Small thought

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The Kleingedank family was one of the most important dynasties of medieval Cologne and belonged to the Cologne patriciate . She held the most important positions in the college of lay judges , in the Richerzeche and for a long time in the council .

Kleingedankstraße at the Church of St. Paul , Cologne

The name Kleingedank

Adam Wrede tried to explain the etymology of the family name by dividing the original name "Cleynengedanc". He related the Low High German terms “small (e)” and “gedanc” to a very precise and astute person who thought and looked.

According to Wrede, the family called itself “cleinegedanc” between 1135 and 1180, from which from 1160 to 1172 also “cleinegedang” became. During his genealogical research, Wrede found that up to the end of the 15th century there were various only minor deviations from this original form of the family name. Initially, the name bearers were given Germanic and later Christian first names, which were often repeated in the individual generations. Hermann Keussen , Wrede and other historians relied on the evaluation of the shrine documents of the Cologne parish districts from around 1130 and on the records of the town clerk Gottfried Hagen, who lived in the 13th century .

According to Wrede, the name Kleingedank was also found in Strasbourg , Siegburg and Mainz for 1211 and was still used in Arnsberg around 1500 .

history

The patrician family of Kleingedank can be traced in the sources of the city of Cologne from the middle of the 12th century. It branched out over time, but only two lines of small thought are documented by their activities. These families differed by an addition to their name, which probably referred to the respective heir of an ancestral home. It was the main courtyard of Kleingedank in the western Schaafenstrasse (other property was later sold) and the Mommersloch courtyard on Severinstrasse in the south of the city. The farm owner in the Severin district was occasionally referred to in the sources with the addition "Kleingedank, called Mommersloch" or just "Mummersloch". The historian Paul Clemen was able to prove the Mommersloch branch mentioned in the shrine files (related by marriage to the Hardef (v) ust family) during his research . He described a tombstone of a Kleingedank standing in the Elendskirchhof of St. Gregorius , the inscription of which, next to the year of death 1590, bore the name "Kaspar von Kleingedank, called Mommersloch".

Power, defeat, and family influence

Preservation of power through marriage

Kleingedank was already politically active by the end of the 12th century. A Heinrich Kleingedank was represented as a bailiff under the city lord Archbishop Philipp I von Heinsberg in the Richerzeche of Cologne in 1182 , and his descendant, a later Heinrich Kleingedank, who was married to Gertrudis Overstolz , held a lay judge's office in 1263. Ida Kleingedank married Henricus Gryn in 1255 and Gertrud Kleingedank married Ludwig in 1265, the son of Dietrich the Wise of Mühlengasse.

As these three examples show, marriage was a means to an end. They increased the fortune, the reputation and the political influence. Because of the marriage relationships that arose within the leading mayor families, power at the top of Cologne society remained with the patricians even in the generation change.

Loss of power, ostracism and renewed rise

Seal inscription: "S • MELCHIOR MOMM ERLOCH • SCHEFFE"

The later replaced Richerzeche was a secular brotherhood and represented an association of the wealthy, an association consisting of a few families and ruled the city through self-appointed representatives from its own ranks.

Although this upper class of the city felt deeply connected to the church, the small thoughts belonging to the ten or so leading families also oppose the absolute claim to power of the Archbishop of Cologne, who was both their sovereign and city lord. In these disputes with the archbishop, which occurred since the emancipation efforts of the citizens, members of Kleingthank were involved to a large extent. An attempt by the powerful families to regain their power, which had been lost after the "great arbitration" of Albertus Magnus in 1258, ended with executions , imprisonment or ostracism of the leaders, which were carried out at the behest of Konrad von Hochstaden . Of the approximately 25 families affected by these sentences, five were Kleingthank families. The outlaws included Henricus, who died in 1274, and Godefriedus, who died in 1279.

It was only after the archbishop's defeat in the Battle of Worringen , in which patricians such as Gerhard Overstolz also took part, that Kleingedank became politically active again. Together with the aldermen Dietrich vom Hirtze, Tilmann Kleingedank officiated as mayor of the city for the first time in 1317/18 . In 1334 Hilger Kleingedank was a member of the inner city council of Cologne in a contract between the city and Archbishop Walram von Jülich .

Gumpert Kleingedank called Mommersloch became aldermen of the High Secular Court in Cologne. He was married to Richmud (Steck) von Beeck. In 1534 he was still referred to as a lay judge in the trial files.

His son Melchior, who married Christina von Rottkirchen, also became a lay judge at the High Secular Court in Cologne. Melchior's traditional seal indicated the year 1547. The couple died before 1584.

Cohesion and strife between the sexes

The solidarity and mutual support that the related families gave each other made the families powerful and influential. This mutual help, also in financial matters, is made clear by a document from the year 1327. In that year Johann Overstolz and Eberhard Kleingedank vouched to Johann von Lyskirchen for Bela Kleingedank in the transfer of two interest payments from the farms of Butze and Weidenbach.

Kleingthank was not involved in the conflicts that broke out later within the sexes. With Ingebrand Kleingedank, who was in office as councilor at that time, the family took a neutral stance towards the warring parties of the "Griffins" formed in 1396 with their leader Hilger Quattermart and the "Friends" party, which was led by Konstantin von Lyskirchen a.

Church engagement

In families with many children, the eldest son usually took over the ancestral seat even in the case of Kleingedank. Siblings mostly entered into adequate marriages, which in individual cases even allowed them to forego the inheritance or a pension. In 1290 Rigwin called Kleingedank (Clenegedanc), his wife and their children waived their claims of 50 marks from Cologne , which the chapter of St. Mariengraden owed them from a pension of 50 malters of oats in Flamersheim .

Some aspired to study with appropriate training and others among them, who were well endowed financially through inheritance or dowry, became beguines and begarians , or turned to a spiritual life by being nuns, monks or priests, but also canons and canons were. A striking number of the women in the Kleingedank family chose to join the Cistercian community for their future lives .

Beguines and nuns

From around 1275 to 1303, nine of the female descendants of the Kleingedank family joined a community of beguines. Another 15 joined a monastic community, twelve of them the Cistercian women. Four left the city and around 1275 chose to enter the Benden monastery in Heide , one in the Burbach monastery . Five of the women joined the Mariengarten monastery between 1260 and 1300. The Seyn Monastery and Gertrud Kleingedank each chose the Monastery of Mechtern (Convent of the Martyrs), in which she was elected abbess by her community around 1336 .

Two decided to enter the Premonstratensian Monastery in Dünnwald and one, Alstradis Kleingedank, for the Dominican convent of St. Gertrud am Neumarkt , where she was prioress from 1320 to 1322 .

In 1321 Bela (Sybille) von Mommersloch founded the convent "Zum Mommersloch" in the Stolkgasse of Niederich , which in 1476 became the monastery of Apollonia of the Augustinians .

St. Apostles, in the foreground the monastery buildings built after 1200. (Justus Finkenbaum around 1665)

Spiritual gentlemen

  • Tilmann Kleingedank was a Benedictine monk of Great St. Martin in the Rhine suburb in 1278
  • In 1291, Henricus, Clericus Cleyngedanc, founded the “ad portam” convent on the street “In der Höhle”. The community, which had grown to 20 people in 1313, relocated to Breite Straße.
  • In 1302 was a Hermann Kleingedank pastor at St. John the Baptist in the suburbs Over Burg active
  • Richolfus Kleingedank was a preacher monk (Dominican) in 1315
  • In 1322 Hubert Kleingedank was canon to St. Apostles. In connection with the house of his “natural daughter” (filia naturalis) designated (probably illegitimate) daughter, “Huperti Cleynegedanx” was used as can. eccl. s. Apostles cited again in 1342 and 1371.
  • Around 1362 a Johann Kleingedank (Cleyngedanc) was canon of St. Severin . He and other canons of the monastery agreed to voluntarily pay the dean Otto von Gennep a portion of their attendance fees, although the latter had no legal entitlement to it.

Real estate the small thought

The Kleingedank counted among the large private landowners of the city of Cologne with regard to their property listed in the shrine files. Their pursuit of profit seemed, in contrast to the sexes who had become rich in the trade, to have been primarily oriented towards real estate transactions . Although their name was passed down in places of old trade routes, trading activities of the small thought could not be proven with one exception.

According to Kellenbenz , Johannes Kleingedank called Mommersloch is said to have come to the West Indies , where he died on the island of Cabo de la Vela . It was an area mainly visited by European colonial companies such as the Welsers because of its pearl deposits . His brother Balthasar is said to have followed him there before he died. A legacy from these two merchants later went as an inheritance to Catharina Mommersloch, wife of Hermann Lantzkrone. The inheritance is said to have included gold and pearls that were handed over to the family by the commissioner Paulus Blackwaldt in the 1560s.

Ver leases , purchase or sale of passing a Hofstadt (Curia) or houses (Domus) properties of the individual branches of the family granted a steady income. Larger productive estates or farms belonging to the families were located in the surrounding area or in the suburbs. The yields of apartment buildings erected on the streets that were being built and the ramparts that were now vacated were also recorded in the shrine entries, as was a change in ownership of smaller properties or the rent to be paid for individual apartments (mansiones) "under one roof" in the city center.

Preservation of family property through inheritance

The division of inheritance between the siblings Gumpert and Clairgen Mommersloch of the parental estate in 1497 shows, by way of example, which assets were available within a single family branch of the Cologne patricians.

Gumpert received the house at Mommersloch in front of St. Alban , six houses under crane trees in the suburb of Niederich , two "Gaddemen" (erected sales houses without foundations) on the Hachtporzen at the cathedral , three houses on the Büchel in the St. Peter parish , one house on St. Gereonsstraße , two houses down the field from the four houses behind St. Antonis on Schildergasse , nine white pfennigs from the inheritance in “Kemmergasse” on the Greek market, three marks from the brewery on St. Maximinenstrasse, eight marks from the smithy on the Bach next to the Haus zur Duyven, seven marks from houses on the "Breiderstrassen" (early Severinstrasse) at the St. Johann hospital in the suburb of Oversburg and half of 26 guilders of a Cologne cathedral pension.

Clairgen received the Haus zum Aeren in front of St. Laurenz , in which Peter Roide and his wife lived for rent, two marks from the Haus zur Lilien (Neugasse), seven quarters of Weingarten on the Aldengraven (today's Eintrachtstrasse) with a house, a wine press and Bütten and the 17th Interest house included , two houses up the Rhine before St. Antonis, 15 marks from the house to Hyrtz (Schildergasse) and the other half of the Domrente.

Clairgen had already received heir pensions from farms outside Cologne and a farm near Niederzier from the inheritance as "Hilichsgut" (for engagement) .

Gumpert also received pensioners from properties outside Cologne and the Kauweiler farm (near Eschweiler via field ). In Cologne the third part of 40 guilders and six chickens from the Haus zum Raven on the Altermarkt between the Haus zum Spiegel and the Haus von der Eren, three guilders from the Haus zum Scherffgin, located in front of the Cologne Kreuzbrüdern (on Kreuzgasse) and five guilders from the house of Neuchâtel on the "gulden Waage" (today Hohe Strasse ).

Larger properties

  • The Vogtshof, the Gürzenichhof and the Hof Mauritius belonged to the family possessions mentioned very early. Everhard Kleingedank (aldermen from 1197 to 1212, died 1247) and his wife Gertrud had received the court of Vogtes Almarus (next to St. Maria in the Capitol ) from the Volmerstein as a fief . Her son Gottfried, who was mentioned as outlawed in 1259 and died in 1275, increased the family's holdings by half of the Gürzenich farm and the farm on Weyerstraße . Mauritius , after which his descendants later named themselves.
  • The old farmstead of the parents passed to the Hardefust family and was entered in the shrine in 1455 as the property of the merchant Johannes Hardenrath .
  • The race mountain farm was listed in the years 1318 and 1329 as property of the "Cleynegedank" family at the old ditch (Antiqua fossa) of the Eigelstein district.
  • The Kleingedank farm on Hildeboldplatz was sold as early as 1323. The possession of the "Cleyngedank" consisted of several houses and a vineyard (at today's Hildeboldplatz) (versus portam s. Gereonis ), which Franko Hardefust, whose family also belonged to the patricians of the city, acquired.

Smaller possessions

  • 1212 was an addition to the Machabäerkloster located house with garden of Johann de Lechenich , who was called also "Caput diaboli", sold to Winemar Pincerra, who sold the property forthwith to Everhard Cleynegedanc.
  • As early as 1291, Henricus “dictus Clericus Cleyngedanc” donated a piece of land from the property “ad portam” on the road “in the cave” for the establishment of a Beguine Convent. A house "zoomes Cleynegedanck" was mentioned in 1471 in Schildergasse. Until the beginning of the 16th century, in this quarter, between Oben Marspforten and Schildergasse, ownership of Kleingedank / Mommersloch was mentioned several times, and the place name "Mommerslochgasse" was used repeatedly. The tax lists of the years 1487/92 listed not only the house and property on the “Hellen” but also specifications of the objects. The number of chimneys (fireplaces), but also the rent charged, was given in the Oberland guilders that were customary at the time.
  • In 1518 the location of a house in the cave (in the Hellen, also Mummerslochgasse) was specified precisely. The entry formulated: "The old house called 'zom Cleynengedank' next to the gaff gate at the house of colored words , which was also called the society gate, towards Schildergasse."

Small thanks, Pavone, Mommersloch

The oldest known Mommersloch was Ludovicus de Mumbernisloche or Mimbernisloche, who died between 1165 and 1172. His son Ludovicus was bailiff of the Richerzeche between 1205 and 1214. His son Hildegerus married Blithildis in 1230, possibly an heir to Kleingedank, whose coat of arms and name were adopted.

  • Small thanks de Mommersloch

  • Coat of arms of Kleingedank de Pavone, called Mommersloch

  • Pavone de Mommersloch

coat of arms

  • A gold sign for “Kleingedank de Mommersloch” had a black bar pushed three times at an angle. The helmet was crowned with a black and a gold buffalo horn .
  • The coat of arms of the "Kleingedank de Pavone" was described as follows: In red a silver bar shifted four times at an angle. Helmet with hat, fan board marked like the shield, decorated with peacock feathers.
  • The golden shield of “De Pavone / Mommersloch” had a red eagle's wing and a bear paw on the top right. The helmet of the coat of arms was adorned with a golden goat head with red horns.

Mommersloch farm

Kaspar Kleingedank called Mommersloch owned the Mommerloch farm in the parish of St. Severin. He died in 1590 and was buried in the previous chapel of St. Gregorius "ahn dem wretched Kirchhoff zu Cöllen". The grave slab of Kaspar Kleingedank was decorated with the coat of arms of his parents, that of his father Gumpert Kleingedank called Mommersloch, lay judge of the High Secular Court of Cologne, and that of his mother Richmud (Steck) von Beeck. A legend announced to posterity:

Ao. In 1590, on the 16th of March, Edler and Vester Caspar von Kleingedanck called Mommersloch, the last of the ancient Roman family, died .

The sister of the last Kleingedank / Mommersloch, Catharina Kleingedank called Mommersloch, was married to Hermann von Hirze called Lantzkron.

Headquarters and surroundings

Schaafentor, the wall in front of it and the Schaafenstrasse leading to Marsilstein. ( Arnold Mercator around 1571)

The family's ancestral home was built on the former site of the St. Aposteln Abbey , which was founded around 1020/30 and with which the family maintained close relationships. The rather large property protruded at this point into the parish of St. Mauritius and thus into the area of ​​the St. Pantaleon monastery .

The area was to the west of the gate that was broken into the Roman wall in the 11th century at the height of the “Laach” , the “porta ovina” (old sheep gate), which created a path into the field . This path then developed into today's Marsilstein streets (the medieval donkey market) and the Schaafenstraße leading to the new Schaafentor, which until well into modern times was characterized by farms, stables and the predominantly sheep breeding there .

Kleingedankhof Schaafenstrasse

The properties, which are subject to interest and which are subject to interest for the monastery of St. Aposteln, became the great ancestral seat of the Kleingedank family, which was located south of Schaafenstraße, between the streets Rinkenpfuhl and Mauritiuswal, in 1283 and 1293 by “Hildeger Cleynegedanc” (“iuxta ovinam portam”).

Fifty years later, the farm was owned by the "Gobel Cleyngedang", whose wife Yda entered the St. Clare Monastery after Gobel's death . It was followed in 1381 as the new lord of the court, the Cologne councilor Ingebrand, who was first called Kleingedank in today's form of name. In 1393 the estate (the curia zůme Cleyngedancke) was bought by Gerhard de Cusino, who retained the name of the farm.

A major fire in 1619 devastated many of the houses in the parish of St. Aposteln. In Schaafenstrasse alone, in the area of ​​the gate, over 30 houses burned down, without the cited barns and stables. In 1624, the Kleingedank farm became the focus of a legal dispute due to a fire spreading from its buildings on Schaafenstrasse.

According to the historian Thomas, the Kleingedank farm was last owned by the Junkersdorf and Lülsdorf families in Cologne. Like the neighboring farm of Johann Rinck, it was laid down around 1874 in order to create space for the planned Balduinstrasse with its buildings.

Commemoration in the city of Cologne

The city of Cologne cherishes the memory of many of the old patrician families, who also had many mayors from their ranks. She named streets after the families of Hardefust, Overstolzen , Gyr, Quatermakt, Scherfgin and Hirtz, Lyskirchen and also Kleingedank.

literature

  • Wolfgang Herborn : On the reconstruction and edition of the Cologne mayor list up to the end of the Ancien Regime , in: Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter 36 (1972)
  • Hermann Keussen , Topography of the City of Cologne in the Middle Ages. in 2 volumes. Cologne 1910. Reprint: Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-7700-7560-9 and ISBN 3-7700-7561-7 .
  • Ulrich S. Soenius, Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon . Greven, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 .
  • Adolph Thomas, in: History of the parish of St. Mauritius in Cologne. With an illustration of the old Abbey of St. Pantaleon after Stengelius. 1st edition JP Bachem, Cologne 1878
  • Adam Wrede : Neuer kölnischer Sprachschatz , second volume K - R, p. 269, Greven Verlag, Cologne, 9th edition 1984, ISBN 3-7743-0155-7
  • Anton Fahne : History of the Cologne, Jülich and Bergisch families in genealogical tables, coats of arms, seals and documents, lineage and heraldic book . AZ, Cologne, 1848. Volume 1
  • Hermann Kellenbenz : Economic history of Cologne in the 16th and early 17th centuries in: Two millennia Cologne economy. Vol. I. Cologne 1975

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ulrich S. Soenius, Jürgen Wilhelm, p. 284
  2. ^ Adam Wrede, Volume II, p. 47
  3. ↑ Lacomblet, 1229 Hildegero de Mummersloch, Urkundenbuch II, 160, Qu. 2, 110
  4. ^ Paul Clemen, p. 314 ff
  5. ↑ a b c d Friedrich Lau: The Cologne patriciate up to 1325, panel II in: Mitteilungen aus dem Stadtarchiv XXV. 1894
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Herborn
  7. ^ Wilhelm Jansen (arrangement): Regest of the Archbishops of Cologne. 5th volume. 1977. No. 1493
  8. ^ Archives NRW, case files of the Reich Chamber of Commerce, 3922 and 3924
  9. ^ Oidtmann Collection, Folder 841 with reference to the shrine book Aposteln (porta ovina)
  10. ↑ HAStK HUA U / 1196
  11. ^ Anne Dorothee von den Brinken (arrangement): The St. Mariengraden Abbey in Cologne. Part I in: Communications from the City Archives 57th issue. Cologne 1969. Regest U Mariengraden 28 page 16.
  12. ^ Herbert Grundmann, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages. Darmstadt 1970 (first edition 1936), p. 48
  13. ^ Archives NRW, holdings: U 1/15, 1336 August 14, St. Apern, U 1/13 and U 1/15
  14. ^ Friedrich Lau in: The Cologne patriciate up to 1325, panels I to III in: Mitteilungen aus dem Stadtarchiv XXV. 1894
  15. ↑ Hermann Keussen, B. I, p. 152
  16. ↑ Hermann Keussen, B. I, p. 151
  17. ^ Wilhelm Kisky (arrangement): Regest of the Archbishops of Cologne. 4th volume. 1915. No. 1353
  18. ↑ Hermann Keussen, B. 2, p. 133 b, p. 134 b
  19. ^ Wilhelm Jansen (arrangement): Regest of the Archbishops of Cologne. 6th volume. 1977. No. 1493
  20. ^ Hermann Kellenbenz: Economic history of Cologne in the 16th and beginning of the 17th century in: Two millennia Cologne economy. Vol. I. Cologne 1975. Page 392.
  21. ^ Adam Wrede, Volume 1, p. 354
  22. ^ Annea-Dorothee von den Brincken ( arr .), The Lückger and Flag Collection in the Cologne City Archives . Cologne 1965. pp. 124/125 and p. 168
  23. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Volume I, p. 97, Volume II, p. 280, Col. af
  24. ↑ Herman Keussen, Vol. II., P. 255 Col. b
  25. ↑ Hermann Keussen, B. 2, p. 118, with reference to Hoeniger, Schreinsurkunde II 1, 179, 181: The Caput diaboli (= Düvelshovit) family belonged to the Cologne families around 1200, which are often mentioned in the shrine documents when buying or selling of houses and land and gifts to the Church.
  26. ↑ Hermann Keussen, B. 1, p. 159 ff
  27. ↑ a b c Anton Fahne in: History of the Cologne, Jülich and Bergisch families in family tables, coats of arms, seals and documents, lineage and arms book. AZ, Cologne, 1848. Volume 1, p. 289
  28. ^ Christian Quix, description of the Eupen district. Aachen 1837 ( online in the Google book search)
  29. ↑ Hermann Keussen, Volume I, p. 438, Sp af
  30. ↑ Hermann Keussen, BIS 440, column b (reference to: Eckertz in Annalen 30, 153)
  31. ^ Archives NRW, holdings: A 1, old signature: W57 / 205, 1624
  32. ↑ Adolph Thomas, p. 67 f