Kammermohr

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Portrait of the abbess Franziska Christine von Pfalz-Sulzbach with her "Kammermohren" Ignatius Fortuna, by Johann Jakob Schmitz , Cologne 1772

Since the 18th century, a servant of black skin at court has been referred to as Kammermohr (or Hofmohr ) in German-speaking countries.

People black skin color from the Orient , Africa and America have been since colonial times as slaves to Europe kidnapped, where she worked as valet were popular or Page. The term was first used as the official term of the court protocol in 1747 in the Electoral Saxon Codex Augusteus . For Saxony, under Elector August, a “Mohr” was handed down as gatekeeper who lived at court with his “black wife”.

The magnificently decorated and liveried chamber black served the rulers, church dignitaries or wealthy merchants as an exotic prestige object and status symbol . It should flaunt the wealth and luxury of one's own home. Above all, the valet symbolized the worldwide long-distance trade and power relations of his owner. Officially, the Holy Roman Empire did not know the legal status of slaves, which is why the historian Michael Zeuske calls the Kammermohren “slaves without slavery”.

Well-known Kammermohren were among others Anton Wilhelm Amo , Angelo Soliman , Ignatius Fortuna and Abraham Petrowitsch Hannibal .

See also

literature

Movie

  • Markus Schleinzer, Alexander Brom: Angelo . 2018.

Web links

Commons : Kammermohr  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Kammermohr . In: Former Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 6 , issue 6 (edited by Hans Blesken, Siegfried Reicke ). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1966, OCLC 832566952 ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de ).
  2. ^ Karl von Weber: Anna Churfürstin zu Sachsen born from a royal tribe in Denmark. A picture of life and morals from the 16th century . Leipzig 1865, p. 87.
  3. Michael Zeuske: Handbook History of Slavery. A global story from the beginning until today . De Gruyter, New York / Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-055884-5 , p. 860 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).