Ulrich Pesnitzer

Ulrich Pesnitzer , also Ulrich Bessnitzer , Ulrich Beßnitzer and Ulrich Peßnitzer (* around 1450; † October 7, 1521 ) was a German builder. He was the national court architect, master craftsman and fortress builder for Duke Georg the Rich of Bavaria-Landshut.

Origin and life

Ulrich Pesnitzer came from a wealthy knightly aristocratic family from the area around Maribor (Marchpurg / Marburg) in Slovenia (in the 13th century the family there Pesničar, the village is now written Pesnica , German Pößnitzhofen) and later from Styria in the area of ​​Prankh and Herberstein.

The great-grandfather of the builder Ulrich was Ulrich Pesnitzer, who was married to Barbara von Lembuch. In 1420 he bought the Poppendorf mansion southeast of Graz. The builder's grandfather was then Konrad Pesnitzer, who was married to the knightly aristocratic Katharina von Krottendorf and became a supporter of Duke Albrecht VI. belonged to Austria. As early as 1438 he had a memorial with a tombstone erected for himself and his family in the Minorite Church in Pettau (Ptuj) , but he only died shortly before 1465.

The father of the Landshut master builder was also an Ulrich Pesnitzer (Pesniczer), who was probably born around 1415. On the one hand, he had defended Emperor Friedrich III in 1462 . excelled in the Vienna Hofburg against rebellious citizens, but later, around 1469, he came into bitter enmity with this emperor. In 1469 he was one of the most prominent comrades-in-arms of Andreas Baumkircher in his famous feud against Emperor Friedrich III. and in 1472 even the governor Count Thierstein had to besiege Ulrich's castle Weitersfeld an der Mur (Styria, north of Maribor). In the end, these events led to the confiscation of large parts of Ulrich's property in 1475, including Weitersfeld Castle. In 1476, however, the elder Ulrich was returned to the grace of Emperor Friedrich III. been recorded.

The later master builder Ulrich Pesnitzer was probably born around 1450 or shortly before 1460 at the latest, so he still experienced the heyday of his family and was around 20 to 25 years old when the imperial unfavorable situation changed the situation. How Ulrich Pesnitzer came to the Lower Bavarian ducal court and what he did in the precarious decade before the first evidence at the Landshut court cannot be reconstructed at the moment.

Work

In 1483 Pesnitzer is mentioned in the rent master's calculation for Schärding when a part of the ducal store (box) was demolished there. From 1484 he appears as the highest person in charge of the ongoing construction of the ducal palace in Ingolstadt, arriving from Landshut . In 1485 he inspected castles and towns in the Bavarian Nordgau and inventoried the war material and is run here as a ducal council.

In 1486 the master builder was accepted into the service of the Bavarian duke for life. His official seat was Landshut until 1503 , later he lived at Burghausen Castle .

Soon after 1486 he was responsible for an impressively illustrated inventory of the Landshut armory stock (see works).

Later he was z. B. responsible for the appointment of a court carpenter in Burghausen and is said to have built large kennels in Weissenhorn in 1487. At that time he was also sent to Nuremberg as a consultant, unfortunately his specific tasks have not been recorded there. The next year he worked as a consultant for the expansion of Tittmoning Castle in Salzburg.

From 1488 he expanded the artillery fortifications of Burghausen Castle with its cannon rondelles and curtains.

On behalf of the Rosenberg Duke Peter IV von Rosenberg , he is said to have been involved in the construction of Krumau Castle around 1506 .

Works

• Armory inventory from Landshut . Landshut 1485 ( online [accessed October 15, 2012]).

literature

• Stephan Hoppe : builder of nobility. Ulrich Pesnitzer and Hans Jakob von Ettlingen as representatives of a new kind of professional constellation in the late 15th century. In: Astrid Lang, Julian Jachmann (eds.): Measurement and discourse. Festschrift for Norbert Nussbaum on his 60th birthday. Berlin 2013, pp. 151–186. Download full text on ART doc
• Johann Dorner: Duchess Hedwig and her court. Everyday life at Burghausen Castle based on original sources from the 15th century . Burghausen 2002, pp. 74-77.
• Johann Dorner: The builder of Burghausen Castle - Ulrich Pesnitzer - is buried in Aspach. In: The Bundwerk. 19, 2004, pp. 25-27.
• Franz Niehoff: Catalog No. 15 Zeughausinventar, Ulrich Peßnitzer, after 1485 [or 1489 (?)]. In: Franz Niehoff, Thomas Alexander Bauer, Dirk H. Breiding (Hrsg.): Ritterwelten in the late Middle Ages. Courtly and knightly culture of the rich dukes of Bavaria-Landshut. Exhibition catalog. Landshut 2009, pp. 184-191.
• Ulrich Pesnitzer . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 26 : Olivier – Pieris . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1932, p. 470-471 . (The information there is largely out of date).
• Ina-Ulrike Paul: Pesnitzer (Peßnitzer), Ulrich. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): Bosls Bavarian biography. Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 580 ( digitized version ). (the information there is largely out of date)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hoppe 2013, p. 159 and Franc Kovačič: Vitezi Pesničarji [The knight family of the Pesnitzer]. In: Časopis za zgodovino in narodopisje. 9, 1912, pp. 1-41.
2. ↑ Hoppe 2013.