Karsten Sarnow

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Karsten Sarnow († 1393 in Stralsund , beheaded) was a dressmaker and mayor in Stralsund, who had also made a name for himself in the fight against pirates on the Baltic Sea .

Crossed out entry of the city constitution in the “Liber memorialis”

Sarnow came from a long-established Stralsund family who, however, did not belong to the patriciate of the city and were therefore not represented in the city council. He had been Altermann the clothing tailor since 1380 , that is, the holder of a very influential office . In 1389 he was elected to the city council.

In 1391 he took over the management of a fleet in the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, which ran out against the pirates operating in the Baltic Sea and defeated them. He had over 100 pirated pirates locked in barrels so that only their heads protruded above and their legs below, and on his return to Stralsund he drove them from the harbor through Semlower Tor and Semlower Straße to the Alter Markt , where they were soon executed .

This victory over the pirates, against which the son of the old mayor Bertram Wulflam , Wulf Wulflam , had unsuccessfully led a Hansa fleet in 1386, brought Sarnow great popularity among the population and his council colleagues. They elected him mayor in 1391, but the patriciate envied him. He became the leader of an opposition to the rule of the patricians and advocated a greater participation of the offices in power.

In 1391 he forced a reform of the Stralsund city constitution, which was adopted on May 2, 1391 by a majority of the council. It provided for a greater involvement of the offices.

Another aspect of the constitution was accountability for city funds. Mayors Bertram Wulflam and Alfred Gyldenhausen did not want to comply with this; they secretly left the city in June 1391, taking their families and property with them, and settled in Lübeck , from where they returned to Stralsund and restored them to their previous status. The Hanseatic League followed this request - also in view of the revolts carried out in some Hanseatic cities against the council and thus the power of the patricians - and threatened Stralsund with the ban , the exclusion from the Hanseatic League.

The distress that was rampant in Stralsund due to the threats to trade from pirates and several bad harvests had turned the mood in the city. The council therefore offered the Wulflams an honorable return to Stralsund in 1393. Although Bertram Wulflam died in Lübeck in the winter of 1393, his son Wulf Wulflam managed to put Bertram Wulflam's coffin back on his traditional council chair. Karsten Sarnow was accused of offenses against the interests of the city and the council, sentenced to death and beheaded in the old market.

Sarnow was married and had five children.

In 1875 a street leading out of the city from Kniepertor was named in Sarnowstraße in honor of the former mayor .

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personal data
SURNAME Sarnow, Karsten
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German tailor and opposition leader
DATE OF BIRTH 14th Century
DATE OF DEATH 1393
Place of death Stralsund