Landauer (Nuremberg merchant family)

The coat of arms of the Landau

The Landau were a respected family of painters and merchants from the imperial city of Nuremberg , first mentioned in a document in the 14th century.

history

The origin of the Landau is largely in the dark. The first family member mentioned in Nuremberg was the painter and carver Berthold Moler / Landauer (1365 / 70–1432 / 33). He was the progenitor of the Nuremberg line of the Landau. Berthold had four sons, three of whom worked in the family business. The sons Matthäus the Elder and Markus Landauer († 1468) gave up the profession prematurely and became merchants. The change was easy for Markus, as he married into the Prückler family, who came from Bern and who traded in arms, saltpeter and precious metals in Bohemia, Hungary, Venice and Switzerland. Markus also exported saltpeter to Pilsen and Tachau and is already recorded in the precious metal trade around 1430. Together with his brother Matthäus d. Ä. Around 1440 he founded the Landauer-Handelsgesellschaft, which was active in long-distance trade with the new markets of the Eastern European trading centers of Wroclaw, Poznan and Krakow. The range of goods initially consisted primarily of Nuremberg metal goods, metals of all kinds, spices, luxury fabrics and forestry products from the Levant , as well as the transmission of messages between their trading centers. At around the same time, the Landauers established the first connections to the mining districts in the Upper Palatinate and were represented at the fair in Nördlingen . Since 1460 they operated their own smelters for metal extraction and were occupied in the arms trade , which they operated on a large scale. Markus Landauer married the wealthy Margareta Schreyer († 1457) after the death of his first wife.

Matthäus Landauer , drawn by Albrecht Dürer , 1511

Along with three sisters, Matthew the Younger Landau was the only son of Markus and his main heir. Together with his brother-in-law, Hans Starck, he founded the mining company in Eisfeld, Thuringia, and traded in saigertem Garkupfer and the silver obtained from it ( Saigerhandel ).

Mainly with the profits from the Eisfeld company, Matthäus Landauer and his uncle Sebald Schreyer donated the Schreyer Landauer tomb and established the Landauer Twelve Brothers House Foundation himself. Matthäus Landauer himself was one of the first residents of the Landau monastery

Despite the reputation, the great wealth and the marriage with members of the Nuremberg patriciate , the Landau were denied access to the inner circle of the ruling families of the imperial city.

Dorothea Landauer († November 29, 1529) was forced by her father to marry Wilhelm II. Haller von Hallerstein (1478-1534) from the patrician family Haller von Hallerstein . After the death of her father in 1515, she separated from her husband. Since the Inner Council of the City of Nuremberg wanted to force her to return to her, as she put it, domineering, violent and lavish husband , she asked Margraves Georg and Casimir for a letter of protection and fled to the family residence of Schloss Oberwolkersdorf, where she lived up to her Death lived.

With Matthäus Landauer, the male line died out in 1515. The Eisfelder Saigerhütte was operated by the Haller and the Starck and later taken over by the Welser .

Former possessions (extract)

1485–1528 Oberwolkersdorf Castle (Wolkersdorf near Schwabach )

Foundations (extract)

Schreyer-Landauersches epitaph at the Sebalduskirche 1490 (Matthäus Landauer with his uncle Sebald Schreyer)
Landau epitaph in the Tetzel Chapel of St. Egidien (Nuremberg)
Landau Chapel at the Landauer Twelve Brothers House , 1501–1510 by the Nuremberg architect Hans Beheim the Elder. Ä.
Landau Altar by Albrecht Dürer , commissioned by the businessman Matthäus Landauer for the new construction of the Landau chapel of the Landauer Twelve Brothers House , today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
Katharinen Altar, donated by Marcus Landauer
Landauersches Twelve Brothers House

Resurrection of Jesus in the left panel of the Schreyer Landauer epitaph in the east choir of St. Sebald, 1490
Jesus carrying the cross in the right panel (with Landauer coat of arms, bottom left)
Landau Chapel (around 1510)
Landau Altar by Albrecht Dürer, 1511
The founder Matthäus Landauer in the house book of the Landauer Twelve Brothers Foundation

Known family members

Markus Landauer (14 ?? - 1486), merchant, founder of the Landau trading company
Matthäus the Younger Landau (1451–1515), merchant, founder
Dorothea Haller b. Landauer (1480–1528), daughter of Matthäus Landauer. She was married to Wilhelm Haller von Hallerstein (1478–1534). Since she did not submit to the misogynistic customs of the time, she caused one of the few known marriage scandals in the imperial city of Nuremberg. Three sons were born from his marriage to Wilhelm Haller. (Matthias * 1504, Georg * 1506, Johann * 1508)

Trivia

The life and suffering of Dorothea Landauer, Haller was described in a marriage novel by Albert Gimbel (1925) and also served Sabine Weigand as a template for her book Das Perlenmedaillon (2005).
Landauergasse in Nuremberg is named after Matthäus Landauer.

coat of arms

In red a silver tip, accompanied by three (2.1) linden leaves in mistaken tincture.

literature

Joachim Ahlborn: Landauer (Nuremberg family). In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 488 f. ( Digitized version ).
Christoph von Imhoff (Hrsg.): Famous Nuremberg from nine centuries. Hofmann, Nuremberg 1984, ISBN 3-87191-088-0 .
Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . 2nd, improved edition. W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 ( online ).