check whether the death penalty should be carried out in his case, but the judiciary refused. So he died in dungeon in 1753 and the courtyard was destroyed.

The egg farmer's song

From the estate of Joseph Victor von Scheffel a song entitled "Des Eggbauern Lied" has been handed down:

The house
of old Thomas von Egg rises up in the distance .
The clouds draw, the Alps glow
across to Thomas Egg

In war-light was a rebel
of the old Thomas Egg.
House of Austria, how do you force
old Thomas von Egg.

Your war people threw grenades
to old Thomas von Egg.
Then the flame broke down the house
of old Thomas von Egg

Weit in the Banat at the advice of the council was
Thomas von Egg.
In the garden fence there is still a tree owned
by old Thomas von Egg.

As long as it is in bloom and fruit,
Thomas von Egg's tree grows .
Hauenstein's happiness blooms! Who will bring back
old Thomas von Egg?

literature

• Emil Müller-Ettikon , Das Glasmännle - Character image of a saltpeterer . In: Heimat am Hochrhein, 1981.
• Jakob Ebner , History of the Saltpeterer of the 18th Century , Volume I., 1953
• Jakob Ebner: History of the Saltpeterer of the 18th Century , Volume II., 1954
• Joseph Lukas Meyer : History of the Saltpetrers on the southeastern Black Forest , 1857
• Joachim Rumpf: The saltpeter riots in the Hotzenwald , 2003, ISBN 3-923080-25-5
• Günther Haselier : History of the Hotzenwald . Schauenburg, Lahr 1973 DNB 730 096 254 .

Web links

• Caspar Joachim Rumpf: About the egg farmer. A hereditary farmer from the Säckingen monastery in the saltpeter unrest. In: The saltpeter riots in the Hotzenwald. salpeterer.net, accessed October 19, 2016 .