Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen

Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen monument in Wolfhagen

Tilemann's house at Frankfurter Strasse 1 (2015)

Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen , also Elhem von Wolfhagen , Tilemann Elhen near Wolfhagen , Schrider Dilemann (* 1347 ? In Ehlen near Wolfhagen (?), † after 1402 at the latest in 1406 in Limburg an der Lahn ) was a notary , cleric and chronicler . As the scribe and author of the handwritten Limburg Chronicle , he went down in Limburg city history.

Life dates

Tilemann's life data can only be derived from the mentions and statements that the author and chronicler of the Limburg Chronicle makes about himself. 1347 could have been the year of his birth, but it is also possible that his memories and later records begin with this year. In the Limburg Chronicle it says:

Item nu saltu know, afterwards after the date of our gentleman Jhesu Cristi with the name dusent dru hundred unde siben unde virzig jar bit daz we write virzen yes round two jar.

It has not been proven what the information on the year of his death is based on. Tilemann probably came from Ehlen near Wolfhagen , as one assumes based on his surname, and was probably born there. He had relatives in Limburg , who presumably moved him to move to Limburg. The name von Wolfhagen can be found several times in Limburg during this period.

Tilemann was probably a cleric . This can be concluded from the fact that the author of the chronicle describes the mayor Hartung, who fell near Merenberg in 1358 , as the whitest layman in all of these lands . This emphasis and emphasis suggests that the author himself was not a layman, but a cleric .

He was married to Grete , the daughter of the Limburg lay judge Hermann Boppe . From 1392 they lived together in the house at Frankfurter Strasse 1 on Bischofsplatz .

The Limburg Chronicle

From 1377 Tilemann began to make historical records and to record daily occurrences. The chronicle begins with the recording of events from 1347 (?), Which Tilemann formulated on the basis of oral traditions and stories. He did not write down these events daily and in a diary, but at least until 1398 mostly with a time lag and from memory. This is evidenced by numerous contradictions, chronological leaps in time and mistakes that he made here. So he mentions z. B. Count Johann von Nassau-Merenberg, who took part in the Battle of Maupertuis in 1356 , is said to have survived it by 20 years, and whose son is said to have married twenty years after his own death.

From 1370 Tilemann worked as an imperial notary in Limburg. He attracted attention because of his pious beliefs. He criticized and often complained of Christian misconduct among his contemporaries. He is explicitly mentioned in 1379 when he obtained an indulgence for visitors to the holy cross altar in the Limburg collegiate church. In the will of the Limburg citizen Marquard Borge, Tilemann is given 3 guilders in 1382. In 1394 his marriage to Guda is mentioned in a document as a second marriage, with which he was demonstrably resident in Limburg at this time.

Although the Limburg chronicle only lasts until 1398, the deposition of King Wenceslas on August 20, 1400 is mentioned, so that Tilemann must have continued the chronicle at least until after 1400. After that there is a gap in the Limburg Chronicle, and so 1402 is assumed to be the year of the author's death.

The Limburg Chronicle was partly passed down orally before Tilemann put it down in writing. Analogous quotations are also used in some places. The handwritten records do not mention any sources used by the author. In terms of style and content, he knew the Vita Baldewini of the Gesta Treverorum , and perhaps also that of the Gesta Cunonis de Falkenstein . Some places are similar to the Cölner Weveraufstand and the hostage trip to Heinrich von Herford . There is also a close relationship between the Latin Limburg annals from 1335 (?), (1289) to 1397. Their use as a source is questionable; it could also be short notes that Tilemann himself or one of his assistants wrote in order to later process them in the form of a chronicle. Tilemann quotes Aristotle , Cato and Bernhard von Clairvaux . He also incorporated biblical passages and quoted, for example, the Psalms , the Proverbs of Solomon , the Book of the Maccabees , and the Gospels of John and Matthew .

successor

From 1406 the Limburg Chronicle was continued by successors. One of them was the notary Johann Fegebudel von Gudensberg , verifiable in the period from 1429 to 1454.

Print of the Limburg Chronicle

The year of publication of the Limburg Chronicle and Tilemann's handwritten notes are not chronologically congruent. The chronicle was first published in 1617 by the Frankfurt patrician Johann Friedrich Faust von Aschaffenburg . The foreword of August 1, 1617 is dedicated to the Hessian Landgrave Moritz the Scholar . Another edition appeared two years later. The low circulation prompted the Wetzlar bookseller Georg Ernst Winkler to publish an edition that had been modified in his spirit. Georg Christoph Neller's Limburg Chronicle was reissued in 1747 with his own handwritten extracts. This edition has an independent character. There were further editions by Christian Daniel Vogel (1828), which sticks closely to the Winckler edition, and by Karl Rossel , which is based on the Faust edition.

Editions (19th / 20th century)

• The Limburg Chronicle . Edited by Christian D. Vogel. Marburg 1826; 2nd unchanged edition Krieger, Marburg 1828 ( digitized version ).
• German chronicles and other history books of the Middle Ages 4.1: The Limburg Chronicle of Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen. Published by Arthur Wyss . Hanover 1883 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
• Otto Hermann Brandt: The Limburg Chronicle. Jena 1922 ( The Old Reich ).
• The Limburg Chronicle of Tileman Elhen von Wolfhagen. With an introduction, a translation into New High German together with factual explanations and a subject index . Edited by Gottfried Zedler. Limburg an der Lahn 1930 Internet Archive
• The Limburg Chronicle of Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen. Translated into New High German with an introduction including factual explanations and an appendix on the life and works of other Limburg chroniclers . by Karl Reuss. Limburg an der Lahn 1961. New edition Limburg an der Lahn 1995 ISBN 3-928906-91-7

Honors

The Tilemannschule grammar school in Limburg is named after Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen. A memorial is dedicated to him in Wolfhagen.

In 2018 an exhibition of the Limburg Diocesan Museum is dedicated to his history and the 14th century under the title "... that GOTT turns the great dying" - plague, fashion and other catastrophes in the Limburg Chronicle.

literature

• Hellmuth Gensicke:  Ehlen, Tilemann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 345 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Gertraud Groh: The Limburg Chronicle of Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen . Dissertation (typewritten) Munich 1951.
• Peter Johanek : Elhen (Ehlen), Tilemann, von Wolfhagen . In: The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . De Gruyter, Berlin and New York Volume 2, 1980, Col. 474-478.
• Wolf-Heino Struck: The St. Georg Abbey in Limburg on the Lahn. A historiographical overview . In: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 35 (1985), pp. 1–36, here pp. 2–9.
• Heinz Maibach: Tileman Elhen von Wolfhagen. Notes on the life and work of the well-known Limburg chronicler , in: Limburg im Fluss der Zeit. Highlights from 1100 years of city history. Limburg ad Lahn 2010, pp. 113–127 (contributions to the history of the district town of Limburg ad Lahn 1) ISBN 9783936162080 .

Web links

• Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Information on the Tilemann School website
• Minneliederen en hofdansen in de veertiende eeuw (Dutch)
• New songs in the book mentioned (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Verena Fuchß: cultural monuments in Hesse City Limburg. Published by the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse . Konrad Theiss Verlag , Stuttgart 2007. ISBN 978-3-8062-2096-4 , p. 279.
2. ↑ digitized version .
3. ↑ https://staurothek.de/ .