Wilhelm Witte (Mayor)

Wilhelm Witte , also Albin Witt ( bl. From 1224; † after 1261) was mayor of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck.

Life

Imperial freedom letter from the city of Lübeck from 1226

Together with councilor Johann von Bremen, he was one of the council messengers (envoys) from Emperor Friedrich II in 1226 , who obtained the Lübeck Imperial Freedom Letter in Borgo San Donnino ( Fidenza ) . One of the witnesses was the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Hermann von Salza , who, based on the Golden Bull of Rimini from March of that year, developed settlement plans for the Baltic States , which were subsequently processed via the Lübeck port with cogs . Witte is documented as Lübeck's mayor from 1250 to 1253; after that he no longer acted as mayor of the city, but until 1259 as its treasurer. In later years Witte was the authorized representative of Archbishop Albrecht II (Suerbeer) of Riga and administered his (undated) donation for the construction of the Holy Spirit Hospital in Lübeck. Witte is last alive in 1261 and as deceased in Lübeck documents in 1271. Erdmann attributes to him, not least because of his trip to Italy and his reputation in the city itself, a considerable influence on the city planning of Lübeck in the middle of the 13th century. During his term of office, in addition to the planning of the Holy Spirit Hospital, the expansion of the Lübeck churches and the fundamental renovation of the Lübeck town hall . Today, a historical mural from the 19th century in the stairwell of the Lübeck town hall commemorates the two council messengers from 1226 in Borgo San Donnini.

literature

• Olaf Ahlers (ed.): Lübeck 1226 - Imperial freedom and early city. Lübeck 1976
• Wolfgang Erdmann : The formation of the Lübeck squares in the 12th and 13th centuries and comments on their iconology in: ZVLGA Volume 71 (1991), pp. 9–54 (p. 35 ff. Excursus on Mayor Wilhelm Witte )
• Emil Ferdinand Fehling : Lübeck Council Line , Lübeck 1925, No. 106

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fehling, Council Line No. 108