Georg Rösch von Geroldshausen

Georg Rösch von Geroldshausen (also called Jörg Resch ; born September 29, 1501 in Lienz , † January 13, 1565 in Sterzing ) was a Tyrolean office secretary and poet. He wrote the Tyrolean country rhyme , the first poem printed in Tyrol in German and the first regional studies of Tyrol.

Life

Georg Rösch was born in Lienz in 1501 as the son of Hanns Rösch and Agathe von Bibriach. The Rösch von Geroldshausen were a family from Lower Franconia that had an offshoot in Carinthia. Nothing is known about his youth and education. He spoke Latin and Italian and presumably pursued scientific studies. Like his five brothers, he was destined for the public service and worked in various posts in the regiment and chamber of the Upper Austrian government in Innsbruck .

In 1526 he was a teacher at the court-supported Latin school in Innsbruck, and in 1527 he became a clerk . In 1542 he stayed for a time at the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer , and in 1548 he was appointed court judge in the Stubai . King Ferdinand I valued his services very much, he entrusted him with the organization of the archives and appointed him to the royal council in 1559.

In 1547 Rösch obtained the establishment of a permanent printing house in Innsbruck from the government, which from 1554 was managed by the court printer, Ruprecht Höller. This also printed the literary works of Rösch.

In 1555 he published Der Fürstlichen Grafschaft Tyrol Landtreim , a regional history of Tyrol written in poetry (see below). The continuation of wishes from all over the world, Werckhleüten and trades , a description of 186 crafts and different classes in verse appeared in 1560 under the pseudonym Georg Reutter von Gayßspitz . In 1555 he reissued the Tyrolean state order . Rösch also wrote several historical and genealogical works that are lost today.

Around 1530 he married Katharina Grünhofer. The widow brought four children into the marriage, and their son later became captain of the Ambras Castle . When Innsbruck was threatened by the plague in 1564, the government and chamber moved to Sterzing , where Georg Rösch von Geroldshausen died on January 13, 1565 and was buried in the parish church.

The Tyrolean country rhyme

Title page of the edition of 1558

The princely Grafschaft Tyrol Landtreim was published in 1557 and an expanded edition was published in 1558. It is the first poem to be printed in Tyrol in German. The poem composed in the Knittel verse consists of 1015 verses, but they do not always rhyme. It describes the topography and especially the economy of the then Fürsteten Grafschaft Tirol and thus represents the first regional history of Tirol.

While bodies of water, rivers and lakes are enumerated relatively completely, mountains and mountain ranges only appear marginally. The cities are presented with their most important cultural monuments, such as the Golden Roof or the Hofkirche in Innsbruck. The monasteries of Stams (as the burial place of the sovereigns) and Wilten with the founding legend of the giant Haymon are mentioned .

More than half of the poem is about mining and describes the occurrence, extraction and processing of salt and ore. Schwaz is called "aller perckwerck muetter" (all mines mother), a term that was later often used. Saline and mint in Hall are also extensively honored. Other industries mentioned include wood extraction and charcoal burning as ancillary operations in mining, glassworks , gun and bell foundries , the extraction of stone oil in Reith near Seefeld or silkworm breeding in Rovereto . Agriculture also takes up a large part of the description of animal husbandry, fruit growing, viticulture, wildlife and fishing.

While the poem can be described as bumpy from a linguistic point of view, it represents an important historical source in terms of content as the first regional studies of Tyrol, which in this diversity and completeness has nothing comparable in its time.

literature

• Georg Rösch von Geroldshausen: Tyrolean country rhyme and wishful saying from all sorts of world trades, workers and trades ec. Two Tyrolean poems of the sixteenth century. With an outline of the author's life, historical and technical explanations, edited by Conrad Fischnaler. Verlag der Wagner'schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Innsbruck 1898 ( digitized version )
• Franz Kirnbauer (ed.): Der Tiroler Landreim. Leoben green booklets No. 75. Montan Verlag, Vienna 1964 ( online )
• Adolf Leidlmair: Country studies and description of the country in Tyrol . In: Publications of the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, 78/1998, pp. 5–14 ( PDF; 864 kB )
• Entry on Rösch von Geroldshausen, Georg in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Rösch von Geroldshausen, Georg , in the history database ofthe association "fontes historiae - sources of history"