Paul Beneke

This article is about the captain and politician of the 15th century. For the ship from 1936 see Paul Beneke (Schiff, 1936) .

Paul Beneke (* beginning of the 15th century; † around 1480) was a German privateer captain of the Hanseatic League and councilor from Danzig .

Life

Beneke already distinguished himself in the wars of the Hanseatic League against Denmark in the sea battle near Bornholm on 26/27. September 1455 and the attack on Anholt in 1466.

In the war of the Hanseatic League against England , Beneke captured the John of Newcastle , his first large English ship, with his Mary Dragon on New Year 1470 . In 1471 he imprisoned the Mayor of Dover after he had deceived him by hoisting the French flag and lured him on board. Then he set fire to 18 English merchant ships lying off the coast.

Later he ambushed French ships with the London Lord Mayor, who was returning from a visit to France, captured the English dignitaries and confiscated all British property before releasing the ships. He then captured other English ships off the Dutch coast, including the Saint John .

Beneke became particularly famous as the captain of the mighty Kraweel Peter von Danzig (1462) , which he led since June 1472. One of the most famous raids with her is the attack on April 27, 1473 on the merchant ship Thomas Portinari (also called St. Thomas in some sources ) of a Florentine company, sailing under the Burgundian flag for England . On board was a triptych on the Last Judgment , which the Flemish artist Hans Memling had painted for an Italian merchant for a Medici church in Florence . Beneke took the picture to Danzig. Mayor - later was it - Florentine protests despite Reinhold Niederhoff the Marienkirche bequeathed. A copy hangs there today, the original is in the Gdańsk National Museum .

England asked for peace in 1474, and the Treaty of Utrecht concluded on February 28, 1474, gave the Hanseatic League all trading privileges back.

literature

• Ernst Bahr:  Beneke, Paul. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 45 ( digitized version ).
• Karl Koppmann:  Beneke, Paul . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 329 f.
• Günther Meinhardt: The Admiral of the Hanseatic League . Fischer-Verlag, Göttingen 1977, ISBN 3-439-77805-3 (book for young people about the life and work of Paul Beneke)
• Wilhelm Wolfslast : Paul Beneke , Chapter 3 in: Heroes of the Sea. Volume 1. Entdecker und Admirale , Berlin 1944, pp. 40–54.

Web links

Wikisource: By Paul Beneke, the German hero (Lübische Sage)  - sources and full texts

• Retelling of the attack on the "St. Thomas "in Gustav Freytag's" Pictures from the German Past "
• Detailed curriculum vitae and academic career of Paul Beneke
• Benekes on a club website
• Speech by Paul Beneke to the ship's crew of "Peter von Danzig" ( Low German and translation into Polish - Akademia Rzygaczy)