Kaspar Sturm (Imperial Herald)

Kaspar Sturm (* 1475 in Oppenheim , † June 4, 1552 in Nuremberg ) also Kaspar Storm or Casper Sturm on the Dürer drawing ; was the imperial herald , who protected and supported Martin Luther on his journey to the Diet of Worms (1521) and back.

CASPER STVRM ALT 45 IOR
Silver pencil drawing by Albrecht Dürer , 1520

Life

youth

Kaspar Sturm was born in Oppenheim in 1475 as the son of an Electoral Palatinate official. Since the name Sturm did not appear there until the end of the 15th century, it is assumed that the family had moved here shortly before. No evidence is known about Kaspar Sturm's educational path. The level of education documented in his writings, his membership of the humanism association Sodalitas litteraria Rhenana and the matriculation of his brother Philipp Sturm at the University of Heidelberg in 1499 suggest that he also studied there. It is reported of his brother that as a Palatinate secretary he was killed after the overthrow of the peasants near Pfeddersheim by a "Gell shot".

In the Kurmainzer office

It is assumed that Kaspar Sturm worked his way up in the Kurmainzer law firm from an early age. There is a certificate issued in July 1515 to the now 40-year-olds, namely the acceptance as a "lifelong servant" by the Archbishop and Elector Albrecht of Mainz and Brandenburg and Co-Margrave of Brandenburg.

Activity for the City Council of Nuremberg

During his time in Kurmainz, Sturm obviously had a service contract with the Nuremberg Council for the delivery of news about political events and processes in the Reich. He received an annual service fee for this, as shown by letters of thanks to Sturm in June 1518 and receipts at the Reichstag in Augsburg. Sturm was also active as a messenger of letters ( courier ) for the city of Nuremberg (e.g. 1519).

The business relationship with Nuremberg did not break off with his appointment as Reichsherold, as described in the following chapter. Sturm also carried diplomatic messages and became an even more sought-after source of information for the city council. Only his increased engagement in the service of the Palatinate Elector led to the weakening of relations with Nuremberg.

The at first glance astonishing high interest of a city government in information about the current imperial politics and especially later from the environment of Charles V himself can be explained by the financial interdependence of the imperial house on its big creditors. This particularly affected the two large merchant towns Augsburg and Nuremberg with the large companies Fugger and Welser.

The Nuremberg branch of the Welser had thrown itself into the lucrative development of raw material sources in South America and the spice trade with the Far East through its own company with other wholesalers. The Nuremberg patricians earned money in South America in all areas of business, in addition to the extremely profitable trade in gold, pearls, dyes such as indigo, precious woods, drugs and medicines, as well as the slave trade expressly licensed by the treaty for the Spanish colonies in South America and the distribution of funds against syphilis brought in from the New World. These interests created a great need for information about political intentions and upcoming imperial decisions. Sturm was evidently a good man at picking and interpreting the news.

Appointment as Reichsherold

In October 1520, Kaspar Sturm accompanied his employer Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz to the coronation of Charles V as Roman-German King in Aachen. There he was appointed Imperial Herald on October 27, 1520 at the recommendation of Albrecht during the coronation celebrations. As an epithet, he received the service designation "Germania genand Teutschland" in contrast to the Welsh (Romanic) heralds of the emperor.

Encounter with Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer stayed in the Netherlands (Antwerp) in the autumn of 1520 to have the newly elected Emperor Charles V confirm the annuity that Maximilian I had awarded him in recognition of his artistic achievements, and on this occasion he also attended the coronation celebrations Aachen at. In his diary there is the entry:

"I portrayed the storm" .

Described in this form by Albrecht Dürer, Kaspar Sturm must have been known as an impressive personality even then.

The silver pen drawing from the artist's sketchbook has been preserved and is now in the Musée Condé in Chantilly . It shows Sturm with his coarse but sympathetic features; the head is covered with a leather cap and the approach of the tabard is recognizable. Through the text

"1520 CASPER STURM ALT 45 IOR"

the portrait also confirms the year Storm was born in 1475, which other sources do not consistently indicate.

At the Worms Reichstag

With Charles V, Kaspar Sturm came to the Reichstag in Worms in January 1521, which lasted from January 27th to May 25th. Right at the beginning of the Reichstag, long before he had anything to do with Martin Luther himself, the Herald got into a dispute with the representatives of the Roman Curia and their supporters.

In a funeral sermon for Cardinal Wilhelm von Croy held in the cathedral on January 23, 1521 , the Dominican prior of Augsburg, Johann Faber, urged the Emperor and the princes to go against the Pope and to see that everything was right in the church. The preacher then had to put up with the most violent accusations from Magister Michael Sander in the cathedral. Kaspar Sturm was evidently an ear-witness to this conversation and was annoyed by the criticism of the speech, which he himself had particularly liked. When he met Sander shortly afterwards in the imperial residence, he threatened to throw him into the Rhine because of his statements against the Dominican or to do worse to him. The papal nuncio Aleander even reports that the herald drew his sword against Sander in the emperor's hall. In any case, from now on Sturm was regarded by the representatives of the Roman Curia as an enemy of the Church.

The Causa Lutheri (The Martin Luther case) should be dealt with on the occasion of the Reichstag (albeit outside the Reich Assembly) . Luther had already been condemned as a heretic and banned from church ; but had to be heard as a suspect before the resulting imperial ban because of the electoral capitulation sworn by Charles V in 1519 . After preliminary negotiations, Luther was given the assurance of safe conduct for the 17./18. April cited from Worms.

Aleander , the papal nuncio, was beside himself when he heard that Kaspar Sturm, of all people, had been sent to Luther in Wittenberg to escort him to the Reichstag and back again. When Sturm reported to the emperor on the way that “without his being able to prevent it, all the world old and young, boys and girls were streaming towards Luther” , Aleander wrote angrily: “This herald, a high-spirited man and booby, a fierce enemy of the Clergy is just the right man to ascribe to Martin (Luther) a miracle that happened on the journey or an appearance of the Holy Spirit over his head, as he is already depicted. "

Luther spent the last night of the outward journey from April 15 to 16 in Oppenheim in what was then the “Zur Kanne” inn (today Mainzer Strasse 11-13). In the evening, Luther received a visit from Franz von Sickingen , who offered him protection and security at his Ebernburg near Bad Kreuznach, which Luther refused.

Luther at the Reichstag

The humanistically educated Sturm secretly admired the courage of the "rebellious monk" who confessed to his writings and did not revoke their content. Sturm ensured (among other things with an anonymous pamphlet) that the crowd voted in favor of Luther was always informed about the exciting course of the negotiations.

Luther room on the Wartburg

After the two-day interrogation and internal deliberations, Luther received the imperial notification on April 25th that he should return to Wittenberg with escort and not preach, write or otherwise excite the people on the way . The escort for the outlaw should secure storm again. In order to avoid any fuss, Luther left Worms quietly the next day. It was not until a few hours later that the Imperial Herald rode after and reached Luther in Oppenheim, who stayed overnight in the “Kanne” in Oppenheim. Luther then released Sturm in Friedberg with the certificate that he no longer needed him. This measure, incomprehensible at first glance, suggests that Luther was privy to the plan of his subsequent kidnapping at the Wartburg . On May 8th, Charles V imposed the imperial ban on Luther, which was published as the Edict of Worms on May 26th after approval by the participants of the imperial estates who had not yet left.

Herald for Elector Ludwig of the Palatinate

Emperor Charles V left Germany after the Worms Reichstag and did not return until 9 years later (Augsburg Reichstag 1530). At the beginning, Sturm seems to have lived in Mainz again. Above all, an imperial herald had to ensure order at the imperial diets and an imperial-approved free conduct. In the absence of the emperor, Sturm could not count on orders. He therefore entered the service of Elector Ludwig von der Pfalz as herald in May 1522 and took part in the campaign against Franz von Sickingen and his comrades in 1523. He was an ear-witness of the last conversation with the dying knight and described the events of the "Rhenish Knight War" precisely and clearly (see Achievements and Works).

In 1524 Sturm published a paper on the office of Ehrenholde (heralds).

Further diets and regiments

From the clerical and secular princes recorded in his book of arms as participants in the Reichstag in Speyer (1529), one can only conclude that Caspar Sturm was also present. At the Reichstag in Augsburg (1530) Sturm was in any case again in the heraldry and reported on the events in four writings. He was also active as an imperial herald in the vicinity of Charles V at the Reichstag in Regensburg (1532) .

Apparently, Sturm had ties to the imperial regiment , which was based in Nuremberg from 1521 to 1524, then in Esslingen until 1527 and finally in Speyer until it was dissolved in 1531.

Meeting with Hans Sachs

In February 1530, Sturm visited a cousin in Nuremberg and met Hans Sachs there , who began a poem as follows to commemorate the meeting:

One day I patronize an honor that
he should tell me briefly
All Roman Keizer nam
How one after the other came

Last years of life in Nuremberg

Kaspar Sturm lived with his wife in Mainz until 1538, complaining in various letters that were still in existence about the complaints of old age. Meanwhile, a widower, he wanted to move to Nuremberg and applied to the Nuremberg Council for admission to the local Heilig-Geist-Spital, a beneficiary's home, with reference to his age and poor health . With the argument that the hospital was intended for impoverished Nuremberg citizens and not for high-ranking imperial heralds, he was initially rejected. Sturm persevered and pointed out his services to the city. In the end, he had many patrons among the patricians, and Sturm was admitted in September 1538. Sturm's health improved quickly and, contrary to his own assessment, he lived a very active 14 years. Since he could not adapt to the hospital rules, the relationship with the apparently difficult beneficiary was not unclouded. There were always arguments with the hospital master.

When the emperor returned to Germany for the Regensburg Reichstag in 1541 , he put Sturm to rest at his request. However, Sturm struggled to receive the pension he was assigned.

Philipp Melanchthon 1537

In Nuremberg, Sturm stayed in touch with the notary Georg Selnecker, whom he knew from the days of the Worms Reichstag. Georg Selnecker was a substitute for the city court in Nuremberg in 1512, city clerk in the Nuremberg town of Hersbruck in 1522 and procurator (notary) in Nuremberg in 1534. He was considered a follower of Luther's teaching and a friend of Philipp Melanchthon . He played a major role in the introduction of the Reformation.

He was a fatherly friend to his son Nikolaus Selnecker , who later became Luther's historian, who lived in Nuremberg . Sturm's steadfast behavior at the Worms Reichstag and Luther's support were not yet forgotten. In September 1541 and February 1542 Philipp Melanchthon from Wittenberg had Selnecker send friendly greetings. Nikolaus Selnecker has passed on some of Sturm's stories from the Worms days.

Kaspar Sturm died in Nuremberg on June 4, 1552.

Memorabilia

Kaspar Sturm's son Philipp Jakob Sturm settled in Friedberg as a pharmacist. The ceremonial sword of the Reichsherold (the "Luther Sword"), a so-called two- hander over 2 meters long , was acquired by a bookseller in the 1840s for the considerable sum of 200 guilders and from his descendant Fritz H. Herrmann on permanent loan to the Wetterau- Opened to the Friedberg City Museum for exhibition. In the so-called city window in the west choir of St. Catherine's Church in Oppenheim, a depiction of Luther and Sturm named Oppenheimer Geleit recalls the trip to the Reichstag and the two stays in the city.

Services

Franz von Sickingen

Self-portrait in the book of arms

Kaspar Sturm was a lifelong servant to Archbishop Albrecht von Mainz, Imperial Herald of Honor under Charles V, perhaps even under Maximilian, also called himself Honorary Herald of the Empire, King Ferdinand and the Count Palatine of the Rhine and was nicknamed "Germania genand Teutschland" .

As messengers between the ruling houses of the Middle Ages, the heralds had the function of ambassadors and inviolable parliamentarians. They played no historical role and therefore remained mostly unknown. Not so in the storm, mainly because of his escort for Luther to the Reichstag in Worms and his active support. As an occasional prose chronicler, Kaspar Sturm also ensured that his name lived on in history. Of course, attention has only recently been drawn to his writings.

His “warlicher report”, published as early as 1520, is the main source for the campaign in Trier, Hesse and the Palatinate against the famous Franz von Sickingen and his downfall. He tells the course of events in a dry chronological order without going into the situation and the motives of the historical personality. His record is important because, in his official capacity as Herald of the Allies, he was eyewitness to many otherwise unknown details. The report was often printed and reprinted in 1626 with a translation of the “historia des Leodius”.

In 1521, a year later, a little book was published about the office, names and service of the heralds (without any noteworthy statements about the heraldry), a fabulous tale of the alleged heralds of antiquity, in keeping with the taste of the time.

The “Fürstenschatz” (a new edition of a font by Hans Sachs with characteristics of the German emperors except for Charles V), published in 1536, also bears Sturm's handwriting.

Several reports and four small papers about the Augsburg Diet of 1530, which are valuable due to the list of those present and the description of the celebrations and which show his humanistic education, are then again anonymous, but unequivocally attributable to him.

In 1538 he used a period of leisure to include Emperor Maximilian's famous saying about the four (with the other three) kings, the king of the devils (England), the donkey (France), the people (Spain) and the kings (German emperors) in the booklet Execute the four most important kingdoms (Frankfurt 1538, undated 1639) for King Ferdinand. In this attempt to characterize the nations, Sturm allowed himself to be guided by satirical impulses, which he probably owed to his (oral) source; but the two introductory pairs of rhymes and the closing speech, which consists of biblical words, certainly come from him.

The same ingredients, rhymes and biblical quotations can be found to a much greater extent in front of and behind his small Fürstlich Chronica (Strasbourg 1544), which reports the history of the four world monarchies up to Charles V, first in close connection with the Bible, then in poor ones Notes on Roman and German emperors, finally from the Hussite Wars on in more detail. The victory at Pavia forms the impressive conclusion.

Kaspar Sturm also wrote a book of coats of arms with a self-portrait. This is not uncommon for a Herald, as he needed to know the coats of arms of the participants for the state meetings and ceremonies he attended and which he sometimes had to organize. This is why the heraldic art was given the name "Heraldry" by its experts, the heralds. The coat of arms book of the Reichsherold Caspar Sturm contains around 110 pictures of coats of arms of high artistry and is considered an important heraldic document.

Sturm does not seem to have carried out the plan to dedicate a book of his own to Charles V.

Critics point to the somewhat clumsy, arduous and arid annalist style in some of Sturm's literary works. They assume weaknesses in the means of expression and consider this to be a reason that Sturm leaned as close as possible to the wording of biblical wisdom for general considerations.

Fonts

• Pamphlet about Luther's interrogation (Worms, 1521), printed by Hans von Erfurth during the Reichstag in Worms
• Bellum Sickinganum (Strasbourg, 1526)
• Legal report on the campaign against Franz von Sickingen
• Reports and four small writings on the Augsburg Diet of 1530
• Fürstenschatz Characteristics of the German Emperors except for Charles V (new edition of a font by Hans Sachs ) (1536)
• The four most important kingdoms (Frankfurt, 1538)
• kleyn Fürstlich Chronica (Strasbourg, 1543/1544).
• The book of arms of the Reichsherold Caspar Sturm

literature

• Fritz Herrmann: Kaspar Sturm from Oppenheim, the Reichsherold , biography, 1925. In: Oppenheim, history of an old imperial city (on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the city elevation). Oppenheim 1975, pp. 127–129, editor: Hans Licht (Dr. Martin Held Foundation).
• Fritz Herrmann: Article about Kaspar Sturm. In: City of Oppenheim 1225-1925 . In: Volk und Scholle, Heimatblätter for both Hesse, Nassau and Frankfurt , Volume III, 1925, p. 296 ff.
• Imperial Herald Kaspar Sturm (1475–1552) . Student project of the Matthäus-Merian-Schule Oppenheim. In: Oppenheimer Hefte , No. 3, 1991, ISBN 3-87854-082-5 , pp. 39-44.
• Jürgen Arndt: The coat of arms book of the Reichsherold Caspar Sturm . In: Heraldic books of the Middle Ages . Publisher: The HEROLD, Association for Heraldry, Genealogy and Allied Sciences, Berlin. Verlag Bauer & Raspe, Neustadt an der Aisch 1984, ISBN 3-87947-051-0 .
• Albert Barthelmeß: The Reichsherold Caspar Sturm and Nuremberg . In: The Herald's Book of Arms Caspar Sturm . Verlag Bauer & Raspe, Neustadt an der Aisch 1984, ISBN 3-87947-051-0 , MVGN version
• Winfried Dotzauer: The "warical report" of the Reichsherold Caspar Sturm about the campaign of the three allied princes against Franz von Sickingen in 1523 . In: Blätter für Pfalzische Kirchengeschichte , Volume 37/38, 1970/71, pp. 348–372.
• Thomas Hubert, Caspar Sturm: Bellum Sickinganum . Strasbourg 1526. Published in Johannes Hüll: Franz von Sickingen's descendants. According to older and more recent sources . Ludwigshafen 1886.
• Hans Horstmann: Das Wappenbuch des Reichsherold Caspar Sturm , published in the congress report of the 12th International Congress for Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences, Munich 1974, pp. 119–124, published in 1978.
• Nicolaus Selnecker: On the life and walk of the venerable Lord and dear man of God Dr. Martin Luther . Leipzig 1576
• Gustav Roethe:  Sturm, Kaspar . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 41 f.

Web links

Commons : Kaspar Sturm  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nuremberg dead ringing books III, St.Sebald, 1517-1572, page 173
2. ↑ Gellschuß (from gellen, meaning "bounce") from Meyer's Universal Lexicon
3. ↑ ^{a b c} see literature Barthelmeß, Albert: Der Reichsherold Caspar Sturm und Nürnberg
4. ↑ last receipt for 24 guilders (agreed annual fee) in January 1523
5. ↑ 4,000 negro slaves
6. ↑ derived from the Wikipedia article "Welser"
7. ↑ Wilhelm von Croy was last Archbishop of Toledo and Chancellor of Castile. He had traveled to the Reichstag in Worms with Charles V and was killed there in a hunting accident.
8. ↑ The English envoy reported on the sermon in London and mentioned: "... if the Pope and cardinals do wrong, the emperor must put an end to their abuses and even depose them ..."
9. ↑ Michael Sander was in the service of Cardinal Schinner , Bishop of Sion and was as sinecures hunters known
10. ↑ A sign above the courtyard entrance reminds of the occasion
11. ↑ Other passages say that he accompanied Landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous of Hesse on the same campaign.
12. ↑ However, more recent studies date the sword to the late 16th century. See also Carl A. Hoffmann u. a. (Ed.): When peace was possible. 450 years of religious peace in Augsburg. Accompanying volume for the exhibition in the Maximilian Museum Augsburg. (Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2005) p. 311 f. Cat. I.12.
13. ↑ ^{a b} see web link Heraldry and Heralds
14. ^ Gustav Roethe:  Sturm, Kaspar . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 41 f.
15. ↑ The Oppenheimer Stadtbücherei has an illustrated facsimile edition