Philipp Ludwig II. (Hanau-Munzenberg)

Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Munzenberg (born November 18, 1576 in Hanau ; † August 9, 1612 ibid) was one of the most important, in modern times and with regard to the aftermath of his politics certainly the most important Count of Hanau .

Philip Ludwig II.

origin

Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg was born on November 18, 1576 in Hanau Castle and baptized on December 3. His parents were Count Philipp Ludwig I of Hanau-Münzenberg , who died in 1580, and Countess Magdalena von Waldeck (* 1558; † 1599).

Pedigree of Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Munzenberg
Great grandparents	Philip II of Hanau-Münzenberg (* 1501; † 1529) ∞ Juliana zu Stolberg (* 1506; † 1580)	Johann II of Palatinate-Simmern (* 1509; † 1557) ∞ Beatrix of Baden (* 1492; † 1535)	Henry VI. von Waldeck - Wildungen (* 1465; † 1513) ∞ Anastasia von Runkel (* 1477; † 1503)	Salentin VII. Von Nieder- Isenburg (* 1492; † 1534) ∞ Elisabeth von Hunolstein († 1538)
Grandparents	Philip III von Hanau-Münzenberg (* 1526; † 1561) ∞ Helena von Pfalz-Simmern (* 1533; † 1579)		Philip IV von Waldeck (* 1493; † 1574) ∞ Jutta von Isenburg († 1564)
parents	Philipp Ludwig I von Hanau-Münzenberg (* 1553; † 1580) ∞ Magdalene von Waldeck (* 1558; † 1599)
Philip Ludwig II.

For the family cf. Main article: Hanau (noble family)

guardianship

Nominally, he succeeded his deceased father on February 4, 1580, albeit under a guardianship initially from Count Johann VI., The Elder, of Nassau-Dillenburg (1536-1606), Count Ludwig I of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1568–1607) and Count Philipp IV. Von Hanau-Lichtenberg (1514–1590) and could not be finally ended until 1608. Philipp IV von Hanau-Lichtenberg, who was very old for the time, had himself replaced as guardian in 1585 by his son Philipp V. von Hanau-Lichtenberg .

As early as 1581 his mother, the widow of the countess Magdalena, married Count Johann VII, the middle one, of Nassau-Siegen (1561–1623), the son of one of the guardians. This brought Count Philipp Ludwig II and his younger brother, Count Albrecht , to the Nassau- Dillenburger Hof. This was a center of the Reformed faith in Germany and closely connected with the also Reformed Electoral Palatinate court. This should have a formative effect on the young count.

The ( Lutheran ) co-guardian Philip IV, later his son Philip V, vehemently opposed this reformed influence , albeit ultimately in vain. Philip V tried to also Lutheran Duke Reichard von Pfalz-Simmern to launch in the guardianship, which, despite a mandate of his Imperial Supreme Court but did not succeed: The Reformed majority of guardianship prevented the tribute of subjects . In addition, she succeeded in installing the Count Palatine and spa administrator Johann Kasimir von Pfalz-Lautern (1543–1592) in the honorary position of "Obervormund" and thus further strengthening the Reformed position within the guardianship.

The end of guardian government is more difficult to determine. Count Philipp Ludwig II. 1596, on the occasion of his marriage to Katharina Belgica (1578–1648), a daughter of William I of Orange-Nassau (1533–1584), the silent man, was declared of age prematurely. However, the dispute over the termination of guardianship dragged on for a long time. In 1600 the guardians were divorced from the guardianship in a dispute with their ward. One reason for this was that they had sided with Albrecht in the dispute between Philip Ludwig II and his brother Albrecht, another was that they left the county in a desperate financial situation. The account of the guardianship was not made until 1608 at the urging of Elector Friedrich IV (1574–1610) of the Palatinate.

education

Like his brother Albrecht, Philipp Ludwig II attended the high school in Herborn from 1585 , first as a student, then in 1588 as a pedagogical student, in 1589 he was rector of the high school and again a student in 1590. From 1591 he attended the University of Heidelberg . Both the Herborn High School and the University were centers of Reformation education. At the University of Heidelberg he held the honorary post of rector magnificus .

From 1593 to 1595 he went on three cavalier tours through Europe. The first took him to Northern Germany and the Netherlands . Here he studied at the University of Leiden , met his Orange relatives and visited fortifications. In Leiden he met Joseph Justus Scaliger . He also got to know Bernhard Paludanus in Enkhuizen and studied his extensive natural history cabinet . On the second trip he went to the Reichstag in Regensburg with an order from the Wetterau Imperial Counts College and from there to Austria , Hungary and there to the Turkish border, to Bohemia and Poland . His personal notes on these first two trips have been preserved and are now kept in the Marburg State Archives. The final trip was to Rome , Naples , Venice , Bologna and Padua . In the last two places he enrolled at the universities as a student and stayed in Padua for six months.

family

Catherine Belgica

On October 24th, ^Jul. / November 3,  1596 ^greg. He married Katharina Belgica in Dillenburg . From this marriage emerged:

1. Charlotte Louise (1597–1649 in Kassel ), not married
2. Daughter (born July 29, 1598 - † August 9, 1598), may have died unbaptized
3. Philipp Ulrich (born January 2, 1601; † April 7, 1604, Steinau )
4. Amalia Elisabeth (also: Amalie and Amélie) (1602–1651), Kassel, married to Landgrave Wilhelm V of Hessen-Kassel
5. Katharina Juliane (1604–1668, Hanau), buried in the count's crypt in Laubach , married on
   1. September 11, 1631 with Count Albert Otto II of Solms-Laubach, Rödelheim and Assenheim ,
   2. March 31, 1642 with Moritz Christian von Wied-Runkel .
6. Philipp Moritz (1605–1638), buried in the Marienkirche in Hanau, successor
7. Wilhelm Reinhard (1607–1630, Aachen), buried in the Marienkirche in Hanau
8. Heinrich Ludwig (1609–1632 during the siege of Maastricht )
9. Friedrich Ludwig (* July 27, 1610 - † October 4, 1628, Paris), buried in the hereditary funeral of the dukes of Bouillon in Sedan
10. Jakob Johann (1612–1636, died near Zabern ), buried in St. Nikolai in Strasbourg

government

After returning from his educational trips in 1595, Philip Ludwig II increasingly determined politics in his county , with hesitant resistance from his former guardians, with whom he was in a dispute over the rights of his younger brother, who was still under guardianship until 1605.

Second Reformation

The first measure was a “second reformation”. The until then Lutheran-oriented county of Hanau-Munzenberg was reformed against the resistance of the subjects. The count made use of his right to determine religion (“ cuius regio, eius religio ”). On December 25, 1593, the Lord's Supper was celebrated for the first time in Hanau according to the Reformed rite. The medieval furnishings of the churches have been removed. This took place only partially as a " storm of images ", for example in Steinau an der Straße . Other works of art were sold in Roman Catholic states. From the furnishings of the Marienkirche in Hanau the Wörther Altar , today in the St. Nikolauskirche in Wörth am Main and a Radiant Madonna in the Roman Catholic parish church St. Johann Baptist in Hanau- Steinheim have been preserved.

This radical religious stance of the count was noticeably relativized in the course of his reign. Both the settlement of a Jewish community in Hanau and his good relationship with the Catholic Emperor Rudolf II and the conclusion of the inheritance contract with the Lutheran house of Hanau-Lichtenberg in 1610 show this.

Establishment of the Neustadt Hanau

Draft for the planned new town

On June 1, 1597, Philip Ludwig II signed a treaty with Calvinist religious refugees from France and the Spanish Netherlands , the surrender of the Neustadt Hanau , which allowed them to settle in Hanau. It is the founding act for Hanauer Neustadt. The surrender was supplemented in 1604 by a transfix of the Neustadt Hanau . The new town existed legally as a separate town, independent of the existing medieval settlement. In addition to the spatial separation through the fortifications between the old and new towns, both towns had separate administrations and city councils, each with their own mayors. This was only eliminated in the administrative reform of the Electorate of Hesse in 1821.

The leading men of the emigrants were wealthy merchants and specialized craftsmen, such as draperies , trimmers (manufacturers of braids, ribbons, sashes and tassels), linen and fabric weavers, trouser and stocking knitters, hat makers , goldsmiths and silversmiths . With the refugees, a lot of capital and know-how in the manufacture of luxury goods came to the city. This was one of the foundations for Hanau's later boom as an industrial location in the 19th century.

Hanau in the 17th century: on the left the medieval old town, on the right the geometrically laid out new town

The emigrants had not previously received a particularly friendly reception in the imperial city of Frankfurt . In order to be able to practice their faith, they had already moved from the Lutheran-dominated Frankfurt to the Hanau village of Bockenheim for the services . They therefore had an interest in leaving the sovereign territory of Frankfurt and moving into a Calvinist area without straying too far from the Frankfurt exhibition center . The Hanauer Graf was also nowhere near as powerful as the wealthy city of Frankfurt, and was therefore ready to make economic and political concessions. He put the building site for the Hanauer Town (against the resistance of the Archbishop of Mainz having the area as owed in Wildbann considered), the infrastructure paid (especially the fortification ), and tax benefits granted and political self-determination for the new township. The Neustadt Hanau had since 1605 z. B. its own citizens' militia .

The new town was built from the start with its own fortifications, which in the north leaned against those of the old town. It stood the test of time during the Thirty Years' War . The planned layout of the city established a chessboard-like road network that still characterizes Hanauer Neustadt today and is a cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act . The first houses were built in the year the capitulation was concluded. The inscription on the first house, "Zum Paradies", in Paradiesgasse, has been preserved to this day. The new town reached a certain structural completion in 1608 when the Walloon Church was inaugurated.

Economic boom

Contrary to the rumor widespread in the local literature, the founding of the city was not an act of authoritarian tolerance. Unruly Lutherans had just had to leave the county in the course of his “second Reformation”, such as the Lutheran Superintendent Sauter. Rather, it was a targeted act of economic development and the settlement of potent taxpayers. This was also badly needed as the county found itself in a significant structural financial deficit.

The emerging economic power of the Neustadt Hanau ensured a regular ship connection to Frankfurt from 1600, at the latest from 1602, the so-called market ship, which operated until the opening of the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway .

In 1603, Philipp Ludwig II established the first mint in Hanau and the Hanau-Münzenberg county. This happened because of a privilege of Emperor Rudolf II. This coinage is both an indication of the economic success of the Count's policy, as well as of the recognition of early mercantilism that mints could be attractive sources of income.

Administrative and judicial reform

Philip Ludwig II initiated a comprehensive reform of the judiciary in his county. More stringent, Roman-legal forms and ideas replaced historical, often very different local traditions. This also aimed to further exclude foreign jurisdictions and was a step on the way to modern statehood. One of these measures was that Philip Ludwig II received a Privilegium de non appellando for his county in 1606 , which was valid for all legal disputes with an amount in dispute of less than 500  florins .

The administration was divided into three branches according to technical aspects: a council for general politics, a chamber for finance and taxation, and a consistory for religious and school matters. This administrative reform had become urgently needed as the existing administration was obviously no longer able to administer the county effectively and to secure the necessary income. This had resulted in a substantial structural financial deficit.

Jewish community

Former location of the synagogue in Nordstrasse, formerly: Judengasse, destroyed in the November pogroms in 1938

In December 1603, Philipp Ludwig II issued a privilege to settle a Jewish community in Hanau , after the guardianship had only tried to expel all Jews from the country in 1592. The Judengasse (today: Nordstraße) was built between the old and new towns of Hanau in the area of ​​the Zwinger of the old town fortifications . This community was directly subordinate to the count's administration, not one of the two city administrations of the old or new town of Hanau. The count's administration issued a municipal ordinance, the "Jewish seat". In 1608 Emperor Rudolf II allowed the construction of a synagogue . During the " Fettmilch uprising " in Frankfurt in the summer of 1614, around 250 Jews from Frankfurt found temporary refuge in Hanau.

Also in Gelnhausen , which was a pledge of the Reich held by the Counts of Hanau-Munzenberg, a Jewish community settled again - probably in 1599.

→ Main article : Synagogue (Gelnhausen)

Cultural policy

Letterpress

Immediately after his return to the county in 1593, Philipp Ludwig II granted the book printer Wilhelm Antonius from Frankfurt a privilege for the first book printing company in Hanau. From this a significant printing location developed, which also included a printing house that published Hebrew scripts.

High School Hanau

New construction of the High State School with the relocated gate of the first school building

As a result of a plague in the years 1605–1607, the German school in Hanau temporarily stopped teaching. Following the example of the High School in Herborn and with the teaching staff available, Philipp Ludwig II founded the High School in Hanau in 1607 as a grammar school illustrious . Here, too, it was not possible, as in Herborn, to develop the institution into a university. The school still exists today as a grammar school.

buildings

In the interests of modern representation, Philipp Ludwig II added a representative entrance building in the Renaissance style to the city ​​palace in Hanau . This is where the sovereign's claim to modernity found its structural expression. He built a summer palace for his wife near the fishing village of Kesselstadt ; this was the functional predecessor of Schloss Philippsruhe .

Foreign policy activities

Philipp Ludwig II was also valued as a consultant and diplomat. In 1608 Emperor Rudolf II appointed him to his council. He stayed at the court in Prague on various occasions .

At the beginning of 1612, Philipp Ludwig II was sent to London on behalf of Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate , who later became the "Winter King" of Bohemia, to officially seek the hand of Princess Elisabeth , daughter of King Jacob I, for the Elector . of England to stop. On the way back via Paris he was met by Maria de Medici , who at that time was the guardianship of her son, King Louis XIII. , commissioned to convey congratulations to Emperor Matthias on his election that has just taken place.

House policy

Debate on inheritance with Count Albrecht

The reign of Philip Ludwig II was characterized by a long-lasting inheritance dispute, judicial and sometimes violent, with his brother Albrecht . The latter wanted at least a secondary school diploma , if not a division of the country . Philipp Ludwig II insisted on the rights of the House of Hanau, which declared him the sole heir with its Primogeniture statute from 1375. Finally, a settlement was negotiated, which provided Albrecht with the Hanau offices of Schwarzenfels , Naumburg , Ortenberg and the Hanau part of the Assenheim office . However, this comparison did not calm the situation, as Albrecht now insisted that he had his own sovereignty, while Philip Ludwig II assumed that the sovereignty remained with him and that Albrecht had only been granted economic use.

Inheritance contract with Hanau-Lichtenberg

In 1610, Philipp Ludwig II and his distant relative, Count Johann Reinhard I von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1569, † 1625), signed a mutual inheritance contract. After the Hanau-Münzenberg line died out in 1642, this inheritance contract was intended to substantially support the position of the Hanau-Lichtenberg pretender Friedrich Casimir von Hanau-Lichtenberg in taking over the county of Hanau-Münzenberg . This inheritance contract also contained a point against Philipp Ludwig's brother Albrecht, because the two parties also agreed that they would take over any necessary guardianship in the other line; this made it easier for Albrecht to be excluded.

death

Monument to Philipp Ludwig II.

Philipp Ludwig II died on August 9, 1612, similar to his predecessors and his successors in their mid-thirties. It can be assumed that there is a hereditary disease that affected the men of the family. What it could have been is unclear.

He was the first to be buried in the crypt he built in the Marienkirche in Hanau on September 23, 1612.

In 1897 he was honored in Hanau with a memorial designed by Max Wiese , which is today in front of the south side of the Walloon-Dutch Church, in the center of the new town of Hanau, which he founded.

literature

Monographs

• Friedrich W. Cuno: Philipp Ludwig II., Count of Hanau and Rieneck, Lord of Munzenberg. An image of the regent drawn from archival and other sources for our time. Prague 1896.
• Reinhard Dietrich: The state constitution in Hanau. The position of the lords and counts in Hanau-Münzenberg based on the archival sources (= Hanauer Geschichtsblätter. Volume 34). Hanau History Association 1844 , Hanau 1996, ISBN 3-9801933-6-5 .
• Ute Müller-Ludolph: Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Munzenberg (1576-1612). A political biography (= sources and research on Hessian history. Volume 83). Darmstadt 1991, ISBN 3-88443-172-3 (plus dissertation, University of Marburg 1990).
• Günter Rauch: Two educational trips in Old Europe. From the travel diary of Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Munzenberg 1593/94 . Hanau 1997, ISBN 3-9805307-3-6 .
• Lars-Oliver Renftel (ed.): Effects of a city foundation. CoCon-Verlag, Hanau 1997, ISBN 3-928100-51-3 .
• Reinhard Suchier : Genealogy of the Hanauer count house. In the S. (Ed.): Festschrift of the Hanau History Association for its 50th anniversary celebration on August 27, 1894 . Hanau History Association, Hanau 1894.
• Gustav Toepke : The register of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg from 1386 to 1662. Volume 2. Winter, Heidelberg 1976 (reprint of the edition Heidelberg 1884).
• Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country. Peters Verlag, Hanau 1978, ISBN 3-87627-243-2 (reprint of the Hanau edition 1919).

Essays

• Otto Ankel: Count Philipp Ludwig II. In: 1597–1897. Festival newspaper for the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Neustadt Hanau. König-Verlag, Hanau 1897.
• Heinrich Bott : A portrait of the youthful Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Munzenberg. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter / NF:, Volume 24 (1973), pp. 291-300.
• Wilhelm H. Eisenach: Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau. In: Hessenland. Journal for Hessian history and literature. Vol. 11 (1897), pp. 123-128, 138-140, 153-155.
• C. Fliedner: Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau. In: Hessenland. Journal for Hessian history and literature. Vol. 8 (1894), pp. 76-79, 91-94.
• Peter Gbiorczyk: "For the glory of God and for the common good" - The rural school system under Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Munzenberg (1576–1612) . In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2013, pp. 3–31.
• Friedrich W. Junghans: Philipp Ludwig II. In: Hessenland. Journal for Hessian history and literature. Vol. 1 (1887), pp. 50-52, 62-65.
• Eckhard Meise : On the reform of the Hanau administration by Count Philipp Ludwig II. In: New magazine for Hanau history (messages from the Hanau History Association 1844 eV) 2012, pp. 3–35.
• Antonia Kolb: Finds on the youth and education of Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg (1576–1612) and the background in a historical context . In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2019, pp. 16–48.
• Eckhard Meise : Tolerance. Philipp Ludwig II. Count of Hanau-Munzenberg and the Jews. In: New Magazine for Hanau History / NF 2007, pp. 3–57.
• Günther Rauch: Philipp Ludwig II., Count of Hanau-Münzenberg 1576–1612. Commemoration of his 400 birthday. In: New Magazine for Hanau History / NF Volume 8 (1973/78), pp. 128-138.
• Reinhard Suchier: The grave monuments and coffins of the people buried in Hanau from the houses of Hanau and Hesse. In: Program of the Royal High School in Hanau . Hanau 1879, pp. 1-56.
• K. Wolf: Count Philipp Ludwig II's judgment on his first years of reign. In: Hanauisches Magazin. Monthly sheets for local history. Vol. 12 (1933), pp. 65-73.
• K. Wolf: The guardian government of Count Johann the Elder of Nassau-Dillenburg in the county of Hanau-Munzenberg. In: Hanauisches Magazin. Monthly sheets for local history. Vol. 15 (1936), pp. 81-94 and Vol. 16 (1937), pp. 1-14.
• Gottfried Zedler: For the education of Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Munzenberg at the Dillenburger Hofe. In: Messages of the Association for Nassau Antiquity and Historical Research. Vol. 5 (1901/02).

Web links

Commons : Philipp Ludwig II.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Hanau-Munzenberg, Philipp Ludwig II. Count of. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Meise: On the reform .
2. ↑ Gottfried Zedler, Hans Sommer: The matriculation of the high school and the pedagogical center in Herborn (= publications of the historical commission for Nassau 5). Wiesbaden 1908, p. 7 (No. 73), 10, 11 (No. 179), 185 (No. 29).
3. ^ Rauch: Two educational trips .
4. ↑ Cuno, p. 126.
5. ^ In the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg , inventory 81. Government Hanau, A 33.17, there is a wooden folder with the design of an epitaph for Philipp Ulrich in the church in Steinau . Further archival documents on his person: ibid. 86. Disordered inventory, no. 31608; ibid., funeral sermon: 81st Hanau government, A 32.7, evidence: catalog of funeral sermons and other memorial documents in the Marburg State Archives. Sigmaringen 1992 = Marburg personal font research 14
6. ^ Fried Lübbecke : Hanau. City and county. Cologne, 1951, p. 279ff. (282).
7. ↑ This was demolished together with almost the entire medieval inventory of the castle in 1829/30.
8. ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Graf Philipp Ludwig II monument In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse

predecessor	Office	successor
Philip Ludwig I.	Count of Hanau-Münzenberg 1580–1612	Philipp Moritz