Samuel von Winterfeld

Samuel von Winterfeld (born November 11, 1581 ; † July 25, 1643 ), heir to Kehrberg in the Prignitz, was canon , statesman and governor of the Kurmark . He was a scion of the aristocratic family Winterfeld and the son of Reimar von Winterfeld (1520–1596), heir to the rule of Dallmin, Kehrberg and Neustadt / Dosse; Colonel of War, Mecklenburg Obermarschall and Kurbrandenburg Council and Anna von Hacke from the Berge family .

Life

After his studies in Frankfurt (Oder) , Marburg and Tübingen as well as after his cavalier journeys through France and Italy, always accompanied by his very educated court master, a doctor of law, Winterfeld was appointed to the civil service by Elector Joachim Friedrich von Brandenburg . In 1613 he was appointed court and chamber judge and often worked for the elector in the field of foreign policy. In 1614 - in the run-up to the Thirty Years' War - Winterfeld was sent to King James I of England with an urgent request for support , but without receiving it. Winterfeld represented the elector in Prague in 1615 in order to receive his enfeoffment with the imperial fiefs from Emperor Matthias . In the winter of 1619, Winterfeld took part in the election of Ferdinand II as Roman emperor as representative of Brandenburg .

In 1620 Winterfeld was admitted to the "Secret Council" (= Minister) as a Reformed fellow believer . From then on, Winterfeld was one of those Brandenburg reformed Privy Councilors who had the difficult task of leading the state through the terrible times of the Thirty Years' War against the Catholic imperial party. Winterfeld was at the forefront. The elector was weak and often wavered in his decisions. The reformed councilors tried to keep the elector on the side of the Protestant party after the Evangelical Palatinate electoral dignity was granted to Catholic Bavaria. In this sense, the Winterfeld Secret Council, sent to the Reichstag in Regensburg in 1623, protested against the ostracism of the Count Palatine and the transfer of the electoral dignity to Bavaria with the words: "If that happened, a German imperial prince would be worse off than any Polish nobleman" .

As a result, Winterfeld stood up with full energy for the establishment of the coalition of Protestant states under the exclusive leadership of Gustav Adolf , which was supposed to restitute the Count Palatine and protect the threatened Protestant faith. However, the rivalry between Christian IV of Denmark and the Swedish king prevented the formation of this coalition. The Brandenburg Elector, who was weak in decision-making, sought his salvation in a deceptive neutrality riddled with pernicious intrigues between the Catholic and Protestant forces. In order to break this neutrality, Winterfeld, according to his own statement, went to King Gustav Adolf of Sweden “without higher power and authority, only as a private person”, asked him for support and asked him to land on the German coast. It could not be definitively clarified to what extent Winterfeld actually acted without instructions from the Elector.

The King of Denmark didn't want the Swedes to act alone. Gustav Adolf landed soon after in Prussia (= East Prussia), where he bitterly offended his electoral brother-in-law by taking Pillau , while the King of Denmark suffered a severe defeat in the Battle of Lutter am Barenberge on November 25, 1626.

The long-planned transfer of Elector Georg Wilhelms to the side of the Catholic Emperor became an imperative after these events. On this basis, the great state process against Winterfeld becomes understandable, which the Catholic party in particular - led by Winterfeld's opponent, the Brandenburg Chancellor, Count Adam von Schwarzenberg - initiated. The indictment extended to 332 articles that the accused had to answer without legal counsel. Winterfeld was mainly accused of having participated in the 1626 invasion of the Danish troops into the Mark and promoted the occupation of Pillau by the Swedes with advice and action. In the end, however, the process was dropped after a draft report convinced the world that the Danish invasion of the Mark and the Swedes of Prussia had taken place without the consent of the Elector and could consequently be put down.

Winterfeld was ordered not to take revenge for this process and not to enter the service of others. He was released for the time being. Under the protection of King Christian of Denmark, he spent the next few years mainly in Hamburg, but also as dean of the cathedral monastery in Havelberg. Winterfeld turned down the German Chancellery offered to him by the King of Denmark.

Under Georg Wilhelm's successor, the young Elector Friedrich Wilhelm (later the “Great Elector”), Winterfeld was reappointed as Privy Councilor and finally Director (= Prime Minister) of the College of Privy Councilors in 1641, in protest of the Imperial Court in Vienna. The changed political direction that Friedrich Wilhelm took when he took office, both internally and externally, was essentially brought about by Winterfeld's influence.

The Catholic party with Count Adam von Schwarzenberg was then overthrown and the recalled Winterfeld finally negotiated a peace treaty with the Swedes. At the same time, Winterfeld took over the function of governor of the Kurmark until his death on July 25, 1643. At that time an extremely difficult, responsible task, where several enemy armies were still pillaging the country and the Swedes relentlessly insisted on fulfilling their tough armistice conditions. Samuel von Winterfeld was buried in the Havelberg Cathedral.

literature

• Otto Meinardus :  Winterfeldt, Samuel von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 43, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 492-496. (Source of this article)
• Josef Kramer: The diplomatic activity of the Electoral Brandenburg Privy Council Samuel v. Winterfeldt in the years 1624–1627 and the state lawsuit against them . Georgi, Bonn 1915 (also dissertation, University of Bonn 1915)
• Johannes Bergius: The end of Danielis. At the funeral of ... Mr. Samueln von Winterfelden (funeral sermon). Runge, Berlin 1643 (digital copies : Stabi Berlin , SUB Göttingen )
• Ludwig Gustav von Winterfeld-Damerow, History of the Family von Winterfeld, Volume 2, Issue 1, p. 288ff, digitized

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the von Winterfeld family, Volume 2, Issue 1, p. 281, digitized siblings