Sebastian Aitinger

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Sebastian Aitinger (born September 1508 in Ulm ; † November 12, 1547 near Burlafingen ) was secretary of the Schmalkaldic League .

Life

His parents were the Ulm city clerk and notary Konrad Aitinger and his wife Anna Schöfferlin .

At the age of 17, Sebastian Aitinger already managed to become a notary, and only one year later he was city secretary of Ulm. Due to a falling out with the Ulm city council, Aitinger entered the service of Landgrave Philip of Hesse in 1540 . This appointed him in his capacity as captain of the Schmalkaldic League to the secretary of the league. As a secretary in the truest sense of the word, he not only had to take care of the federal treasury, but for seven years he was also "burdened day and night with federal matters at all Reich, Deputation and Bundestag days, with very important business" . That is, he took part in most of the Reich and Bundestag assemblies and conducted the political negotiations of the Confederation.

After the defeat of the Schmalkaldic Armed Forces in the battle on the Lochauer Heide near Mühlberg an der Elbe on April 24, 1547 and the capture of the Landgrave by Emperor Charles V , he resigned from his service to participate in the amnesty set out in the surrender can. As a citizen of Ulm, he also hoped to be safe from persecution, especially since the city had only just reconciled with Charles V. After a while, however, he learned that he was being persecuted because he was expected to provide evidence against his former master. In November 1547 he barely escaped an attack in Burlafingen, a small neighboring town of Ulm, where he and his children had saved themselves from a plague-like epidemic in Ulm by swimming across the Danube . Already weakened by illness, he died a few days later in a neighboring castle, where he had found refuge, from the cold he caught while swimming across the Danube.

He had been married to Anna Lebzelter since November 26, 1525 . Landgrave Philipp later compensated his son Johann Konrad Aitinger (1543–1600) for the sacrifices his father had made for him. Johann Konrad Aitinger and his descendants remained in the Hessian service until the family died out in 1729.

literature

Remarks

  1. Quoted from ADB, p. 167.