Loitz (family)

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The Gothic Loitzenhof in Szczecin

The Szczecin family of Loitz (old name Loytz or Loytze ) was originally from Greifswald native dynasty of merchants. You started out as a fishmonger and tried to control the salt trade in Central Europe. Sometimes referred to as the Fugger of the North because of their wealth , their bankruptcy as a bank tore numerous citizens and nobles of Pomerania into ruin. Their headquarters were in Stettin in the Loitzenhaus below the castle .

Hans Loitz I.

In 1433 Hans Loitz I moved to Stettin to try his luck as a fishmonger. Originally he came from a Greifswald family of scholars and pastors.

Michael Loitz I.

The son Michael Loitz the First married a wealthy widow in Stettin and in 1484 became councilor and mayor of the city. He made considerable fortunes, which arose primarily from his stake in Witte in Falsterbo . Michael I died in 1494 as one of the richest citizens of Szczecin.

Hans Loitz II.

Michael's son, Hans Loitz the Second, also became mayor of Szczecin. He was married to Anna Glienicke from Neubrandenburg.

It was also he who expanded Loitz's business internationally. Since fishmongers needed large amounts of salt to preserve herring , he expanded the business to include the salt trade . Hans II made various contacts with dealers in Sweden , Transylvania , France and other countries in Central Europe .

He succeeded in developing the Szczecin company into a group with an affiliated bank . Debtors included the Pomeranian dukes , the Brandenburg Elector Joachim II and the Polish king.

The Loitzer Bank made a lot of profit by financing wars. During the Livonian War , for example, they set up a fleet of pirate ships for Poland in Gdansk . This was mostly manned by Pomeranian seamen.

Simon Loitz and his brothers

The sons of Hans II systematically expanded the Loitzer's field of activity.

The first son, Simon Loitz, ran the company in Szczecin.

The second son, Michael II., Born in 1501 in Szczecin and Gdansk died in 1561, was in 1528 by Danzig married to Cordula Feldstedt to the commercial links to improve there. His wife was the great-granddaughter of Lukas Watzenrode the Elder , born in Danzig in 1507 , the grandfather of Nicolaus Copernicus . The marriage resulted in 8 children, including Johannes Loitz, coadjutor and successor to Nicolaus Copernicus in the cathedral monastery of Warmia . She died in Szczecin in 1547.

The third son, Stephan Loitz, tried to take over the Lüneburg salt business by marrying one of the wealthiest Lüneburg salt widows. Nevertheless, the Lüneburg salt merchants successfully defended themselves against the Stettiner.

Thus an attempt was now made to take over the salt monopoly in Central Europe. The salt trade on the Oder and in the port of Gdańsk was fully controlled and, if necessary, strongly defended by a gunboat in the port. The salt trade to Poland and Prussia was thus under Loitzer control. The trade in Pomeranian grain was also big business. The Loitz exported it mainly to Western Europe.

Fall of the Loitz house

Denmark changed the way tariffs were levied on transport through the Belte and Sunde in 1567 . From then on the cargo of the ships was taxed. As a result, the sound tariff increased threefold. The costs for the Loitzer empire increased accordingly.

Because the loan brokered by the Pomeranian Chancellor Jacob von Zitzewitz to Poland was not repaid in 1572, a significant part of the Pomeranian nobility got into trouble. Zitzewitz, whose fortune was also invested with the Loitz, took his own life.

When Stephan Batory , King of Poland from 1576, refused to pay the debts for his predecessor Sigismund II August , the Loitzer Bank's cash reserves became scarcer and many lenders withdrew their funds.

Simon Loitz transferred various goods and houses to daughters and widows in order to protect them from being accessed by creditors. He had to leave Szczecin with his family and moved to an estate in Poland.

According to one opinion, the allegedly last descendant of Loitz, Hans Loitz III, later lived on the Rundewiese estate near Marienwerder . He is said to have been no longer a merchant there, but a Prussian Junker.

According to another opinion, Hans III Loitz was still a long-distance salesman in Stettin. Only his son Michael moved to Danzig. There he was a long-distance salesman, Starost and Schöppe. After that, his sons Johann V. Loitz and Michael Loitz continued the line.

The Loitz got the reputation of the " Fugger of the North", who tried in vain to usurp the Central European salt monopoly. With their fall, many creditors, princes, landowners and wealthy Szczecinians were ruined.

Fiction

The historical novel Das Handelshaus by the author Axel S. Meyer is based on the history of the Szczecin entrepreneurial dynasty Loitz. The novel, with some fictional characters, addresses the decline of the Loitz family in the 16th century.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Branig: History of Pomerania I - From the becoming of the modern state to the loss of state independence 1300-1648. Böhlau, Cologne Weimar Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-412-07189-7 , p. 116.
  2. ↑ Johannes Papritz : The descendant table of Lukas Watzenrode In: Jomsburg . (1) 1937 p. 192
  3. ↑ Hans Branig: History of Pomerania I - From the becoming of the modern state to the loss of state independence 1300-1648. Böhlau, Cologne Weimar Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-412-07189-7 , p. 118.
  4. ↑ Thorsten Czarkowski :: Business crime against a historical backdrop. In: Ostsee-Zeitung. Retrieved August 20, 2020 .

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