Ursula Cotta

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Ursula Cotta , b. Schalbe (* around 1450 Ilfeld or Eisenach ; † November 29, 1511 in Eisenach), is considered the wife of the patrician and mayor of Eisenach, Conrad Cotta. She accepted and promoted the young Martin Luther during his school days in the Georgenschule (a Latin school ) in Eisenach from 1498 to 1501.

Family environment

House of the Cotta family in Eisenach. Luther House, 2006

Ursula's father was Hans (also: Heinrich) Schalbe, landowner in Ilfeld and mayor of Eisenach from 1495 to 1499. The Schalbes were an old council family , and as early as 1424 a Hans Schalbe is mentioned. Ursula's grandfather is said to have been the mayor of Eisenach. Her mother was Angelika Schalbe, née Gelen.

With Conrad Cotta, she appropriately married into a respected bourgeois family , whose origins are still the subject of numerous speculations. The Eisenach scholar Christian Franz Paullini wrote a dissertation on the Cottas in 1694 . Afterwards, the family was allegedly given a letter of nobility by Emperor Sigismund on Bartholomew's Night in 1420 in Prague . Her ancestors are said to have belonged to the nobility from Milan . Paullini was even of the opinion that the Eisenacher Cottas descended from the Roman nobles of the same name . However, these statements are doubted. There are several indications that the nobility letter was a forgery by Paullini and that his dissertation was commissioned.

Both Ursula's son Johann Cotta the Elder (* around 1465, † around 1524) and her grandson Johann Cotta the Younger (* around 1490; † March 15, 1561) were able to study, were treasurer , wine master and later appointed the mayor of Eisenach himself .

Martin Luther and the Cotta family

Luther came to Eisenach in 1498 to prepare for his studies. The young Luther lived for a short time with his great-uncle Konrad Hutter, the sexton at St. Nikolai . The Hutters family was poor, and so Luther had to make a living as a carolers singer . There he met Ursula Cotta, nee Schalbe, hostess and wife of the four-man Conrad Cotta. She offered him accommodation in her house , in which the Schalbe family also lived. The house stood at today's Lutherplatz 8 in the Georgenvorstadt. Heinrich Schalbe was Eisenach's mayor from 1495 to 1499.

In his host families, Luther took part in the Collegium Schalbense, a free association of monks, mainly from the former Franciscan monastery, and citizens who practiced their own piety in the form of a community of prayer and reading pious scriptures. At Schalbe he also enjoyed a free table ; in return he gave tutoring for Cotta's son and Kaspar Schalbe, Ursula's brother. In addition, Luther took part in meetings in the house of the secular or popular priest and collegiate vicar (of the St. Mary's monastery of the Augustinian Canons ) Johannes Braun , where music was played, prayed and spiritual as well as humanistic texts were discussed. The young Luther found further contact with music and musical practice in the church service in the Georgenkirche, where he sang in the local chorus musicus .

Luther singing as a student in front of Mrs. Cotta, painting by Prof. Weiß

Martin Luther's personal physician, Matthäus Ratzenberger , reports that Luther “had his lodging and maintenance” with Conrad Cotta. Luther “found acceptance in the pious house of the Cotta family and his daily food in the Schalbe house, where in return he had to look after the son of the house with his homework. Under the influence of the Franciscans, late medieval piety played a major role in the Cotta-Schalbe houses, which was not without influence on the young Martin ”.

Luther's pupil Mathesius describes Ursula Cotta as a “devout” woman who developed “ardent affection” for the young Luther. And Luther himself characterizes his Eisenach “landlady” in one of his table speeches as follows: “There is no better thing on earth than love for women, whoever may be.”

In some Luther biographies it is reported that Martin Luther was noticed by Ursula Cotta as a caroled singer and that she accepted him because of his pleasant singing. This assumption is concluded from a sermon by Luther in which he explains: "I was such a party stallion and took the bread for the Heusern, especially at Eisenach, in my dear city". Parteken stallions (Parteken - particles for livelihood) were called the carolers singers who sang in front of the houses for small gifts, a custom that has survived in some areas and continues to this day in martinis singing .

The Eisenach Luther House

The Luther House in Eisenach 1956

The house of the Cotta family stands as the so-called Luther House near the Eisenach market square. It is one of the oldest, still preserved half-timbered houses in Eisenach and is open to visitors. It has not been established whether this is actually the house in which Martin Luther was admitted. Christian Franz Paullini writes about this in his dissertation: “Some report that the aforementioned widow lived in Georgen-Vorstadt, others claim that her house was on Georgplatz, where Johann Ernst, Prince of Saxony, later had his apartment. It is just as possible that Luther lived in the suburbs as he did on Georgsplatz, but the Currender students would not have walked around in the suburbs at that time, especially since Mrs. Cotta, as a rich old lady, will have lived within the walls. "

Ursula Cotta Home

From 1949 there was a boarding school for students in Eisenach , which was subordinate to the Thuringian Church and named after Ursula Cotta. The home was the continuation of a home set up in 1940 by the pastor's widow Frieda Rausch for children from bomb-prone areas and children of political prisoners and was located in Mariental 24 until 1959. The villa was originally inhabited by the Thuringian industrialist Paul Reuss and was converted into a youth hostel in 1960.

literature

  • Sylvia Weigelt: "To be the pleasure and joy of men": Women around Luther. Wartburg Verlag, Weimar / Eisenach, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86160-241-5 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inscription on the tombstone of Ursula Cotta in the Georgien-Kapelle, Eisenach: "After Christ our Lord's birth anno 1511 on Saturday after Cathrinen, the merciful and virtuous Mrs. Ursula Cotta is different in God / God just Amen". Catherine's Day (November 25th) fell on a Tuesday in 1511. Accordingly, she died on November 29th.
  2. ^ A b Christian Franz Paullini: Dissertation on the old and noble Cotta family ( De antiqua et nobili familia Cottarum, Dissertatione historica ), Gießen 1694, German translation from July 1940 (Halle / Saale), Eisenach city archive
  3. ^ Johann Friedrich Böhmer : Regesta Imperii XI: The documents of Emperor Sigmund 1410-1437. Vol. 1 (Regest 4240), Innsbruck 1896 (Reprint Hildesheim 1968)
    Ernst Christian Wilhelm Wattenbach´ : Germany's historical sources in the Middle Ages. 7th edition. JG Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachhaben, Stuttgart and Berlin 1904, p. 15.
  4. ↑ Martin Brecht : Martin Luther: seine Weg zur Reformation, 1483-1521. Vol. 1, Calwer, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7668-3310-3 , pp. 28-32
  5. ^ Walter Kolb: Luther's Wittenberg World: The Reformer's Family, Friends, Followers, and Foes. Book collections on Project MUSE, Fortress Press, Minneapolis MN 2018, ISBN 978-1-5064-464-00 , p. 11
  6. ↑ Jochen Birkenmeier: Das / The Lutherhaus in Eisenach. Eisenach 2015, pp. 9–12; Heinz Schilling : Martin Luther. Rebel in a time of upheaval. A biography. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63741-4 ; 4th updated edition, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-70105-4 , p. 69; Martin Brecht : Martin Luther. Vol. 1: His path to the Reformation. 1483-1521. 2nd edition, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 978-3-7668-4273-2 , pp. 30f.
  7. ↑ Burkhard Weitz: Luther as a musician: Protest songs and psalm songs .
  8. ↑ Matthäus Ratzeberger: Handwritten story about Luther and his time. edited by Ch.G. Neudecker, Jena 1850
  9. ^ Karl-Heinz Zur Mühlen: Reformation and Counter Reformation. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, ISBN 3-525-34014-1 , p. 32.
  10. ^ Julius Köslin: Luthers Leben Fues's Verlag (R. Reisland), Leipzig 1882.
  11. ^ D. Martin Luther's works. Critical Complete Edition (Weimar Edition), Tischreden Volume 6, 265, 3rd, Weimar 1883 ff
  12. ^ D. Martin Luther's works. Critical Complete Edition (Weimar Edition), Works Volume 30, Section 2, 576. 28., Weimar 1883 ff.
  13. ↑ Gerhard Krause u. a .: Theological real encyclopedia. Part II, Wissenschaftsverlag de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1993, ISBN 3-11-020803-2 , p. 514.
  14. ^ Sabine Landmann, Stefan Wolter, Jensen Zlotowicz: Villas in Eisenach . Rhino-Verlag, Ilmenau 1997, ISBN 978-3-932081-11-8 , pp. 191-197
personal data
SURNAME Cotta, Ursula
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German patrician, patron of Martin Luther
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1511
Place of death Eisenach