Wolf of Wolfsthal

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Coat of arms of the von Wolfsthal family based on Johann Siebmacher's coat of arms book

The Wolf von Wolfsthal were a Franconian noble family of Swabian descent.

history

According to family history, the Wolf family, which has been documented since the 13th century, came from the noble city families in Schwäbisch Gmünd and came to Nuremberg in the 15th century via Nördlingen and Augsburg , where the merchant Heinrich Wolf was one of the richest Nuremberg residents around 1500 and at that time had a fortune of supposed to have owned about 100,000  fl . Heinrich Wolf became a citizen of Nuremberg in 1469 and from 1499 until his death in 1504 was a member of the Inner Council and thus the patriciate of the city. He operated credit transactions with the Roman-German King Maximilian I and was awarded the von Wolfsthal title in return in 1500 . Due to the insolvency of Maximilian I, Heinrich Wolf lost almost all of his fortune. His son Balthasar was the imperial ruler of Weißenburg and Donauwörth and Chancellor of the Treasury of Maximilian I.

As early as 1493 the Wolf acquired the upper seat of Burgfarrnbach from the Volckamer and in 1522 the lower seat of Burgfarrnbach. In Burgfarrnbach there is still a family burial place with preserved tombstones. In the 16th century the Wolf von Wolfsthal moved from Nuremberg to the landed aristocracy and acquired a noble origin, with a castle near Oberbettringen being given as the former Wolfsthal Castle. Around 1605 they sold the Burgfarrnbacher seats and in the course of time acquired the possessions of Zeilitzheim , Hallerndorf and others. They belonged to the imperial knighthood in the cantons of Steigerwald , Altmühl and Baunach .

Philipp Gaston Wolf von Wolfsthal, the last of the family, was an imperial colonel in the Turkish wars, district judge in Bamberg, imperial knighthood governor of the Steigerwald canton and all cantons in Franconia , councilor for Mainz, Würzburg, Bamberg and the Bavarian elector. He had the castle built in Zeilitzheim. Thannstein, Pillmersried, Schmachtenberg and Schenkenau belonged to his property. In 1706 he was raised to the rank of imperial count and died in 1717. His coat of arms is on the Laurentius altar in the parish church of St. Martin in Bamberg. Since his only son, Ludwig Sigmund, died in 1713, he adopted his friend, Count Rudolf Franz Erwein Schönborn-Wiesentheid , as his son and bequeathed the county with all its possessions to him. The Schönborn took the family coat of arms of Wolf von Wolfsthal into their increased coat of arms after 1717 and added the name Wolfsthal to their family name, as Count von Schönborn-Wolfsthal. This combination was used until the middle of the 19th century, when the addition was dropped.

Former possessions

  • Upper seat of Burgfarrnbach, 1493 to 1605
  • Lower seat of Burgfarrnbach, 1522 to 1605
  • Winzelbürg manor (presumably on Bismarckstrasse, Nuremberg), until 1527
  • Zeilitzheim and Zeilitzheim Castle , 1640 to 1717
  • Neuses am Sand Castle , 1643 to 1717 (dowry from Amalie Magdalena Fuchs von Bimbach )
  • Schenkenau manor with castle, 1693 to 1711
  • Thannstein, until 1717
  • Pillmersried, until 1717
  • Schmachtenberg, until 1717
  • Hallerndorf, until 1717

Known family members

  • Heinrich Wolf von Wolfsthal († 1504), merchant, councilor in Nuremberg. Around 1500 he was one of the richest citizens of Nuremberg.
  • Balthasar Wolf von Wolfsthal († 1529), imperial ruler of Weißenburg and Donauwörth and Chancellor of the Treasury of Maximilian I.
  • Philipp Gaston Graf Wolf von Wolfsthal († 1717), Imperial Knighthood Governor of the Steigerwald canton and all cantons in Franconia, the last of the sex. Married in 1715 Baron Anna Agnes von Ostein, daughter of Johann Jacob von Ostein († 1664) and Anna Magdalena Kämmerer von Worms called von Dalberg, widow of Friedrich von Sickingen, heiress of Rüdesheim († 1672).

coat of arms

Siebmacher's coat of arms shows a wolf walking on a golden background. The motif of the wolf is repeated in the crest.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The wolf in the Gmünder Chroniken in the 16th century
  2. ↑ Mention of the burial place in Burgfarrnbach ( memento of October 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ About the attempt of wolves to represent their nobility
  4. ↑ Historical Lexicon of the German States
  5. ↑ http://www.burgeninventar.de/html/bay/FURT_big.html (link not available)
  6. ↑ Claudia Kneifel: When a wolf with a vixen ... In: mainpost.de. Main-Post , October 12, 2010, accessed January 7, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Fortress / Schenkenau Castle
  8. ↑ Thannstein Castle
  9. ^ History of Hallerndorf ( Memento from February 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 5.4 MB)

literature

  • Johann Gottfried Biedermann : gender = register of the realm - Frey - immediate knighthood of the country to Francken praiseworthy place = Steigerwald… . Bamberg 1748. Tabula CCLV - CCLXVI.
  • Klaus Graf : Wolfstal Castle, Bettringen Castle and Bargau Castle. In: Unicorn Yearbook. Schwäbisch Gmünd 1980, pp. 204-215 doi : 10.6094 / UNIFR / 10242
  • Klaus Graf: Gmünder Chroniken in the 16th Century: Texts and studies on the historiography of the imperial city Schwäbisch Gmünd. Einhorn-Verlag, Schwäbisch Gmünd, 1984, pp. 132–135 ISBN 3-92170353-0 ( online version )
  • Michael Diefenbacher , Rudolf Endres (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . 2nd, improved edition. W. Tümmels Verlag, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 ( online ).
  • Andreas Flurschütz da Cruz: Between foxes and wolves. Denomination, clientele and conflicts in the Frankish imperial knighthood after the Peace of Westphalia (Conflicts and Culture - Historical Perspectives, Vol. 29), Konstanz 2014.
  • Andreas Flurschütz da Cruz: The sale of the Imperial Knightly Ganerbeburg Rothenberg to Bavaria in 1661. Johann II. Wolf von Wolfsthal as a double agent between the elector and fellow members , in: MVGN 100 (2013), pp. 271–296.

Web links

Commons : Wolf von Wolfsthal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files