Ludwig Hillesheim

Ludwig Hillesheim (born August 26, 1514 in Andernach , † October 17, 1575 in Cologne ) was a humanist and mayor of the city of Andernach.

Life

Ludwig Hillesheim was born on August 26, 1514 as the son of the patrician, linen weaver and winemaker Anton Hillesheim and his wife Sibylla Zieglein. Master builder accounts show a "birth in the house of Peter Hillesheim's son (Thönis = Anton)" for the Saturday after St. Bartholomew's Day ( August 24th ) in 1514. The same source indicates that Hillesheim had four siblings. The old patrician family (also: Hillessem, Hillisheim, Hildesheim, Hillesheimer) goes back to a knight Tilkin von Hillesheim (* around 1285) and placed many people in public offices in the city of Andernach during the 15th and 16th centuries. Because of the works he has written, Hillesheim has had a solid education in Catholic theology and law. Dr. Jakob Omphal , a family friend, mentions his thorough and scientific training in a letter that has been handed down to him from 1537. He married in the early 1540s, his wife Gertraud - her family name has not been passed down - bore him three sons, Anton, Ludwig and Peter, and three daughters, Katharina, Margaretha and Anna. Hillesheim had been in public offices since 1543, on January 8, 1549, according to preserved sources, he was introduced to the office of lay judge of the city of Andernach. Hillesheim served in public activity in his hometown for 33 years, as city architect, aldermen, councilor, mayor (1550–1573) as well as key custodian, rifle master and in 1572 also as crane master at the city's house crane , which had been in operation since 1561 under him as mayor. The minutes of the council that have been received show that Ludwig Hillesheim was always present at the council meetings, with the exception of business trips. He was considered a hard-working, competent and conscientious man in the service of the city. Ludwig Hillesheim remained a staunch Catholic despite the Reformation forces of his time, which he expressed in some of his writings ( De vita sancte instituenda ).

In addition to his offices, Ludwig Hillesheim ran agriculture, which his father had already dedicated himself to after 1530; he received emoluments from his activities as aldermen, councilor and mayor . According to traditional sources, he died unexpectedly after a short illness in Cologne, where he stayed as a councilor for the city of Andernach, and was buried there.

Publications

• De vita sancte instituenda - About the holy life to be nurtured
• Sacrarum antiquitatium monumenta - monuments of the sacred ancient times
• Meditationes rerum divinarum in psalmos quindecim - Deepening on divine things in 15 psalms
• Oratio gratulatoria cum enarratione psalmi LXIIII - Congratulatory speech with interpretation of the 64th Psalm
• Meditationes in duos psalmos Davidis LXV et CXXXVIII - deepening in two psalms of David, 65 and 138
• De consolatione iustorum libri tres - On the consolation of the just three books
• Elegia de morte hominis iusti consolatoria - a comforting lament over the death of a just person
• Sententiae Sixti - Senses sayings of Sixtus (new edition of the Gnomes (Γνῶμαι - realizations)) of a new Pythagorean named Sixtus (Ξύστος, Ξέστος); see: Quintus Sextius .

The works mentioned have all gone to press, e.g. Some of them not until after his death (with Christoph Plantin ) in Antwerp and some of them are in good condition in the Munich State Library, Leiden u. a. The Frankfurt dean and historian Johannes Latomus (1523–1578) and the then Andernach Latin school principal Hieronymus Berchemius were so impressed by his works that they advised Hillesheim in a thank you to give up his political office in the interests of art.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johann August W. Neander: General history of the Christian religion and church , p. 1180

literature

• Johann August W. Neander : General history of the Christian religion and church . 6 vol., Hamburg 1826
• Johannes Schwab: Ludwig Hillesheim, humanist and mayor of Andernach in the 16th century . Peter Brandts, Andernach 1906 ( digitized version )

Web links

• Genealogy page of the von Hillesheim family
• colored picture by Ludwig Hillesheim (original around 1560)