Radefeldt

The title of this article is ambiguous. For people with this name, see Schmidt-Radefeldt .

Radefeldt is the name of a family of civil servants, lawyers and merchants who originally came from the Saxony-Anhalt region and lived in Thuringia and Pomerania in the 18th and 19th centuries. The family coat of arms shows scythe and field (Radefeldt, = "cleared field"). The name spelling with dt or d was handled arbitrarily in church registers and documents.

Name and origin

The syllable "rade" can be found in medieval place names such as Radegast near Köthen, Radefeld near Leipzig or Radeberg , Radebeul and Radeburg near Meissen / Dresden. Compared to older place names that can be traced back to Roman or Slavic settlements, places with the prefix "Rade" are typical "new foundations" associated with clearing during the course of German settlement in the east (early 13th century). The localities founded by Franconian and Saxon family and settler associations are located in northern central Germany along the rivers Saale, Mulde and Elbe - in the border areas of the old (= district or border area: for example Ostmark, Mark Meißen) called "Mark" Carolingian) empire to the then still Slavic East. To consolidate the Christian-German rule, mighty cathedrals were built in the dioceses along the Elbe and Saale (for example in Magdeburg , Merseburg , Naumburg , Zeitz or Meißen ), which were settled from the late 12th century as the starting point for Christianization and colonization of the Slavs Eastern areas served. The Slavs also use the name Radegast as a name for one of their gods on the Baltic coast of Pomerania. Nevertheless, in this case the syllable "rade" is to be applied to our current term "clearing", i.e. to make arable. Radefeldt is a so-called speaking family name, as the coat of arms makes clear, which shows a medieval hoe in the shield on the ground to be worked. The name and family history of the Radefeldts began in the Saxon-Anhalt region between the Elbe and Saale.

Ancestors of the family

Ulrich II. Von Radefeld (around 1355–1409) - Bishop of Naumburg

The origin of the name bearers Radefeld from the area between Halle, Leipzig and Naumburg is documented as early as the Middle Ages. In the list of bishops of the Diocese of Naumburg / Saale, Bishop Ulrich II of Radefeld appears as the 29th bishop (calculated since Hugo I around 970).

Ulrich von Radefeld lived and worked in the second half of the 14th century - an interesting epoch in which the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation stabilized politically after the great plague (1347–1352): The King of Bohemia, elected emperor in 1346, Charles IV (1316-1378), with the Golden Bull of 1356 , created the most important constitutional document of the Holy Roman Empire, which was to regulate the election of the emperor for almost half a millennium. In Prague, Charles IV shows the world the order and splendor of his rule, including the newly founded university and the luxuriously restored royal palace on the Hradschin. In northern Europe, the Hanseatic League under the leadership of the city of Lübeck and the order state in East Prussia strove towards their "heyday", while in 1378 with the election of Pope Urban VI. (in Rome) and the antipope Clement VII , who resides in Avignon, the time of the Great Western Schism begins.

Ulrich, born in (or near) Radefeld after 1355, is on his mother's side a (close) relative of the (21st) Naumburg Bishop Withego I von Ostrau (term of office from 1335 to 1348), a margravial ministerial family (ministerials were in administration in the Middle Ages academically trained civil servants employed by goods, i.e. the dependent service nobility) from Schkeuditz near Leipzig. Like most clerical dignitaries in the Middle Ages, Ulrich is of aristocratic origin. Today the village of Radefeld belongs to the municipality of Schkeuditz. The Ostraus (Slav. "De Ostrowe") lived from 1156 to 1285 at their ancestral home at Ostrau / Ostrau (Petersberg) Castle , which was apparently owned by the Radefeldt family at the beginning of the 15th century. Ulrich had four brothers: Heinrich, Caspar, Tile and Erich - mentioned in a document each with the suffix “von” or “zu Radefeld” (cf. Domstiftsarchiv Naumburg No. 558). Last names were not yet common in the 14th century; At that time, the place of origin of a person (or his occupation) was simply added to his first name as a component or distinguishing feature - such name “additions” have then solidified over time as “after” names. Ulrich and his brothers, the Wettin Margrave of Meißen Wilhelm I, sold all pensions and services in the village of Radefeld in 1389. The family was one of the wealthy (and free) landowners in the area.

Ulrich studied theology from 1372 at the University of Prague, founded in 1348 by Charles IV . (In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon to start studying at the age of 13 or 14). Prague is not only the oldest university in Central Europe, but was also the most important (German-speaking) educational institution and the intellectual center of the empire until the beginning of the 15th century; the "Alma Mater Carolina" at that time attracted students not only from Bohemia, but also from Saxony, Bavaria and the rest of the eastern part of the empire. In 1375 Ulrich became a baccalaureate at the University of Prague and then turned to (higher) studies in theology.

From 1384 to 1387 Ulrich was archbishop official and vicar general in Magdeburg and since 1387 cathedral dean in Magdeburg. Ulrich erects the festival of St. Hedwig. In 1395 Ulrich was elected bishop and crowned on March 21st in Zeitz after receiving papal confirmation. In 1395 he conjured up the statutes of the Naumburg Church in the same wording as his predecessor Withego. According to a papal deed dated May 21, 1397, Ulrich II retained the Magdeburg cathedral dean. Bishop Ulrich II officiated from 1394 until his death on March 16, 1409 (in Zeitz). His grave was in Naumburg Cathedral until the 18th century (cf. Heinz Wiessner, Das Bistum Naumburg, p. 873 ff.)

In the Middle Ages, Naumburg was an important trading center on the Via Regia , especially due to the Naumburg trade fairs first mentioned in 1278. When the bishopric was moved from Zeitz to Naumburg, the Naumburg Cathedral was built in 1028 . In 1398, Bishop Ulrich leaves the important salt duty to the city. Its importance for the bishopric of Naumburg lies above all in its clever and determined financial policy, through which it succeeds in largely discharging the bishopric, which has long been in debt. He occasionally describes his methods himself, which ranged from the sale of unprofitable income to the swap of possessions, the redemption of pledged property (e.g. Saaleck Castle) to the acquisition of new income (Domstiftsarchiv Naumburg No. 559)

The name of Bishop Ulrich von Radefeld is also linked to Saaleck Castle in Saxony-Anhalt. The castle had the task of protecting the old trade route. The builders were the Counts of Meissen. The castle was first mentioned in 1140. At that time, it was owned by the noble free von Saaleck. In 1344 they sold the castle to the bishops of Naumburg, but Saaleck temporarily pledged the castle to them again. In 1396, Bishop Ulrich II von Radefeld redeemed the castle and had it administered by Naumburg officials.

It is possible that Ulrich II von Radefeldt was a direct ancestor of the later Radefeldts. However, from 1139 onwards, Catholic priests were no longer allowed to marry (so-called absolute enforcement of celibacy). On the other hand, the formal requirement of marriage was only enforced after the Council of Trent (which ended in 1563). Ranke-Heinemann convincingly demonstrates that married couples could and did become Catholic priests until 1563. On the other hand, an ordained priest was not allowed to marry since 1139. How it behaves with the descendants of Ulrich II von Radefeldt is reserved for further research. A descent of the later Radefeldts from him appears to be a realistic option due to his previously known vita. (See Uta Ranke-Heinemann: Eunuchs für das Himmelreich - Hamburg 1989 / Complete paperback edition 1990 p. 11 and p. 106)

Johann Radefeldt (around 1611–1689) - war secretary of Gustav Adolf of Sweden ; later general auditor

The family history of the Radefelds in the 15th and 16th centuries is largely in the dark. This is not surprising, because only a relatively small part of bourgeois family history (s) can be traced back beyond the middle of the 17th century on the basis of reliable evidence - unless there were points of contact with the (written) world of the church or the nobility. Only at the end of the Thirty Years' War did a tolerably stable political and ecclesiastical order re-establish itself with new (family) settlements - this was an indispensable prerequisite for the ascertainability of genealogical continuity in the church registers, which are now regularly kept and safely stored. With regard to the discontinued title "from", it is worth knowing that with the main inheritance these titles were temporarily only passed on to the eldest son. The later sons carried the family name without the title.

The next Radefeldt who emerges clearly as an individual from the darkness of the Thirty Years' War is Johann Radefeld (born around 1611). In the chronicles titled as “Highly respectable decreed secret (war) secretary at your Kgl. Majesty in Sweden ", Johann Radefeld entered the service of Gustav Adolf as a young man, who landed in Western Pomerania (island of Usedom) in 1630 and as the" savior of Protestantism "the course of the Thirty Years' War until his death (in the battle of Lützen in 1632 ) should have a significant impact.

1631 Gustavus Adolphus held due to the war on the home of Radefelds Elbe and Saale, when he formed an alliance with Brandenburg and Saxony at Burg Düben closed and in the Battle of Breitenfeld near Leipzig won over the invading Halle / Schkeuditz imperial army of Tilly pushed . The then 20-year-old Johann Radefeld then apparently moved on as Gustav Adolf's secretary with the Swedish army from his homeland - first towards Franconia (Würzburg) and then further west, where the Swedes a. a. were victorious in Frankfurt, Hanau and in the Wetterau.

Here Johann Radefeldt was registered in Gronau / Wetterau, where he held the position of general auditor (= legally qualified assessor at courts-martial) in the last phase of the Thirty Years' War. Gronau - by the way, the "cradle" of the Southwest German politician and entrepreneur family Bassermann - belonged to the County of Hanau at the time . Reformed and in alliance with the Electoral Palatinate (Heidelberg), the county had suffered severely in the Thirty Years' War - "the wretched, devastated and desolate country over which all the weather and cloudy clouds went at that time," said Merian's Theatrum Europaeum about the " poor Wetterau ”.

Joh. Radefeldt died in Gronau in 1689, "at the age of 78 1/2 years". He was married to Maria Elisabeth Herrmann. He left eight children who - because of the poor living conditions in the Wetterau - scattered to the winds. Two of them reappear at the beginning of the 18th century as bearers of the name and "ancestors" of a Thuringian and Pomeranian family line of the Radefeld (t) s that can be genealogically proven over several centuries. As civil servants, merchants and lawyers, the descendants achieved regional renown in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Thuringian Line since 1700

• Christian Casimir Radefeldt (1664–1731)

born on December 11, 1664 in Gronau / Wetterau; Law degree in Jena; Doctorate in 1696 with a thesis on the protection of good faith in civil and canon law ( De Bona Fide in Praescriptionibus tam Jure Civili quam Canonico necessaria Jenae : Werther, 1696). Move to Meiningen; there Hofrat (court advocate) in the service of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , 1711 mayor of Meiningen; 1702 marriage to Susanna Radefeldt, b. Zinck, daughter of the then mayor of Meiningen Dr. Georg Zinck, and great-great-granddaughter of Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. (1472-1553).

• Johann Christoph Radefeld (1704–1778) - initially privy councilor in Meiningen; since 1749 real court and consistorial councilor (council of ecclesiastical authorities).

At the instigation of Duke Ernst Friedrich III. von Hildburghausen, Johann Christoph Radefeldt was arrested in his capacity as chairman of a debit commission set up by the emperor in 1771 years and taken to the Veste Coburg . The charge was never brought; the Duke probably wanted to cover up his lavish and ruinous administration. By order of the emperor in Vienna, to whom a complaint could be served in 1775, Radefeldt was released from prison in 1776 and expelled from the country.

• Georg Christian Radefeld (1744–1798) - ducal councilor and personal physician in Meiningen

• Carl Christian Radefeld (1788–1874) - studied theology and law in Jena; State examination 1811, lawyer, 1814 adjutant of the Duke of Coburg, 1819 captain, 1829 major, according to cartographer at the Bibliographical Institute founded by Joseph Meyer in Hildburghausen / Thür. The multi-talented cartographer designed many, mostly colored, geopolitical maps of Europe, whose territorial changes due to acts of war had a painful impact on his time.

• Armin Radefeld (1817–1885)

In the chronicle of the city of Hildburghausen by Dr. A. Human from 1886, the following entry can be found on p. 84:

... so let us think of a man who knew little about the world, often misunderstood himself and only appreciated more justly after his death, undoubtedly one of the first in scientific education. Dr. Phil Armin Radefeld, a simple man without pomp and ostentation, easily aroused by ignoble nature, still grasped in a Christian way even in severe suffering, a man who, in spirit and character, would have deserved a better lot to many others. Educated at the local and Meiningen grammar schools, as well as at the universities of Göttingen and Berlin, 40 years in the local seminary in the school service and 24 years in the spiritual office; like Hermann, not a preacher for the masses, but also without phrases, ef-fect gimmickry and glossy talk and rather of a rich, tight-knit train of thought and calmly dialectically sharp thought development, which often reminded of Schleiermacher. And all because, gifted as he was, he continued to work scientifically without interruption. As he carried out in-depth theological, philosophical and historical studies, made valuable contributions to the history of the seminar, wrote many articles for the Meyersche Konversationslexikon and a widespread travel guide for Thuringia, he also left carefully collected documentary material on the history of our city in his estate

• Ernst Wilhelm Carl Radefeld notary and lawyer presumably also in the Hildburghausen area.

The Thuringian name line died out at the beginning of the 20th century.

Pomeranian Line since 1685

• Friedrich Radefeldt (1650) Ackersmann in Groß-Ziethen, progenitor of the Greifenhagener (Gryfino) family
• Otto Siegmund Radefedlt (1685) Ackersmann in Groß-Ziethen, since 1712 Raschmacher in Stargard
• Gottfried Radefeldt (1715–1781) cloth maker in Stargard; since 1732 based in Greifenhagen / Oder, Polish Gryfino . His children (Johann Daniel 1742–1824), grandchildren and great-grandchildren become merchants and mill owners. (An undated landscape etching by Otto Sager shows the "Bockswindmühle").
• Carl (also Karl) Radefeldt, mill owner in Greifenhagen, b. on May 23, 1831, m. with Auguste, b. Mewes, on May 18, 1863 (registry office G. 18/1863); Children: Else, married. Shepherd, Hedwig, married. Prütz in Greifenhagen, Bertha, married. Jacobsohn in Greifenhagen, Marie, married. Brandt.
• Fritz Radefeldt (1872–1942) merchant in Greifenhagen / Oder maintained a number of other department stores, for example in Bahn / Pom. (Polish Banie), Templin / Mark, Neustrelitz / Mecklenburg.
• One of the daughters of Carl Radefeldt, [Auguste] Marie, b. 1877, married the teacher Ernst Brandt in Greifenhagen on October 5, 1897 (registry office G. 34/1897). The Brandt family lived in Zirkwitz / Pom., Where Ernst Brandt initiated the construction of the Otto Fountain. After retiring, the couple lived in Greifenhagen, before 1945 they moved to Neustrelitz. Ernst Brandt (April 30, 1872 - January 7, 1946) died there (registry office NZ. 78/1946). According to the law on graves, he enjoys perpetual right of rest there. Marie, born Radefeldt, died on November 26, 1969 in Schramberg / Black Forest (registry office SS. 234/1969), where she was followed by one of her daughters, Charlotte von Dunten . Her youngest daughter Johanna, married. Lemke, divorced and married again. Holick, died in 1964 in a Rostock clinic and was buried in Neustrelitz. (The only son of Marie Brandt, née Radefeldt, Fritz Brandt, was / has been missing on the Western Front for a week before the armistice in 1918, before the Iron Cross could be handed over to him there.)

The other Greifenhagener Radefeldts were moved from Pomerania to West German occupation zones in 1945. B. expelled to Schleswig-Holstein.

literature

• Armin Human: Chronicle of the city of Hildburghausen , Hildburghausen, Kesselring'sche Hofbuchhandlung 1866.
• Chronicle of the city of Meiningen from 1676–1834 , Meiningen 1834.
• Friedrich Hayn: Chronicle of the Radefeldt family , printed for the 200th return of naturalization in Greifenhagen / Oder, Greifenhagen 1932.
• The Buck-Radefeld family, documents on family history , Oberländer / Aign, 2001.
• Heinz Wiessner (edit.): The Diocese of Naumburg - The Diocese , in: Germania Sacra, historical-statistical description of the Church of the Old Kingdom, ed. from the Max Planck Institute for History, Berlin: de Gruyter 1998 ( ISBN 3-11-015570-2 ).
• Official civil status documents of the Radefeldt u. Brandt; Numbers and office: see text.
• Uta Ranke-Heinemann: Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven , Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe 1989, complete paperback edition Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf. Munich 1990 ( ISBN 3-426-04079-4 ).
• Ohm-Hieronymussen, Peter (ribbon merchant, royal Danish purveyor, member of the regional working group on family and personal history in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania regional home association): Oral communication on the passing on of titles and nobility predicates, 2016.