Johannes Werner von Zimmer the Younger

Johannes Werner the Younger from Zimmer

Johannes Werner the Younger von Zimmer (portrait, probably from the 17th century based on an older model)

Alliance coat of arms Zimmer-Erbach

Johannes Werner the Younger Count of Zimmer (born June 24, 1480 in Meßkirch ; † January 1548 ) was a German nobleman. He came from the von Zimmer family , who were made count during his lifetime in 1538.

Struggle for inheritance

In the course of Werdenberg feud from 1487 his father lost John Werner of rooms the elder because of the penalties that they have outlawed his possessions. Before the imperial court in Rottweil , on September 8, 1487, he transferred his two lords of Messkirch and Oberndorf to his four sons and four daughters. Since they were not yet of age, they could not enforce their rights. The two eldest sons, Johannes and Veit, were sent to the court of Elector Philipp Pfalzgraf bei Rhein in Heidelberg .

After the death of his brother Veit Werner in 1499, Johannes continued the fight for his father's inheritance. After the hasty and rash actions of his brother, the German King and later Emperor Maximilian I set on a quick solution to the dispute in the spirit of the Werdenbergs. It was now Berthold von Henneberg who dragged out the negotiations because he needed the support of the room-friendly South German estates in his dispute with Emperor Maximilian I about the implementation of the imperial reform .

After lengthy negotiations, Maximilian I let it be known that although his hands were tied by promises made to the Werdenbergers, he could confirm the situation if the relevant facts were created.

Johannes Werner enlisted the support of his patrons from the Palatinate, as well as Bavaria and Württemberg, and on September 17th, 1503, captured Messkirch back. On March 9, 1504, the Lords of Zimmer were reinstated in their old rights at the Reichstag in Augsburg.

Herr von Meßkirch

Johannes Werner said goodbye to the Electoral Palatinate court, and after a few years returned to the court of Margrave Christoph von Baden . He tried to marry him off to a wealthy Strasbourg patrician widow, who insisted that he accept the title of Count von Rordorf and give up the name Zimmer. He then renounced the marriage and thus drew the anger of his benefactor. He moved to the court of Archbishop Jakob von Trier.

After the death of his uncle Gottfried on May 10, 1508, he returned and also accepted the hereditary homage to the rule in front of Wald . The estate was then divided among the three brothers: Johannes Werner received the rule of Messkirch. The proceeds from the vineyards in Überlingen and Hilzingen were shared between the two older brothers. With regard to the Wildenstein, it was agreed that both of them would be responsible for the administration in alternating years and that in such years they would both draw the proceeds from the fields and meadows that belonged to them, but also pay for the maintenance. The debts that had accumulated during the exile were also divided: 335 guilders with Johannes Werner and 475 guilders with Gottfried Werner. Both brothers still gave each other the right of first refusal, and Johannes Werner, as the eldest, undertook to marry within a year.

Ludwig von Löwenstein , who had been good advice and support to the young rooms at the Electoral Palatinate court, offered Johannes Werner the hand of his daughter Elisabeth, who indicated that he was not averse. They agreed to meet at Neuscharfeneck Castle near Landau. At the same time, however, the Werdenbergers wanted to tie the building into a dynasty. They therefore proposed a marriage to one of their nieces. The two daughters of Erasmus Schenk von Erbach and Bickenbach and Elisabeth von Werdenberg, who are entitled to inherit rights, stayed in Sigmaringen as the maid of honor of the Margravine Eleonore of Mantua, the wife of Christoph von Werdenberg (who was almost killed by Veit Werner von Zimmer).

From the immediate Swabian neighborhood, Johannes Werner was definitely advised to marry last. Sitting between two chairs, he decided to marry Katharina von Erbach, which took place in 1510. This was much to the displeasure of his mother, the Countess von Oettingen, and his brother Gottfried Werner, who were still very much aware of the disgrace suffered by the Werdenbergers.

The Bickenbach legacy only brought trouble and long litigation. At the Diet of Worms in 1521, a settlement was made that awarded Katharina von Erbach and her sister 1,500 guilders and silverware.

Johannes Werner was still involved in the murder of Andreas von Sonnenberg because he had given the murderer, Felix von Werdenberg, refuge on the Wildenstein the night before the murder.

Dominion before the forest

After Gottfried Werner's marriage to Apolonia von Henneberg, he succeeded in persuading Johannes Werner to swap rulers, simply referring to the high birth of his wife. Johannes Werner took over the rule before Wald, Gottfried Werner took over Meßkirch. Johannes Werner moved several times to various houses within Meßkirch, tearing out and reinstalling the new windows, door locks and fittings that he had previously obtained for Meßkirch Castle. Gottfried Werner had generously allowed him to take them with him.

In 1514, Gottfried Werner managed to talk the Wildenstein from his brother. Johannes Werner the Younger finally moved into the rulership of Wald in Seedorf. When Wilhelm Werner acquired the Herrenzimmern castle from Heinrich Zimmerer, Johannes Werner, out of anger and defiance, sold the villages of Herrenzimmern , Villingen (-dorf) and Talhausen (today the municipality of Epfendorf ) to the city of Rottweil . Gottfried Werner did not intervene and did not make use of his right of first refusal, since at this point the brothers no longer spoke to each other and therefore let each other have their own way. The sale of Oberndorf to Rottweil could only be prevented by the objection of Emperor Maximilian I, as it was a Habsburg pledge. Rottweil tried to join the Swiss Confederation, and Maximilian had to prevent this. Oberndorf came to Wilhelm Werner von Zimmer. Favorable buying opportunities such as Werenwag and Hohenfels were also not realized.

What was the common focus of all rooms in the years of the struggle for their inheritance, for which father and brother lost their lives, has now been frivolously frustrated by Johannes Werner's behavior. It is possible that he developed a certain resignation when he was called to account by his brothers and his mother after a series of fatal wrong decisions. Another explanation could be that he, who finally managed to recapture the Zimmerische possessions, had to share this inheritance with the uninvolved brothers. In any case, he lacked any dynastic ambition, as his behavior when acquiring the dignity shows.

In 1514 the first son, Christoph Werner, was born, the second Johannes Christoph in 1516.

In 1517 he went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela . They left in the first week of fasting and returned to Corpus Christi. During this time his first son died.

When southern Germany was attacked by a plague epidemic in the autumn of 1518, Johannes Werner and a few other aristocrats withdrew to the Hohentwiel . He sent his pregnant wife to her stepfather in Mespelbrunn . His third son Froben Christoph von Zimmer , the author of the Zimmerische Chronik , was born there on February 19, 1519 .

In 1522 Johannes Werner moved with his entire household to Hochmössingen (today town of Oberndorf ). It was an extremely rainy year and it was believed that a new flood was imminent. Those who could afford it moved from the valleys to the heights.

“In such a village he moved in ain arms, badly mercenary howling, if his corpse was paused, he was gone. The other, sinner, sampled the horses, was released into other houses that were next covered. (...) Mitler, however, because Mr. Johanns Werner won over to high brass, he plagued to serve alda for a short time, but fornemlich he gave adventures several times. But once, when he again ain such ranting and vil people come together to high brass uss the whole country, he tells ain danz how one may be to a thousand people at the danz ... ".

The farmers concerned sued Johannes Werner before their patron, the Rottweil council:

1. He had used 100 guilders, which their villages (Hochmössingen and Winzeln) had granted, for his own purposes.
2. The oats he had requested during his stay were not allowed to him.
3. He had forbidden them to fish with a fine.
4. He took away the woods and woods that belonged to the villages from them.
5. The salt tax levied by him is higher than he was entitled to from ancient times.
6. If he wanted to set up the offices of mayor , judge and bailiff, which was the task of a court.
7. ? (Translation failed)
8. That the villages can decide on the admission and right to stay of a free man.
9. That the forced labor is too high.

Johannes Werner denied all of these allegations, and the city advocates also did not agree with them.

“And regardless of the fact that the subject of the time is in good shape, then Mr. Johanns Wernher has announced ire disobedient not to forget; moreover, as if mocked bauren were hoping to be outraged afterwards in the peuric ufrur , he was so even bitter about this that he didn’t keep the waves, but instead had the baide villages sampled the wonderful weier to Winzlow his brother, mr. Gottfriden Wernhern umb ain bad, sadly it is delivered as a purchase ”.

In 1524, on the Tuesday after Pentecost, his son Gottfried Christoph was born.

Peasants' War

In 1525 the Peasants' War broke out. Johannes Werner fled with his family to Rottweil, where other aristocrats and the abbots of Alpirsbach and Sankt Georgen had also sought refuge.

“… In addition, there is always good company in Rotweil, and since then there has been war and unfaithfulness in all countries, and but you are always safe, you have all sought and kept recreation and good company. They brought the time to ain the manner uf, so you name corn, that should be entertaining. That was when all the household items in the house were thrown back and forth, spoiled and devastated, even thrown scraps of cake at each other, spilled with unclean water and the like… ”. “While Baide ept von Alperspach and Sant Jörgen ire had put on black frocks for the festivities, he accidentally served the corn after dinner. They pour carpools on each other, from which the munich also got iren tail. In the meantime, aside from insistence, Mr. Johannsen Wernhers brought a woolly sack that was thrown around. The baid münch also threw themselves around and were vil more adventurous, then others. Irish frocks were beaten up and thus added to the fact that they were not worth much more, and had to sneak home the same night without lights, then they could not be seen in public in the mottled, bulldozed frocks. "

After the end of the Peasants' War, Johannes Werner fined his farmers. Since he no longer trusted them, he looked for a safe place to stay. He bought Falkenstein Castle on the Danube from his brother Gottfried Werner , but only moved there two years later.

Meanwhile his daughter Barbara was born in 1526, but she died that same year.

Johannes Werner also had an illegitimate daughter named Berbelin (Bärbelin).

swell

1. ↑ Froben Christoph von Zimmer: Zimmerische Chronik. Vol. III. Published by Karl August Barack. Freiburg, Tübingen 1881, p. 617.
2. ↑ Miss von Löwenstein later ran away with a baker from her father's court and died in impoverishment.
3. ↑ Decker-Hauff: The Chronicle of the Counts of Rooms . Volume 2, page 159 (Zimmerische Chronik manuscript B, page 492)
4. ↑ Decker-Hauff: The Chronicle of the Counts of Rooms . Volume 2, page 161 (Zimmerische Chronik manuscript B, page 494)
5. ↑ Decker-Hauff: The Chronicle of the Counts of Rooms . Volume 2, page 162 f (Zimmerische Chronik manuscript B, page 495)

The footnotes 1 -3 refer to this work:

• The Chronicle of the Counts of Zimmer. Manuscripts 580 and 581 from the Princely Fürstenberg Court Library . Edited by Hansmartin Decker-Hauff with the collaboration of Rudolf Seigel. Konstanz: Thorbecke 1964-1972 (3 vol.), Incomplete (not all published).

literature

• Erica Bastress-Dukehart: The Zimmer chronicle: nobility, memory, and self-representation in sixteenth century Germany . Aldershot; Burlington: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-0342-3

Web links

Commons : Johann Werner vonzimmer the Younger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files