Nikolaus Gülich

Figure of Nikolas Gülich (center) on the Cologne town hall tower

The Nikolaus Gülich column of shame

Head of Nikolaus Gülich from the demolished column of shame; Armory Cologne

Nikolaus Gülich (born October 30, 1644 , † February 23, 1686 ) was the leader of a protest movement against the Cologne city leadership ( Gülich uprising or Gülich rebellion ) in the 1680s .

Life

Nikolaus Gülich was the son of the Cologne hat maker Andreas Gülich and his wife Maria de Reuss, who came from an important Cologne merchant family. In the middle of the 17th century he had settled down as a manufacturing clerk on the Obenmarspforten street in Cologne, where he founded his own shop for ribbon and manufactured goods in 1668 and, three years later, a wine trade with his brother Theodor. Gülich was a member of the “Himmelreich” merchant gaff .

In 1680, Nikolaus Gülich took the lead in a movement of dissatisfied people among Cologne's citizens. Dubious practices of the city government were denounced. a. Nepotism and misappropriation of public funds. Gülich organized the protest movement within Cologne and was installed as a “syndicus specialis” next to a new city council in 1683. An immediately appointed imperial commission of inquiry threatened the new rulers and the whole city with an imperial ban , so that in August 1685 Gülich was deposed and imprisoned. On February 23, 1686, the death sentences were carried out on the Mülheimer Heide.

Afterlife

After Gülich's beheading, a court ordered the demolition of his house and a ban on rebuilding the area that had become free. This created a square that was later named after him. A column of shame was erected on the square in 1686 , with a head with Gülich's facial features, cast from bronze and pierced by a sword. The city's leadership planned to leave this monument there forever as a deterrent. It was only canceled more than 100 years later, at the time of the occupation by troops of the French Revolution.

In the 18th century the square of the former house was called Jülichs-Platz. The Farina company therefore included this address in its company name as Johann Maria Farina opposite Jülichs-Platz . When Cologne became Prussian in 1815, the authorities renamed this place Gülichplatz .

The Gülichplatz is located west of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum on the corner Obenmarspforten, opposite the Farina house with a Fastnachtsbrunnen. The so-called "Fastnachtsbrunnen" was created in 1913 by Georg Grasegger and is one of Cologne's original street fountains. A high-spirited putto is enthroned on the pillar . A verse that Goethe dedicated to the Cologne Carnival in 1825 adorns the edge of the fountain :

“A great endeavor is praiseworthy if it is short and meaningful. Merriment to earthly life is gain from fleeting intoxication. "

literature

• Bellingradt, Daniel: "Organizing public opinion in a resonating box: The Gülich rebellion in early modern Cologne, 1680–1686", in: Urban History 39.4 (2012), 553-570.
• Justa Divae Themidis Ultio, Or Righteous Vengeance-Retribution of H. Justice and well-deserved reward of bourgeois unfaithfulness and rebellion again the superior high authorities: To a hideous Bey-game and billy punitive example of highly avoidable disobedience ... presented to the The Cologne execution process of three bossy winder and Ertz rebels Nicolaui Gulichs, Abraham Saxens and Anthonii Mesthovii as such as declared Aechter and faithless Main-Eydige citizens recently in Mühlheim on February 23rd of this 1686th year bearing God in an exemplary manner (1686 and executirt was Digitized )
• Stelzmann, Arnold / Frohn, Robert, with captions by Paul Dahm: Illustrierte Geschichte der Stadt Köln, Verlag: JPBachem in Köln; 11th improved edition: 1990, 406 pages, ISBN 3-7616-0973-6 , here: Chapter “The decline of the imperial city”, pages 211-213
• Dietmar, Carl / Jung, Werner, founded by Franz Bender and Theodor Bützler: Small illustrated history of the city of Cologne, publisher: JPBachem in Cologne; 8. completely rework. u. exp. Edition: 1996, 311 pages, ISBN 3-7616-1135-8 Kart./ ISBN 3-7616-1188-9 Geb., here: Chapter "The decline of the free imperial city, 1. The uprising of Nikolaus Gülich", page 104 -106
• Cologne Information, Text Slomka, Petra: Around the Town Hall, publisher: City of Cologne, Press and Information Office, publisher: Drei Kronen Druck, Hürth, here: Chapter "Gülichplatz"

Web links

Commons : Nikolaus Gülich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information and pictures about Gülichplatz