Remigius Mans
Remigius Mans , called Romäus or Romeias (date of birth unknown; † June 6, 1513 in the battle of Novara ), was a mercenary and is a legendary local hero of the city of Villingen in the Black Forest .
Life
The sparse sources from before 1540 provide little information about the historical Romäus. In church and city documents as well as in the Villinger Bürgerbuch there are a total of nine mentions of Remigius Mans or other members of the family. However, the exact genealogical relationships are not clear. It is possible that a Romigius Mans who appears in the town books as a landlord in Villingen for 1486 is the historical Romäus. He was married and had a small child.
The Villingen councilor Heinrich Hug, who was a contemporary of Remigius Mans, reports in detail about the local hero, although truth and legend cannot be clearly distinguished from one another. According to Hug's story, Remigius was captured on December 8, 1497 and locked in the Michaelsturm (today Romäusturm) because he had insulted a mayor. From the population, who felt sorry for the prisoner, he was secretly slipped a knife, with which he laboriously scraped the mortar out of the butt joints of the wall, so that rungs were created as climbing aids. With their help he got to the upper floor, abseiled down from the tower and fled to the Johanniter commander. During a storm, Remigius escaped from the city over the wall and then demanded a retrial against him. The city eventually overturned its sentence and released Remigius Mans as a free man.
During the Swiss War in 1499 he served as a gunsmith on the Küssaburg near Waldshut . For his deeds during the war he received a benefice from the Roman-German king and later Emperor Maximilian I in the Villingen hospital.
According to Hug, a "young Romius Mans" died in the battle of Padua in 1509 . It could have been a son of the elder Remigius, perhaps the "little unbred child" mentioned in 1486.
At the Battle of Novara in 1513, Remigius Mans hired himself out as a mercenary on the French side and fell fighting the Swiss.
legend
Numerous legends grew up around Romäus early on. Just a few years after his death, a larger than life portrait of the local hero was painted on the outer city wall to demonstrate Villingen's ability to defend itself. Remigius' height, which was impressive for his time, and his courage to fight made him the "Giant Romäus". It is said to have been so big that from the street he could see into the windows on the second floor of the houses. When one day his two oxen could no longer pull their load, he is said to have carried the loaded team and the ox on their back home without further ado.
The sensational escape from the storm of thieves particularly stimulated the imagination of posterity. According to legend, Romaeus was only supposed to get into the dungeon with cunning. He was given the appearance of doing something in the tower. No sooner had he reached the cellar dungeon than the ladder was pulled up. A sheep or a calf was thrown down for food every day. When Romäus had gathered enough bones, he put them in the cracks in the wall and used them as climbing aids to escape.
During a feud with the city of Rottweil , Romäus is said to have sneaked into this city at night and - depending on the story - lifted one or both wings of the heavy city gate. He initially carried the goal up a mountain, the so-called Guggenbühl, where he kept an eye out for pursuers before he brought it to Villingen as a trophy. After this act he was also called the "Villinger Simson ".
A painting attached to the Michaelsturm in the 19th century, which is popularly known as the "Romäusturm", showed the city hero in Landsknecht uniform with the Rottweiler city gate. After the wall painting had peeled off in the 20th century, the tower was decorated again in 1981 by a Romanesque painting by the painter Manfred Hettich, again in the historicist style.
literature
- Werner Huger: The giant Romäus. Reality, Legend and Interpretation. In: Geschichts- und Heimatverein Villingen, Annual Booklet XXII, Villingen 1997 ( online version )
- Gunther Schwarz: Remigius Mans, called Romäus, or the invention of the subjunctive - supple and gruesomely beautiful on the 500th anniversary of his death. In: Geschichts- und Heimatverein Villingen, annual booklet XXXVII, Villingen 2014 ( online version; only text excerpt )
- Christian Roder: The historical Romeias von Villingen , in: Yearbook of the Scheffelbund for 1893, Stuttgart 1893.
- Historical Narro Guild , City of Villingen-Schwenningen (Ed.): Romäus - Romeias Mans . Edited on the occasion of the renovation of the Roman tower picture on October 19, 1981. Villingen-Schwenningen 1981 (18 pages)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Werner Huger: The "Riese" Romäus - Reality, Legend and Interpretation , in: Annual Issue Geschichts- und Heimatverein Villingen , 22nd year 1997–1998
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mans, Remigius |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mans, Romeius; Giant Romaus; Romaeus; Romeias |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Local hero of the city of Villingen-Schwenningen |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 6, 1513 |
| Place of death | at Novara |