Werner von Broich

Werner Theodor von Broich (* around 1636 ; † May 3, 1731 in Aachen ) was alderman and mayor of the imperial city of Aachen .

Live and act

Werner von Broich came from the Jülich noble family von Broich and was the son of Johann Wilhelm von Broich zu Pattern and Dürwiß and Anna von Schwartzenberg zu Gitzbach. He was admitted to the Schöffenstuhl in 1674 and was elected mayor of the city several times between 1682 and 1715. Because of a dispute between lay judges and the council, which mainly concerned admission to the lay judge's chair by persons not born in Aachen, there was no election of a lay mayor from 1700 to 1705 and the office remained vacant. This unresolved legal dispute also burdened the mayor Werner von Broich, whose father had been elected to the Aachen jury chair in 1676 as a "foreigner" and whose election was to be declared invalid, which also included Werner von Broich's acceptance as his father's successor Schöffenstuhl was questionable. It was only through the intervention of Duke von Jülich Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz that the mayor's office was transferred back to von Broich in 1706, who kept it until 1709 despite the jury's protest. Only then did further elections for the mayor of lay judges take place. The legal problem itself continued to smolder until 1714, when a final imperial decree recognized all lay judges elected since 1676 as legitimate.

Outside of his tenure as mayor, Werner von Broich was a member of both the “Small Council”, which dealt with city and state sovereignty and formed the Higher and Appeal Court, and the “Great Council”, which was responsible for general affairs, among other things judged life and death and elected new councilors. In addition, he was elected eight times as "Christoffel" ( envoy of the Aachen counties ) of the Berg and Sandkaultor County and once of the Adalbrecht County. In 1716 von Broich resigned from the lay judge's chair in order not to endanger the election of his son Johann Werner von Broich to the chair , since direct relatives were not allowed to be members of this committee at the same time. He also resigned from the Sacramentary Brotherhood of St. Foillan , in which he had been a member since 1682 , in 1722 for the same reasons in favor of his son .

Werner von Broich was married to Johanna Maria Colyn (* 1648), daughter of Bonifatius Colyn and Johanne Marie von Lomont, with whom he had two sons; In addition to the aforementioned son and later mayor Johann Werner von Broich, the later officer and landowner Johann Carl von Broich, whose descendants acquired the Soers house , Broich Castle near Montzen and Schönau Castle .

Broich / Fiebus coat of arms stone above the archway of Alt-Linzenzhäuschen

Werner von Broich died on May 3, 1731 at the advanced age of 95. His coat of arms is embedded on the outer west wall of St. Foillan, together with the coat of arms of Theodor Bodden, the “mayor” from the ranks of the guilds, and the year 1683 . Another coat of arms of him and the mayor Balthasar Fiebus, the younger, with the year 1700 is currently above the entrance of Alt-Linzenshäuschen , after it was previously attached to a neighboring and now demolished hermitage. A third stone with the coat of arms of the mayors of Broich and Fiebus as well as the year 1708 is walled up in a shed at Ludwigsallee 65. In addition, the coats of arms of the current building master are engraved on all of these stones.

literature

• Luise Freiin von Coels von der Brügghen : The lay judges of the Royal See of Aachen from the earliest times until the final repeal of the imperial city constitution in 1798 . In: Journal of the Aachen History Association . No. 50 . Publishing house of the Aachen History Association , Aachen 1928, p. 417-422 ( online on rootsweb ).
• Luise Freiin von Coels von der Brügghen: The Aachen mayors from 1251 to 1798 . In: Journal of the Aachen History Association . tape 55, 1933/34 , pp. 71–73 ( aachener-geschichtsverein.de [PDF; 1.7 MB ]).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Christoffel in Aachen