Statius of Munchausen

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Statius (Statz) von Münchhausen (born June 5, 1555 in Stolzenau , † March 27, 1633 in Bevern near Holzminden ) was a nobleman from the black line of those von Münchhausen who, as an entrepreneur, ran business with estates, iron mining and smelting, and loans and invested his profits in numerous castle and church buildings. He is considered one of the most important builders of the Weser Renaissance .

Life

Childhood and youth

Statius von Münchhausen was born as the third son of the mercenary leader Hilmar von Münchhausen (1512–1573) and Lucia von Reden (1512–1584), who had come to great fortune . He spent his childhood and youth first at the official castle in Stolzenau , where his father held the Drostenamt from 1547 to 1562, then at the domain castle Aerzen , where the father was again the lien owner from 1557. At the age of 10 he came to the prince-bishop's court in Osnabrück for training.

Arrival of the Duke of Alba in Rotterdam in 1567

At the age of 12, his father, who was in Spanish service as a colonel, took him to the Netherlands in 1567 for the solemn arrival of the Duke of Alba as the new governor of Philip II. There, Hilmar had to leave his son in Alba's care, officially for training, in fact but also as a hostage for further good behavior of the mercenary leader - because he sympathized with the Geusen and their rebel leader Wilhelm von Oranien , who had fled to Germany , to whom he secretly lent 40,000 thalers for an (initially unsuccessful) campaign against Alba. He was only able to pick up his son three years later. In the meantime, Statius witnessed the rage of Albas Blutrat and was likely to have witnessed Egmond's public execution on June 5, 1568 on the Grand Market in Brussels, especially since his father had defeated the French together with Egmond in the Battle of Gravelines in 1558 .

He came to the court in Celle for training until he was 21 , where his uncle von Reden was governor of Wilhelm the Younger . The usual Grand Tour to the Netherlands and France followed, including participation in smaller campaigns.

Trade in goods

After the father's death in 1573, the sons drew lots for the inheritance and Statius moved Wendlinghausen , but exchanged it with his brother Hans, who absolutely wanted it, and received a town courtyard in Hildesheim as well as two farms, a few lands outside Hameln , various tithes and pledges in Lüneburg as well as 6000 thalers cash; a lock was not included. In order to better invest his scattered inheritance, he began to sell and buy lands in the form of feudal or pawned properties and drosteen . At times he owned extensive pledges on the Elbe and Weser, which he gradually knew how to convert into inheritance. In addition, there were properties in the Harz foreland and in the eastern Harz around Elbingerode , where Statius acted as a mining company. In contrast to his father, who had become wealthy as a war entrepreneur, Statius shifted to the grain trade and credit business in addition to his official and industrial income.

In short succession from 1578 he bought the offices of Friedland and Grohnde as well as the entitlements to the feudal estates Bevern and Meinbrexen , whose reversal to the feudal lord was expected. (The latter outraged some of the knighthood, because the last Herr von Bevern was still alive and Münchhausen had specially traveled to Pavia to get the signature of the old Duke Erich , a former comrade of his father, on his deathbed.) However, his father already initiated and Statius acted here for the collective hand of all heirs. He also administered for the brothers the common property of the Leitzkau rule , an abandoned Premonstratensian canon monastery near Magdeburg, which the father had acquired in 1564. The estates of Dornburg and Groß-Lübs , whose heiress Anna von Lattorff he had married in 1578, were located adjacent to the Elbe ; He paid off his childless brother-in-law in 1591. With Anna he had 12 children, three of whom soon died. The family took up residence at Grohnde Castle , where Statius held the post of Drosten , and temporarily in Leitzkau.

Elbingerode (Harz)

Mining entrepreneur

The Elbingerode office , which the heavily indebted Count zu Stolberg from Wernigerode had pledged to Colonel Asche von Holle , proved to be particularly lucrative . Although he expanded the castle, he couldn't cope with the iron stone mining and smelting operations that were carried out there. Münchhausen provided him with a security of 91,000 thalers in 1584 and took over the management; soon he was able to settle profits with Holle and the Stolbergs; temporarily he had to leave the "gold mine" to Duke Heinrich Julius of Braunschweig, who was more interested in the hunting grounds in the Harz Mountains and returned the office to Münchhausen after six years. He built the first blast furnace , built a complicated water art , founded ironworks and bought existing ones, recruited foreign miners who knew how to build deeper tunnels and took care of the sale of iron via factories in Celle and Hamburg. He took over the Kienberg near Wernigerode from the counts to cover the huts' wood needs, and he acquired the Ilsenburg office because of the sheet metal and wire factories there. In addition, he had to constantly negotiate politically and tactically for Duke Heinrich-Julius, whose close confidante he was, as he was always anxious to incorporate the Harz counties of Blankenburg , Regenstein and Wernigerode into his duchy, which only succeeded with the first two. In addition, there were enfeoffments with Stapelburg , Veckenstedt and Schauen for Münchhausen .

Neuhaus Leitzkau Castle
Bevern Castle

Client

Statius von Münchhausen rounded off this property in 1593 by taking over the rule of Leitzkau from joint hands with his brothers. He largely rebuilt the former monastery; His father had already added a so-called old house to the Romanesque eastern enclosure wing around 1566 and Statius himself added a stair tower and a four-storey loggia to it around 1581–1585. From 1593 he built a new building, the so-called Neuhaus , on the foundation walls of the western cloister wing, while the north wing was demolished, a large granary was built in its place and the late Gothic provost house behind it was increased as the Hobeck castle. Inside the Neuhaus, there are several magnificent chimneys with the Münchhausen and Lattorff coats of arms , as well as a stucco ceiling with portrait medallions of Statius and Anna as well as their parents and brothers and their wives.

At the same time he acquired Bevern in the Weser Uplands in 1590 . There he had - as his father always used to do - first of all numerous new farm buildings, from 1595 a church and only last (and after the completion of the Leitzkau buildings) a new residence from 1603-1607; Bevern Castle , a completely new building, turned out to be one of the most magnificent buildings of the Weser Renaissance, the master builder is Johann Hundertossen , who had built the Lauenau Schwedesdorf Castle for his cousin Otto von Münchhausen as early as 1596 . Numerous details both in Leitzkau and in Bevern suggest that the same craftsmen from the workshop of the stonemason Johann von Mehle were involved in it, who also rebuilt the Alfeld town hall in the Renaissance style in 1586. Statius had other castles built in Bodenwerder and Bolzum with the Bolzum manor , and a total of nine churches in his manor villages. He advised his cousin Jürgen Klencke on the construction of the Hämelschenburg . After becoming a widower in 1600, he married Klencke's 22-year-old niece Dorothea von Bothmer two years later , with whom he would have eight more children.

Credit transactions

His father's cash legacy had already been invested in letters of credit, including over 100,000 thalers as a loan to Count Otto VIII von Hoya . Even before he came of age, Statius von Münchhausen took over the administration of the inheritance from his guardians and from then on carried out numerous credit transactions for himself and his brothers. Wealthy citizens and guilds from Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Lemgo and Magdeburg entrusted him with large sums of money, which he paid interest at 5–6% and passed on to the princes of Braunschweig, Brandenburg, Magdeburg or Anhalt. He earned from interest rate differentials as well as income from pledged official property. He had his brothers, brothers-in-law, cousins ​​and friends vouch for them.

bankruptcy

With the help of his high income, Statius von Münchhausen initially succeeded in expanding his possessions. After the death of his brother Kurt in 1604, for example, he acquired Steyerberg Castle , which his father had already owned in pledge. Also, the men of pledged him Saldern her castle Salder , the Office Vienenburg and in 1614 the estate Equord and the Lords of Steinberg , the castle Imbshausen . As a dowry for his daughter Engel, he acquired Seggerde Castle , which in 1616 was transferred to her husband Arndt Spiegel zu Peckelsheim .

After the death of Duke Heinrich Julius in 1613, his successor Duke Friedrich Ulrich inherited national debts of 1.2 million thalers, of which over 100,000 thalers alone in bonds in favor of Statius von Münchhausen. This succeeded in persuading the estates to assume the debt, for which he received an extension of the Allersheim pledge by 92 years as well as the high court for Bevern. (As early as 1601, Münchhausen had a “witch” burned in Grohnde , as was customary in the time, but perhaps also to do a favor to Duke Heinrich Julius, who was obsessed with witches ! hired six young councilors who promised to help him out of any financial difficulties. They started to lengthen the silver coins with copper. The systematic deterioration in coins during the Kipper and Wipper times , which gradually spread throughout the empire, led to accelerated inflation. Statius' brother, Hilmar the Younger von Münchhausen from Schwöbber , wrote a warning to the incompetent Duke in 1617 - already on his deathbed - in his function as Treasurer. Although he finally dismissed Anton von der Streithorst and the “disloyal Landdroste” in 1622 when the angry people began to violently attack the dump trucks, it was already too late for Statius von Münchhausen: he had become the victim of an intrigue. The young councilors had secretly bought promissory notes from him for 240,000 thalers and demanded immediate payment in order to get his pledged goods. In order to emphasize this, Arndt von Wopersnow accused him of false accounts in the Steyerberg office of the Duke and set them off against the ducal bonds. Another councilor, Barthold von Rautenberg , had him forcibly evicted from Grohnde Castle. A third, Henning von Reden , had Bevern confiscated, which Münchhausen had given his wife as Wittum in 1617 . The Princely Chamber later transferred it to him temporarily for further management. In 1618 he had to sell Leitzkau for 170,000 thalers to three sons of his brother Hilmar the Younger , who died in 1617 . They also paid for their father's extensive guarantees. In 1619, Münchhausen's creditors finally forced bankruptcy. He initially managed to secure his residence at Schloss Bevern, where he died on March 27, 1633. In 1628 an imperial appraisal commission appointed at his request determined a total of around 1 million thalers in debt, which, however, had stood at 1.3 million on the credit side. His honor was restored, but the possessions were lost - and meanwhile also partially destroyed by the events of the Thirty Years' War that began in 1618 . His widow had to leave Bevern in 1652, the castle finally came into the possession of the dukes, who established a branch line there. Ultimately, his son Hilmar Ernst only retained the maternal property of Dornburg and Groß-Lüb, which he had excused in 1613 with the dowry of his wife Magdalene von Wrisberg ; he also bought Bolzum from the bankruptcy estate. With his son Johann (1631–1674) the male descent of Statius died out.

Today the cultural center of the district of Holzminden is located in Bevern Castle. The life of Statius von Münchhausen is presented in a multimedia exhibition in the “Renaissance Adventure World”. He is buried in the St. Johanniskirche in Bevern, which he built; a life-size bust in colorful stucco with 32 ancestral coats of arms on the parapet of his church prieche reminds of him.

photos

literature

  • GS Treuer: Thorough gender history of the gentlemen from Münchhausen . 1740.
  • Albert Neukirch: Renaissance castles of Lower Saxony. Text volume 2nd half. Hanover 1939.
  • G. von Lenthe, H. Mahrenholtz: genealogical tables of the von Münchhausen family . (= Schaumburger studies. Issue 36). Rinteln 1976.
  • BEH Schmuhl (Ed.): Leitzkau Castle . (= Series of publications by the Dome and Castles Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt. Volume 3). Stekovics, Halle / S. 2005, ISBN 3-89923-102-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reconstruction drawing of the lost Stolzenau Castle in Stolzenau / Weser by Wolfgang Braun
  2. ↑ Reconstruction drawing of the domain castle in Grohnde by Wolfgang Braun
  3. ↑ Reconstruction drawing of the lost Elbingerode Castle by Wolfgang Braun
  4. ↑ In detail: Anke Neugebauer: On the importance of building and art history. In: BEH Schmuhl (ed.): Schloss Leitzkau. Hall 2005.
  5. ^ Ferdinand Spehr:  Friedrich Ulrich, Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 501-505.
  6. ^ Paul Zimmermann:  Streithorst, Anton vd In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, pp. 569-572.
personal data
SURNAME Münchhausen, Statius of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Münchhausen, Staz von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Noblemen from the black line of those of Munchhausen
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1555
PLACE OF BIRTH Stolzenau
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1633
Place of death Bevern near Holzminden