Bailiff of Gera

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Family coat of arms (around 1279)

The bailiffs of Gera were an important medieval noble family in the area of ​​what is now Thuringia and Saxony . Like the Bailiffs von Plauen , they came from the lineage of the Bailiffs von Weida . The Vogtland takes its name from this clan .

Beginnings

Rulership of the bailiffs of Weida, Gera and Plauen around 1350, in the middle the enclave of the Elsterberg rulership of the Lobdeburgers
Osterstein Castle (Gera) , seat of the line of the bailiffs of Gera (extinct in 1550)

The bailiffs of Gera came from the bailiffs of Weida . Vogt Heinrich der Reiche von Weida (* around 1164/1165; † around 1209) is considered the progenitor of all Vogts lines. His eldest son Heinrich the Elder received the Bailiwick of Weida and became the founder of the Weida line, which died out in the male line in 1531 . The second-born son Heinrich the Middle († 1249/1250) received the bailiwick of Gera and the care of Reichenfels when the country was divided; he called himself Vogt of Gera in 1238. The older of his sons received, in a division of the country made with his younger brother in 1244, the Vogtei Plauen with Auerbach and Pausa as well as the rule Greiz with Werdau and Reichenbach and became the founder of the line of the Bailiffs of Plauen . The younger brother received the bailiwick of Gera and the care Reichenfels, as well as Tanna and Mühltroff . Counted as Heinrich I, he became the founder of the line of the bailiffs of Gera. The bailiffs of Plauen were again divided into the Plauen and Greizer lines. The latter were the only ones of the Vogtslinien ruled until the most recent modern times, as counts and later princes Reuss , who ruled in two federal principalities of the German Empire until 1918 .

Rise and fall

Heinrich I (* around 1227; † 1269/1274) acquired Nordhalben and the Höfer fiefdoms from the Andechs-Meran inheritance after 1248 . His son Heinrich II, the elder, expanded the property in 1278 to include that of the Lobenstein lordship . His son Heinrich IV., The elder, acquired the Schleiz rule from the Lobdeburgers around 1314 with the care of Saalburg and Burgk Castle , but ceded Mühltroff to the Plauen line.

As a result of the Vogtland War (1354 to 1357), the Gera bailiffs had to recognize the Wettins as masters, a significant loss of power. From 1410 to 1427 the bailiffs of Weida had to gradually sell their bailiwick to the Wettins, they had now given up the bailiff's title and from then on only called themselves Lords of Weida . As feudal bearers of the Crown of Bohemia and the House of Wettin, the bailiffs of Gera began to give up their old title and to call themselves Lords of Gera . In 1425 a division of the country was made in the line of the bailiffs of Gera, but this remained without further consequences, since only one of the dividing brothers, Heinrich IX, the middle (* 1406; † 1482), left descendants. At this time the Saxon fratricidal war raged (1446 to 1451), as a result of which the old ancestral castle of the bailiffs of Gera was destroyed. Osterstein Castle became the new seat .

1482 divided the three sons of Henry IX. the domain among themselves. His grandson Heinrich XV., The Younger (* 1476; † 1550) united the rule in his hands for the last time in 1538. The Schmalkaldic War finally heralded the end of the rule of the sexes. After the lost battle near Mühlberg he had to cede the rule of Gera to his relative Heinrich IV. Von Plauen , who in 1550 after Heinrich XV. childless death also received the remaining lords of Schleiz and Lobenstein as the legal heir. In 1562 the two sons of Heinrich IV ceded the rule of Gera to their closest relatives, the Russians , with whom they had their common ancestors in the person of the founder of the bailiffs of Plauen. The rule of the bailiffs of Gera passed after 300 years in the form of the dominions of Gera , Schleiz and Lobenstein in Reussian possession and came to an end after numerous partitions and almost another 300 years in the Principality of Reuss younger line .

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the bailiffs of Gera (since the middle of the 15th century)

On December 15, 1294, in the field camp at Borna, Count Palatine Rudolf near Rhine and Duke of Bavaria issued the bailiffs Heinrich the Elder and Heinrich the Younger of Plauen, as well as the bailiffs of Weida and Gera, a formal letter of coat of arms, in which he says that the ancestors of the bailiffs Shield and banner from his, the Duke's ancestors. The Palatine lion can be traced back to 1230 and has been crowned since around 1240. The first coat of arms seal of the bailiffs of Weida is from approx. 1240–44, all earlier seals are gems . The award of the coat of arms and banners should therefore fall during this time. The actual origin of the lion is likely to have from the Counts of Everstein , who had the same coat of arms (also the same crest), only in other tinctures (silver-blue): The rule of Plauen belonged to Count Everstein in 1122, Plauen appears for the first time in 1236 Property of the Weida bailiffs. One line was then called Vögte von Plauen, with Plauen as an Eversteinian fief. It is therefore not excluded that the Everstein coat of arms (the Reussians) received the Palatine tinctures, perhaps around 1261, when the bailiffs of Weida, Gera and Plauen had concluded a war alliance with the father of Count Palatine Rudolf. Only in 1370 did the crest of the Gera line change to the Brackenhaupt , which it possibly owes to the Zollern family , who bought the right to this crest in 1317 (the silver-black tincture would speak for it). Around the middle of the 15th century, the Brackenhaupt was also taken over by the Reuss and Plauen lines.

The bailiffs of Weida, Plauen, Gera and Greiz as well as the Reussians 1

 
 
 
 
 Heinrich II. The rich
Vogt von Weida
Lord of Weida , Gera , Plauen ,
Greiz and Ronneburg
(† around 1209)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Henry III. the elder
Vogt of Weida and Ronneburg
(† around 1224)
 
 Heinrich IV. The Middle
Vogt of Plauen and Gera
(† 1249/1250)
 
 Heinrich V the Younger
Vogt of Greiz and Reichenbach
(† around 1240)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bailiffs and Lords of Weida
Lords of Weida and Ronneburg
(† 1531)
 
 Heinrich I the Elder
Vogt of Plauen
Lord of Plauen, Greiz
and Reichenbach
(† around 1303)
 
 Heinrich I the Younger
Vogt of Gera
Lord of Gera, Tanna
and Mühltroff
(† 1269/1274)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Heinrich II the Bohemian
Vogt and Lord of Plauen
(older line)
(† 1302)
 
 Heinrich I der Reuße
Vogt and Lord of Plauen
(younger line)
(† 1295)
 
 Bailiffs and Lords of Gera
Lords of Gera, Schleiz
and Lobenstein
(† 1550)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bailiffs and Lords of Plauen,
Lords of Plauen and Mühltroff
 
 
 
 Lords Reuss von Plauen,
Lords of Greiz and Gera
(division 1564)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bailiffs and Lords of Plauen
Lords of Mühltroff
(† around 1380)
 
 Burgrave of Meissen,
Lords of Plauen
(† 1572)
 
 
 Reuss older line
(† 1927)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Reuss middle line
(† 1616)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Reuss younger line
(since 1930 Reuss)
 
 

1 RED: line extinguished / GREEN: flowering line

literature

  • Brunhild Meyfarth: The city of Gera in the epoch of the formation and development of feudalism (10th to 15th centuries), in: Scientific journal of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, social science series; 35 (1986) 3/4.
  • André Thieme: Regional rule and imperial immediacy: observations made by the Burgraves of Meißen from the House of Plauen and other successor families of the bailiffs from Weida, Gera and Plauen, in: High nobility in Central Germany (1200 to 1600): Forms, Legitimation, Representation / Ed. : Rogge, Jörg, 2003.
  • Family Tables on the History of the European States, Tables 163–174

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hugo Gerard Ströhl , Deutsche Wappenrolle, published by Julius Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1897, p. 9