Sieberlehn scholarship to Zerbst

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The Sieberlehn Family Scholarship to Zerbst is a non-church foundation with legal capacity under private law with its seat in Zerbst / Anhalt in Saxony-Anhalt and is one of the oldest foundations in Germany. As an altar foundation originally founded in 1378 , the Sieberlehn was converted into a charitable family foundation during the Reformation on the recommendation of Martin Luther , which promoted the student sons of the founder families. Other Zerbster foundations such as B. the Küchmeister and Lietzo family scholarships in Zerbst . have completed this development.

Foundation and development

and display information about the image
Zerbst around 1650 (engraving by Matthäus Merian )

In the Middle Ages it was a widespread custom among noblemen , but also in cities like Zerbst / Anhalt among urban bourgeois families , to establish altar loans through the foundation of lands and to have clergymen pray for the soul of the founder and his descendants with these funds on certain days of remembrance .

The Zerbst Sieberlehn Family Scholarship is based on dedications from Zerbst bourgeois families from the years 1378 and 1663. It goes back to a people's altar consecrated to St. John and St. Elisabeth in St. Nicholas' Church . This altar was donated by members of the Zerbst bourgeois family Stein, the brothers Hans and Thilo Stein and their married sisters Margarethe Meinstorp, Gese Diderick and Katharina Rode. These donor families are referred to as altar donors in the statutes . They dedicated a Heidehufe in front of the Zerbster Heidetor, two Hufen near the Galgenberg and a courtyard in the city itself, next to the Franciscan monastery on the city wall.

Ruin of the ev. Nikolaikirche

Prince Johann II zu Anhalt confirmed this foundation for himself and his heirs in 1378. The original of the confirmation letter has been lost. The content is known from a copy dated October 8, 1591 in the Codex diplomaticus Anhaltinus.

Due to the Reformation, the altar foundations lost their meaning due to the changed beliefs and the altar loan established by the Stein siblings was converted into a family grant by the descendants of the donors.

In the 16th century, those entitled to receive the scholarship got into a dispute between the mayor and the councilors of the city of Zerbst / Anhalt with the involvement of the pastor of the city's patronage church St. Nicolai Mag. Wolfgang Amling (Princely Anhalt., General Superintendent , a major champion of the Reformed Confession), was finally settled. This comparison from 1591 is called the renovated Fundatio des Scholarship.

The document confirming this comparison of October 8, 1591 was issued by the mayors and the council of the city of Zerbst / Anhalt. In it, the scholarship is referred to for the first time as the Sieberlehn (from "Siebener Lehn"), as the loan of the seven so-called "Patroni" present at the negotiations. At that time these were:

  • 1. Hans Scheurer;
  • 2. Jacob Bringezue, teacher at the Zerbster Trivial School;
  • 3. Jacobus Georgius, city judge in Zerbst; these three "instead of their wives";
  • 4. Margaretha born Gisicke for himself;
  • 5. the daughter children of Hans Niemann's wife, produced by Hans Stolzing and Melchior Albrecht;
  • 6. Andreas Müller;
  • 7. the daughters of the cow trainer's wife.

These families are referred to in the statutes as donors of renewal .

On January 8, 1663, the scholarship was increased by a Hufe Acker on the Meinsdorfer Feldmark near Zerbst / Anhalt, the Heidemannsche Hufe, which the Sieberlehn friendship was donated by the Collatrix Regina Bahn (or Bohn), wife of the Zerbst city judge Bartholomäus Wenzlow.

Due to the effects of World War II in the city of Zerbst / Anhalt, many important documents about the foundation were lost. There are excerpts from correspondence between the administrators and the ducal administration from the 17th and 18th centuries. Century ago, and in a few words the Court and State Handbook for the Duchy of Anhalt (since 1806/07) from 1883 confirms the existence of the foundation. Memories of the descendant Oscar Jacobi, who died in April 1945, give evidence of various difficulties that the Sieberlehn had to deal with due to external influences, but also due to the behavior of some administrators.

Purpose of the foundation and affiliation

The Sieberlehn family scholarship is now a scholarship foundation.

Family within the meaning of the statutes are above all the descendants of the renewal founders entered and subsequently entered in the family book of 1791 (section I) with date of birth, first name and surname as well as the first and last names of the parents . Family in this sense, according to the more recent stipulation in the statutes, also include the descendants of the founders of the renewal who are not entered in the family book of 1791, provided that they can prove their descent to this completely documented and thus have the right to an entry in the family book (section II) . The same applies to their ancestors up to the families of the altar donors from 1378.

Any descendant of one of the founding families can apply for a scholarship if he or she

  • enrolled as a student at a university

and

  • is baptized Evangelical.

In order to receive study grants, the student must submit an application to the administrator himself. He or she has to send proof of enrollment and, from the second year of study, proof of the successful course of studies up to St. Martin's Day . Based on the applications received and the funds available, the board of directors decides on the distribution plan for the scholarships. The funds for the scholarships come from leases of the existing land owned by the foundation.

Organization of the foundation

For reasons of equality, the current statutes take into account the wishes of family members to also enable female members of Protestant faith to have access to scholarships in the future.

The city of Zerbst / Anhalt was initially responsible for the Sieberlehn family scholarship, and from 1603 responsibility lay with the ducal consistory of the Principality of Anhalt-Dessau after the state was divided again . Zerbst / Anhalt was now the capital of an independent small principality.

With the end of the First World War and the relinquishment of the House of Anhalt-Dessau to the "throne", the foundation supervision lay with the newly created Free State of Anhalt in July 1919 . In 1930 the responsible State Ministry transferred responsibility for the foundation to the Evangelical Regional Church Council in Dessau . This persisted even when the newly formed council of the Halle district took over the tasks of the foundation authority in the GDR years .

In 1985 the state church council in Dessau put foundation rules into force, which resulted in the

  • Jungmann's family grant to Zerbst / Anhalt, and that
  • Küchmeister and Lietzo family scholarships to Zerbst / Anhalt, and that
  • Sieberlehn's family scholarship to Zerbst / Anhalt

under the direction of the St. Bartholomäi Foundation in Zerbst / Anhalt for joint management. Until 1996, the foundation's income went to the parishes in Zerbst / Anhalt in the form of grants; no scholarships were paid. With reunification, the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt was reconstituted from 1990, mainly from areas of the former Free State of Anhalt and the Prussian province of Saxony.

The 1st Dessau Foundation Book describes very clearly the difficulties that the new administration had with the topic of foundations in the early years. The state government considered the above-described amalgamation of the foundations by the regional church council in 1985 to be ineffective, as this had taken place without the required approval of the foundation authority, in this case the council of the Halle district.

In a process lasting several years, using the example of the Küchmeister and Lietzo family scholarships, the question of the extent to which foundations based on altar loans are church foundations and are therefore subject to church supervision was clarified.

In 1999 the Federal Administrative Court confirmed the judgments of the lower courts that the Küchmeister and Lietzo family scholarships did not meet the criteria of a church foundation. This also applies to the Sieberlehn family grant to Zerbst.

This cleared the way for the state's foundation authorities, from 2005 onwards in the foundations section of the state administrative office in Halle, to help revitalize the old foundations under private law in the state. In 2003, following a tip from Professor Wilhelm Schneemelcher, a former scholarship holder from the 1930s, the state administration was able to appoint an emergency director for the foundation through contacting descendants of the donor families .

For six years it consisted of the following gentlemen:

  • Dietrich Franke, Zerbst / Anhalt
  • Sven Handrich (lawyer and regional historian in Zerbst / Anhalt)
  • Prof. Dr. Rudolf Pörtner, Dresden (son-in-law of the above Wilhelm Schneemelcher).

The emergency board had the task of drafting new statutes for the foundation, finding further descendants of the family founders and taking the management of the foundation's assets into their own hands.

In February 2007 the foundation authority approved the new statutes of the foundation, whose name according to § 1 is now: Sieberlehnsches Stipendium zu Zerbst . The office of administrator took over in 2007 Dipl.Kaufm. Hans-Peter Mahn, managing director of a Regio-Ges. the DB a. D., he was succeeded by Prof. Dr Rudolf Pörtner in 2015.

Organs of the foundation

Organs of the foundation are the family assembly , the board of directors and the administrator .

  • The family meeting consists of all adult descendants of the donor families. It meets at least every five years. The meeting always takes place in Zerbst / Anhalt. The chair is chaired by the Collator / Collatrix, a family member who must be at least 60 years old. The incumbent collator, who was elected by the 1st family meeting in 2008, is Egmont Elschner. Confirmed at each of the following family meetings, he is called by the 4th family meeting until 2023. The tasks of the family assembly are in particular: the election of the board of directors, the election of the collator, the receipt of the report of the board of directors on the financial situation of the foundation, the receipt of reports on the fulfillment of the foundation's purpose, the discharge of the board of directors, the resolution on guidelines for the award of grants and passing resolutions on changes to the statutes and purpose.
  • The board consists of a minimum of three, but a maximum of seven members elected by the family assembly for a term of office of five years. The board elects the administrator from among its members . The board of directors manages the foundation independently in accordance with these statutes and represents the foundation in and out of court. The board of directors is to identify further descendants of the family in order to enable them to be entered in the family register and thus to ensure the continued existence of the foundation. The board of directors decides on the lease agreements and the statutory use of the income. In particular, it has to deal with applications for study grants in accordance with these statutes and to decide on the distribution of the scholarships. The board meets at least once a year in Zerbst / Anhalt.
  • The administrator acts in an executive role and represents the foundation legally. The administrator has to lease the fields, monitor compliance with the contracts and is responsible for administration, income and expenses. The administrator has to keep the family book and make the entry in the family book on the basis of the corresponding board resolutions. The administrator has to report to the board of the foundation about his activities and submit an annual statement. The administrator has to examine the applications for scholarship grants and to deal with them according to the statutes.

The members of the bodies work on a voluntary basis.

Foundation owned in the Zerbst / Anhalt area

The foundation has owned arable land in the Zerbst / Anhalt area since the 14th century. The foundation has real estate in the Zerbst / Anhalt area:

  • Corridor 6, parcel 13
  • Hallway 15, parcel 1
  • Corridor 6, parcel 17
  • Hall 17, parcel 8

Personalities

Several personalities who were active in the administration of the foundation or were former scholarship holders of the foundation are named as examples.

literature

  • Wolbert Smidt : Legal documents of the Küchmeister and Lietzo family scholarship since 1359, A document and source book , Marburg an der Lahn: Stiftung Stoye 2017 (series of the Stiftung Stoye 67), ISBN 978-3937230-31-3 (contains many cross-references to Sieberlehn Family Foundation .)
  • Regional Council Dessau (Ed.): 1. Dessau Foundation Book. Guide for donors and chronicle of a foundation landscape between 1945 and 2001 . Dessau 2001.
  • Ingo Kleinwächter, Joachim Krause: Rediscovery of the foundation system in the Dessau administrative region , in: German foundation system. Science and Practice, Vol. 4.
  • Volksstimme Anhalt-Zerbster-Nachrichten of October 1, 2008, p. 7: After decades, the Sieberlehn Family Foundation's first family meeting in Zerbst. on-line
  • Volksstimme Anhalt-Zerbster-Nachrichten of May 18, 2009, Part III: 'The breath of the centuries blows directly towards you' online
  • Volksstimme Anhalt-Zerbster-Nachrichten of June 10, 2013: A family with 600 years of tradition. on-line
  • Joachim Castan: Higher Education and Reformed Confessionalization. The Illustre Grammar School of the Principality of Anhalt in Zerbst, 1582–1652 (= studies on regional history . Volume 2). Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle an der Saale 1999, ISBN 978-3-89812-016-6 (on the Reformation and confessionalization of the city of Zerbst in the 16th and 17th centuries).
  • Bartmuß / Kathe: A Brief History of Saxony-Anhalt , 1993.
  • Reinhold Specht : History of the City of Zerbst , Volume 1, 1955.
  • Matthias Tullner: History of the State of Saxony-Anhalt , 1996.
  • Griesbach / Friedrich 800 years of the city (and) law , information sheet City Museum Zerbst.
  • Franz Münnich: The Zerbster councilors from 1467 to 1768 and their families. In: Korb'sches Sippenarchiv (Hrsg.): The Fundgrube a collection of genealogical material ( Issue 38 ). Regensburg 1978.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k The foundation's statutes in the version of May 25 / September 15, 2014 were approved by the foundation authority of the state of Saxony-Anhalt with effect from October 29, 2014. It consists of a preamble and the regulations of §§ 1 - 17 as well as a copy of the records of Pastor Ehrig as administrator from 1945, which were the basis for the current version of the statutes. (on-line)
  2. ↑ Presentation of the history of the Sieberlehn: "We about us".
  3. ^ Reformation - Reorganization of the Zerbster Foundations 1600
  4. ↑ a b c d `` On the history of the Sieberlehn family scholarship. '' I copied the above remarks on the history and administration of our Sieberlehn family scholarship from a typewriter copy that my cousin, Hanna Feller, a teacher in Rathenow, gave me. Unfortunately, it is not clear from the copy when and by whom the original was written; On the first sheet there is a pencil note “written around 1900”, on page 44 it says: January 17, 1879 and in the table of contents it is said: “State of August 1887”. In any case, after having enjoyed the scholarship for four years as a student, it was a great pleasure for me to finally find out more about how the scholarship came about. Jüterbog, November 18, 1932, on the 100th birthday of our grandmother Caroline Feller, b. Sachse, through whom we benefited from the scholarship. Heinrich Berner, pastor at St. Nicolai. (on-line)
  5. ↑ Codex diplomaticus Anhaltinus / Volume 4. Dessau: Emil Barth, 1879, page 395. (online) .
  6. ↑ Codex diplomaticus Anhaltinus / Volume 4. Dessau: Emil Barth, 1879, p. 396. (online)
  7. ↑ Foundation Regulations 1985
  8. ↑ The Küchmeister- and Lietzo`schen family scholarship does not meet the criteria of a church foundation. This also applies to the Sieberlehn family grant to Zerbst
  9. ↑ Dietrich Franke (pastor and senior church councilor in Zerbst / Anhalt)
  10. ↑ Sven Handrich (lawyer and regional historian in Zerbst / Anhalt)
  11. ↑ In 2020 the administrator of the foundation is Prof. Dr. Rudolf Pörtner, Dresden. The seat of the foundation is: Alte Brücke 45, 39261 Zerbst / Anhalt.
  12. ↑ On Egmont Elschner, his activities and commitment.