Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen

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Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen (* 1598 in Apricke ; † December 13, 1657 ) was an Imperial Lieutenant Field Marshal in the Thirty Years' War . He was made a baron in 1634 .

career

Bönninghausen came at the beginning of the Thirty Years War in the service of the Catholic League , having already 1616 under Count the Bergh Hendrik van in on the Spanish side in the Netherlands had served. On August 10, 1617, Bönninghausen married Anna von Budberg in Aldekerk . In 1622 he was Rittmeister in the league equestrian regiment of the Walloon Nicolaus des Fours . Among other things, Bönninghausen took part in Wallenstein's campaign against the Danish King Christian IV . Military service paid off for him. Together with his wife in 1624 he invested 4,000 Reichstaler at the Muenster Grutamt. This earned him 240 thalers a year. His wife died in Münster in 1633 .

In 1630 he became a colonel in imperial service and commander of a cuirassier regiment under Field Marshal Pappenheim . In the service of Tilly , Bönnighausen was significantly involved in the siege and conquest of Magdeburg in 1630/31 . In December 1630 he was with 500 cavalrymen and 600 infantrymen in the village of Salbke in front of Magdeburg. He stole a large fortune by looting the city.

In 1632 in Magdeburg he received the order from the imperial commander, Count Wolf von Mansfeld , to attack the city of Halberstadt together with the sergeant-general Johann von Viermund . When he had already made a breach , he ran out of ammunition and, on Mansfeld's orders, had to retreat towards Magdeburg. On the way his corps was attacked and smashed by Swedish General Johan Banér .

Afterwards he was appointed by Pappenheim to be the commander of the cavalry, and in the service of Wallenstein he finally became an imperial sergeant-general . Bönnighausen had Iserlohn besieged and plundered in 1633 . In the same year the Hohenlimburg was besieged and occupied. Boenninghausen's troops were notorious for their brutal treatment of the population. In June 1633 he had a fortified camp built in front of Münster for his six cavalry regiments. He himself took quarters at the cathedral immunity. The estates had to raise 3000 thalers for the troops and 1000 thalers for the general. After the battle of Hessisch Oldendorf , he was able to save Münster from siege by Hessian troops by invading Waldeck and Hesse himself . A year later, when united troops threatened Sweden, Hesse and Lüneburg Munster, von Bönninghausen commanded the cavalry of Lieutenant Field Marshal Gottfried Huyn von Geleen .

For his services, Bönninghausen was raised to hereditary imperial baron status on May 20, 1634 . In 1636 he entered the service of the imperial field marshal Octavio Piccolomini . In 1639 he was made an Imperial Lieutenant Field Marshal . He stood out for his excessive looting and contribution demands. He had to give up his post in 1640. After that he had little success with the formation of two regiments for the governor of the Spanish Netherlands . He returned to Münster in 1645 and contacted the French embassy. After long secret negotiations, he was promised considerable funds for recruiting and he himself was appointed French " Maréchal de camp ". The imperial embassy during the peace negotiations became aware of the change of sides and endeavored to make the neutral city “harmless”. For his part, Bönninghausen became aware of these measures and fled to the French embassy, ​​which smuggled him out of the city. Bönninghausen's recruitment was successful, but its soldiers hardly influenced the course of the war. He changed sides again and in 1647 received an imperial “pardon patent.” At the end of the war, he commanded the imperial troops in Franconia and Swabia.

He spent his last years at Schnellenberg Castle in the Sauerland , which he had leased from the von Fürstenberg family . He died in 1657 and was buried in a crypt in the Franciscan Church in Attendorn, which was destroyed in 1945 . After his death there was a dispute among the heirs about the considerable inheritance.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Lahrkamp: On the biography of Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , 143/1993. P. 63.
  2. ↑ Helmut Lahrkamp: On the biography of Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , 143/1993 p. 65.
  3. ↑ Helmut Lahrkamp: On the biography of Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , 143/1993 p. 65
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Buchholz , A letter from Pappenheim of December 21, 1630 - a new source on the history of the siege of Magdeburg in 1630/31 in Magdeburger Blätter, 1991, page 65
  5. ↑ Carl du Jarrys of La Roche: The Thirty Years War: Illuminated from the military point of view. Volume 1, Hurter'sche Buchhandlung, Schaffhausen 1848, p. 141.
  6. ↑ Helmut Lahrkamp: On the biography of Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , 143/1993 p. 65f.
  7. ↑ Helmut Lahrkamp: On the biography of Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , 143/1993 pp. 66–70

literature

  • Helmut Lahrkamp: Lothar Dietrich Freiherr von Bönninghausen. A Westphalian mercenary leader of the Thirty Years' War. In: Westphalian magazine. Vol. 108/1958 pp. 239-366
  • Helmut Lahrkamp: On the biography of Lothar Dietrich von Bönninghausen. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , 143/1993, pp. 63–70.
  • Horst Conrad / Gunnar Teske (Ed.): Dying times. The Thirty Years War in the Duchy of Westphalia. Münster, 2000 p. 363.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bönninghausen, Lothar Dietrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bönninghausen, Lothar Dietrich Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION imperial field marshal lieutenant in the Thirty Years War
DATE OF BIRTH 1598
PLACE OF BIRTH Apricke
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1657