Leonhard Fronsperger

Leonhard Fronsperger , also Fronsberger , (* around 1520 in Ulm or in Bavaria ; † May 23, 1575 in Ulm) is considered the most important German military writer of the 16th century .

Fronsperger's place of birth and educational background are unknown, but in 1564 he referred to Bavaria as his fatherland. He got to know warfare at a young age and was closely associated with the Habsburg emperors. Thanks to the support of Charles V , Fronsperger was able to acquire citizenship in Ulm in 1548 and to settle there. He served from 1553 to 1573 many in the Imperial Army, was built by Emperor in 1566 Maximilian II. In the Turkish War of field court mayor appointed and received after its war effort an imperial pension. In Ulm he was then appointed by the city council as a military expert. He had an accident there during an inspection.

His writings deal with the entire war system of his time. The most important work is his war book (3 parts, Frankfurt am Main 1573), with which the historian Markus Völkel starts the “impressive series of older German military theorists”.

His other writings also include philosophical works that today play a role in the history of economic dogma. This includes the work Von dem Praise deß Eigenwohl (Frankfurt / Main, 1564), which makes him a predecessor of Mandeville 's doctrine of self-interest (see Mandeville Paradox ).

Fronsperger was married twice and had three sons.

Works (selection)

Occupation . Frankfurt am Mayn 1563 ( digitized from Google Books)
From Imperial War Rights , 1566 ( digitized from Google Books)
Spiritual Order of War , 1565 ( digitized from Google Books)

literature

Carl von Landmann : Fronsperger, Leonhart . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 145.
Max Huber: Fronsperger, Leonhardt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 662 ( digitized version ).
Winfried Schulze : From common good to self-interest. About the change in norms in the corporate society of the early modern period. (PDF; 3.2 MB) In: Historische Zeitschrift 243 (1986), pp. 591–626, here pp. 606–614. (Digitized from Historicum.net )
Rainer Leng : Ars belli. German tactical and war-technical illuminated manuscripts and treatises in the 15th and 16th centuries. Vol. 1: Emergence and development , Reichert, Wiesbaden 2002, pp. 304–308 (gives an overview of the older literature).
Rainer Klump and Lars Pilz: Through self-interest for the common good: Individualization, Reformation and the "spirit of capitalism": on the origin and meaning of Leonhard Fronsperger's work "Von dem Praise deß Eigen Benefit" from 1564 , in Normative Orders Working Paper, 1 (2018). ( PDF available from the Goethe University library)

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Carl von Landmann: Fronsperger, Leonhart . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 145.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Max Huber: Fronsperger, Leonhardt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 662 ( digitized version ).
↑ Max Huber: Fronsperger, Leonhardt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 662 ( digitized version ). The NDB article calls him a "commissioner", since Fronsperger called himself "imperial commissioner" in his books; Friedrich Edelmayer uses the term “pensioner” in a temporal and spatial context : mercenaries and pensioners. The network of Philip II in the Holy Roman Empire. Oldenbourg, Vienna, Munich 2002, p. 27 f .
↑ Markus Völkel: Between reflected norm and self-evident. The rhetorical order of the histories. In: Susanne Rau , Birgit Studt (Hrsg.): Writing history. A source and study manual on historiography (approx. 1350–1750). Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2010, pp. 537–551, here p. 545 .
↑ See, for example, Wolfgang Wickler : Is self-interest a good thing? In: Norbert Elsner , Gerd Lüer (ed.): “… Everything is human”. Behavior between coercion, freedom and responsibility. Universitätsverlag, Göttingen 2005, pp. 153–164, here p. 153 ; Wolfgang Fikentscher : Oikos and polis and the morality of bees - a sketch on common and self-interest. In: Fritjof Haft (Ed.): Penal justice. Festschrift for Arthur Kaufmann on his 70th birthday. Müller, Heidelberg 1993, pp. 71-80, here p. 75.

personal data
SURNAME	Fronsperger, Leonhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Military writer
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1520
DATE OF DEATH	May 23, 1575
Place of death	Ulm

[ADB-1] A ^b Carl von Landmann: Fronsperger, Leonhart . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 145.

[NDB-2] Max Huber: Fronsperger, Leonhardt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 662 ( digitized version ).

[3] Max Huber: Fronsperger, Leonhardt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 662 ( digitized version ). The NDB article calls him a "commissioner", since Fronsperger called himself "imperial commissioner" in his books; Friedrich Edelmayer uses the term “pensioner” in a temporal and spatial context : mercenaries and pensioners. The network of Philip II in the Holy Roman Empire. Oldenbourg, Vienna, Munich 2002, p. 27 f .

[4] Markus Völkel: Between reflected norm and self-evident. The rhetorical order of the histories. In: Susanne Rau , Birgit Studt (Hrsg.): Writing history. A source and study manual on historiography (approx. 1350–1750). Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2010, pp. 537–551, here p. 545 .

[5] See, for example, Wolfgang Wickler : Is self-interest a good thing? In: Norbert Elsner , Gerd Lüer (ed.): “… Everything is human”. Behavior between coercion, freedom and responsibility. Universitätsverlag, Göttingen 2005, pp. 153–164, here p. 153 ; Wolfgang Fikentscher : Oikos and polis and the morality of bees - a sketch on common and self-interest. In: Fritjof Haft (Ed.): Penal justice. Festschrift for Arthur Kaufmann on his 70th birthday. Müller, Heidelberg 1993, pp. 71-80, here p. 75.