Nikolaus von Dornspach

Nikolaus von Dornspach (born June 29, 1516 in Mährisch Trübau , † September 7, 1580 in Zittau ) was the mayor of Zittau.

Tomb of Nikolaus von Dornspach on the north side of the former Johanniskirchhof at the old grammar school in Zittau

Life

Born as the son of the town clerk Johann Dornspach, he first matriculated at the University of Krakow , then moved to the University of Wittenberg , where he also attended lectures by Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon . In 1536 he went to the city school of Zittau as a teacher and, through his marriage to Christine Just in 1539, got into the Zittau council in 1542. After he was elected city clerk in 1546, he gained importance when he saved the economic situation of the city after the Upper Lusatian Pönfall . He was one of the twelve tremors who had to answer for high treason in Prague .

After the royal commissioners Ferdinand I set up a new council in Zittau, he was first appointed second mayor and in 1549 first mayor. Thanks to his diplomatic skills, he was able to regain property, privileges and guild freedoms for the city of Zittau. In addition, he acquired extensive property for the city and Zittau became the center of the Lusatian and Bohemian linen trade.

He himself also came into considerable possession. Through numerous secondary positions such as senior church father, senior hospital master, salt, fish and cellar lord, district judge, rent taker in Upper Lusatia, lord of the Oybin monastery, etc., he gained respect at the court and, after he was raised to the nobility in 1556, became imperial councilor in 1559. His steadily growing wealth enabled him to have a splendid life, which was also reflected in a very complacent regiment. As an expression of this, a throne chair has been preserved in his house, the Bierhof .

The founding of the first high school in Zittau can be traced back to his active work, which became the humanistic center of southern Lusatia, although he did not live to see it consecrated in 1586.

On June 25, 1584, his stone statue, which depicts him in knightly costume, was brought to St. John's Church and placed on his grave there. In the town fire in 1757 it was buried under the rubble of the church; it was found again on September 7, 1812 during clearing up work. In 1838 this grave monument was walled into the south wall of the old grammar school (today a place behind the Johanniskirche).

literature

• Helmut Deckert:  Dornspach, Nikolaus von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 81 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ernst Friedrich Haupt: Wilhelm and Konrad, the Nesen brothers, Nikolaus von Dornspach and M. Prokopius Naso. Schöps, Zittau 1843.