Leers (noble family)

Coat of arms of the von Leers

Leers is the name of a family from Aachen who settled in Lübeck and Hamburg from 1619 , on estates in Mecklenburg from 1786 , and who were raised to imperial nobility in 1791.

history

Origins

The family is first mentioned in 1567 with Paulus Leers, Greve of the brewers' guild in Aachen, who joined the Reformed and became a community elder in 1577. The name Leers suggests a Dutch origin, especially since many Protestant immigrants immigrated to Aachen since the increasing persecution of the Calvinists in the Netherlands under the Spanish rule of Philip II , which intensified the Aachen religious unrest.

Paul's brother Arnold Leers was an elder in the Reformed Church in 1581. Paul's sons Johann d. Ä. and Wilhelm were also brewers, Johann 1580 also councilor. Both were ostracized after the fall of Protestant rule in 1598, then pardoned again in 1602 after a fine was imposed. At that time, some family members left the city for religious reasons. Paul's grandson, the copper master Johann Leers d. J. (* approx. 1595; † 1636) had married Katharina von Beeck, the daughter of the Aachen mayor Jobst von Beeck. His brother Matthias (* 1605; † before 1671) was first a basin bat, then a copper master and emigrated to Hamburg, where he became a citizen in 1629. His cousin Heinrich (* before 1600; † approx. 1671), son of Arnold the Elder. J. and also Beckenschläger, had already become a citizen of Lübeck in 1619; In 1645 both bought the copper and brass mills on the Steinau in Mannhagen . In 1632 Heinrich belonged to the Landfahrer-Krämer-Compagnie zu Rostock and since 1650 also to the Schonenfahrern zu Lübeck. His son Heinrich (* 1619; † 1659) bought the first copper mill on the Bäk in 1652 ; he was also a skipper.

Expansion and possessions

Schönfeld mansion

Matthias' great-grandson Johann Jakob Leers (* 1732; † 1814) was a merchant in Hamburg and owner of copper mills and brass factories in Mecklenburg and Holstein. He also served as Mecklenburg's secret finance and domain councilor in Schwerin. In 1786 he bought the Vietlübbe estate and in 1791 he was ennobled by Emperor Leopold II . In 1817 his son of the same name Johann Jakob (* 1782; † 1855) bought the Schönfeld estate , with mills Eichsen , Groß Eichsen and Goddin. He donated three entails from his estates . In 1820 he had a classicist mansion built by the Lübeck master builder Joseph Christian Lillie in Schönfeld. In 1821 the family was included in the Mecklenburg knighthood ( rezipiert ).

In the Dobbertiner registration book of the Dobbertin monastery there are three entries by daughters of the von Leers families from Schönfeld for inclusion in the noble women's monastery there .

In the second half of the 1920s, the family lost the goods through bankruptcy and sale: Vietlübbe in 1928, Schönfeld in 1930.

coat of arms

Coat of arms on Reinhard von Leers' tombstone on Schönfeld in the Johanniter church in Groß Eichsen

In a golden field, two greaves of natural color placed in the cross, with the feet downwards and inwards, with the bent thighs upwards and inwards, under a blue shield head in which three golden stars can be seen side by side. On the crowned helmet a man in armor, turned to the right and forward, holding a two-pointed blue flag with three golden stars in his right hand and supporting his left arm on his side. The helmet covers are gold and blue on the right, gold and black on the left.

Name bearer

Johann Jacob von Leers (* 1783; † 1855), founder of three entails , colonel and district administrator for the grand ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1837–1847 provisional in the Dobbertin monastery
Johann von Leers (* 1902; † 1965), anti-Semite , National Socialist , author and historian
Kurt Mathias von Leers (* 1912, † 1945), theology student and candidate for the priesthood, died of the consequences after imprisonment in a concentration camp

literature

Genealogical Handbook of Noble Houses B 19, 1990, Volume 99 of the complete series, pp. 272–276; Adelslexikon Volume VII, 1989, Volume 97 of the complete series, p. 232, Limburg (Lahn)
Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Areligen Häuser (B) 1907 (stem series and older genealogy), 1908–1941 (continuations)
Leers family tree in the Genealogical Handbook, Volume 17
Gustav von Lehsten: The nobility of Mecklenburg since the constitutional hereditary comparisons (1755). Rostock 1864, p. 144
Sabine Bock : The checkered history of ownership of the Schönfeld estate in northwestern Mecklenburg. Pp. 167-179. In: Leather is bread. Contributions to the North German regional and archive history. Thomas Helms Verlag Schwerin 2011.
Oidtman Collection 9, 1995, pp. 408-423

Web links

Commons : Leers family - collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature about Leers (noble family) in the state bibliography MV
List of Leers' descendants (PDF file; 177 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ In Aachen, the family appears to be aristocratic with the imperial captains, the brothers Paulus Nikolaus von Leers (* 1727) and Martin Lambert Maria von Leers (* 1732). See Michael Kohlhaas, Leer's list of descendants (approx. 1500–2012; PDF file; 177 kB)

↑ The ancestry of the Antwerp merchant family Leerse , which has been handed down to the Mecklenburg family from Aachen, has not yet been proven; The Antwerp family included the merchant Sebastian Leerse (1584–1664), of whom Anthony van Dyck painted a well-known "family portrait with wife and son" around 1630/1632, which is now in the picture gallery of the State Museums in Kassel, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe , is located (Inv.No. GK 123). On Sebastian Leerse: KASSEL 1996, text volume, cat.-no. GK 123 . The cloth merchant Johann Baptist Leerse (* 1623; † 1673), who emigrated to Frankfurt am Main as a Reformed man and whose grandson Johann Georg Leerse (* 1691; † 1762) became known there as the banker and owner of the Lichtenstein family, also came from Antwerp ; to him: Franz Lerner: Leerse, Johann Georg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 54 f. ( Digitized version ). Whether the factory owner Christoph Friedrich Leers (* 1769; † 1825) from a family in Wunsiedeln is genealogically related to the Frankfurt or Aachener Leers, or whether there is simply a name identical, does not appear to be proven.

^ Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch : History of iron production in Meklenburg from domestic turf ore. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. 7 (1842), pp. 52–155 ( full text here p. 62 ( Memento of August 21, 2004 in the Internet Archive ))

↑ Therefore it is a talking coat of arms : mnd. loose leather trousers ; wide high boots . Lersen are (armored) riding boots that go over the knee straight into the pants.

^ According to Lehsten (Lit.), pp. 144f

↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Dobbertin State Monastery. 371a Introductory protocol as provisional for the Dobbertin Monastery, September 29, 1837

[NakoLe-1] In Aachen, the family appears to be aristocratic with the imperial captains, the brothers Paulus Nikolaus von Leers (* 1727) and Martin Lambert Maria von Leers (* 1732). See Michael Kohlhaas, Leer's list of descendants (approx. 1500–2012; PDF file; 177 kB)

[2] The ancestry of the Antwerp merchant family Leerse , which has been handed down to the Mecklenburg family from Aachen, has not yet been proven; The Antwerp family included the merchant Sebastian Leerse (1584–1664), of whom Anthony van Dyck painted a well-known "family portrait with wife and son" around 1630/1632, which is now in the picture gallery of the State Museums in Kassel, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe , is located (Inv.No. GK 123). On Sebastian Leerse: KASSEL 1996, text volume, cat.-no. GK 123 . The cloth merchant Johann Baptist Leerse (* 1623; † 1673), who emigrated to Frankfurt am Main as a Reformed man and whose grandson Johann Georg Leerse (* 1691; † 1762) became known there as the banker and owner of the Lichtenstein family, also came from Antwerp ; to him: Franz Lerner: Leerse, Johann Georg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 54 f. ( Digitized version ). Whether the factory owner Christoph Friedrich Leers (* 1769; † 1825) from a family in Wunsiedeln is genealogically related to the Frankfurt or Aachener Leers, or whether there is simply a name identical, does not appear to be proven.

[3] Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch : History of iron production in Meklenburg from domestic turf ore. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. 7 (1842), pp. 52–155 ( full text here p. 62 ( Memento of August 21, 2004 in the Internet Archive ))