Justina Catharina Steffan from Cronstetten

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Justina Catharina Steffan von Cronstetten , also Katharina , (born January 27, 1677 in Frankfurt am Main , † September 20, 1766 there ) was a Frankfurt patrician and founder. She came from the respected Steffan von Cronstetten family and was related to several other families of the Frankfurt patriciate who had come together in the Alten Limpurg Society . The Cronstett and Hynspergian Evangelical Foundation in Frankfurt am Main , which she founded in 1753, is still one of the city's most important charitable foundations.

Life

Justina Steffan von Cronstetten was the last surviving member of the Frankfurt patrician family Steffan von Cronstetten . She was the eldest daughter of the councilor and aldermen Johann Adolph Steffan von Cronstetten (1648–1736) and his wife Maria Catharina , born. von Hynsperg (1648–1736), a Frankfurt patrician daughter. Since her three younger siblings died early, she was the only descendant of the wealthy family. Above all from her grandmother and godmother Justina Margaretha Steffan von Cronstetten , b. Völcker (1621–1692) fell to her a rich inheritance, which included her birthplace, the Kranichhof on Frankfurt's Roßmarkt .

Justina practiced an early youth pietistic piety in Frankfurt mainly by the incumbent of 1666 to 1686 Senior of the preacher Ministry , Philipp Spener had been coined. He stayed away from the radical pietists of the Saalhof Society , to which one of their aunts belonged; she regularly attended the service in the Katharinenkirche and cultivated close spiritual relations with the representatives of the official church, in particular with pastor Johann Friedrich Stark .

On Sunday, February 28, 1700 she was the victim of an attempted kidnapping and rape by a rejected admirer, the foreign officer, Captain Andreas Grass (around 1662 to 1709). He watched Justina after the church service and dragged her into a prepared carriage. Passers-by, who became aware of her cries for help, brought the carriage to a standstill, freed Justina and handed Grass over to municipal jurisdiction. Justina's influential father tried to clean up the affair without fuss and made sure that Grass was "expelled from town for all time". However, he returned, was sentenced to one year in prison and was deported again. In 1702 he returned completely impoverished, was finally admitted to the municipal madhouse and died there in 1709.

The traumatic experience led Justina to renounce marriage and families and, after the death of her father in 1712, lead a secluded life in her parents' Kranichhof. She managed the family inheritance skillfully, and was able to increase property ownership in particular through acquisitions as well as conversions and extensions. The Kranichhof repeatedly served as accommodation for distinguished guests during imperial coronations, for example in 1742 at the coronation of Charles VII for the French ambassador and his entourage. 1745 in neighboring taught Barckhausenschen Palais logy-saving Francis I in Kranichhof an imperial kitchen , and he lived with his son in the royal election in 1764 Joseph II. Himself in Kranichhof.

Justina died very old at the age of 90 as the last bearer of the family name Steffan von Cronstetten . She was buried in the family's grave chapel in the Barefoot Church. After the church was demolished in 1786, her coffin was reburied in the local family grave in the Peterskirchhof . Since the Peterskirchhof was heavily modified after it was closed in 1828, the exact grave site can no longer be located today. Her tombstone is also missing.

plant

In 1753, Justina ordered the establishment of an evangelical aristocratic women's monastery in her will . After her death, 12 single women from the patrician families of the Alten Limpurg Society were to move into the monastery. The canonesses committed themselves to a pious and restrained way of life and in return received a guarantee of a decent livelihood. A withdrawal from the monastery, especially for the purpose of marriage, was expressly possible.

In the 18th century, single women in Frankfurt, even if they came from influential families, were unable to hold any political or public office and had no social security independent of their families. As a young woman, Justina had experienced that two of her mother's siblings were not accepted into the Alten Limpurg Society because of premarital love affairs . Their descendants were also excluded from the aristocracy, which resulted in the Hynsperg family's gradual social decline. With her will, Justina wanted to support the social position of the patrician families as well as strengthen the morale of their relatives.

In addition to the establishment of the women's foundation, her will also contained a number of provisions that were supposed to allow the citizens to receive income from the foundation's assets. The value of her estate was about 330,000 guilders , including the real estate probably over 400,000. Justina von Cronstetten should have been one of the richest Frankfurters of her time. She set aside around 90,000 guilders in advance for various bequests , including for 26 relatives from several families of the old Limpurgers , for servants and for the orphans' fund of the Ministry of Preachers. Her Cronstett and Hynspergian Protestant Foundation in Frankfurt am Main is still one of the city's most important charitable foundations.

Honors

Justina's biography was processed in several plays, novels and short stories, for example by Emil Neubürger (novella "Foundation of the Cronstett'schen Stift", 1889) and August Verleger (story "Die Wolfsangel - The story of brave Fraulein Justina von Cronstetten", 1939) In 1941 Kurt Georg Kaftan published the historical novel “Das Leben für Justine. The chronicle of life, love and death of the captain von Craß ”. A recent work is the play “Fräulein Justina” by Rainer Dachselt , which the Fliegende Volksbühne Frankfurt staged on the 250th anniversary of Justina’s death in 2016 under the direction of Michael Quast .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steffan von Cronstett and von Hynspergische adelich-Evangelische Stiftsverordnung . Last Will and Schedula Testamentaria . In: Complete collection of the imperial resolutions passed in the matter of Frankfurt versus Frankfurt and other relevant basic city administrative laws . Frankfurt am Main 1777 ( digitized in the Google book search - based on the copy published by the monastery administrators in 1766).
  2. ↑ "that many will be gathered before the throne of God who have been brought to true conversion in my foundation, or who have been strengthened and preserved in the state of grace to the end." (§ 40 of their will)
  3. ^ According to an estimate by Alexander Dietz in his Frankfurt Trade History
personal data
SURNAME Steffan von Cronstetten, Justina Catharina von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cronstetten, Justina von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Frankfurt patrician and founder
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1677
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1766
Place of death Frankfurt am Main