Wolf von Eberstein

Count Wolf von Eberstein (* around 1340 , † around 1396 ) came from the family of the Counts of Eberstein . It lost its property due to a long-standing feud with the House of Württemberg and went down in literature and legends.

Neueberstein Castle (changed significantly since Wolf's lifetime), aerial photo

Neueberstein Castle, view from the 17th century

Life

As the eldest son of Heinrich II. Von Eberstein and Margarete von Öttingen, Wolf inherited half of the Eberstein county between 1362 and 1367. The once powerful county had previously lost its size and influence due to inheritance disputes, donations and dowries and was threatened by the expansion of the neighboring Baden and Württemberg areas of influence. In 1338 the Eberstein Count Ulrich III. von Württemberg grant the right of first refusal for all possessions, and in 1354 a right to open each quarter of the Eberstein district town of Gernsbach and the ancestral seat of Burg Neueberstein and half of Muggensturm .

Assault on Eberhard the Greiner

Together with other nobles in the region affected by the Württemberg expansion, Wolf von Eberstein attempted to capture the Württemberg Count Eberhard II , known as Eberhard der Greiner , in 1367 . During Eberhard's spa stay in Wildbad (probably because of the warm thermal springs in Wildbad and not at the then cold Sauerbrunnen in Teinach ), starting from Burg Straubenhart, which was conveniently located near Wildbad as a collection point, a surprising night attack on horseback and "on foot" occurred the victim was just able to escape by fleeing. Evidently those involved in the attack on Wolf von Eberstein's side were Wolf von Wunnenstein , Johann and Konrad von Schmalenstein, Kunz von Winterbach, Johann von Bosenstein , Walter and Petermann Schultheiss von Gengenbach , Aberlin Wydenbusch and Heinrich Glatz.

At the beginning of July 1367, Emperor Charles IV learned of the attack in Bohemia, which amounted to a breach of the Swabian peace agreement he had reached . He supported Eberhard's reprisals against the attackers. From July 1367, Neueberstein Castle was besieged by a Württemberg army, supported by troops from Swabian imperial cities such as Augsburg and Heilbronn. However, the siege was abandoned in September of the same year without result. Wolf von Eberstein was meanwhile not in the besieged castle, but had stayed with other of his co-conspirators with the allied Rhine Counts on the Nahe and did not return to Neueberstein until 1369.

In 1370 Eberhard managed to isolate Wolf von Eberstein politically by making comparisons with his possible supporters: the Margraviate of Baden, the Electoral Palatinate and Count Wilhelm I von Eberstein, the owner of the other half of the County of Eberstein. Direct action against Wolf was prevented by Eberhard's involvement in other conflicts.

Sold to Rudolf VII of Baden

It was not until 1385 that Wolf von Eberstein gave up his resistance. On April 17, in the Herrenberg Treaty, the Wuerttemberg right to open was confirmed not only for the 1354 shares of the County of Eberstein, but also extended to Wolf's half of Gernsbach, Neueberstein and Muggensturm and all castles to be acquired in the future. At this point Wolf von Eberstein had used up his financial and military means. As early as 1380-1382 he had placed himself in the service of the city of Speyer for an annual salary of 1000 guilders as captain of the city mercenaries until his arch enemy Württemberg joined a city league with Speyer. On November 22, 1387 he sold his half of the County of Eberstein with all rights to Margrave Rudolf VII of Baden for 8,000 guilders . This included half of Neueberstein Castle, half of the city of Gernsbach and half of the places Muggensturm and Gochsheim and other villages in the county, including the serf population and the rights to fiefs, forest, water, pasture, interest and taxes. In addition to the purchase price, the margrave took over Wolf's debts upon his death up to an amount of 2000 guilders.

From then on, the Counts of Eberstein and the Margraves of Baden ruled the County of Eberstein together. A truce agreement was concluded between Margarete Schenkin von Erbach, the widow of Wolf's brother Wilhelm II, who died in 1385, who owned the remaining Eberstein shares in the county, and Rudolf VII of Baden . Wolf himself received the position as Baden bailiff of his previous possessions and was rewarded with a quarter of the county's income. In 1389 he also sold his last property to Rudolf VII, the Mantelberg Castle near Pfalzgrafenweiler, to repay further debts . In return, he received the right to live in what was once his own half of Muggensturm Castle, where he spent the rest of his life, endowed by Rudolf with befitting benefices. The last documented mention of Wolf was in 1395. He died unmarried. The county of Eberstein remained divided until, after further turmoil, it was completely taken over by Baden in 1803.

The Grafensprung, fresco by Jakob Götzenberger in the Baden-Baden pump room (1844)

reception

The attack on Eberhard den Greiner was described in 1815 by Ludwig Uhland in his poem The attack in the Wildbad . Like other authors of the 19th century, Uhland portrayed the attackers as members of the Schleglerbund . Modern historiography denies this direct connection.

There are also several legends about the character Wolf von Eberstein. The best known is the legend of the Grafensprung , according to which Wolf saved himself from the besiegers of Württemberg by a daring ride out of Neueberstein Castle and jumping on his horse from the rocks on Burgberg into the Murg . The rock still bears the name Grafensprung today . The legend is depicted in one of the wall paintings on the Baden-Baden drinking hall . August Kopisch put them into poetry.

A street and a multi-purpose hall in Muggensturm are named after Wolf von Eberstein.

literature

• Rainer Hennl: Gernsbach im Murgtal - structures and developments until the end of the Baden-Eberstein condominium in 1660. W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-17-019480-9 , pp. 85-89.
• Cornelia Zorn: The Ebersteiners. 2nd Edition. Badnerbuch-Verlag, Rastatt 2012, ISBN 978-3-9814564-2-4 , pp. 86-96.
• Karl Konrad Finke : The assassination attempt on Count Eberhard II of Württemberg. The “Raid in the Wildbad” 1367. In: Schwäbische Heimat vol. 67 (2016), pp. 286–294. (With evidence of contemporary documents and graphics of the approach from Straubenhardt Castle.)

Documents for the attack in Wildbad in 1367

Johann Friedrich Böhmer: The Regests of the Empire under Emperor Karl IV. 1346-1378, ed. by Alfons Huber, Innsbruck 1877, p. 407

Document book of the city of Strasbourg, Volume 5: Political documents from 1332 to 1380, edit. by Hans Witte and Georg Wolfram, Strasbourg 1896, No. 761, 841, 952, 1080

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hennl, Gernsbach im Murgtal , p. 88 writes “probably 1396” with reference to Georg Heinrich Krieg von Hochfelden : History of the Counts of Eberstein in Swabia . Hasper, Karlsruhe 1836, p. 86 f . There it says in connection with the description of the last documentary mention in 1395: “He probably died soon afterwards”.
2. ↑ cf. Ludwig Uhland - The attack in the Wildbad at Wikisource .
3. ↑ Hennl: Gernsbach im Murgtal , p. 85