Nikolaus Krell

Nikolaus Krell, oil painting by an unknown artist.

Honor roll for Nikolaus Krell in the St. Augustin Grimma high school (in the passage of the main portal)

Engraving of his head after the execution

Krellstein at the Dresden Jüdenhof

Nikolaus Krell , also at the time Nicolaus Crell, (* around 1550 in Leipzig ; † October 9, 1601 in Dresden ) was the Calvinist Chancellor of Elector Christian I of Saxony from 1589 .

Life

After training at the Princely School in Grimma , where he was a student from July 27, 1568 to March 1, 1571, he studied in Leipzig.

While traveling to Switzerland , he began to turn to Calvinism . In 1580 he was appointed Hofrat by Elector August von Sachsen . After the electoral prince Christian I of Saxony, whom he had already advised, took over government, he was appointed Chancellor of the electorate in 1589 as David Peifer's successor . His reform efforts were aimed at pushing back Lutheran orthodoxy and turning away from Habsburg influence. He sought a rapprochement with Henry IV of France, Queen Elizabeth I of England and Protestant princes.

He was married to Margarethe Krell geb. Griebe (n), a Leipzig citizen's daughter.

After Christian I's death in 1591, at the instigation of Lutheran orthodoxy and the nobility through his widow Sophie von Sachsen , an Orthodox Lutheran, a wave of persecution against " cryptocalvinism " began. Krell was arrested and imprisoned at the Königstein Fortress in the Krellburg, which was later named after him. After a ten-year trial, he was brought to Dresden in 1601 and executed by the sword on October 9th. He was buried in the Dresden Frauenkirchhof in the crypt of the Oberfeldzeugmeister Caspar Voigt von Wierandt .

At the place where he found death, next to the fountain on the Dresden Jüdenhof , a paving stone with the inscription "Kr." Reminds of the great European politician.

literature

• anonymous: life, fate and end of Dr. Nicolaus Krell . Leipzig 1798.
• Hartmut Krell: The proceedings against Chancellor Dr. Nicolaus Krell. Frankfurt am Main 2006.
• August Victor Richard: The Electoral Saxon Chancellor Dr. Nicolaus Krell . Dresden 1859.
• Sebastian Kusche: Faces of the University: Nikolaus Krell (1550 / 53–1601). In: Journal Universität Leipzig (6) 2009, p. 15.
• Moriz Ritter , Ernst Arnold:  Crell, Nikolaus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, pp. 116-122.
• Christa Schille:  Crell, Nikolaus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 407 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Crell, Nikolaus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1156-1157.
• Roland Böhm:  Krell, Nikolaus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Sp. 641-642.
• Johann Samuelersch , Johann Gottfried Gruber : General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts Vol. 20 P. 122
• Volker Beyrich : “Cave Calviniane” - “Beware, Calvinist!” (About the life and work of Nikolaus Krell). In: Archivstäubchen No. 6, March 2014, pp. 4–10

Web links

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

• The effects of the Counter Reformation and the disputes within the Lutheran Church. (pdf; 113 kB) In: Alma mater Lipsiensis 1409–2009. University of Leipzig, August 12, 2006, archived from the original on September 26, 2007 .