Johann Wittenborg

Johann Wittenborg (* around 1321 in Lübeck ; † between August 15 and September 21, 1363 there ) was a merchant and mayor of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck .

Life

Wittenborg was the son of a citizen of Lübeck and married in 1321 into the von Bardewik family from Lübeck . From his first time there are reports of trips to Flanders (probably Bruges ) and England . As a merchant, he traded cloth, grain and furs from the Baltic States to London and Flanders. His business is documented in an account book that has survived from 1346–1359 and was started by his father, the merchant Hermann Wittenborg.

The City Council was one Johann Wittenborg about to since 1350th He represented Lübeck at the Hanseatic Days in Rostock (1358) and at least since 1359 as mayor of the city in Greifswald (1361). There, after Visby was conquered by the Danes (1361), he was given supreme command of the Hanseatic naval power in the war against King Waldemar IV of Denmark . The fleet returned unsuccessfully and heavily decimated after the siege of Helsingborg from Öresund to its home ports in 1362 . Wittenborg had made the mistake of putting too many crews ashore for the siege, so that his ships were easy prey for the Danes. Twelve cogs were lost to the Hanse fleet. Wittenborg was relieved of his offices on his return to Lübeck and imprisoned in the royal stables .

Execution of Mayor Wittenborg in Heinrich Rehbein's Chronicle (around 1620)

The Hanseatic Day in January 1363 in Stralsund called him to account; Although he had advocates, he was sentenced to death because of the defeat he had suffered and "propter alias causas quas cum eo specialiter haberet (civitas)" . The execution took place in August / September 1363 on the Lübeck market by beheading . His will from 1362 can be found with Carl Wilhelm Pauli in volume 3 of the treatises from the Lübischen law . In it he also pronounced a legacy for his nephew, the Dominican and Schwerin auxiliary bishop Goswinus Grope . He was also buried with the Dominicans of the Lübeck Castle Monastery .

The almost lost war of the Hanseatic League was ended by the Peace of Vordingborg (1365) .

family

Wittenborg was married to Elisabeth / Telse von Bardewik, a daughter of the Lübeck councilor Arnold von Bardewik . The marriage had six or seven children.

literature

Emil Ferdinand Fehling : Lübeck Council Line , 1925 No. 366
Philippe Dollinger : Die Hanse , p. 223 ff, ISBN 3-520-37102-2
A. Bruns (Ed.): Lübecker Lebenslaufen , 1993, ISBN 3-529-02729-4
Paul Hasse : Wittenborg, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 43, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, p. 609 f.

Web links

Wikisource: Johann Wittenborg - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

↑ cf. Fehling, Council Line
↑ (1841), p. 357 ff. (Digitized version)
^ Günter Kruse: The family of Lübeck's chancellor and mayor Albert von Bardewik: with a descent to Vladimir I. Uljanow (Lenin), in: Archive for Family History Research Volume 8 (2004), p. 252.

personal data
SURNAME	Wittenborg, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Mayor of Lübeck in the Middle Ages
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1321
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH	between August 15, 1363 and September 21, 1363
Place of death	Lübeck

[1] . Fehling, Council Line

[2] (1841), p. 357 ff. (Digitized version)

[3] Günter Kruse: The family of Lübeck's chancellor and mayor Albert von Bardewik: with a descent to Vladimir I. Uljanow (Lenin), in: Archive for Family History Research Volume 8 (2004), p. 252.